The joint venture between the global engineering giant Rolls-Royce and Bengaluru-based defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has expanded its operations in Hosur, Tamil Nadu. The company behind the venture is called International Aerospace Manufacturing Pvt Ltd, or IAMPL for short.
It is a 50:50 partnership between Rolls-Royce of the United Kingdom and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited of India. On Wednesday, IAMPL opened an expanded 12-acre manufacturing facility in Hosur. In simple words, think of it as a much bigger and more advanced workshop where skilled workers make very high-precision parts for jet engines.
Mainly compressor and turbine components. Inside a jet engine, the compressor's job is to squeeze air tightly before it is burned with fuel. The turbine then spins at a very high speed and produces the powerful thrust that pushes a plane forward. These tiny but very important parts go into civil aircraft that carry our families on holidays, and also into defence aircraft that protect our skies. So this factory is making the very heart of an aeroplane.
Sashi Mukundan, a senior leader from Rolls-Royce, said this joint venture with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited shows the company's long-term faith in India's "Make in India" initiative. He added that this is a clear effort to build a strong and reliable defence and aerospace ecosystem in India. Simply put, India wants to stand on its own feet in making aircraft and aircraft engines, instead of always depending on others.
Mukundan also said that Rolls-Royce sees India as an important long-term "home market". The company plans to increase its sourcing from India by ten times through future projects. He proudly called the Hosur plant a model facility within Rolls-Royce's global network — meaning, factories in other countries now look at Hosur as an example to follow. That itself is a very big compliment for India.
The new facility was inaugurated by Sashi Mukundan along with Ravi K. and Seenivasan Balasubramanian. HAL has said this expansion will strengthen India's local aerospace manufacturing capability. At a time when our country is focusing on building more defence equipment and engine parts inside India itself, this step has come at the right moment.
"The Rolls-Royce and HAL partnership is special for many reasons. Rolls-Royce engines already power some of India's important defence aircraft made by HAL, such as the Jaguar fighter jets and Hawk trainer planes of the Indian Air Force. The Jaguars take on combat missions, while the Hawks train our young pilots. IAMPL makes critical parts for both these defence engines and for civil engines like the Trent and Pearl series. The whole idea is simple: bring high-end manufacturing home, reduce expensive imports, transfer modern technology to our soil, create thousands of skilled jobs, and make India militarily stronger," explained space and defence analyst Girish Linganna.
With enhanced capacity for high-precision compressor and turbine components, IAMPL is strengthening its ability to deliver quality and reliability to support both domestic and global programmes. The company has been manufacturing high-precision machined and special-processed parts for technologically-advanced jet engines since 2012.
