Reliance and Rolls-royce to Jointly Develop Engines for India's AMCA Fighter Jet

India's Reliance Industries and Britain's Rolls-Royce announced on Friday plans to jointly design and manufacture engines for New Delhi's multirole indigenous fighter jet programme. Reliance Industries Limited, India's largest private sector company, has been expanding into defence production in military aerospace and advanced munitions to support Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' initiative. India, one of the world's largest arms importers, has made the modernisation of its defence forces a top priority, with repeated pushes to boost domestic production.

Rolls-Royce builds engines for commercial use by the world's biggest aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Boeing, as well as for fighter jets. The pair of industry giants issued a joint statement announcing "their strategic intent to partner and offer capabilities for the design, development, manufacturing and delivery of a sovereign indigenous combat engine for India's Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) programme". The statement did not reveal the scale of investment the two companies will make for the partnership.