Rolls-Royce is keen to partner India for combat engine development with a unique co-creation model wherein the Intellectual Property (IP) for this critical technology will be created and owned in India.
As part of a ‘2030 Roadmap’, the UK and India have agreed to work closely to support India’s indigenous development of the Light Combat Aircraft Mark 2 (LCA Mk2). The UK has already demonstrated its support by pre-approving an export licence “Permissions List” for combat engine technology transfer. The two sides have committed to deepen defence cooperation as a key pillar of the India-UK Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
In an exclusive interaction with Financial Express Online, top company officials said: “Rolls-Royce is keen to partner India for combat engine development with a unique co-creation model wherein the Intellectual Property (IP) for this critical technology will be created and owned in India. With technological know-how and know-why resting within the country, India could further explore opportunities in the global market.”
Following are excerpts from an interaction with Kishore Jayaraman, President – India and South Asia, Rolls-Royce and Alex Zino, Executive Vice President – Business Development and Future Programmes, Rolls-Royce
The recently announced big Air India deal — how does it impact the presence of the RR in the defence sector?
Kishore Jayaraman: Big time. We have always been looking at what we can do more in India. And we have always been promoting the art of the possible, and we always had the belief that one day, wide body aircrafts are going to be big in India. Our defence business has been very instrumental in positioning us in India. If you look at MMRCA long back and the formation of IAMPL (International Aerospace Manufacturing Pvt. Ltd.) for offset reasons, translating into a civil aerospace supply chain in India, it is a journey where we have gone between defence aerospace and civil aerospace.
So sometimes, Civil Aerospace goes ahead and sometimes defence aerospace goes ahead. The first aircraft of Tata Aviation in 1932, squadron one of the Indian Air Force in 1933, squadron one of the Navy and then HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) Technology transfer, then Hawks and Jaguars. And then our civil aerospace came around, and then we thought, ‘Oh! Can we do engineering services?’, so then we did engineering services. Then we started the joint venture and then the joint venture started blooming. Then we started looking at other businesses. So, the bottom line is things keep moving for both sides. So, the Air India deal was a testament that Civil Aerospace and Defence Aerospace go together for us, because what we do in India is grow the footprint, and what we do here is build capacity and capability. It’s not the cost arbitrage, but the value arbitrage of things that we wanted.
After this win, will RR be the chosen one to power AMCA?
Kishore Jayaraman: No, it is not tied together but what it shows is the trust in our technology, the trust in the fact that we have a technology that is superior, and can power the people of India around the world. That trust will translate itself into the trust for AMCA (Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft) and the ability for us to build further. For me, it is a huge win because of the trust factor. When you are sitting in India, and someone asks ‘what are you doing at Rolls-Royce?’, this is the testament of what we have done at Rolls-Royce in India.
So, the way me and Alex work on this is that we work with both the Indian side as well as the UK side of things. We have to work with the UK MoD, the Indian High Commission in the UK, and also present our offerings to the DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) and the HAL with the team in India. We have a large team in India including engineering, supply chain, services and more.
Alex Zino: Ultimately, Rolls-Royce is here to serve the Indian government, whether that is going to be through the industrial base, directly to the armed forces, or into other departments through digital capabilities that we have on the ground. To me, the Air India deal completes a bit of the jigsaw that was missing. We’ve been working on the engineering side, and creating supply chains, and this was a big missing piece of the jigsaw. This completes the picture. Now we’ve got the base to look at the whole and take the next step of that journey, and how the Indian Air Force, the Defence Ministry choose to proceed on whatever procurements it might be, we want to be ready to serve them with technology created in India, and that’s our activity and our focus right now.
We have sold engines through 1933 to the 1950s. We’ve transferred advanced manufacturing to process related technology over the last 50 plus years that has allowed some of the aerospace capability and the joint ventures. So we’ve done those first two steps, and the next step is sharing the know-how and know-why, so the technology can be created in India, for India, and used by India for whatever that procurement process is. We have been answering RFIs back in 2013-14 on AMCA, so we’ve been getting ourselves through all those activities ready as we can to serve India from India – not to sell, not to transfer more technology but to have the technology ready to go here. That’s what we’re focused on – making sure that through government collaboration, government cooperation, we can serve India from India. That’s what we want to do.
