NEWS

At the inauguration of the Defence Avionics Research and Establishment in Bangalore on June 14, India’s Defence Minister A.K. Antony said India is in the process of scouting for a partner to develop higher-thrust engine for its ambitious Light Combat Aircraft (LCA). The LCA will be a reality. For higher-thrust engine, we must have a new engine. We are looking for a partner to develop this, he told reporters after inaugurating the establishment’s new campus. The Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) are working jointly towards this, he said. The IAF has already placed an order for 20 LCA, another order for 20 more is in the pipeline, Antony said, stressing on the need to develop indigenous technologies to counter challenges posed by import restrictions and technology transfers.

VIEWS

The Defence Minister’s June 14 pronouncement is significant on two counts. First, the reference to a higher thrust engine, and second, the collaboration between the DRDO and the IAF in the matter—a clear allusion to the Kaveri engine being developed indigenously by the Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE). To jog memories, the Kaveri programme was conceived in tandem with the LCA programme in the early 1980s for India to produce its own state-of-the-art light jet fighter which would be powered by its own state-of-the-art jet engine.

Kaveri has been designed as a low-bypass-ratio afterburning turbofan engine featuring a sixstage low-pressure (LP) compressor with transonic blading, annular combustion chamber, and cooled single-stage High Pressure and Low Pressure turbines. The core turbojet engine of the Kaveri is the Kabini, (a tributary of the Kaveri River). The general arrangement of the Kaveri is very similar to contemporary engines for combat aircraft, such as the Eurojet EJ200 that powers the Eurofighter Typhoon, SNECMA M88 developed for the French Rafale, General Electric F414 fitted on the F/A-18 Super Hornet and the Pratt & Whitney F119 fitted on the US Fifth Generation fighter F-22, the Raptor.