The Spanish Navy and ITP Aero have today inaugurated the In-Service Support workshop located in the Aircraft Fleet Support Group (GASFLOAN) at the Rota Naval Base, for the maintenance of the Pegasus engine, which propels the Harrier combat aircraft, the offensive and strategic vector of the Spanish naval force. Navy Vice Admiral Rubén Rodríguez Peña, together with Álvaro Santodomingo, ITP Aero’s Director of Defence, and Pablo Fuentes, ITP Aero’s Director of In-Service Support, presided over the inauguration ceremony of this MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) workshop. An event that adds to the historic collaboration between the Navy and the leading aero engine company.
The Chief Admiral of the Cadiz Arsenal, for his part, commented on his satisfaction with the excellent level of integration of ITP personnel in the aeronautical maintenance structure of the Navy, highlighting not only the road already travelled since the establishment of the ITP workshop at the Rota base in 2020, but also the promising future that is opening up with the possibility of locally taking on the maintenance of the engines of the new aircraft that the Navy plans to incorporate, such as the H135 or the NH-90. All of this is an example of the necessary public-private collaboration in the maintenance of Security and Defence systems. ITP Aero, since 1989 and up to the present day, has been carrying out the maintenance of the Navy’s engines at its facilities in Ajalvir and Albacete.
In this regard, Álvaro Santodomingo emphasised that: “the inauguration of this centre reaffirms ITP Aero’s commitment to providing a service of the highest quality, contributing to the operability and improved performance of the fleets of the three Spanish armed forces. ITP Aero’s success story could not be understood without the confidence relationship that we have maintained with the Spanish Armed Forces”.
In addition, the company’s Framework Agreement with the Ministry of Defence positions ITP Aero as a reference company to provide support and service to the different armies and maintain the operability of the different fleets. In the Rota workshop ITP Aero carries out maintenance on the Pegasus F402 engine modules, having certified the first one in February 2022. The exhaustive cleaning of Pegasus components is carried out at the ITP Aero centre in Ajalvir and returned to the Rota workshop for assembly on the modules. ITP Aero is one of the world’s leading aircraft engine and component companies, with 4,700 employees and facilities in Spain, the UK, Mexico, Malta and India. ITP Aero’s purpose is to develop the technology to drive change in the aerospace sector towards more sustainable mobility. It does so with the development of proprietary technology as its main competitive advantage. Approximately half of the world’s aircraft are equipped with ITP Aero products. It is a founding member of the EU Clean Aviation programme and the first Spanish aerospace company to commit to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
