India, US ink pact on first-ever fighter jet engine tech transfer

In a first-ever military technology transfer between India and the US, a technical agreement has been reached on co-producing a jet engine in India.

Almost 80 per cent of the manufacturing technology and intellectual property rights for making the engine of F-414 jet, owned by US-based General Electric, will be transferred to India.

For India, this will be the first such technology sharing by the US. In the Cold War period (1945-1991), the Soviet Union, and later Russia, had allowed India to make engines from the MiG-series and Sukhoi-30MKI jets.

US major General Electric and Indian public sector aviation company Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) had reached an agreement on 'technical matters' on the engine production, sources confirmed on Monday. This is likely to be followed by the signing of a final contract later this year, they said.

The HAL-GE agreement is for the F-414 aero engine that will power the next-generation Tejas Mark-2, a heavier and potent upgrade over the existing Tejas Mark-1A jet production line. A lowered powered engine the F-404, also manufactured by General Electric, is used for the Tejas Mark-1A.

The US, in June 2023, had agreed on a technology transfer and a joint venture to produce the F-414 aero-engine in collaboration with India. The upcoming Tejas Mark-2 fighter jet has been planned and designed around the specifications of the F-414 engine.

Once production starts, it can stabilise the engine programme for jets needed by the Indian Air Force that is now operating at its lowest fighter squadron strength in decades.

India and the US had inked the Industrial Security Agreement in 2019, followed by a 2021 protocol for the exchange of classified information between the defence industries of both the nations. Last week, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri had an interaction with the US Under Secretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment Mike Duffey in Washington DC.

GE to set up repair facility

US firm General Electric announced that it had signed a contract with the IAF to establish an in-country depot facility for maintenance of F404-IN20 engines that power Tejas

The engine is used in the fleet of 35 Tejas jets in the IAF inventory. It is also a part of upcoming 180 jets of the Tejas Mark-1A