Rolls-Royce Signals Long-Term Play In India’s Defence Ecosystem

British aerospace and defence major Rolls-Royce is positioning India as a long-term strategic base for advanced propulsion technologies, as the country accelerates defence reforms and opens deeper participation for global and private industry across military platforms.

Recently, Sashi Mukundan, Executive Vice President – Transformation India at Rolls-Royce, outlined the company’s interest in exploring a significant expansion of its engineering, manufacturing, and design footprint in India, spanning combat aircraft engines, naval propulsion, and land systems. The move comes at a time when New Delhi is attempting to indigenize high-complexity defence technologies, particularly aircraft engines, where India remains dependent on foreign suppliers.

India’s push towards domestic defence manufacturing has increasingly shifted beyond licensed production towards co-development, shared intellectual property, and ecosystem building. This change has been driven by reforms that encourage private sector participation, a more predictable procurement environment, and greater openness to long-term technology partnerships rather than platform-level imports.

Rolls-Royce’s engagement is expected to align closely with this shift. The company has outlined its significant interest and expertise in supporting India’s next-generation combat aircraft requirements under the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft programme, while also leveraging common engine technologies across air, sea, and land platforms. It has also highlighted its capability to adapt aero-engine cores for naval propulsion, a factor that could support India’s plans to modernize propulsion systems for surface combatants while avoiding fragmented supply chains.

Such an approach is intended to improve program viability by creating scale across domains, rather than limiting investments to single-use military platforms. This cross-domain applicability is increasingly being viewed as essential for sustaining advanced defence manufacturing in India.

While specific investment figures and timelines have not been disclosed, the company has indicated that it is looking to expand existing partnerships with Indian public sector defence undertakings, alongside deeper integration of suppliers across the aerospace and defence value chain.

For India, the significance of such engagement lies less in immediate capacity creation and more in whether long-term design authority and high-value engineering work can be anchored domestically. That question is likely to shape how future defence propulsion partnerships are evaluated as India moves from incremental localization to strategic capability building.