Bangalore, June 19, 2005, Ravi Sharma (The Hindu)

The Defence Research and Development Organisation, whose Gas Turbine Research Establishment is developing the Kaveri engine that will power India's Light Combat Aircraft, is actively considering taking on board a global technical partner who will help co-develop the engine.

A high-power committee — comprising the Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister (who is also the Director-General, DRDO); the Chief Controller (Research and Development), DRDO; and the Director, GTRE, among others — has deliberated the proposal, official sources told The Hindu.

DRDO's reasoning is that a global partner with a proven record in combat aircraft engine development will help accelerate the GTRE's long-delayed Kaveri engine programme that started in the late 1980s. According to officials DRDO and GTRE officials, the global tie-up will certainly be "for the betterment and good of the project."

However, the move has surprised many since the DRDO in the past has repeatedly refused to involve outside agencies to help the GTRE accelerate the development of the engine. It had preferred to leave it to the GTRE, even if it meant not being able to develop the engine in time. Military experts view the decision to now take the global route as admission that the GTRE cannot develop the engine on its own.

Mounting costs

The GTRE has spent Rs. 1,300 crores on the Kaveri engine project. The Cabinet Committee on Security last December revised the estimate for its future development to Rs. 2,800 crores. But the engine is still not ready for high-altitude flight tests, scheduled to be performed in Russia aboard a Tupolev-16 aircraft. It is also miles away from completing the 8,000 hours of testing necessary to complete the engine development phase.

While most military aviation experts are in favour of the GTRE taking a partner since this is undoubtedly the only way forward for the engine programme, they are critical of the delay in taking the decision. They feel there is no harm in signing an agreement with any one of the handful of companies worldwide — Rolls-Royce (Great Britain), Snecma Moteurs (France), CFM International (United States), General Electric (GE, United States) or Pratt and Whitney (United States), NPO "Saturn" and MMPP Salut (the last two from Russia) — that posses the technology to develop combat aircraft engines, just as long they are equal partners in the funding and development and sharing the risks/benefits involved.

Snecma shows interest

The GTRE has been in touch with almost all the global players but the collaborations so far have been restricted to only a review of the Kaveri engine and suggestions. Sources told The Hindu that Snecma had recently written to the Defence Ministry indicating its willingness for a possible tie-up with the GTRE, which will include a risk-sharing, joint development/production relationship on the Kaveri or any other engine that can be developed afresh for the LCA. But Snecma has asked that it be allowed to send a fact-finding team to assess the capability available at the GTRE. It also wanted a production house such as the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited to be part of the collaboration.

Indications are that HAL will be keen on such a collaboration since it will not only give their engine division a substantial amount of work, but also a toe-hold in the aircraft engine developing and manufacturing industry which has so far been the preserve of the United States, Great Britain, France and Russia. Chinese fighter-aircraft engines are more a product of reverse engineering. There have been serious slippages in the development schedules of the twin spool, low bypass ratio turbo fan of the Kaveri engine, causing it to be out of synch with the rest of the LCA programme (which itself is behind schedule).

According to a report tabled in Parliament by the Standing Committee on Defence in April, the Kaveri engine will be installed on the LCA only by 2012 (the LCA is expected to enter squadron service in 2007) and that too at a revised cost of Rs. 2,839 crores, almost eight times the 1989 initial projected development cost of Rs. 382 crores. Noting the delay in trials and tests of the development of the country's first aero-engine, the report said there were still question marks over the completion of the engine and its financial viability in comparison to other fighter engines in the world market.

Senior GTRE scientists attribute the delay to the integration of 16,000 components, as in the case of the Kaveri engine, in the propulsion system, the most complex part of a fighter aircraft. "When the GTRE hasn't even developed a high-powered diesel engine, how can you expect us to deliver overnight?"

But scientists admit that if the engine was not produced by 2006, it would result in serious questions being asked over the continuation of the programme itself. The engine is at present undergoing endurance phase tests.

The two LCA technical demonstrators and lone prototype are now powered by GE F404 F2J3 engines. With the Aeronautical Development Agency being asked by the Indian Air Force to make 40 aircraft, India has had to order an additional 57 GE-404 IN20 engines, deliveries of which at the earliest could take a year.