Reliance and Rolls-Royce partner on bid for India's AMCA fighter engine

Reliance Industries and Rolls-Royce said on August 14, 2026, that they plan to work together on designing, developing, manufacturing and delivering what they called a sovereign, indigenous engine for India's Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft, or AMCA, program.

According to a joint statement from the companies, they will look into setting up a dedicated Aerospace Gas Turbine Complex in India intended to serve as a hub for propulsion technology, covering everything from design and testing to manufacturing and long-term support.

Anant Ambani, an executive director at Reliance, said in the statement that India's strategic autonomy depends on building sovereign capability in critical technologies. Rolls-Royce chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic described the partnership as a move toward a self-reliant aerospace industry in the country.

The announcement follows an earlier offer from Rolls-Royce alone. Sashi Mukundan, an executive at Rolls-Royce India, told a local outlet in an interview published in June 2026 that the company had already submitted its final proposal for an engine exceeding 120 kilonewtons of thrust, with a core test targeted for 2030, a first flight in 2034, and production beginning in 2036 if a contract is signed by the end of 2026. He said intellectual property developed under the program would stay with the Indian government, and that Rolls-Royce hoped India would become its fourth propulsion hub after the UK, the US and Germany.

India's defense ministry approved a program execution model for AMCA in May 2025, naming the Aeronautical Development Agency as the lead body and opening the engine competition to Indian public and private entities, either independently or through joint ventures. A separate bid from Safran remains under consideration on a parallel track, the sources noted.