US Aerospace Industry Hopes for Military Sales to India(2/2)

India for decades enjoyed a close friendship with Russia, which previously supplied nearly three-quarters of India's arms. Moscow now hopes to sell more than 100 fighter planes to New Delhi, including the new MiG-35 jet.

Boeing hopes to shoot down the MiG sales. The U.S. aircraft company says it will jointly produce with India the F-18 Super Hornet if Boeing wins the fighter contract.

A former U.S. ambassador to India, Thomas Pickering, who is also a former Boeing representative, is hopeful. "This is a particularly opportune time for us to be talking with our Indian friends about further partnering as we go ahead and I suspect that in and around the Bangalore Air Show you will see some of this happening."

Defense ties and potential contacts have quickly expanded between the United States and India since last year's agreement for the U.S. to cooperate with Indian's nuclear power industry. The deal requires India to separate its civilian and military nuclear programs and put the civilian facilities under the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency.