UK-based aircraft engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce is eyeing India as its third home market outside the United Kingdom. In an interview with Press Trust of India (PTI), Sashi Mukundan, the Executive Vice President of Rolls-Royce India, said the company is planning a major investment in the country. He noted that the manufacturer is considering developing a next-generation engine to power the combat jets that New Delhi plans to produce in the coming years.
At present, the United States and Germany are the company’s other home markets; it has a substantial presence in both countries, including manufacturing facilities. Mukundan told PTI, India offers “scale, policy clarity, and a strong push” toward a defense and industrial ecosystem that is expanding rapidly and becoming more sophisticated.
Rolls-Royce Plans MoUs With Indian Defense Firms
Lately, Rolls-Royce has been steadily increasing its participation in India’s defense ecosystem and has previously signaled long-term intent to grow its footprint in the country. For now, as understood by Simple Flying, the company is planning to firm up two memoranda of understanding with Indian defense public sector undertakings. One agreement would cover manufacturing engines for the Arjun tank, while the other would focus on engines for future combat vehicles under the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) program.
The AMCA is a single-seat, twin-engine, all-weather fifth-generation multirole combat aircraft planned for use by both the Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy. Production of the platform is expected to begin in the mid-2030s. “If India is thinking about next-generation engines, Rolls-Royce is probably the best partner. We have the capability, we have the experience both in India and globally, and we have repeatedly demonstrated that we can do it,” Mukundan said.
Rolls-Royce, Safran, And GE In Talks Over Advanced AMCA Engine
As outlined by Overt Defense, the initial variant of the AMCA is expected to be powered by two General Electric F414 INS6 engines, producing a combined wet thrust of 196 kilonewtons. The second variant, AMCA Mk2, meanwhile, is planned to use a more advanced engine with a thrust-to-weight ratio of more than ten and a wet thrust exceeding 110 kilonewtons. For that program, India is seeking a foreign original equipment manufacturer partner for the design, development, and testing of the engine.
Safran, Rolls-Royce, and GE Aerospace have all held discussions. As we know, the British manufacturer is among the leading engine manufacturers in commercial aviation and has powered airline fleets for decades. If the company moves ahead with its plans in India, it would also expand its capabilities in the military engine segment. The company currently leads the Global Combat Aircraft Programme, a UK-led effort involving Japan and Italy to develop a sixth-generation combat aircraft engine.
The manufacturer has also been involved in several recent combat engine programs. For instance, it powers the Eurofighter Typhoon with its EJ200 engine, which produces around 90 kilonewtons of thrust. Rolls-Royce was also part of the F136 program, which was developed jointly with GE Aerospace, for the fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II.
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Investment Will Be Aimed At Building India-Based Value Chain And Ecosystem
Mukundan told PTI that Rolls-Royce is already engaged in discussions and background work on how to move forward with its plans in India. The company is assessing the next steps as part of a longer-term approach to expanding its presence in the country. Any investment would be significant, though the company is not yet putting a figure on it.
“If everything goes well, it would be a significant investment. It’ll be big enough that people will notice it, but I don’t want to put a number to it. What matters is the impact of this investment, which would be the development of the entire value chain and ecosystem here across sectors that we operate in,” Mukundan said.
