India Active Ingredient in RTX’s Global Investment Rx

A new customer service center at this site in Bengaluru is the latest of many investments in India by RTX, which employs more than 6,000 people in the country with a population of 1.4 billion.

Photo courtesy of RTX

Strategic direction and global trends can sometimes be ascertained through the lens of one company or conglomerate. RTX — encompassing Pratt & Whitney, Collins Aerospace and Raytheon since a 2020 merger — is a case in point.

Yesterday, Pratt & Whitney announced a new customer service center at its site in North Gate, a special economic zone tech park with 3 million sq. ft. of built space to its credit located in Yelahanka, a suburb of Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, close to the airport whose origins date to the 12th century.

“The facility is expected to employ more than 150 aerospace experts and engineers who will support a global customer service ecosystem,” the company said in a release. “The center will be co-located with Pratt & Whitney’s supply chain operations, engineering and digital transformation centers of excellence in India.”

Asked if the new center entails a new facility, RTX spokesperson Sierra Armstrong says, “This is not a new site/building/campus, but a new center operationalized within our India Capability Center site. This site/campus also houses Pratt & Whitney’s India engineering center, Digital Center along with Collins Aerospace centers.” The company is not divulging an investment figure for the center, she says, “but this is part of the larger planned $40 million-plus investment we’ve been making in India across our engineering, digital and capability centers.”

The project aligns with two huge and growing sectors in India: the always robust business process outsourcing sector and aviation/aerospace.

RTX already employs more than 6,000 people in India across its Pratt & Whitney and Collins Aerospace businesses. That represents around 3.2% of a global workforce numbering more than 185,000 for the Arlington, Virginia-based company that reported $69 billion in sales in 2023.

While the new investment may not involve construction, there’s no shortage of such activity in recent months for RTX, whose project inventory in the Conway Projects Database numbers nearly 25 projects since June 2020. The first half of 2024 alone has been replete with announcements.

The aforementioned India Digital Technology Center from Collins Aerospace was inaugurated in Bengaluru in February, co-located with the Pratt & Whitney Digital Capability Center established just one week prior. The company said the center specializes in “enterprise resource planning, artificial intelligence and machine learning, data engineering and analytics and digital enablement of the product lifecycle.” The Pratt & Whitney opening included a statement anticipating the site to grow to more than 300 employees by 2027.

“Pratt & Whitney’s other investments in-country include a state-of-the-art India Customer Training Center in Hyderabad and its research and development collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science also in Bengaluru,” the company said. “Pratt & Whitney sourced over $500 million in engineering services in India over the past two decades, to include nearly $55 million in the past 10 years from leading aerospace suppliers in India.”

As a sign of RTX’s growth rate, the February announcement said the overall company employed more than 5,000 in India, a total that had risen to more than 6,000 by the time of this week’s announcement.

The original India Capabilities Center in Bengaluru from Pratt & Whitney opened in 2022, with the Pratt & Whitney India Engineering Center opening there in January 2023 and anticipating growth to around 500 employees by 2027. “The Indian aviation market is growing at a rapid pace and Bengaluru is a hub for that growth,” said Geoff Hunt, senior vice president, Engineering, Pratt & Whitney, at the time. “The IEC will fully integrate with our existing global engineering footprint across Canada, Puerto Rico and Poland to advance world-class technology such as the geared turbofan and other sustainable propulsion solutions,” said Paul Weedon, vice president, Engine Development, Pratt & Whitney Canada Corp. “The IEC team will be key to improving commercial engine performance, extending time on wing, reducing airline operating costs, and decreasing fuel consumption.”

A newly released investment climate statement about India this week from the U.S. Department of State notes India’s is the fastest-growing large economy in the world and is expected to see its GDP of $3.4 trillion surpass the GDPs of Germany and Japan by the early 2030s to become the world’s third largest economy.

“India is a leading market for U.S. firms in areas such as e-commerce, aviation, railways, telecommunications, food processing and heavy equipment,” the State Department says, noting that economic growth of 6% to 7% is expected in coming years “due to shifting global supply chains, favorable demographics and rapid industrialization.”

Among other RTX projects making headlines this year:

Collins Aerospace in May initiated a $200 million investment to expand manufacturing at its carbon brake production site in Spokane, Washington. Collins said it plans to grow the site by more than 50%, adding 70,000 sq. ft. of additional manufacturing space “including up to three new buildings and additional furnaces. This expansion will support increased production capacity to meet the growing demand for carbon brakes from commercial and military customers.”

