India negotiating purchase of more Apache and Chinook helicopters: Boeing official

F/A-18 and F/A-18F can operate off Indian aircraft carriers, says V-P Turbo

The F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet fighter jet has distinct advantages in terms of capability over the competitor French Rafale-M jet to operate from the Indian Navy’s aircraft carriers, said a senior official from aircraft manufacturer Boeing. India is also negotiating the purchase of additional Chinook CH-47F(I) Chinook heavy-lift helicopters and AH-64E Apache attack helicopters, according to Torbjorn (Turbo) Sjogren, vice president, International Government and Defence, Boeing.

“One thing we’re very confident about is the capability that readiness and the proficiency of the product. The F/A-18 and F/A-18F can operate off Indian aircraft carriers. That’s a clear discriminator we’ve got over the French,” Mr. Turbo said in a virtual interview to  The Hindu, pointing that the twin seater trainer variant of the Rafale-M cannot operate from carriers and would be sitting on the ground. The number of trainer aircraft within the deal is not an insignificant number, he noted.

Elaborating, he said the size of the carrier, the logistics of the aircraft, in terms of how many aircraft and how to move the aircraft around the carrier, there are challenges. “We have solved that problem. Our team down in Bangalore solved the problem, and we have a solution for that... So there is some tailoring needed, more so in terms of the logistics on board,” Mr. Turbo said.

The Navy had originally projected a requirement of 57 aircraft under the deal, but the number is likely to be revised to 26 with in the backdrop of a new indigenous Twin Engine Carrier Based Deck Fighter being designed and developed indigenously. “We are eager to see when they define what the need is going to be and then how to do it,” he said.

With the indigenous carrier Vikrant set to be commissioned in August, Navy is in urgent need of carrier based jets to operate from both the carriers.

Last month, two Boeing F/A-18s were in Goa to demonstrate their compatibility and suitability to operate from Indian aircraft carriers by conducting trials from the Indian Navy’s Shore Based Test Facility (SBTF). Rafale-M had carried out similar demonstration earlier this year.

Indian Air Force operates 22 Apache attack helicopters and 15 Chinook heavy-lift helicopters procured from Boeing through the Foreign Military Sales programme of the U.S. government under a $3 billion deal in September 2015. Further, during the visit of U.S. President Donald Trump to India in February 2020, India signed a deal for six more Apaches to cost around $800 million to be operated by the Army.