Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engine to power a further two MRTT aircraft in the UAE

The Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engine is set to power a further two Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) aircraft for the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The announcement of the follow-on acquisition order was made by Airbus today during the Dubai Air Show. The UAE already has three Trent 700 powered MRTT in service and with this additional order the total fleet will grow to five, which is a signal of confidence in the MRTT fleet and the power that the Trent 700 engine is able to provide.

In service for over 25 years, the Trent 700 engine has logged over 60 million hours and over 40,090 hours on-wing without a shop visit. Over 70 per cent of operations in the Middle East are powered by the Trent 700 and the majority of the wider A330 fleet is powered by this engine, demonstrating excellent reliability, capability and the lowest lifetime fuel burn of all engine options for the aircraft.

Vice President, Defence Business Development – Middle East, Jay Dagher said:

“I am delighted by today’s announcement that will allow Rolls-Royce to continue to support Airbus through the MRTT programme and extend our close collaboration with our UAE customer. The UAE is an important market for Rolls-Royce and we are proud to have a close relationship with this important customer to support the current platforms that our products power. We very much look forward to growing this relationship as we look to build upon that strong foundation through identifying and nurturing further strategic partnerships necessary for mutual success.”

Across Rolls-Royce the three core businesses, Civil, Defence and Power Systems are well represented in the UAE and are proud partners of the UAE Armed Forces across air, sea and land domains. Rolls-Royce has strong existing partnerships with UAE suppliers, including GAL around the support of the UAE Air Force fleet.

The Defence business has a wealth of experience providing the power that protects to more than 160 armed forces customers globally. Specifically for the UAE, the installed engines include the Adour for the UAE Airforce Hawk aircraft fleet, the Viper engines for the MB339, Trent 700 engines on MRTT, M250 engines on Bell Helicopters, T56 engine that powers the C-130 H and L variants and the BR710 engines on the Global Eye 6,000.