Rolls-Royce's defence business turned in good results last year, but president Colin Green says the challenge ahead is dealing with uncertainties around the Eurofighter Typhoon. "Eurofighter and the [Lockheed Martin]Joint Strike Fighter provided a stable and growing workload. The timing has been helpful; as the Eurofighter's [Eurojet] EJ200 moves from development to production, JSF's engineering workload has been increasing," he says.
R-R's defence business brought in £1.4 billion ($2.6 billion) in 2003, up slightly from £1.38 billion in 2002; aftermarket sales now represent 56% of total business. R-R's overall sales fell slightly to £6.04 billion, but profits rose 12%to £234 million before tax.
In 2004, Green says, "the big issue currently occupying our minds...is timing and quantities of Tranche 2 Eurofighter". Several factors mean delivery schedules could take some time to draw up: "It depends on the ability of air forces to take over the aircraft, on the operational evaluation teams working to evaluate avionics and weapons systems, and on the aircraft manufacturers producing the airframes - and on our ability to make the engines."
R-R has a one-third stake in Eurojet, alongside MTU (33%), Avio (21%) and ITP (13%).
Source: Flight International