So after creating for India and making in India, would you like to take it outside India? Is that an option?
Alex Zino: Absolutely. So, the way that governments are setting this up is to allow us to transfer that capability, that know-how know-why through partnerships in India, to create the technology for India and then to allow India to export that, because we’re very clear that as India looks to grow as a world player – whether it’s Air India becoming its absolute flagship airline, that’s what we stand for in terms of being trusted to deliver excellence. That’s part of our promise in the civil aerospace, and in defence, we talk about the power to protect – so providing that power from India, for India to protect society, and how do you also protect society and grow the economy, and you grow the economy by exports. So that’s what we’re here to solve. This isn’t a two-year three-year association, this is decades long. We’ve already been here for 90 years, nearly a century. We want to be here another century, but serving India in a different way to how we have in the last century. That’s the shift. We’re in that pivot moment. That is why the Air India deal is so critical. It creates the full picture; it’s a pivot to serve India from India.
Any private collaboration besides DRDO?
Kishore Jayaraman: 300 parts of the XWB Engines (Air India Deal) of this order come from Tata Group already. We already have that supply chain in India. Is it going to increase further? Yes. And it is not going to increase because of the order, but it will increase because it is the right thing to do.
Alex Zino: Yes, also as you know, we have a joint venture called IAMPL and we’re expanding that and growing that supply chain. It’s great to be saying that we are going to transfer know-how, know-why from the UK Government to India, and you can design the most fantastic technology, but unless you can produce it here, your self reliance isn’t self reliant. Our supply chain team has been talking to a range of suppliers and we’re very clearly seeing the ecosystem starting to invest more, starting to move from just that machining to complex castings and forgings and down into material manufacture and ingots. So, we’re seeing that it’s giving us confidence to do more and more and those 300 are just the start. It’s about creating a full ecosystem here so that we can say we can design and develop here, and we’ve got the technologies here, and we’ve got the supply chain to do it.
Project 75I, nuclear submarine programme are some projects coming up for the Indian Navy. Will you be pitching for these?
Alex Zino: I think the Navy has talked about growing up to 300 ships. We see a threat environment, and that means the mission capability has to improve as well and grow. What does that mean? It means there’s going to be more power-hungry systems under the water, on the water and we are partnering already with the likes of HAL to look at gas turbines, naval marine gas turbines, the MT30, the MT7 – these are derivatives of our civil products (and that’s again a link between aerospace and naval defence) – these are derivatives of the Trent 800s that went on the 777, the AE family that goes on your C130s. So for the gas turbine, we’re looking at how we can partner on controllable pitch propellers or CPPs and shafts. We’re partnering with Bharat Forge to bring CPPs and shaft capability.
Future Projects?
Alex Zino : We have got a joint venture in Pune with Force Motors and that has already transferred a whole line of reciprocating engines to be built here in India. We have already signed a MoU with GRSE to create capability for some of the future ships. In serving the Indian Navy, the shift is in need for hybrid power, electrical power – that’s the work we’re doing right now. We’ve had meetings here to talk about what are your requirements and how might we serve you to create hybrid power and electrical power and to grow the base we already have to create the mission capability India needs to protect the oceans.
Kishore Jayaraman: Co-creation doesn’t stop just in aerospace. Co-creation is about marine technologies as well. We have frigates, we have destroyers, we have aircraft carriers, and all of these are going to require a future – a future that’s different from what we have today. So, for that future, we will create IP as well. That’s the key. India’s future is about IP creation, India’s future is not making in India, India’s future is about making sure we have the ability to make in India because we have the technology because we have the IP, and that’s the future we believe in completely at Rolls Royce. That’s what is sustainable, that’s what resilience is, and that’s what Atmanirbhar Bharat is. I’m very clear in my mind about it.
https://www.financialexpress.com/business/defence-fe-exclusive-rolls-royce-keen-to-partner-for-combat-engine-development-say-top-company-officials-3033499/
