An atmanirbhar flight plan for fighter jets

News: India designed, developed, and manufactured many combat aircraft like 147 HF-24 Marut fighters in the 1960s and 40 Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA). Many of our institutes like DRDO, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, and IT engineering companies, have built expertise in aeronautical design, flight dynamics, and other skills needed for building modern combat aircraft.

Yet, it struggles to design engines for one of these otherwise indigenous aircraft. Almost every aeronautical engine flying in India has been purchased from abroad.

What are the reasons behind that?

Reverse engineering: All world’s engine vendors America’s Pratt, Europe’s Rolls-Royce, and Russia’s Klimov sell aero engines to India, without any hesitation. That is because Reverse-engineering an aero engine is exceedingly difficult. The critical technologies in this field relate to materials (high-temperature composites and alloys) and precision engineering, which are nearly impossible to copy. Even China has not succeeded in reverse engineering a high-performance aero engine.

Why India is not successful in making its own engine?

Limited Resources: DRDO’s aero engine laboratory Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE) has made little progress in developing the Kaveri engine for the Tejas LCA. The Tejas needs an engine with 82-90 kiloNewtons (kN) of peak thrust, but the Kaveri has managed 72 kN during flight testing in Russia. The reason for such a thrust deficit is limited resources along with technological incompetence. Kaveri engine programme had been allocated just Rs 2,839 crore for R&D, including setting up engineering and test facilities, which is not sufficient.

Not enough attention: Ministry of defence is estimated to buy foreign military aero engines worth Rs 3.5 trillion over the next two decades. Yet, governments have not paid attention to developing aero engines, which account for one-third the cost of a new military aircraft. With government focus on “atmanirbhar Bharat” and 68% of the defence capital budget being earmarked for domestic purchases, meeting that indigenisation target would require many more engines to be domestically designed, developed, and manufactured.

What should India do?

First, India requires sophisticated testing facilities. During the testing of Kaveri, India took the help of Russia and undergone through various performance checks. Creating such flight-testing facilities in India would save hundreds of crores and valuable time.

Second, MoD should shift without delay to indigenous aero-engine programmes for combat aircraft. For this DRDO can partner with French engine-maker Safran in developing an engine for the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA). Although Safran is currently reluctant to transfer engine technology to India, but if it did, this would be a huge gesture of Indo-French solidarity.

Third, the government should also urge the USA to ease restrictions on the release of advanced engine technologies so that India faces fewer restrictions in getting 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 F-414 to power it.

Source: This post is based on the article “An atmanirbhar flight plan for fighter jets” published in the Business Standard on 4th March 2022.