HAL and Rolls-Royce Expand Partnership
HAL and Rolls-Royce 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 authorized maintenance centre for Adour Mk871 engines to support Rolls-Royce’s global customers. A press release from HAL stated, “Through these new collaborations, the two companies will build on their rich partnership of over 60 years, wherein Rolls-Royce engines have been ‘Made in India’ and supported by HAL under license from Rolls-Royce.” CMD, HAL R Madhavan, said, “We are looking at new areas of cooperation and exports to countries which Rolls-Royce and HAL together contribute to in aerospace application.” President, Rolls-Royce India and South Asia Kishore Jayaraman 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.”
Executive Vice President – Business Development and Future Programmes (Defence), Rolls-Royce Alex Zino said, “We are proud of our long and rich history of partnering in India and providing the power to protect through many decades. 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. Today, we are delighted to further expand our valued partnership with HAL as we continue co-building capabilities in the Indian ecosystem to support global markets, in addition to further serving the needs of a future-ready defence force in India.” Rolls-Royce and HAL have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish an Authorized Maintenance Centre for Adour Mk871 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. In addition, HAL has recently been awarded new business with Rolls-Royce to supply forgings including shrouds, cases and seals for Rolls-Royce’s Trent family of engines and for the Pearl 15 engines. These parts would be manufactured at HAL’s Foundry and Forge Division at its state-of-the-art facility in Bengaluru. R Madhavan said the new business award by Rolls Royce for their flagship civil aero engine program, as an outcome of their global RFQ is a reiteration of the customer’s confidence in HAL’s Foundry and Forge Division’s proven track record of excellent quality and delivery performance besides cost competitiveness. These partnerships will further strengthen Rolls-Royce’s regional service footprint and also help catapult India as a global hub for defence sourcing, assembly, and MRO services. Attendees at the announcement included Sr. Vice President (Defence), Rolls-Royce (joining virtually) Louise Donaghey, Vice President (Defence), Rolls-Royce Abhishek Singh, and General Manager, HAL Engine Division B Krishna Kumar.