The Indian navy's plans to buy eight long-range maritime reconnaissance planes from Boeing or EADS for two billion dollars are at an "advanced stage," a report said Thursday.
"The Indian navy plans to replace eight old (Soviet-era) TU-142 planes with an equal number of state-of-art aircraft," Indian navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta told the latest edition of military news magazine Force.
"The case has been progressed strictly in accordance with the current defence procurement policy and presently it is at an advanced stage," he told the magazine.
"The intention is to have the first aircraft delivered in mid-2012 and all the eight aircraft by mid-2015."
Indian defence ministry officials separately told AFP on Thursday that Boeing's P-8i "outperformed" its closest rival — A-319 patrol aircraft from the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, or EADS.
Highly placed government sources said clearance to buy planes from Boeing was likely "during or around" an official trip to India by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates later this month.
If the contract is awarded to Boeing, the deal would be India's biggest military aircraft deal with the US in five decades.
"We are in discussions and we can assure P-8i is a strong programme and it will help the Indian navy in a global supply chain," said Ian Thomas, president of Boeing India.
The company added it was also discussing with New Delhi the possible procurement of as many as 24 heavy-lift and attack helicopters for the military.
"We have a sense of momentum in the talks. We have two strong offers," Thomas said of the Apache combat gunship and the CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift helicopter Boeing has offered to India.
The Seattle-based company is also in the race to pick up a contract to supply 126 fighter jets worth 10.24 billion dollars to the Indian airforce.
Analysts say India, the largest buyer of arms among emerging nations, is likely to spend 50 billion dollars between now and 2018 to modernise its 1.23-million-strong military, the world's fourth largest.
