thanks for this article.

cross-posting from BR.

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Bangalore: Nearly 20 years after it promised an indigenous engine to power India’s light combat aircraft Tejas, the Gas Turbine Research Establishment, or GTRE, the country’s sole aero engine design house, is now seeking outside help.

It has chosen French aircraft engine maker Snecma SA to jointly build an engine to replace Kaveri, a project named after the river in southern India. T. Mohana Rao, director of GTRE, a unit of the Defence Research and Development Organisation, explains why it had to choose a partner and talks about the future of the Kaveri programme.
Edited Excerpts:

What is the status of the Kaveri engine development project?

We have a functional engine, but there is a slight shortfall in performance. It has achieved dry thrust of 4,600kg and reheat thrust of 7,000kg in Bangalore, which is around 3,000ft above sea level. So, it would be around 5,000kg dry thrust and 7,500kg reheat thrust at sea level. The engine is short of thrust by 400kg and overweight by around 150kg. Also, we still have to perform long- endurance tests of the engine to run for many hours.

Does this mean the engine for the light combat aircraft would be further delayed?

In aircraft engine development, particularly when you are doing it for the first time, you cannot set a timeline. We could take five or six years. The Indian Air Force (IAF) cannot wait for an engine for that long, and the government said if there is any engine house that we can partner, we could go ahead and do a joint venture on risk-sharing basis.
Only NPO Saturn and Snecma responded of the five. General Electric Co., Rolls-Royce Plc. and Pratt and Whitney declined. Nearly two-and-a-half years after we started the process, we have identified Snecma. The government told us to consult IAF and decide on the air staff requirements before we sign a contract.

Has Snecma given a timeline for the new engine?

Snecma will bring its (engine) core that is named Eco. A core, which comprises a compressor, combustor and high-pressure turbine, is the heart of any jet engine. The engine will have less weight and more reheat thrust along with certain other changes to meet the original design intent. They will have a workshare of 45%, and ours would be 55%. Nearly 85% of the manufacturing would be within the country. The engine would be certified for fitting in the aircraft in around four years. Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd will produce the engine and all future aircraft engines in India would be from the joint venture.

But why so late? Couldn’t you have gone for a global partner much earlier and avoided delays?

It was a decision by the government. When Kaveri was conceived, India did not have a design base for aero engines, except for some work we had done earlier. Globally, they first pick an engine and then build the aircraft. Here, we decided that by the time the light combat aircraft was ready, we should have our own engine. The engine (supplied by General Electric) currently powering the aircraft is inferior to Kaveri’s specifications.
IAF wanted us to build a highly stable engine with a digital computer to control it, and a two-lane manual reversion (a backup for the first time in the world). Rolls-Royce and GE validated our design. Now we have a design base, huge infrastructure and talent pool in engines. We could not have built this if we had not taken up this project.

What will happen to Kaveri and the work you have done?

The core of Kaveri is performing well. Because of the lower thrust, it cannot be used on combat aircraft. It can be used to power unmanned combat aerial vehicles. We have already demonstrated a marine version of Kaveri using diesel as fuel for the Indian navy. It can also be used as a large 12MW industrial genset for power generation.

So, it seems that GE and RR had validated the design earlier, but later on when the problems cropped up, GE declined to help GTRE so that the IAF would be forced to order the GE F-404-IN20 or GE F-414 to replace the Kaveri on all future Tejas fighters.

After showing that kind of attitude, the claims of wanting to help India ring hollow. P&W don’t have a history of any work with the defence sector in India, so its hardly particularly surprising. Rolls Royce declining is also not particularly surprising, since they’re now pitching the Eurojet 200 to replace the Kaveri.

just goes to show that there is nothing like indigenisation. The problem though is that, since the JV is now for sure with Snecma, and the first batch of Tejas fighters will fly with the F-404-IN20, why bother with having EJ200 or F-414s for the interim batch between the first 40 and the latter batches of Tejas Mk.2 with the JV engine? the IAF could end up with Tejas fighters with 3 different engines if that happens.

