AMCA Approval Notwithstanding, India Still Does Not Have Its Own Jet Engine

While the approval of funds for the development of India's fifth-generation fighter jet, the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), is now complete, marking a significant event in its aerospace ecosystem, India still does not have an indigenous jet engine.

The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) last week (7 March) approved funds worth Rs 15,000 crore for manufacturing, testing, and certifying five prototypes of the AMCA in the next five years — a very ambitious timeline, at that.

The entire project will be spread out in two phases.

In the first phase, close to 40 jets (or two squadrons) of AMCA Mk-1s powered by an American GE F-414 engine will be inducted into the Indian Air Force (IAF) by the early 2030s.

The second phase involves inducting 150 more advanced AMCA Mk-2 which will be powered by new high-thrust jet engines and will come with next-generation cutting-edge technologies.

India plans to make this next-generation engine with a foreign company that has prior experience in making jet engines.

AMCA Mk-2 will be a 5.5 generation fighter with the full assortment of thrust vector control (TVC), supercruise (reaching supersonic speeds without engaging afterburners), advanced radars and sensors with electronic warfare (EW), data fusion, enhanced situational awareness (SA), optionally controlled (both with and without a pilot), controlling loyal wingmen, and manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) operations capabilities.

The much-delayed approval of the funds will go a long way towards quickly making a world-class 'Made-in-India' 5th generation jet a reality.

However, notwithstanding this approval, these funds do not address a critical gap in India's defence ecosystem's efforts — designing high-thrust low-bypass jet engines — something which has remained an Achilles' heel of India's Atmanirbhar Bharat efforts.

The new high-thrust engine will be critical to make the aforementioned new-generation technologies for AMCA Mk-2 work owing to the high thrust and electrical power requirement of these technologies, which the stopgap American GE F-414 engine for the AMCA Mk-1 simply cannot match.

India has also been working on jet engines for quite a while now.

For more than three and a half decades, India has been trying to come up with an indigenous low-bypass jet engine but has failed.

Started in 1986, the Kaveri jet engine programme led by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) lab Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE), with which India was planning to power the Tejas fighter jet, failed to live up to expectations owing to various technological, budget, and infrastructure issues.

GTRE has been working on the Kaveri programme with one hand tied behind its back, making do with insufficient funds, support, and lack of critical testing infrastructure apart from the adverse effect of sanctions from the United States imposed on India after the Pokhran nuclear bomb tests in 1998.

The situation is so bad that even for testing, the engine has to be flown to Russia at the Gromov Flight Research Institute.

The prototype Kaveri engine was only able to produce 80KN sustained thrust against the requirement of 90KN (insufficient to power Tejas), was overweight, following which it was delinked from the Tejas programme and American GE F-404 was selected to power it.

Although the Kaveri prototype was unable to match the requirements, its dry variant showed some potential and will power Ghatak — India's flying-wing stealth unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV).

As for the GE F-414, the engine that will power the AMCA Mk-1, and Tejas Mk-2 (a newer, heavier, and more capable version of the original Tejas fighter), the Indian government is negotiating with the US to manufacture these engines in India with more than 80 per cent transfer of technology (ToT).

This collaboration will help India get its hands on advanced manufacturing technologies, the likes of which the US has not even shared with its treaty allies.

However, that deal will likely only be signed after the results of the Indian and US elections are announced.

Not to mention, going with the American engine also comes with its risks, with a majority of India's indigenous fighter jet fleet (Tejas Mk-1, Mk-1A, Mk-2, AMCA, and Navy's TEDBF) all dependent on American benevolence, which flip-flops on the whims and fancies and ideological leaning of the government of the day.

Anyway, the GE F-414 is only going to be a stopgap engine until the new high-thrust engine comes up.

To this regard, India has been talking with France and Britain to design engines that have a thrust rating of close to 110KN (and 20 per cent growth potential) with 100 per cent ToT, and both partners owning the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) of the engine together.

This new engine will be essential to allow the AMCA Mk-2 to supercruise, an essential criterion for the jet to be regarded as a fifth-generation fighter.

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited France in July 2023, it was stated that a roadmap would be announced by the end of 2023 for joint collaboration on the new jet engine.

But, as is usual with the workings of India's Defence Ministry (MoD), when that roadmap will be announced is anybody's guess.

There has been no visible forward movement in the programme, at least not in the public domain, with the MoD and DRDO still holding talks with both Britain and France.

This is despite knowing fully well that developing a new clean-sheet high-thrust engine takes well over a decade of concerted efforts, and billions in investment.

Moreover, the lack of testing facilities, specifically a flying testbed (FTB), is another handicap in the development of the engine. Flying testbeds are aircraft on which an experimental test engine can be mounted, tested, and certified in a safe manner.

It is for this reason that GTRE has to take the Kaveri engine prototype to Russia, mount it on an IL-76 FTB, and fly it — the latest being in February 2023.

Acquiring an FTB has been a long-pending demand of DRDO that has repeatedly fallen on deaf ears within the MoD.

With India's primary adversary, China, now fielding 5th generation J-20 fighters in triple digits and the chances of Pakistan acquiring the Chinese FC-31 or the Turkish KAAN very high in the next decade or so, it is imperative that India gets its act together and takes concrete actions, starting with deciding the partner — whether Safran (of France) or Rolls Royce (of Britain) — following it up by approving a flying testbed and other testing infrastructure.

India's dream of becoming truly independent in the aerospace domain rests on how quickly decisions will be made. Until then, India has to make do without an indigenous jet engine.

Also Read: ‘Yes, We Can’ — This Indian Aerospace Startup Is On A Mission to Build India's Own Jet Engine

Fifth-Generation Fighters: South Korea And Turkey On Front Foot, India Still Missing In Action