US aerospace company Lockheed Martin looks at forging additional strategic partners to develop the capabilities of Indian partners and strengthen the supply chain ecosystem of the domestic defence industry. Reinforcing its commitment towards the Indian government’s ‘atmanirbhar’ (self-reliance) push, the US aerospace giant reiterated its commitment to enhancing the indigenous defence capabilities of the Indian industry to boost the government’s mission of increasing ‘Made in India’ defence exports.
“Lockheed Martin, in association with our Indian partners, continues to promote an indigenous defence manufacturing ecosystem in India, in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s resounding vision of achieving $5 billion worth of defence exports by 2025,” said William L. Blair, Chief Executive, Lockheed Martin India at the culmination of its 9th annual Suppliers Conference held in Bengaluru on 3 November.
The two-day conference brought together senior Lockheed Martin leaders from across business areas and the supply chain, industrial development, and business development teams to engage with the Indian suppliers.
“We are excited to explore further opportunities to strengthen our presence in India and advance India’s strategic security and industrial capabilities,” Blair said.
The event saw more than 60 Indian companies of all sizes – large, MSMEs and start-ups participating in the conference and receiving the opportunity to showcase their capabilities to all four business areas of Lockheed Martin and international partners like GE Aviation, Honeywell, L3Harris Technologies, Raytheon Technologies, THALES and Elbit Systems among others, according to a statement released by the company,
“We saw an encouraging response from our supply chain network, MSMEs, start-ups and the industry who engaged in productive conversations focused on realising the government’s vision of ‘Make in India, Make for the World,” Blair said.
The conference aimed to drive engagements around building defence industrial capabilities that will drive ‘Make-in-India’ partnerships in the future, accelerate defence exports and expand Indo-US defence industrial strategic links.
Team BharatShakti
