Rolls-Royce Plans $600 Million Upgrade of Indianapolis Plant

[unhappycamper]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/10/05/us/ap-us-rolls-royce-indiana.html?_r=0



Rolls-Royce Plans $600 Million Upgrade of Indianapolis Plant
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSOCT. 5, 2015, 3:30 P.M. E.D.T.

INDIANAPOLIS — Rolls-Royce announced plans Monday to spend $600 million over the next five years to modernize a decades-old Indianapolis factory complex where it builds aircraft engines.

The British company said the renovation of the plant will reduce its costs by replacing infrastructure and equipment dating back to World War II. The upgrade will add advanced manufacturing methods and consolidate the Indianapolis operations where engines are built for a range of military and commercial aircraft, as well as marine propulsion systems.

Marion Blakey, the president and CEO of Rolls-Royce North America, said the modernization will improve the company's competitiveness even though no job additions are immediately planned.

~SNIP~

The company announced in February that it had won $442 million in military contracts for the Indianapolis plant to build lift-fan systems for the F-35B fighter jet so it can hover and land vertically like a helicopter.