Given the economic and military-technical realities, India must move without delay to indigenous aero-engine programs for fighter jets
By Vikas Gupta
Defence News of India, 4 Mar 22
Since India began designing, developing and manufacturing fighter jets – it has built 147 HF-24 Marut fighters in the 1960s and around 40 Tejas light fighters (LCAs) since the turn of the century – scientists and Indian aerospace technologists have developed a range of expertise and skills.
In institutions such as Defense Research & Development Organization (DRDO), Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL); and private sector computer engineering companies, India has acquired expertise in aeronautical design, flight dynamics and control laws, avionics and other skills needed to build combat aircraft modern. Yet when it comes to supplying an engine for one of these otherwise indigenous aircraft, its designers and engineers are faced with the tricky question: where should we buy the engine from? For various reasons, mainly related to a lack of technical-strategic vision and planning, every aero engine flying in India has been purchased from abroad.
None of the world’s engine suppliers – the Americans Pratt & Whitney, General Electric and Honeywell; Rolls-Royce and Snecma in Europe; and Russia’s Klimov and NPO Saturn — reluctant to sell Indian aero engines. It’s because they don’t care about technology protection. Reverse engineering an aircraft engine is extremely difficult. Critical technologies in this field relate to materials (composites and high temperature alloys) and precision engineering, which are almost impossible to copy. Even China, after years of imitation experience, has failed to reverse-engineer a high-performance aircraft engine.
It’s not like Chinese technologists haven’t tried. For two decades, the Guizhou Aircraft Industry Corporation worked on the development of the Taishan turbofan engine to power the Sino-Pakistani JF-17 Thunder fighter, but the Taishan’s performance satisfied neither the Chinese nor the Pakistanis. Even after spending $10 billion in development, Pakistan had to induct the JF-17 into the Pakistan Air Force powered by a Russian Klimov RD-93 engine. Now Beijing is stepping up its efforts, investing $40 billion and training thousands of engine designers.
This is not happening for India either. In previous decades, the DRDO’s aero-engine laboratory – the Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE) – made little progress in developing the Kaveri engine for the Tejas LCA. The Tejas needs an engine with 82-90 kiloNewtons (kN) of maximum thrust, but the Kaveri only managed 72 kN during flight testing in Russia. The reason for such a thrust deficit is not only technological incompetence, but also limited resources. With global original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) spending billions of dollars on engine development, the Minister of Defense told Parliament in December 2012 that the Kaveri engine program had only received 2,839 crores of rupees for R&D, including setting up engineering and testing facilities.
The Indian Ministry of Defense (MoD) estimates that it will purchase foreign military aircraft engines worth 3.5 trillion rupees (350,000 crore rupees) over the next two decades. Yet successive governments have neglected to develop aircraft engines, which are a third of the cost of a new military aircraft. With Defense Minister Rajnath Singh’s focus on ‘atmanirbhar Bharat’ (self-governing India) and 68% of the defense investment budget earmarked for domestic procurement, achieving this indigenization target would require many more engines are designed, developed and manufactured in the country. the country.
The same goes for the Indo-French Shakti engines that power India’s ongoing helicopter programs. HAL will build at least 400 twin-engine Dhruv and 180 light combat helicopters (LCH). Another 400 single-engine light utility helicopters (LUH) will replace the current fleet of Chetaks and Cheetahs. Each LUH will consume 3-3½ motors over its lifetime, while twin-motor choppers will each require 6-7 motors, adding up to some 5,000 Shakti motors over their lifetime. At the Shakti’s current price of Rs 8-10 crore, spending on these engines would amount to Rs 40,000-50,000 crore. Add inflation and the cost of replacing failed components, along with the consumption of seals and bearings, and the figure would comfortably exceed Rs 50,000 crore.
Besides development and manufacturing, engine programs also require sophisticated test facilities. Currently, when the DRDO needs to test the Kaveri, it is flown to Russia, with a flight test team, at the Gromov Flight Research Institute outside Moscow. Here, it equips a Russian IL-76 aircraft and its performance is evaluated in flight. Prior to flight testing, it must undergo ground checks at the Central Institute of Aviation Engines in Moscow, at simulated altitudes of up to 15 kilometers (49,200 feet). Establishing such flight test facilities in India would save hundreds of crores and a lot of time.
Given these economic and military-technical realities, the MoD must move without delay to indigenous aircraft engine programs for combat aircraft on the anvil. The first step would be for the DRDO to join forces with the French engine manufacturer Safran to develop an engine for the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA). There’s a story to this: the GoI encouraged GTRE to obtain engine technology from Safran to resurrect the Kaveri engine to power the Tejas LCA Mark II. Safran has been reluctant to transfer engine technology to India and is unlikely to meet its offset liability (arising from the purchase of the Rafale) by assisting GTRE with advanced technology for development of Kaveri. If Safran eventually acquiesces (and it would take some quibbling from Paris), it would be a huge gesture of Indo-French solidarity, and would go a long way to persuading the DRDO that France can be a trusted partner.
Meanwhile, the US government is urged to ease restrictions on the release of advanced engine technologies, so that India faces fewer restrictions for the transfer of the General Electric (GE) F-414 engine to power the Tejas Mark 2. India is already importing the less powerful GE F-404 engine for the Tejas Mark 1, but the Mark 2 is a heavier and bulkier aircraft and would require the sharper F-414 to power it. The US government has in the past rejected cooperation with India on jet engine technology, but there is once again interest at the political level in Washington and the US government has learned to think again about this possibility.