IAF to soon sign a contract for Mi-17s from Russia

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The Indian Air Force said on Thursday that India will soon sign a contract with Russia to receive 80 Mi-17 Hip-H multirole helicopters. Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major said preparations for signing the contract are now in their final stages. The deal is estimated at $1 billion.

Indian media earlier reported that the contract was under threat over Russia’s attempt to significantly raise the delivery price, and that negotiations were stalling. A preliminary agreement to sell Mi-17 helicopters to India was reached in March 2007 at a meeting of the Russian-Indian intergovernmental commission on military cooperation.

The Mi-17 is a version of the Mi-8 airframe. The helicopter has a takeoff weight of 13 metric tons and can carry up to 36 people or a payload of 4 metric tons within the cargo compartment, or 4.5 tons externally. The helicopters have been supplied to 80 countries.

Has to be the Mirage-2000 and the Rafale for me..those two are the prettiest of all..Jaguars and Mirage-F1s look the most handsome with their hulking stance and big wheels. thats the one aspect that I hate the most among some American fighters..most have spindly looking landing gear (bad on the F-16, but especially bad looking on the F-15, which otherwise is a good looking fighter from some angles).

Among the Russian aircraft, the MiG-29 is hands down the best looking fighter. worst was probably the Flagon.

Among the older jets, it has to be the Hunter..simply stunning lines and curves. a true thoroughbred. 🙂 where the Gnat’s aspect ratio was screwed up, the Hunter’s was just perfect.

another ugly jet is the A-6 Intruder, IMO.

If Boeing give guidence and advise which helps to solve a problem related to the LCA i.e. reduce weight etc because of an idea Boeing provides than even if no equipment flies on the LCA technically boeing IP would be flying in the LCA.

Its standard practise to do this.

US ITR rules are less than humorous though.

thats like saying that since Dassault provides the tools to Boeing for its CAD work, all design work thats been done by multinational engineers at Boeing plants is actually the IP of Dassault and IBM. Boeing is being paid for its services, and after that, it has no rights over the aircraft itself.

Kaveri joint venture

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Bangalore: India’s gas turbine research establishment will partner French company Snecma SA to build engines for Tejas, the country’s light combat aircraft, after efforts by the defence lab to develop an engine on its own faltered.

Snecma, a unit of Safran Group and earlier known as Société Nationale d’Étude et de Construction de Moteurs d’Aviation, which won a race against Russia’s Saturn NPO OAO to co-develop the Tejas engine, would take at least four years to build and certify the engine before it is put in the home-grown fighter. The technology would then be transferred to India’s military aeroplane maker Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, or HAL, to make the engines locally.
“We don’t have the time now for the Kaveri to fully mature. In the co-development with Snecma, our R&D (work) also goes in,” said T. Mohana Rao, director of gas turbine research establishment, or GTRE.

GTRE has spent nearly Rs1,900 crore of the Rs2,800 crore that was sanctioned since an engine project Kaveri, named after the river in southern India, began in 1989.

After nearly two decades of development, Kaveri is overweight by around 150kg and cannot provide sufficient thrust from its core engine, required to power the fighter. A core—compressor, combustor and high-pressure turbine—is the heart of any jet engine. Air is compressed and mixed with fuel to drive turbines and create thrust.
“It would have taken another five to six years or more (for Kaveri) to achieve (the full performance),” said Rao. “We firmed the partner, so IAF need not wait longer.”
GTRE will open the commercial bid of Snecma and freeze the project cost once it finalizes with the Indian Air Force, or IAF, the so-called air staff requirements, which are the standards for the engine. Vincent Chappard, a Snecma spokesman in France, said he could not immediately confirm the development.

