Lockheed Martin is pursuing plans to expand offset-related engagement with Indian industry, the US corporation has said. The effort was highlighted at the company’s seventh annual suppliers’ conference in New Delhi, which was held for five days from late July.

Lockheed Martin said in a statement on 6 August that more than 200 Indian companies of all sizes participated in the event, which was co-hosted with the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Lockheed Martin is seeking to expand its industrial partnerships in India, partly with a view to meeting defence offset obligations in programmes such as the sale of MH-60R helicopters (pictured) to the Indian Navy. (US Navy)

During the conference, Lockheed Martin said it shared “new partnership opportunities” with Indian industry and that a “highlight” of these is future defence-offset work linked to the sale of 24 Lockheed Martin/Sikorsky MH-60R multirole naval helicopters for the Indian Navy (IN).

The governments of India and the United States signed a deal – worth USD2.6 billion – for the sale of these helicopters through the US Foreign Military Sales mechanism in February 2020.

Lockheed Martin said, “There is an offset requirement for the [MH-60] programme, and so as part of that Lockheed Martin will put more indirect work over in India. The Rotary and Mission Systems (RMS) team will work with capable Indian companies over the next seven [to] eight years and provide opportunities to the industry to integrate into the global supply chain”.