U.S. defence major Lockheed Martin is looking to set up F-16 facilities in India to manufacture and export the single engine fighter jets – a shot in the arm for the Make in India project.

“The fighters we offer are state of the art with modern avionics and we are willing to transfer technology to build in India as part of Make in India,” Randall Howard who leads F-16 business development at Lockheed Martin told BloombergQuint in an interview. He was speaking on the sidelines of the Defence Expo 2018 in Chennai.

The facilities in India will also supply jets for the region through exports, Howard said, adding that more than 4,000 F-16s have been sold to countries across the world so far.

Lockheed Martin has tied up with the TATA Group to manufacture parts for the C-130J aircraft. To expand this partnership, Lockheed is pitching its F-16 fighter jets for a tender for 110 combat aircraft worth at least $15 billion. This is part of the strategic partnership programme which allows local companies to form manufacturing joint ventures with foreign defence equipment makers. Besides, the government recently proposed to allow foreign direct investment of up to 74 percent for niche technologies.