Farnborough 2012: Boeing extols virtues of partnership in Brazil and beyond

Boeing expects its rivals to follow the partnership model applied to its recent tie-up with Brazil's Embraer, which looks set to vastly expand the market for the latter's KC-390 military transport aircraft.

Boeing does not have "any pre-conceived ideas of how far" the KC-390 market might expand and expects to tackle new joint developments with the company on a "project-by-project basis", Chris Raymond, executive vice-president of business development and strategy for Boeing Defense, Space and Security, told IHS Jane's at the Farnborough International Airshow on 12 July.

Given tighter defence budgets and the pressures on research and development funding, "in this environment, there will be openness with all companies ... to collaborate", Raymond said. Boeing has already applied its partnership strategy to work with South Korea, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the UK.

Boeing and Embraer agreed an aerospace collaboration with Embraer in April, which was followed by a commitment in June to work together on developing and marketing the latter's KC-390 aircraft.

There had "always been a lot of discussion" in Boeing about potential work with Embraer, but "in reality, it was a commercial and defence agreement", Raymond said. Future collaborations will be "project-by-project based", he added.