Designing jet engines is complex and the technology, restricted. Only a handful of countries and firms such as General Electric Co., United Technologies Corp., Safran Group of France, Russia’s Saturn NPO, and Rolls-Royce Plc. have been able to dominate the market, globally. India, which saw its indigenous fighter HF Marut, built in the 1960s, fail due to lack of a powerful engine that was caused by technology denials from the West, felt a need for a home-grown engine when it began the Tejas fighter programme in the mid-1980s.
The country’s Defence Research and Development Organisation, or DRDO, which anchors both fighter and engine development programmes, chose to fly Tejas with an General Electric engine, as any aircraft under development is flown with an engine that is already proven.
Tejas is a single-engine supersonic fighter with delta wings and no tail, and uses fly-by-wire technology that enables a pilot to control the plane electronically through on-board computers.
Tejas, which in Sanskrit means radiance, flew for the first time in January 2001 and is currently undergoing development trials. Since then, test pilots have flown 912 sorties on nine Tejas aircraft, including a production standard version that reached supersonic speed on its first flight on 16 June.

Now, Snecma will bring in the core called “Eco” for the new engine, and integrate it with systems developed for Kaveri. (used on the M-88 Eco)

Analysts say global firms which denied India the same technology a few years ago, are sharing it now to tap into India’s growing economy, and the country should not hesitate in partnering with them.“At some point of time, we need our own engine. This is a good development,” said Philip Rajkumar, a former head of the light combat aircraft programme and author of The Tejas Story, a book on the aeroplane’s development.

Meanwhile, the Aeronautical Development Agency, the aeroplane design lab of DRDO, has invited General Electric and Eurojet Turbo GmbH, a German engine maker in which Rolls-Royce has a stake, for higher-powered engines that would be modified for the Indian fighter, but has not settled on the vendor. IAF has insisted new planes other than the initial requirement of 48 Tejas fighters should have a higher-powered engine.

US Congress suspends move to upgrade Pakistan fighter fleet

WASHINGTON: The US Congress moved Tuesday to suspend a bid by President George W Bush’s administration to shift millions of dollars in aid to Pakistan from counter-terrorism programmes to upgrading Islamabad’s F-16 fighter jets.

“We have requested a hold on the administration’s planned reprogramming pending additional information,” said a joint statement by Democratic lawmakers Howard Berman and Nita Lowey, who head key panels in the House of Representatives.

“We are concerned that the administration’s proposal to use military assistance to pay for the F-16 upgrades will divert funds from more effective counterterrorism tools like helicopters, TOW missiles, and night-vision goggles,” said Berman, chairman of the House foreign affairs committee, and Lowey, chairwoman of the appropriations subcommittee on foreign programmes.

The White House said last week that it wanted to shift 230 million dollars in aid to Pakistan from counter-terrorism programmes to upgrading Pakistan’s aging F-16 fighter jets.

The move, it said, was aimed at easing fiscal pressures faced by the Pakistani government stemming partly from soaring food and energy costs.

US lawmakers were reportedly angered by the move. They felt that Pakistan did not use its F-16s in support of the campaign against fighters in its remote tribal areas out of a fear that civilian casualties could fuel support for extremists.

US President George W Bush held talks with Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday focused on cooperation to fight Taliban and al-Qaida extremists and easing Pakistan-Afghanistan tensions.

Gilani, whose new government has been facing intense US pressure to crack down on Pakistan-based militants, told reporters after the meeting that Pakistan was committed to fighting extremists.

The package for the F-16 fighters would run about two-thirds of the 300 million dollars that Pakistan will get this year in US aid for military equipment and training, the Times said.

The 2008 fiscal year state and foreign operations bill that passed Congress last December specifically required that military aid to Pakistan be used for counter-terrorism and law enforcement activities directed against al-Qaida and the Taliban, according to lawmakers Berman and Lowey.

The hold requested by the legislature would “provide time for Congress to make a more considered judgment in consultation with the administration and the government of Pakistan,” their statement said.

Requests for a hold by lawmakers are usually abided by the administration, congressional aides said.

Berman and Lowey also said that they were proposing that Congress provide 200 million dollars in economic assistance to Islamabad to relieve some of Pakistan’s budgetary constraints.

“This will help Pakistan set its own spending priorities while preserving US military aid for its intended purpose — counterterrorism activities against al-Qaida and the Taliban.”

“We are committed to helping Pakistan’s new democratic government address the current economic crisis, brought on by rising food and fuel prices, which has impacted its ability to fund its F-16 upgrades,” the lawmakers said.