The Rolls-Royce Operations India Private Limited was expanded in Bangalore, amid celebrations of its 50-year-long partnership with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in 2006. Today, Rolls-Royce, the global major in aircraft engines, has introduced a new strategy to take away the pain of maintenance from operators of the defence aircraft. The soft-spoken, John Gay, Senior Vice-President — Defence Aerospace, South Asia, Rolls-Royce, who has been part of the company from the age of 16 years, explains to Praveen Bose the idea behind the strategy.
What are you offering to make your products more attractive for the operators?
In a traditional relationship, the operator flies and if something breaks, we repair it for them. But, in case of mission care, it is a contract for availability. Rolls-Royce (RR) provides the contractual route to maintenance. It offers a number of benefits. It allows the operator to focus on what they are doing, i.e. just flying their aircraft. It suits the operators’ requirements. For instance, the RAF air vice-marshal extolled mission care. It gives them advantages as an operator and deliver mission requirements and does not compromise on the delivery of service. We understand the cost structure. The element is to complement the operator. It puts us closer to the operations and supports customers in keeping their machines in service. We share global operations and also maximise operations. So, we are closely involved in the operations. It’s our responsibility to monitor and support the customers, giving financial predictability to them.
How will you implement this programme in your relationship with the defence forces in India?
We already have a relationship with the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). We are expanding the scope of our relationship through a mission care availability and capability agreement. It raises the collaboration to another level. In case of the Harrier operations, if they have a technical query, then we deal with it. If they need local advice, then the local partner can do it. In this case, Rolls-Royce will have a closer relationship with the Navy and the Indian Air Force.
How’s your relationship with India? Does this initiative help you meet your offset obligations?
We have a long history and relationship with India. We have been here from 1932. We have about 1,300 installed engines. A majority are on the defence side. Around 1,000 are defence applications. We have got 200 direct employees in India. On top of that, there are 650 employees entirely based with a sub-contract engineering company — Quest, in addition to many at TCS. We work within the offset requirements and hence these investments are different. This is not to satisfy the offset obligations, but it is an efficient and cost-effective method. You incentivise both parties to optimise the product. RR makes sure its assets are used effectively.
What about your relationship with HAL?
Our relationship is over 55 years old. Rolls-Royce-HAL JV is critical to both companies. It helps us to deliver on time and manage products in key defence programmes. We have a broad spectrum of engines that HAL can manage. We have the new A2100 engine and our JV will have significant operations immaterial of who wins the Multi-Role Medium-Range Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) project. We operate in a broad spectrum in India including the C130J Hercules, the military transport aircraft which India recently bought from the US recently.