Rolls-Royce: delivering power to protect national security and enable economic growth
Alex Zino, Head of Global Network and Director of Business Development & Future Programmes
| Rolls Royce
In an era of evolving threats, Rolls-Royce is at the forefront of powering national defence and economic resilience – delivering advanced capabilities that protect the UK and drive economic growth
Across the globe we are seeing a renewed and acute focus on aligning the imperatives of national security and economic growth. As the geopolitical landscape continues to evolve, we in Rolls-Royce remain laser focused on our priorities in delivering for our armed forces customers today, developing the right technologies and capabilities to meet the demands of the future and ensuring our people have the right skills to help power and protect our nation.
Our activities return significant value to the UK, where we employ nearly 21,000 people – half our global workforce. We spend over £3bn annually with over 2,000 British companies and invest over £880m per year on UK-based research and development (R&D). We play a critical role in helping connect Britain to the world and attracting investment into the UK. Our global presence and influence in strategic sectors like defence and civil aerospace and nuclear means we can support the UK with building stronger and deeper strategic relationships with our allies. Our global trade across our aerospace, defence and power generation businesses makes us one of the UK’s largest single exporters by volume and value, exporting around 80 per cent of what we produce in the UK, alone accounting for 2 per cent of all UK goods exports.
We are proud to serve as a strategic partner to the UK's Armed Forces, and 160 customers across 100 countries around the world, providing the power to protect across air, land and sea. For more than 60 years we have designed, supplied and supported the nuclear propulsion plant that provides power for all of the UK Royal Navy's nuclear submarines and will power Australia’s submarines through AUKUS. Our Nuclear Skills Academy welcomes 200 apprentices each year as we develop critical skills to build future talent and resilience. We have an opportunity in advanced nuclear technologies, such as the next generation nuclear reactors, to make the UK a world leader in clean and secure energy.
We are a global leader in aerospace engine design, development, manufacture, and sustainment for civil and defence markets and provide power and propulsion across combat, transport and training fleets. Our involvement in the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), where we are leading the power and propulsion workstream with industry partners from Italy and Japan, supported by British companies and University research partners, will help to cement our Bristol facility as the home of the UK’s military power and propulsion for the next generation. 80 per cent of the technologies we are developing for GCAP can be used in civil applications, showing how defence investment can deliver dual-use capabilities that drive the UK’s competitiveness in defence and other sectors. This in turn enables the governments growth mission.
The evolving global security landscape demands a coherent, long-term approach to defence investment, innovation, and industrial resilience. The UK needs capable, credible, and affordable deterrence to maintain national security for ourselves and our allies. Making long-term commitments to capabilities where the UK is differentiated, like aerospace and nuclear, will be vital. A whole of government approach to implementing the Defence Industrial Strategy, as part of the cross-sector Industrial Strategy, will be critical to maintaining our national security, strengthening our differentiated capabilities, building supply chain and skills resilience and driving sustained economic growth across the UK.
To find out more visit www.rolls-royce.com/engineforgrowth
