Rolls-Royce and
Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) have agreed to expand their partnership in India for collaboration in two significant areas: expanding the supply chain for both civil and defence aerospace; and establishing an authorised maintenance centre for Adour Mk871 engines to support Rolls-Royce's global customers.
Through these new collaborations, the two companies will build on their partnership of over 60 years; this has seen Rolls-Royce engines made in India and supported by HAL under license from Rolls-Royce.
Kishore Jayaraman, president of Rolls-Royce India and South Asia, said: “We value our long-standing partnership with HAL and are proud to have been serving the Indian Armed Forces together for several decades now. Our journey with HAL is the original ‘Make in India’ story that started in 1956 when our Orpheus engines were first manufactured in India.
“We are delighted to take this partnership to the next level through collaborations for sourcing as well as to set up servicing and maintenance support for our Adour engines. We share strong synergies with HAL; and as we look at future programmes, we believe there is immense potential to further build on our shared capabilities.”
Alex Zino, Rolls-Royce’s executive vice president — business development and future programmes (defence) — said: “We are proud of our long and rich history of partnering in India. We have been making in India for more than 60 years and we believe that now is the time to move from ‘Make in India’ to ‘Create in India’.
“We are committed to co-develop future defence technology ‘with India, in India, for India’ and the global market. In partnership we will work to deliver economic benefit and achieve India’s vision of self-reliance in the defence sector.”
Rolls-Royce and HAL have also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish an Authorised Maintenance Centre for Adour Mk871 engines at HAL, to support international military customers and operators.
HAL already has the capabilities and capacity to support a larger customer base, with over 30 years’ experience in MRO of the Adour engines in India, under license from Rolls-Royce.
The two companies have also signed a ‘Letter of Intent’ (LoI) to work towards making Adour Mk871 engine parts in India for several international customers.