The global marine engine dominance war between the General Electric and Rolls-Royce is all set to play out in India too. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Rolls-Royce have inked a MoU to market the Rolls-Royce MT30 marine engine to the Indian navy. The two companies signed the MoU to establish packaging, installation, marketing and services support for Rolls-Royce MT30 marine engines in India.
R Madhavan, CMD, HAL said, “This partnership will leverage the rich experience of HAL’s IMGT Division that works on marine gas turbines with Indian shipyards. Further, we are also exploring the option of using MT7 marine engine on the hovercraft being planned by the shipyards in India.”
Tom Bell, President, Rolls-Royce Defence said, “As India focuses on its vision of modernisation and self-reliance in defence, we look forward to introducing the MT30 to customers in India in collaboration with HAL. Designed for naval platforms of the future, the MT30 is perfectly equipped to meet the Indian Navy’s present and future needs.”
Rolls Royce says that its MT30 is the world’s most power-dense naval gas turbine currently in-service with naval programs worldwide in various propulsion arrangements across seven ship types. Derived from the Trent aero engine family, the MT30 has the potential to provide next-generation capabilities to the Indian Navy’s future fleet. The MT30 can deliver its full power of up to 40 MW in ambient temperatures up to 38 degree celsius, without any power degradation throughout the life of the ship.
The Indian navy currently uses the General Electric LM 2500 Gas turbine engine on its ships. HAL is already engaged in JV for assembling of LM 2500 GTs in the country to meet the current requirement.
India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation is also engaged in the R&D for Kaveri Marine Gas Turbine (KMGT) but the programme fraught with delays.
India’s Russian made warships use Ukraine’s Zorya-Mashproekt M7N.1E gas turbine engines.