NEW DELHI: Aviation minister Suresh Prabhu has sought cooperation from the United States for production of civil and defence aircraft in the country.
“The US is a leader in the aviation space and we will be very happy to collaborate with them to locally manufacture civil and defence aircraft,” Prabhu told the sixth Indo-US aviation summit in Mumbai on Thursday.
In the backdrop of the event, the Airports Authority of India signed a contract with Harris Corporation to upgrade network operations, enhance security, and improve the performance, reliability and quality of India’s air traffic management communications network.
The minister said cooperation will offer great business opportunities to American companies already present in the country. “There are many areas of mutual interest that we need to discuss, such as how do we make passenger and defence aircraft here locally; how do we make drones by collaborating with our US partners,” he said.
About the AAI contract, the officials said that the 15-year contract worth `945 crore was for Futuristic Telecommunications Infrastructure initiatives and Harris Corporation would serve as the prime contractor and systems integrator for the same.
“India’s exponential air traffic growth is creating demand for new aircraft, air navigation technologies, airport security equipment and infrastructure,” said Dr Guruprasad Mohapatra, Chairman, AAI.
“The Futuristic Telecommunications Infrastructure provides a dedicated nationwide telecommunication network to support air traffic management operations, with an emphasis on safety and high reliability and the ability to expand for growth,” he added.