By Aritra Banerjee
At the Aero MRO India 2022, held between 3-5 November at the Hotel Plaza, New Delhi, the panel discussion on Military-Civil MRO convergence was the most power-packed session. Samit Ray, Regional Director of South Asia Government Affairs Raytheon Technologies Corporation at Raytheon Technologies, took the platform to share the company’s plans for its future operations in the Indian MRO industry.
He began by highlighting that Raytheon Technologies is the world’s largest aerospace and defence manufacturing company, with approximately 80 billion dollars in revenue. Ray laid out the company’s manufacturing history in India, ongoing projects, and plans moving forward. “We started manufacturing in India 20 years ago when we set up the first Sikorsky Helicopter manufacturing facility with Tatas as a joint venture company. We introduced Tatas to aerospace manufacturing. Subsequently, we set up our own manufacturing facilities. We are inaugurating our fourth manufacturing facility in Bengaluru- over a $200 million investment,” he told those in attendance.
Highlighting the conducive business opportunities India offers Raytheon Technologies, Ray said that his company believes in the Indian growth story. “We believe we can take a risk. And it is a market where the labourer is writ large, and the costs are writ large. This itself makes the business case for manufacturing here.”
Ray spelled out in no unclear terms that Raytheon Technologies will set up MRO facilities in the country “irrespective of what the other companies think.” He revealed that they are in talks with some Indian companies, who Raytheon has come to understand are looking to start with components MRO. “This will be followed by engine MRO,” he said, painting a picture of the company’s plans in this sector of the Indian market.
According to Ray, his company is actively engaging with the government on certain policy issues related to engine MROs. “Certain policies are obstructing engine MROs from coming into the picture, but we are looking at it closely and talking to the civil aviation ministry and the ministry of finance. As long as those policy interventions are there and we can resolve them— and I am talking about the inverted duty structure—we are good to go as far as engine MROs are concerned. Pratt & Whitney is looking at it very, very closely,” he said.
In another bold statement, Ray revealed that Raytheon Technologies has given an ultimatum to the concerned industry stakeholders beyond which it would go ahead with its planned business operations. “For component MROs, there is no such [policy] problem. I think we can go ahead with the Indian industry. We will come in directly if the Indian industry does not bite the bullet. We will not wait beyond six months (that is our commitment to the minister and the civil aviation secretary). We cannot wait beyond Quarter 2 of 2023 to bring in components MRO,” he stressed.
Further reiterating the strict timeline his company is set to follow, Ray said that if the talks with the Indian industry conclude within the next 6 months, Raytheon Technologies will move forward with them. “If it does not, then we will still move forward as Raytheon Technologies! That is what we bring to the country. And we will bring in components starting with activation systems, and we will go further from there,” he said.