The Tata-Boeing joint venture has announced the delivery of the first AH-64 Apache combat helicopter fuselage from its facility in Hyderabad.
Tata Boeing Aerospace Limited has announced the delivery of the first AH-64 Apache combat helicopter fuselage on 1st June, ahead of schedule, from its facility in Hyderabad. The fuselage will be transported to Boeing’s AH-64 Apache manufacturing facility in Mesa, AZ, for integration into the final assembly line.
This delivery comes within a year of the aerospace joint venture facility becoming operational.
The 14,000m2 facility, which will employ 350 highly skilled workers at full production, was officially inaugurated by Nirmala Sitharaman, India's Minister of Defence, in March.
The facility will be the sole global producer of fuselages for AH-64 Apache helicopter delivered by Boeing to its global customers including the U.S. Army. It will also produce secondary structures and vertical spar boxes for the multi-role combat helicopter.
Tata Boeing Aerospace, Boeing’s first equity joint venture in India, is the result of a 2015 partnership agreement with TASL, the aerospace and defence arm of the Tata group, in line with the Make in India initiative. Construction of the manufacturing facility began in 2016 and was completed on schedule a year later.
The Indian Ministry of Defence finalised an order with Boeing for 22 AH-64E Apache helicopters in September 2015, deliveries of which are scheduled to begin in 2019.