India expects $7.4 billion spending on fighter jet engines over next decade

NEW DELHI: India expects to spend about 654 billion rupees ($7.44 billion) to buy engines for fighter aircraft that are under development until 2035, according to estimates shared on Friday by a defence official who leads the efforts to build a home-grown engine.

The country will require about 1,100 engines for a variety of fighter jet programmes that are progressing through various stages, said S. V. Ramana Murthy, director of India’s Gas Turbine Research Establishment, a state-run defence laboratory.

India’s decades-old programme to power its light combat Tejas jets with home-grown Kaveri engine has yet to take off due to technical shortcomings.

“There is a need to work on mission mode to create an ecosystem for indigenous fighter engine,” Murthy said at an event in New Delhi, adding that the country needed infrastructure such as a high-altitude testing facility, along with an industrial base.

He also said that a derivative of the Kaveri engine can be used for a home-grown unmanned combat aerial vehicle.

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Murthy is heading the efforts to co-develop an engine with an international partner to power India’s first 5th generation stealth fighter aircraft, for which France’s Safran, Britain’s Rolls-Royce and U.S. General Electric have shown interest.

A prototype of the fighter, known as the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft, is expected to roll out in 2028, Indian officials have previously said.

It is the first fighter aircraft for which bids would also be open to private firms, the government has said, in order to reduce pressure on Indian state-owned warplane maker Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd which makes most of India’s military aircraft.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has sought to boost India’s manufacturing capacity for defence equipment and invited weapon makers to set up units by partnering with Indian firms.