Hyderabad:
Tata Boeing Aerospace (TBAL) expect to begin commercial supply of the fuselage for the AH- 64 Apache combat helicopters from its newly-opened facility here by the end of the year.
The city-headquartered Tata Boeing Aerospace is a joint venture between American plane-maker Boeing Corporation and the Tata Group firm Tata Advanced Systems (TASL).
The facility, which will serve Boeing globally was inaugurated on Thursday here and will build the fuselage for the AH-64 Apache helicopters for global market.
Spread over 14,000-square metres and employing 350 highly skilled workers, the facility will be the sole global manufacturing facility of fuselage for Boeings AH-64 Apache helicopters for global markets including the US Army, a joint press release from Tata and Boeing said.
However, the companies did not reveals how much money they invested into the facility.
The facility will also produce secondary structures and vertical spar boxes for this multi-role combat chopper.
"The delivery of the first fuselage is expected in 2018," the companies said without offering a time-line.
Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Telangana minister for industries and information techonology KT Rama Rao inaugurated the facility.
"I congratulate Tata and Boeing for making this substantial investment in the defence space," said Sitharaman. "After May 2014, there has been a great push to revive manufacturing," she added.
TBAL, Boeings first equity joint venture in the country, is the result of a 2015 partnership agreement with TASL. Work on the facility began in 2016 and was completed on schedule.
In addition, Boeing and TASL have worked closely to develop a pool of highly skilled aerospace talent through skill development initiatives.
Pratyush Kumar, president, Boeing India, said TBAL is just the beginning of Boeings future journey of partnership with India.
"We see this as a major step towards future opportunities to pursue the co-development of integrated systems in aerospace and defence," he added.
Over 2,300 Boeing-made Apache helicopters are operated by customers around the world since the aircraft entered production some decades back.
The Boeing-made Apache helicopter has been selected by the armed forces of 16 countries, including India. The defence ministry had finalised an order with Boeing for 22 AH-64E Apache helicopters in September 2015, deliveries for which are scheduled from 2019.
