Dennis Jarvi, President, Rolls-Royce Defense North America
Rolls-Royce’s North American defense business topped $1 billion for the first time last year, and new president Dennis Jarvi is looking to build on that momentum.
Since taking up the reigns last July (he was previously manager of the V-22 program at Bell Helicopter, and reached the rank of Commander in the U.S. Navy), Jarvi has been plotting the business’s future strategy.
“You have to be growing, or you’re dying,” he told Show News.
Taking a lead from its commercial business, Rolls-Royce Defense North America plans a new focus on its aftermarket business, with a goal of growing it at least 10% a year.
Surprisingly, with almost 9,000 T56 engines powering the ubiquitous C-130 Hercules around the world, Rolls-Royce has done little to sell support services beyond shipping spare parts on demand.
That’s about to change.
“None of those engines are under any kind of service agreement,” said Dennis Jarvi, president of the North American defense business. “Now we’ve got a team to model and understand the business. We will look at everything from manpower to full-up power-by-the-hour, from spare parts to developing kits; from base to base and fleet by fleet.”
Although the U.S. military is a big user with over half the C-130s delivered, Jarvi believes the UK or Australia might be the first to sign service agreements. “There is a real resistance to getting middle management in the DoD to see the benefits,” he allowed. But “as a guy who wears the uniform and can see both sides” he hopes to be able to bring them around.
Rolls-Royce has had only limited success in selling aftermarket services to the U.S. military, with three contracts to date: for power-by-the-hour on the V-22, support for Marine Corps’ KC-130Js, and power-by-the-hour for the U.S. Navy’s T-45 Goshawk training aircraft.
Since Rolls partnered with the Navy in 2003 the availability of its T-45s has risen from 75% to around 87%, Jarvi noted.
The U.S. Army has been an exception — Rolls-Royce looks after all the RR 250 engines in its Bell Kiowa helicopters under a Mission Ready Management Solutions (MRMS) contract.
Rolls-Royce’s cornerstone for the future is the Joint Strike Fighter, where it is teamed with Pratt & Whitney on some lift system components and partnered with GE on the rival engine. “We are on both sides; this is a big deal for us,” said Jarvi, that could be worth as much as $10-15 billion over the next three or four decades.
But it is not enough in itself to satisfy future business objectives.
Rolls-Royce North America is known as a technology house, a reputation won in its days as Allison. But Jarvi quickly determined that technology in itself was a distraction. “I found we didn’t have a clear tie between technology and the business,” he said. Without a strategy to channel technology toward business goals “we could be chasing everything and win none of the programs,” he explained.
So Rolls-Royce Defense North America is focusing technology on its strong points and on platforms that will likely emerge in need of those technologies.
“For example we have identified endurance and persistence over a region as a growing military requirement. We have to ask what that means from a propulsion point of view.”
Persistence includes high Mach capability for UAVs and UCAVS operating at Mach 3.4 to 4, while endurance includes development of air- and magnetic bearings, oil-less engines and high reliability.
On the ‘engine’ front Rolls-Royce continues to chase emerging opportunities. It has proposed a version of the AE 1107 turboshaft in the V-22 for the CH-53X heavy lift helicopter, “which will bring a huge benefit in logistics,” Jarvi explained.
This will likely be one of the largest engine programs for a long time, with 200 helicopters needing 600+ powerplants.
“It’s an absolute must win for us,” said Jarvi. “We have to bring this one in.”—John Morris
