Bengaluru: India‘s state-run aircraft-maker Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and British-origin engine-maker Rolls-Royce have joined hands to make the Adour engine parts.

The arrangement between the two aerospace giants will support Rolls-Royce’s international defence customer base, a statement from HAL said Sep. 14.

The two companies exchanged the agreement through HAL Executive Director (Engine & IMGT) B. Krishna Kumar and Rolls-Royce senior vice president (defence, India and South East Asia) Abhishek Singh.

“Through this partnership, Rolls-Royce aims to strengthen the ecosystem for Adour engines in India by building on HAL’s existing capabilities for manufacturing and supporting the Adour engines for Indian customers over several decades,” the statement said.

This follows the MoU signed by Rolls-Royce and HAL during the AeroIndia in 2021 to establish an ‘Authorised Maintenance Centre‘ for Adour at HAL to support international military customers and operators.

“With over 30 years’ experience of supporting repair and maintenance services for the Adour engines in India, HAL has the capability and capacity to support a large defence customer base,” HAL Chairman and Managing Director R. Madhavan said on the occasion.

“This is the first order for supply of spares for the Adour global supply chain. We plan to be a key player in the supply chain of Adour engines and expect more orders to follow,” Madhavan said.

“We look forward to working with Rolls-Royce to build on this capability to serve global market for supply of spares and Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) of Adour engines. This new partnership will create avenues for the two companies to expand the defence sourcing footprint in India.”

“Our valued partnership with HAL has grown from strength to strength over the last few decades and this is a significant step towards strengthening the defence manufacturing ecosystem in India, and to help catapult India’s vision for the defence sector to ‘make in India’ for the world,” Rolls-Royce India and South Asia president Kishore Jayaraman said.

“We are excited to expand our long-standing partnership with HAL to support long term sustainment of our Adour engines for both Indian and global customers,” Rolls-Royce executive vice president – business development and future programmes (defence) Alex Zino said.

“We believe that HAL’s expertise in manufacturing and supporting Adour engines will pave the way for several of our customers to successfully operate the Adour engines for many more years,” Zino said.

“This is our first defence supplies agreement in India and creates an opportunity for India to increase its defence exports given the robust demand forecast for high precision components in this sector.”

HAL’s Director (Finance) C. B. Ananthakrishnan, Director (Operations) M. S. Velpari, and Chief Exectutive Officer (Bangalore Complex) Amitabh Bhatt were also present on the occasion.

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