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.

The AMCA is India’s flagship fifth-generation stealth multirole fighter jet, developed locally for its air force.

The partnership “marks a major milestone towards building a robust, self-reliant aerospace ecosystem in the country,” the statement quoted Rolls-Royce Chief Executive Tufan Erginbilgic as saying.

“Together, we aim to build an enduring national capability that can make India self-reliant and, over time, globally competitive in advanced propulsion technologies,” said Reliance Executive Director Anant Ambani.

Under Modi, India has prioritised modernisation of its military “driven by a self-reliant and future-ready defence sector”, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told soldiers on Friday on the eve of the country’s 80th independence day.

Last month, India approved the purchase of a range of military equipment worth $5.46 billion, including missiles, electronic warfare systems and kamikaze drones.

New Delhi, over the last decade, has sought to reduce its dependence on Russia, its traditional main supplier of military equipment, turning to other countries like the United States and France, as well as boosting domestic production.

India is also rapidly modernising its navy with domestic production of ships and submarines.

A four-day conflict with Pakistan last year highlighted the need for Delhi to upgrade its defence capabilities.

Earlier this year, New Delhi approved the purchase of $39 billion worth of defence equipment, including Rafale jets from France.
India’s current defence budget is $85 billion.