Rolls-Royce and Safran compete for India's next-generation fighter engine contract

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NEW DELHI — India’s ambitious plan to co-develop an engine with a foreign company for its fifth-generation fighter has set the stage for a contest between British and French aerospace companies seeking to participate in the program.

Rolls-Royce emerged as a serious contender after the British aero-engine maker and Reliance Industries, one of India’s biggest conglomerates, announced their “strategic intent” this month to jointly develop and manufacture an indigenous engine for the stealth fighter program.

The companies also said they will also explore forming a dedicated aerospace gas turbine complex in India.

France’s Safran has separately proposed developing a high-thrust engine with India’s state-run Gas Turbine Research Establishment for the jet known as the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA). The company’s offer is being evaluated by the Cabinet Committee on Security, India’s top government body for major defense approvals.

India seeks role in France’s sixth-generation fighter program

New Delhi’s goal is to end its long-standing dependence on foreign engines, one of the most challenging aspects of its fighter jet programs. Despite decades of efforts, India has not been able to build an engine capable of powering a frontline fighter. As a result, all such fighters built in India rely on foreign-origin engines.

The initial variants of its planned fifth generation fighter are also expected to use the American GE F414 engine.

But for later variants named AMCA Mk-2, India wants a foreign partner willing to co- develop and share the advanced technologies for a high-thrust 120 kN class turbofan engine. Both Rolls Royce and Safran are vying for that program.

Earlier this year, the British company proposed developing the engines in India with full technology transfer and Indian ownership of the intellectual property.

Now under the proposed partnership with Reliance Industries announced on Aug. 14 it is offering to go further by exploring the creation of an aerospace industrial base in India.

A joint statement by the two companies said the proposed gas turbine complex will build Indian capability from engine design to testing, production and support.

“Together, with our existing partnerships and capabilities in India, this marks a major milestone towards building a robust, self-reliant aerospace ecosystem in the country,” Rolls Royce Chief Executive Tufan Erginbilgic said.

Reliance executive director Anant Ambani said the aim was to combine Rolls-Royce’s propulsion expertise with Reliance’s manufacturing and execution capabilities to build the ecosystem. “India’s strategic autonomy requires sovereign capability in critical technologies,” he said.

Safran’s proposal, meanwhile, is already well advanced. The French company has committed to co-developing a new jet engine with India and sharing the technologies required to build and maintain it. Under the proposal, Indian engineers will work on skills considered essential for future propulsion programs.

“It’s a complete transfer of technologies. We along with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) are basically going to develop a new engine together in India. This is unique because no one else has made that offer,” Safran’s chief executive, Olivier Andries, said in an interview to the Economic Times newspaper last November. He said this will include critical hot-section technology and turbine architecture.

With air power becoming increasingly central to modern warfare, the goal for New Delhi is to learn how to build a fighter jet engine and secure access to a critical technology available to only a handful of nations.

“India’s dependence on foreign suppliers represents perhaps the single most technological vulnerability in India’s aerospace ecosystem and developing an indigenous engine is a non-negotiable priority,” retired Air Marshal Anil Khosla, a former vice chief of the Indian Air Force, told Defense News. “As India considers these offers, the question is whether these companies will share the deepest layers of their process knowledge.”