US defence major Boeing Integrated Defence Systems has signed agreements with Indian defence public sector companies for supplying equipment to it for being fitted on Indian P-8I maritime surveillance aircraft. We have signed agreements with Indian companies such as Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL),Electronic Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for supplying equipment to us for the Indian P-8Is to be built in the US, Boeing India head Vivek Lall said here. They will be supplying indigenous equipment and spares such as transponders and other electronic equipment for the aircraft, he added. The agreements have been done as part of the offsets commitments in the deal. As per the Defence Procurement Procedure,for any deal worth over Rs 300 crore,the selected vendor has to reinvest a minimum of 30 per cent of the deals worth in Indian defence industry. India signed a deal worth USD 2.1 billion with Boeing on January 1 this year for supplying eight P-8I maritime surveillance aircraft to the Navy for replacing and augmenting its ageing fleet of Russian origin reconnaissance aircraft.
