With civil business going strong, Boeing is firing all cylinders for military business with India now, including its F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter for the IAF and, at a necessarily more complex level, the P-8A.

Based on the familiar Boeing-737-800 platform, the P-8A is being built for long-range anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions, all capabilities the Navy desperately needs to augment if it wants to meaningfully mount its new role as a strategic regional power.

Partnering with Washington on the programme would also imply potentially large technological spin-offs for the Navy’s own design bureau.

The Navy’s interest in the P-8A programme, first reported by The Indian Express in May last year, is also reflective of its new long-term vision for airborne weapons systems, since the P-8A will roll off production lines only in the next decade. The US Navy will buy 108 of the aircraft to replace its current fleet of P-3 Orions, built by Boeing rival Lockheed-Martin.