Bangalore, March 26 (IANS) British aerospace major BAE Systems is keen on partnering with the Indian defence behemoth Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) for new projects across 17 countries where it has presence.
"Our business relationship with HAL should go beyond Hawk (advanced jet trainer) to work on new projects in 17 countries the world over where we have presence," BAE chairman Dick Olver said Wednesday here.
Olver and BAE chief executive Ian King visited the aerospace facilities of the state-run HAL in this tech hub and interacted with its chairman R.K. Tyagi and senior officials on furthering their partnership.
"A new business model such as performance based logistics (PBL) could be an area of cooperation where we can learn a lot from BAE experiences," Tyagi said on the occasion.
The induction of the tandem twin-seat Hawk by the Indian Air Force (IAF) in 2008 to train its senior pilots in flying fighter jets and use of weapons at supersonic speed made India the second largest market for BAE for the aircraft after Britain.
Under production license from BAE, HAL makes the advanced version of Hawks at its Bangalore complex for the IAF, which has based the fleet at its Bidar station in north Karnataka, about 690km from here.
Of the 123 Hawks' deal, 24 were delivered in fly-away condition by BAE, while the remaining 99 are being manufactured by HAL.
Both the partners have been associated since 1940s when Tiger Moths were overhauled and strengthened their ties with the production of Jaguars in 1980s and the Hawks since the 1990s.
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