Reliance Industries and Rolls-Royce plan to jointly develop indigenous combat engines for India’s advanced fighter-jet programme and explore an aerospace gas turbine complex.
Reliance Industries Ltd. and Rolls‑Royce Holdings Plc intend to jointly develop engines for India’s advanced fighter jet program as billionaire Mukesh Ambani bolsters his footprint in military aviation.The partnership aims to offer capabilities for the “design, development, manufacturing and delivery of a sovereign indigenous combat engine,” Reliance said in a statement Friday.The two companies will explore the formation of a dedicated aerospace gas turbine complex for power and propulsion technology in India, it said.They did not disclose details of investment and the structure of the joint venture.The latest tie‑up aligns with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to create a self‑reliant defense ecosystem to deliver an indigenous engine for the country’s advanced fighter‑jet program. Last year, the government allowed private companies to design and develop combat aircraft.The South Asian nation took decades to develop and deploy its single-engine fighters called Tejas, and it now faces the more complex task of building twin-engine jets to replace its aging, mostly Russian-made fleet.“India’s strategic autonomy requires sovereign capability in critical technologies,” Anant Ambani, executive director at Reliance Industries, said in the statement Friday.More stories like this are available on bloomberg.comPublished on August 15, 2026
