HAL and Rolls-Royce expand partnership in India, sign MoU

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) with British automobile manufacturing company Rolls Royce on Friday, the company said in a statement released to the media. They had announced their new partnership in the presence of the United Kingdom Deputy High Commissioner.

The two companies signed an MoU to establish an authorised maintenance centre for Adour Mk81 engines at HAL to support international military customers and operators. They also signed a ‘Letter of Intent’ to work towards making Adour Mk871 engine parts in India for several international customers. In addition to this, HAL has been awarded new business proposals with Rolls-Royce to supply forgings including shrouds, cases and seals for the Trent models of turbofans and also for the Pearl 15 engines. These parts would be manufactured at the foundry and forge division at the production unit of HAL in Bengaluru.

The two companies have agreed to expand their partnership in India for collaboration in two key areas: expanding the supply chain for both civil and defence aerospace and establishing an authorised maintenance centre for Adour Mk871 engines to support the global customer base of Rolls Royce.

R Madhavan, Chairman and Managing Director, HAL said, “We are looking at new areas of cooperation and exports to countries which Rolls-Royce and HAL together contribute to in aerospace application.”

Kishore Jayaraman, President, Rolls-Royce India and South Asia said, “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 our future programmes, we believe there is immense potential to further build on our shared capabilities.”

Alex Zinto, Executive Vice President-Business Development and Future Programmes (Defence), Rolls Royce added, “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.”