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This is the first, and significant, engine contract
for GE Aviation to power fighter jets for India
and LCA will be the first combat aircraft in the
inventory of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Indian
Navy with engines from the US. Both the Services
have had US-made transport aircraft though and
all the three US engine majors, GE, Honeywell
and Pratt & Whitney have supplied power units
for them.
DRDO Director General (and Scientific Adviser
to the Defence Minister) Dr VK Saraswat told India
Strategic in an interview that the
agreement with GE was signed recently, and that
he expected the aircraft to be a success for both
the IAF and Navy.
IAF has used Fairchild Packets in the 1960s,
has Lockheed Martin C 130Js now, and is set to
get Boeing C 17 Globemasters beginning this year.
The Navy used the Lockheed Super Constellations
for maritime reconnaissance. They are all transporters.
GE won the contract for its F414-GE-INS6 afterburner
turbofan engine in September 2010 with a narrow
margin against a competing bid by the European
Eurojet EJ 200.
It has taken nearly two years for the Aeronautical
Development Agency (ADA) of the Defence Research
and Development Organisation (DRDO), which had
selected the engine, to work out details like
how and how much of the engine will be produced
in India. A production contract is now being worked
out between GE Aviation and HAL, which will manufacture
them, in this regard.
Honeywell's F 125N engine was also selected recently
to upgrade IAF's Jaguar aircraft, and a production
arrangement is now being discussed. This engine
will empower the aircraft to fly over high mountains,
which at present, the Jaguars cannot do.
GE, which is already supplying its LM 2500 gas
turbine engines for some newer Indian Navy ships,
was given the necessary clearance by the US Government.
It will supply an initial lot of 18 engines while
the remaining will be progressively assembled/
made in India.
Notably, in recent interviews with India
Strategic, both IAF chief Air Chief
Marshal NAK Browne, and Navy Chief Admiral DK
Joshi, have said that they are keenly awaiting
the Tejas Mark II, which will be equipped with
the GE 414 engine.
HAL is making 20 + 20 LCAs with the GE 404-GE-F213
afterburner engines for IAF in the first two orders.
After that, the plan is to produce around 200
LCAs for both the IAF and Navy with the 414 engine.
The naval aircraft will have a strengthened fuselage,
wheel base, and a drooping nose to facilitate
carrier deck landings.
Under the GE-ADA contract, GE is to supply the
latest version of the 414 engine beginning 2014,
with improved Full Authority Digital Electronic
Control (FADEC), single Crystal blade design,
single engine safety features, and other electronic
advances. The basic engine design, as it is used
now for instance on the US Navy’s F/A 18
E/F Super Hornets, would stay the same but as
new innovations are developed and adopted, they
would also be passed on to India.
GE won a $5.3 billion US Navy order for the same
engine for powering 66 twin-engine F/A 18 E/F
Super Hornets and 58 E/A 18G Growler electronic
attack aircraft in 2010. And the US Navy’s
F 18 Hornet and Super Hornet aircraft built by
Boeing have done more than a million hours on
GE’s 404 and 414 engines.
GE’s India President and CEO John Flannery
had earlier described the selected F414 engine
as “the highest-rated F414 model” and
said that it includes “state-of-the-art technology
to meet India's demanding Air Force and Naval
requirements.”
Details of the exact costs of ADA/HAL-GE arrangement
is not known but an unconfirmed tender bid figure
was mentioned at US$ 822 million.
Dr Saraswat said that DRDO and its agencies were
keen to acquire total indigenous capability in
engine design, and that a good measure has been
achieved in this regard.
Notably, DRDO’s Kaveri engine was initially
selected to power the LCA but it has not been
able to achieve more that 80 kilo newtons thrust
as against the requirement of 95 to 100 kilo newtons
asked by both the IAF and Navy.
Kaveri will now power DRDO’s unmanned strike
air vehicle (USAV). Both the LCA and USAV though
will be extensively made of light weight composite
materials. The weapon package on board the USAV
is not known and the project itself was disclosed
only in December 2012 by Defence Minister AK Antony
who told the Parliament that the “Kaveri
spin-off engine can be used as a propulsion system
for the Indian Unmanned Strike Air Vehicle.”
The Indian Air Force wants to acquire long range
unmanned aircraft. Kaveri, which has had some
contribution from the French Safran/ Snecma in
its development process, is the basic building
block from which DRDO can move further up.
DRDO is also in discussions with Boeing to acquire
an aircraft testing wind tunnel, talks for which
are still going on, according to Dr Saraswat.
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