New Delhi: India has decided to join hands with France under a government to government deal to jointly design and manufacture a new 120 KN engine for the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft that New Delhi is aspiring for by 2035.
“Today, we have also taken steps forward in the direction of building Fifth Generation fighter aircraft. We have also moved towards manufacturing the aircraft’s engine in India itself.
“We are about to start engine manufacturing work in India with the French company Safran,” Defence Minister Rajnath Singh posted on X.
The engine programme is part of the Horizon 2047 document for the India-France strategic partnership. Incidentally, 2026 is to be celebrated as an year of innovation by India and France.
Sources in the defence and security establishment said that while talks have been ongoing between India and France over this issue, New Delhi has now decided to go in with Safran, which was the frontrunner to bag the contract, as reported by ThePrint multiple times before.
The other contenders for the project was Rolls Royce of the UK and GE.
Sources said that formal contract negotiations will start with France for the manufacture of the engine which will turn out 120 KN of power.
The new engine, whose development is set to be completed in 10 years and production to start after that, will power the second tranche of the AMCA. The first set of AMCA will be equipped with the GE 414 engines.
Sources said that French engine manufacturer Safran had actually pitched for the creation of an entire eco-system for manufacture of multiple types of aircraft engines in India
They added that this will be a government to government contract between the two countries and formal contract negotiations will start soon.
Incidentally, Safran is also setting up a new Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility for the Rafale’s M88 engine in Hyderabad. This site will be the first one to maintain M88 modules outside France.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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Hope it won’t end up like the utter flop Kaveri engine.