“Collins Aerospace is a key contributor to the Pacific Northwest aerospace manufacturing industry and plays a significant role in Spokane’s economy and technological innovation,” said Matt Maurer, vice president and general manager for Landing Systems at Collins Aerospace.

Also in May, Pratt & Whitney Canada hosted a ceremonial inauguration of a new 12,000-sq.-m. (129,171-sq.-ft.) engine parts manufacturing facility in Casablanca, Morocco, that will create 200 new jobs by 2030. Pratt & Whitney Maroc (PWM) “will produce detailed static and structural machined parts for the company’s aircraft engines, including the PT6,” said the company.

“We selected Morocco after a careful global benchmarking effort that pointed to Casablanca’s growing hub of aerospace companies including RTX ’s Collins Aerospace,” said Maria Della Posta, president, Pratt & Whitney Canada. “Since the announcement of this significant investment less than a year ago, Pratt & Whitney Morocco has made rapid progress in hiring an initial cohort of local employees and working closely with local schools, agencies and the business community to achieve our goal of being fully operational next year.” Among those schools is the Institut des Métiers de l’Aéronautique (IMA).

“We are delighted to welcome Pratt & Whitney to Midparc, the Casablanca aerospace hub developed by Caisse de Dépôt et de Gestion,” said Hamid Benbrahim El Andaloussi, president of Midparc. “The presence in Morocco of a major global player in the sector is further recognition that Morocco’s aerospace base is now a must, on Europe’s doorstep, thanks to its competitiveness and quality.”

In April, Raytheon broke ground on a $115 million, 26,000-sq.-ft. expansion of its Redstone Raytheon Missile Integration Facility, which will increase the factory’s space for integrating and delivering on critical defense programs by more than 50%. The expansion will “bring an estimated 185 new jobs to the area,” the company said, “growing RTX’s employee footprint in Alabama to more than 2,200 people.” Expansion construction is scheduled to conclude in 2025 at the site that originally opened in 2012.

Also in April, Pratt & Whitney announced at the MRO Americas show in Chicago that it would invest $20 million and grow its workforce by 25% to increase the GTF engine maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) capacity of its West Palm Beach Engine Center in Florida. The expansion will accommodate a 40% increase in capacity and is expected to be complete by the second half of 2025.

“In 2023, Pratt & Whitney announced three GTF MRO facility expansions and five shop activations to support the growing GTF fleet,” the company said. “There are currently 16 active GTF MRO engine centers around the world, with another three expected to come online by 2025.”

The company also announced in Chicago the details of its North American Technology Accelerator (NATA), a commercial and military aftermarket operations center of excellence based in Florida. “Key projects include additive repairs for critical GTF engine components,” said the company. “With this new additive repair technology alone, Pratt & Whitney expects to recover $100 million worth of parts over next five years to support GTF MRO ramp.” The NATA facility complements a Singapore Technology Accelerator that opened in September 2022.

In March, Collins Aerospace announced the delivery to Airbus of the first seating shipment from the company’s facility in Tanauan City, Philippines, which first opened in 2012. The site’s seating assembly capacity is expected to triple throughout 2024, with deliveries to 14 separate customers.

In Singapore in February, Pratt & Whitney announced a $20 million investment to grow its manufacturing capacity in Singapore for the production of Pratt & Whitney GTF engine high pressure turbine (HPT) disks. The capacity expansion at the joint venture site with Hanwha Aerospace Company, Ltd, is expected to increase the facility’s workforce by more than 10% over the next two years at a facility that just achieved full operational capability in June 2023.

Also in February, at the Singapore Airshow, Pratt & Whitney announced the opening of a 48,000-sq.-ft. expansion of its Singapore-based engine center, Eagle Services Asia (ESA). “ESA, a joint venture between SIA Engineering Company and Pratt & Whitney, is a member of the Pratt & Whitney GTF MRO network,” the company said. “In 2023, Pratt & Whitney announced three GTF MRO facility expansions and six shop activations to support the growing GTF fleet. There are currently 15 active GTF MRO engine centers around the world, with seven locations in the Asia Pacific region including ESA in Singapore, Korean Airlines in Korea, IHI and MHIAEL in Japan, MTU Maintenance Zhuhai and AMECO in China, and China Airlines in Taiwan. By 2025, the company expects to have 19 active GTF MRO shops worldwide.” — Adam Bruns

Pratt & Whitney’s Eagle Services Asia will grow its GTF capacity by two-thirds in 2024.

Photo courtesy of RTX