Boeing will commence the delivery of CH-47 Chinook helicopters to the Indian Airforce, beginning in February 2019, Tribune India has reported . Boeing, a Chicago-based aerospace company, is the fifth largest defence contractor in the world by revenue (2017) and the largest exporter in the US by dollar value.

“The helicopters would be shipped to India in a partially disassembled state and would be off-loaded at Okhla port in Gujarat,” an Indian Air Force (IAF) officer said. Boeing is in the process of setting a facility at Okhla which will be used to re-assemble and test-fly the helicopters before being delivered to IAF.

In September 2015, India had signed a $3 billion deal with the US government and Boeing to buy 22 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters and 15 CH-47F Chinook heavy-lift helicopters.

It should be noted that though the helicopters will be delivered to India in a fly-away condition, some parts of these heavy-weight machines will be built by companies based out of India.

A Bengaluru-based company, Dynamatics Technologies Limited, is one of the partner companies that will build certain components of the helicopters, along with the cargo ramp, in India. This will provide the necessary impetus for local defence manufacturing in the country under PM Modi’s Make In India initiative.

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