Amid Modi’s US visit, GE Aerospace and HAL ink pact to co-produce jet engines in India

INTERNATIONAL DESK: The world’s leading aircraft engine maker GE Aerospace on Thursday signed a highly anticipated memorandum of understanding (MoU) with India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in Washington to produce fighter jet engines in the country for the Indian Air Force during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to the US, in a pivotal moment for a sector that is on the cusp of a major transformation.

GE Aerospace’s F414 engines will be co-produced in India to power HAL’s Tejas light combat aircraft Mk2, the US firm announced in Washington calling the development “a major milestone and a key element” in advancing defence cooperation between the two countries.

“The agreement includes the potential joint production of GE Aerospace’s F414 engines in India, and GE Aerospace continues to work with the US government to receive the necessary export authorisation for this. The effort is part of the IAF’s LCA Mk2 program,” the company said in a statement.

The agreement will advance GE Aerospace’s earlier commitment to build 99 engines for IAF as part of the LCA Mk2 programme, the firm said.

The LCA Mk2 will form an important element of IAF’s future air combat capabilities, and its first flight could take place next year, setting the stage for its production and subsequent operational availability around 2028 to replace the Mirage 2000s and Jaguars.

The single-engine fighter jet will be the most advanced LCA variant. The government has sanctioned around ₹10,000 crore for the LCA Mk2 programme. The Cabinet Committee on Security, headed by Modi, in August 2022 cleared the much-awaited LCA Mk2 project.

The F414 has evolved from the F404 engine that powers the existing LCA variants.

“This is a historic agreement made possible by our longstanding partnership with India and HAL,” said H Lawrence Culp Jr, GE chairman and GE Aerospace CEO, who was among the US industry leaders who met Modi on Wednesday.

“We are proud to play a role in advancing President Biden and Prime Minister Modi’s vision of closer coordination between the two nations. Our F414 engines are unmatched and will offer important economic and national security benefits for both countries as we help our customers produce the highest quality engines to meet the needs of their military fleet,” he said.

The LCA Mk2 is expected to provide a significant boost to the Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) campaign, one of the government’s foremost priorities. The new fighter jet will cater to the future requirements of IAF, which has already inducted several of the 40 earlier variants of the LCA and ordered 83 newer Mk1A variants.

Apart from the more powerful F414 engine, the LCA Mk2 will come with superior radar capability, better avionics, advanced electronics and will carry a higher weapons payload than the earlier variants.

The engine is the most complex system in an aircraft and can account for almost a third of the total cost of the platform, said Air Marshal Anil Chopra (retd), director general, Centre for Air Power Studies. “If the F414 engine deal involves 100% transfer of technology to India, it will be a big breakthrough for the domestic aerospace sector. We will know the extent of ToT when the fine print is out. Still, it’s a positive development as India needs a large number of F414 engines for its upcoming fighter projects. It’s rare for engine makers to share fighter jet engine technology,” Chopra added.

The LCA Mk2 will come with enhanced survivability, better situational awareness for pilots, improved range, network centric capabilities, integrated avionics, and an ability to quickly switch from one role to another, Indian officials aware of the project said. The new aircraft will have a payload capacity of 6.5 tonne and will be able to carry a mix of weapons including beyond visual range air-to-air missiles, air-to-ground missiles, heavy precision guided weapons and conventional bombs, the officials said.

The 17.5-tonne fighter will have a maximum speed of 1.8 Mach and service ceiling of 50,000 feet.

The US engine maker began working with the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and HAL to support the development of LCA with F404 engines in 1986, three years after the project was approved to gradually replace the Soviet-origin MiG-21 fighters with new warplanes.

Subsequently, GE Aerospace’s F404 and F414 engines have been part of the development and production of aircraft in the LCA series. “In total, 75 F404 engines have been delivered and another 99 are on order for LCA Mk1A. Eight F414 engines have been delivered as part of an ongoing development programme for LCA Mk2,” the statement said.

So far, more than 1,600 F414 engines have been delivered globally. With more than five million flight hours and eight nations with F414-powered aircraft in operation or on order, the F414 continues to exceed goals, it further said.

Of the 123 LCA variants already ordered, 20 each are in the initial operational clearance (IOC) and the more advanced final operational clearance (FOC) configurations. The remaining 83 LCA Mk1A fighter jets will come with additional improvements over the FOC aircraft. The IAF has already inducted most of the earlier 40 LCA variants.

The Mk1A will come with digital radar warning receivers, external self-protection jammer pods, active electronically scanned array radar, advanced beyond-visual-range missiles, and significantly improved maintainability. The LCA Mk2 will be a further development of the Mk1A fighter.

At a later stage, the F414 could also power the indigenous twin-engine deck-based fighter (TEDBF) and the initial variants of the advanced medium combat aircraft (AMCA), the officials said.

The MoU puts the company in a strong position to create a family of products in India, including the F404 engine that currently powers the LCA Mk1 and LCA Mk1A aircraft, and GE Aerospace’s selection for the prototype development, testing and certification of the AMCA programme with the F414-INS6 engine, the US engine maker said.

“In addition, GE will continue to collaborate with Indian government on the AMCA Mk2 engine program,” it added.

The LCA Mk2 is expected to fill the gap between the Mk1A and the homegrown fifth generation AMCA. The IAF’s modernisation map envisages the deployment of around 120 stealth fighters (six squadrons) 2032 onwards.

AMCA is expected to be developed in two phases. The first two squadrons will consist of the Mk1 version of AMCA, and the remaining four squadrons will be raised with a more advanced version with a raft of sixth-generation technologies. Sixth-generation technologies are more advanced than those in any fighter jet currently in service globally.

While the AMCA Mk1 could be equipped with the F414, the Mk2 version will require a more powerful engine, said one of the officials cited above. There is a possibility of equipping AMCA with directed energy weapons, superior anti-missile systems, advanced missile approach warning systems, and teaming it with unmanned systems.

In early June, India and the US announced the conclusion of a new road map for future defence industrial cooperation with the goal of fast-tracking technology cooperation and co-production in critical areas such as air combat and land mobility systems; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; munitions, and the undersea domain, in a renewed push for deepening collaboration in the sector during delegation-level talks between defence minister Rajnath Singh and his American counterpart Lloyd J Austin.

In his meeting with Culp Jr on Wednesday, Modi discussed GE’s greater technology collaboration to promote manufacturing in India. Modi invited GE to play a greater role in aviation and renewable energy sector in the country. The PM also held talks with Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra and Applied Materials president Gary E Dickerson. (HT)