Rolls-Royce to expand footprint across India's air, land, sea domains

British defence giant Rolls-Royce on Thursday announced a mega plan to scale-up its business in India across vital sectors of defence and energy, including co-development of a next-generation combat jet engine.

The announcement came a day after the company's CEO Tufan Erginbilgic met Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Under the ambitious initiative, Rolls Royce is looking at more than doubling the size of the its workforce to approximately 10,000 people in India and a 10-fold increase in local supply chain sourcing with a long-term goal to build on its decades-old presence in the country.

"As we grow our participation in programmes across India's defence, aviation and energy sectors, we will expand our ecosystem in India, as we have done successfully in other countries," Erginbilgic said.

The leading aero-engine maker has already been working on making India its third "home market" outside of the UK in line with a plan to unlock the full potential of opportunities across an array of domains, including jet engine, naval propulsion, land systems and advanced engineering.

"Our ambitions for India are built on the strong foundations of our decades-long presence in the country, our growing footprint, our deep industry partnerships, and our competitively advantaged technologies," the Rolls-Royce CEO said.

"We are determined to partner India on its 'Atmanirbhar' journey, by developing indigenous propulsion capabilities, providing sustained power to critical infrastructure and industry, and expanding local manufacturing for global supply chains," he said.

Among the major defence projects, Rolls-Royce has been eyeing to develop a next-generation aero engine in India as a priority to power the combat jets that New Delhi will produce under the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) programme.

More than 1,400 Rolls-Royce engines are currently powering various defence platforms such as the Jaguar combat aircraft and Hawk trainers of the Indian Air Force and Navy, the Arjun Main Battle Tanks of the Army, and a variety of vessels an submarines of the Indian Navy and Coast Guard, including the prestigious anti-submarine warfare shallow water crafts and the P17 Alpha frigates.

The company on Thursday announced its intention to scale-up its business in India to support future programmes and partnerships across defence, civil aviation and energy.

Rolls-Royce said its ambition is to make India a strategic home market, supporting the country's Viksit Bharat vision for national security and deterrence, energy resilience, infrastructure development and air connectivity.

"Rolls-Royce is currently exploring opportunities in India that include the potential co-development of a next-generation combat jet engine; as well as partnerships to localise and manufacture engines for the Indian Army, Navy and Coast Guard and potentially power solutions for critical infrastructure and industry," it said.

"These initiatives could more than double the size of the workforce that supports Rolls-Royce and its partners, to approximately 10,000 people in India," the company said in a statement.

It said Rolls-Royce believes the opportunities it is looking to secure could lead to a 10-fold increase in the company's supply chain sourcing from India, a move which it noted would nurture and benefit many small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

In his meeting with Modi, Erginbilgic, discussed the company's plan to be part of 'Viksit Bharat' (developed India) and how its advanced technologies can support India's growth plans and Atmanirbhar journey in critical sectors of the economy, the British firm said in a readout.

"We believe our unique portfolio of advanced capabilities can help us grow our presence and partnerships further, to power, protect and connect India for decades to come," Erginbilgic said.

Sashi Mukundan, the executive vice president of Rolls-Royce India, accompanied Erginbilgic in the meeting with the prime minister.

At present, more than 4,000 people are working across the Rolls-Royce ecosystem in India, including 2,800 engineers who contribute to global programmes across its businesses.

The company's long-standing industrial footprint includes its manufacturing joint ventures with HAL and Force Motors as well as sourcing partnerships with over 100 different vendors, including Tata, Bharat Forge, Godrej, Azad Engineering and many small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

Rolls-Royce recently inaugurated its newly expanded Global Capability and Innovation Centre in Bengalaru, which houses digital capabilities, enterprise services, and engineering teams supporting its civil aerospace and defence divisions.

The centre serves global corporate functions while advancing digital and engineering expertise, according to the company.