Reliance, Rolls Royce team up for India’s next-generation AMCA fighter engine

Reliance Industries Ltd and Rolls-Royce have teamed up to pursue development of an indigenous engine for India’s Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft, or AMCA, bringing the Mukesh Ambani-led group into one of the country’s most demanding defense technology programs.

The companies said on Friday, 14 August, that they intend to work together on the design, development, manufacturing and delivery of an engine for the planned fifth-generation stealth fighter.

Media Release – Reliance Industries and Rolls-Royce announce strategic intent to partner and develop India’s indigenous combat engine for the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) programme

London / Mumbai, 14thAugust 2026: Reliance Industries Limited (Reliance) and Rolls-Royce…

— Reliance Industries Limited (@RIL_Updates) August 14, 2026

They are also looking at setting up an Aerospace Gas Turbine Complex in India that would handle design, testing, manufacturing and long-term support.

The partnership does not mean they have won the AMCA engine program. The government has yet to pick a foreign technology partner for the high-thrust engine.

France’s Safran is also in the running and has been seen as a strong contender. Business Standard reported this month that a proposal for a 120 kilonewton class engine with a foreign partner was under consideration, with Safran widely viewed as the likely choice. Rolls-Royce’s proposal was also being examined.

Rolls-Royce has spent months making its case to India. Its offer goes beyond supplying an engine or setting up local assembly. The company has proposed developing the engine in India, transferring technology and giving India ownership of intellectual property created under the program.

What was less clear until now was who would provide the industrial muscle on the Indian side. The answer, at least for Rolls-Royce’s bid, is Reliance.

“India’s strategic autonomy requires sovereign capability in critical technologies,” Reliance executive director Anant Ambani said. He said the partnership would bring together Rolls-Royce’s propulsion expertise and Reliance’s manufacturing capabilities.

Rolls-Royce CEO Tufan Erginbilgiç said the tie-up was a “major milestone towards building a robust, self-reliant aerospace ecosystem in the country,” combining the company’s engine expertise with Reliance’s industrial capabilities.

The proposed gas turbine complex is a big part of the pitch. The companies want it to cover the full chain, from design and testing to manufacturing and maintenance. They have also said it could eventually support civil aerospace and other propulsion programs, which would give the facility a role beyond a single fighter aircraft.

India has been trying to crack the fighter engine problem for decades. It has built combat aircraft, missiles, warships and nuclear submarines, but a modern high-thrust jet engine has remained elusive.

The Kaveri engine developed for the Tejas did not meet the required performance levels and was eventually taken out of the fighter program. India has since depended on imported engines for its indigenous combat aircraft.

Early versions of the AMCA are expected to use GE Aerospace’s F414 engine, which produces about 98 kN of thrust. A later and more advanced version is meant to use an engine in the 120 kN class developed with a foreign technology partner.

That engine is expected to give the aircraft more thrust and support capabilities such as sustained supersonic flight without depending heavily on afterburners.

Rolls-Royce has said that, if the program is finalized this year, its proposal could deliver an engine for ground testing by 2032 and support a first flight by 2034. The offer includes access to existing engineering know-how as well as Indian ownership of intellectual property created through the project.

The numbers show how difficult the undertaking will be.

Former DRDO chief Samir V Kamat has estimated that development of the engine could cost as much as ₹50,000 crore, or about $5.2 billion, over several years. Around ₹10,000 crore could be needed just for testing and industrial infrastructure, including facilities India lacked during development of the Kaveri.

That is where Reliance could matter to Rolls-Royce’s bid. This will not be a case of importing a design and assembling engines locally. India wants the ability to design, test, build and upgrade fighter engines on its own.

Doing that means investing in advanced materials, precision manufacturing, test facilities and a program that could run for well over a decade.

For Reliance, it would also be a significant move deeper into defense manufacturing. The group has been expanding its advanced materials business, including carbon fiber, and has identified defense as one of the sectors it can serve. An aero engine program would take it well beyond supplying materials and into one of the most technology-intensive parts of military aviation.

The engine competition is separate from the contest to build the AMCA airframe.

India’s Aeronautical Development Agency has opened development and production of the aircraft to private companies rather than automatically assigning the program to a state-owned manufacturer. The government approved that approach in May 2025, allowing Indian companies to bid on their own or through joint ventures and consortia.

Three private-sector groups have since been shortlisted for the aircraft development contract: Tata Advanced Systems, an L&T-led consortium and a Bharat Forge-led group.

Reliance is not among the shortlisted airframe bidders. Its route into the AMCA program, for now, runs through the engine.