The F-16 Fighters Offered To Bulgaria Will Be Manufactured In The US, Not In India

The U.S. aerospace company Lockheed Martin denied the claims circulating in some media recently that the F-16 Block 70 fighters for Bulgaria will be manufactured in India, learned BulgarianMilitary.com.

The conclusion that the production of the fighters for which Bulgaria will negotiate could take place in India, derived from the possibility for the U.S. company to relocate its F-16 plant there, if it is awarded a large-scale military order. In India, the U.S. defence company is competing with Boeing's F/A-18, Saab's Gripen, Dassault Aviation's Rafale, the Eurofighter Typhoon and a Russian fighter, for the supply of 114 combat aircraft to India's Air Force. The deal is estimated to be worth more than $15 billion.

According to Reuters, citing the vice president of strategy and business development at Lockheed Martin, Vivek Lall, the U.S. company would make the Asian country the sole global production center for the F-16 that would meet the requirements for the Indian military and overseas markets.