Rolls-Royce Deutschland and ITP Aero join forces for a world-class Wingman Engine

Rolls-Royce Deutschland and ITP Aero today jointly announced that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore a partnership to design, develop, manufacture and support a Wingman Engine, a state-of-the-art, powerful solution for large remote carriers.

As part of the MoU signature ceremony, a mock-up of a Wingman Engine concept was unveiled with the power and propulsion solution being presented to a wide audience at ILA Berlin Airshow. The MoU between Rolls-Royce Deutschland and ITP Aero will foster a German-Spanish approach, leveraging a long-lasting relationship between both companies that has spanned more than a decade.

The MoU was signed by Dr. Dirk Geisinger, Chairman Rolls-Royce Deutschland, and Carlos Alzola, Managing Director ITP Aero, on 5^th June 2024 at ILA Berlin Airshow and was attended by representatives from both nations’ Ministry of Defence, government representatives, politicians and industry, celebrating the initiative of providing a European power and propulsion solution that underpins the unique engine design and manufacturing capabilities in Germany and Spain.

The Wingman Engine is a European solution capable of meeting development and product cost requirements for various large remote carrier designs. The engine concept builds on the Advance2 core demonstrator – the most powerful and efficient core engine technology in its class – which currently powers commercial and military platforms. The Advance2 core, the backbone of the Pearl business jet engine family, has already proven its world-class competitiveness and has been selected to power five aircraft types from various manufacturers.

This defence application benefits from significant investments both companies already made in civil and dual-use technologies, making it a cost-efficient European solution.

René Bernstein, Vice President Defence Germany at Rolls-Royce Deutschland stated: “We are delighted to have unveiled our Wingman Engine concept, which we have invested in over the past several years to ensure customer and operational requirements for future large remote carriers can be met. Here at Rolls-Royce Deutschland, we continue to strive to develop innovative and cutting-edge technology to generate confidence in national capabilities, and we’re proud of our approach of utilising proven civilian technology for military programmes.

“As discussed at our successful Capital Markets Day, we’re continuing to leverage value from our Pearl engine family. The use of modern and market-available civilian technologies with a stable value chain reduces the overall risk and controls the development and product costs of platforms serving our security.

“In turn, this strengthens the international competitiveness of such a system in the long-term and building on available advanced technology will enable the industry to move fast to make such complex products market-ready in uncertain geopolitical times.”

Alfredo Alonso, Head of Export & New Business Defence at ITP Aero said: “We are excited to continue our long-standing collaboration with Rolls Royce Deutschland for the design, development, manufacture and support of a Wingman Engine featuring high levels of design maturity and competitive operating and maintenance costs. This project represents a unique opportunity to develop a true European state-of-the-art propulsion solution for large remote carriers aimed to support the operations of existing and future systems in contested environments. I am convinced that our cutting-edge technologies and capabilities will significantly benefit this engine’s propulsive system, lowering operating and maintenance costs and reducing development time.”

About Rolls-Royce Holdings plc

1.    Rolls-Royce develops and delivers complex power and propulsion solutions for safety-critical applications in the air, at sea and on land. Our products and service packages enable our customers to connect people, societies, cultures and economies together; they meet the growing need for power generation across multiple industries; and enable governments to equip their armed forces with the power to protect.

2.    Rolls-Royce has a presence in 48 countries and customers in more than 150, comprising over 250 commercial large aero engine customers, 160 armed forces and navies and approximately 40,000 active Power Systems customers. We are committed to becoming a net zero company by 2050 and we support our customers to do the same.

3.    Annual underlying revenue was £15.4bn in 2023, underlying operating profit was £1.6bn and free cash flow £1.3bn.

4.    Rolls-Royce Holdings plc is publicly traded company (LSE: RR., ADR: RYCEY, LEI: 213800EC7997ZBLZJH69)

www.rolls-royce.com

About ITP Aero

ITP Aero is a global leader in the design, development, manufacturing, and servicing of aero power plants and components for both commercial aviation and defence applications. ITP Aero has over the last thirty-five years demonstrated its ability to continuously advance its core capabilities and develop new offerings, lead large-scale development programmes and work in strong partnership with its global customers and partners as can be seen from our positioning on some of today’s most environmentally friendly new engine platforms. As an independent global company with more than 5000 employees across facilities in Spain, UK, Mexico, USA, Malta and India, ITP Aero continues to invest to build and evolve its proprietary technology, operational capacity & sustainability and product and service offerings all the while ensuring a strong governance foundation and commitment to its values.

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