Rolls-Royce makes £1 billion more profit after major defence orders

Rolls-Royce has revealed its annual profit surged by £1 billion and upgraded its outlook for the years ahead, following major military aircraft orders and soaring demand for powering data centres.

The engineering giant said its business divisions were in a good place to benefit from “key global trends” over the coming years.

It reported an underlying operating profit of £3.5 billion for 2025, a jump of 40% from the £2.5 billion made the prior year.

Underlying revenues surpassed £20 billion over the year, up about a 10th on 2024.

This was driven by profit and sales growth across its civil aerospace, defence, and power businesses.

Rolls-Royce said demand for its defence products was strong and it secured major orders during 2025.

This included contracts worth more than £1.5 billion with the UK’s Ministry of Defence and the US’s Department of War for EJ200 and AE 2100 engines to power military aircraft.

New orders for the Eurofighter aircraft engines from Italy, Germany and Spain, as well as export agreements from Turkey, will drive production into the 2030s, it said.

Furthermore, Rolls-Royce said it was benefiting from growing demand for power generation, driven by data centres with revenues up by more than a third.

Rolls-Royce said it was now expecting underlying operating profits to increase to between £4.9 billion and £5.2 billion by 2028 following the strengthened financial performance in 2025.

This is significantly higher than the £3.6 billion to £3.9 billion range that it had previously been targeting.

Chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic said growth would not have been possible “before our transformation”, with the business making £600 million worth of cost savings since 2022.

“With our new capabilities and mindset, we have navigated challenges from supply chain to tariffs, and delivered a strong performance in 2025, all while we built the foundations for significant growth for years to come,” he said.

“Based on our 2026 guidance, we expect to deliver underlying operating profit within the prior mid-term guidance range two years earlier than planned.

“Beyond the mid-term we continue to see significant growth from existing businesses as well as from new business opportunities.”