Conquering The Last Frontier : Making Of a Jet Engine
By
Colonel Awadhesh Kumar, Veteran Special Forces
Hindustan Fighter 24 was the first Indian developed jet fighter which made its first flight on 17 June 1961. It was also the first jet fighter in entire Asia to go into production and active service. The first jet was handed over to IAF on 01 Apr 1967.
Though envisioned as an interceptor it was primarily used a ground attack roles because due to limitations of its underpowered engine it could never exceed Mach One speed. This limitation was principally due to the engines used, which in turn had been limited by various political and economic factors; multiple attempts to develop improved engines or to source alternative power plants were fruitless. The Marut’s cost and lack of capability in comparison to contemporary aircraft were often criticized. Due to this only 167 fighters were produced and by late 1980s the jet was finally phased out.
Now decades later Like HF24 Marut even Tejas has taken off and this year the second operational squadron will be forming up. Tejas Mk1A will then follow. However Tejas too requires own fully powered indigenous jet engine to make India fully independent in this field. A lot of effort has been put into the Kaveri engine but it has still not come up to the required 110 KN power output and is still languishing at 98 KN.
So now former Defence Research and Development Organisation chief Dr. VK Saraswat, presently a NITI Aayog member has been chosen to head a high-level committee comprising members of GTRE, DRDO, IAF, and HAL. They will suggest how India can create a path for the development of an advanced 110kN thrust class engine required to power India’s first 5th generation AMCA fighter jet and may be even Tejas MK3.
This Committee will shift through all the information it has received from foreign tech providers who are eager to join India to develop a new engine to power the 5th generation AMCA fighter jet. The Committee will finally recommend the options available with India to the Government of India.
IAF has given clearance for the first two squadrons of the AMCA Mk1 be powered by a variant of General Electric GE-F414-INS6 Turbofan Engine the same that will be powering Tejas- Mk2 fighter jet under development.
IAF wants the advanced 110kN thrust class engine for both Mk3 variant of Tejas and the AMCA MK2 and has stressed on clear policy to develop a new engine. DRDO Chief has said that he is ready to involve academia, industry and other defense PSUs to develop this high-thrust engine but is also open to international collaboration.
India has already received offers from several countries. Americas GE has offered its upcoming GE-F414-EPE engine only for license manufactured in India but there will be no transfer of technology for its core due to export control limitations imposed by US Congress.
French Aerospace giant Safran has proposed Joint development of a new engine based on its M88-3 core engine but the French price asked for AMCA specific engine development has become the key issue thus slowing down the talks.
British Multinational Company Rolls Royce has offered to develop a new engine based on their experience working on the Eurojet EJ200 low bypass turbofan engine for the Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet. Since it will not be based directly on Eurojet EJ200, Rolls Royce has offered India considerable work share in the project.
EuroJet Turbo GmbH consortium also has offered India its EJ2x0 engine which is a further development of the Eurojet EJ200 engine with a higher output of around 120 kN. In 2009, Eurojet had entered a bid, in competition with General Electric to supply EJ200 to power the LCA-Tejas Mk2, but narrowly missed it due to price factor as F414 emerged cheaper.
Keeping various factors in mind, we must outright refuse the British offer as they were main player in killing off our Marut Project by refusing to provide the promised Rolls Royce engine. American engine can be considered only if General Electricals are ready to transfer full technology without strings.
Other wise French seems to be our best bet. We need to start haggling on the price and even use the Rafael and Submarine production collaboration as a bait. Also IAF needs a large number of AWACS and Aerial Refuellers and Airbus 330 seems to fit the bill. Also our Civil airliners have a long shopping list and Airbus can be given lots of orders if the French play ball.
While all the above are going on we must not give up on our Kaveri engine. It should start powering our weaponized and recce drones and wherever else we can use it efficiently.
