In the Power Systems business, Force MTU Power Systems is our joint-venture between Force Motors Limited and Rolls-Royce, to move the manufacturing of the entire line of 1,600 series MTU engines and generator sets from Germany to the manufacturing facility at Chakan near Pune, by 2020. The JV will cater to our customers in both Indian and global markets.
Rolls-Royce is also a big consumer of services from India. Our Engineering Centres in Bengaluru and Pune house a talent pool of engineers contributing to global design and development programmes. Another 1,300 high-skilled engineers work exclusively for Rolls-Royce through outsourced agreements with TCS and QuEST.
As part of our ‘Digital First’ strategy, our R2 Data Labs in Bengaluru is our acceleration hub for data innovation, developing data applications that unlock design, manufacturing and operational efficiencies and creating new service propositions for customers around the world.
Kishore Jayaraman: Rolls-Royce is partnering both the Indian Navy and Indian Coast Guard with our MTU brand of products. Within the shipping sector, the company has established a long and successful partnership with some tens of thousands of engines in operation around the globe and on all seas.
Rolls-Royce is firmly committed to serve the needs of the Indian Navy and is keen to customise its advanced technology products to best serve the Navy’s power requirements. Our involvement in naval propulsion spans 50 years and we have pioneered some of the most important technical advances in marine propulsion including the use of aero gas turbines for surface ship propulsion.
The MT30 marine gas turbine
Rolls Royce’s defence business offers the highly successful MT30 marine gas turbine which combines the latest developments in gas turbine technology to deliver greater flexibility to ship designs and outstanding proven performance through life due to its high power density. We have the proven capability required to serve the needs of the Indian Navy for future naval combat readiness and look forward to partnering India in this space.
Then, our latest offering from Rolls-Royce Power Systems business is the MTU Marine Automation EM 50-2 Integrated Bridge System. The modern integrated bridge is the main access point for the information which is essential for safe and efficient operation of ships. With the new solution, previously distributed information is now gathered on a standardised display using a single graphical interface allowing quicker analysis using a modern visual framework.
Vayu: What's your vision for the Indian defence sector in the coming years?
Kishore Jayaraman: Currently, India’s defence strategy is undergoing a fundamental transformation triggered by new global and regional geo-political and military developments with greater role for indigenised military technology.
Our view is that instead of pivoting the policy around import substitution and purchases alone, for India to realise its goals of developing a local defence industrial base truly, another parallel strategy should be to actively look into Indigenisation through Co-development and Collaboration. And this has to happen across the entire value-chain – from research, design and development to manufacturing, integration, maintenance and repair. As India requires advanced technology and manufacturing capabilities to bridge the existing defence capability gap, there is a need to look at joint production, joint R&D and most-importantly the need to move beyond a buyer-seller relationship. The country’s vast talent pool of engineers and scientists should be harnessed to make it a R&D hub. It also needs to consider providing special tax incentives to R&D in defence and sponsoring R&D projects at private industry level to encourage R&D for developing critically advanced technologies.
With this backdrop and alongour growing engineering footprint in India, we seek to establish robust ecosystem to enable co-creation across the entire value-chain – from research, design and development to manufacturing, integration, maintenance and repair.
Vayu: What products will Rolls-Royce be showcasing during DefExpo 2020?
Kishore Jayaraman: DefExpo assumes strategic importance as India continues to re-evaluate its military needs and consolidate its current warfare technologies. Our focus at the DefExpo 2020 will be to showcase our capabilities to partner India in defence, particularly in the naval marine space.
From our Defence portfolio, we will be presenting the capabilities of the “mighty” MT30 marine gas turbine that is derived from aero Trent technology. It’s just over ten years since the MT30 first powered the US Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) USS Freedom. With a growing demand for power across the world’s navies, the world’s most power-dense in-service marine gas turbine is finding favour across the globe.
MT30 offers a superior power-to-weight ratio, generating up to 40MW from a 30-tonne packaged unit, including most of the auxiliary systems. It gives navies more power in less machinery space than alternative engine types, and offers ship designers much more options and flexibility in designing the naval vessels of tomorrow. The MT30 also supports the ‘lean manning’ concept by virtue of its ultra-low on-board maintenance requirement.
One of the key strengths of the MT30 is that it has the power for today and also tomorrow. With growing demand for electrical power, MT30 will meet those future demands. This is one of the reasons that in just over a decade, the MT30 is operating or has been selected in all conceivable propulsion arrangements across seven ship types – mechanical, hybrid and integrated-electric, with power delivered to water-jets, controllable and fixed-pitch propellers, depending on application.
From our Power Systems business, MTU engines currently propel and power many Indian Coast Guard and Indian Navy vessels, as well as powering the Indian Army’s Arjun Main Battle Tanks. We now hope to familiarise our Indian defence customers with the MTU Marine Automation EM 50-2 Integrated Bridge System. The modern integrated bridge forms the central point of access to all information that is crucial to safe and efficient ship operation. With the new MTU solution, information previously scattered over diverse displays is now collated at a standardised display using a single graphic interface which enables faster overview using an ultra-modern visuals concept.
By making all data available centrally, the information coming from the various sub-systems can be combined and processed using digital analysis. These findings can then be used, for example, to increase availability, reduce life-cycle costs and further enhance operational reliability. In addition, we remain committed to serving India’s defence needs through our vast portfolio of technologically advanced products, as well as through collaboration for co-development initiatives.