India agrees with France and the USA for the production of jet engines
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited France as a guest of honor between July 13 and 14, and on that occasion very important strategic cooperation agreements were concluded between the two countries.
A surprise announcement was that India and France agreed to cooperate on the development of a high-thrust jet engine for India's Mk-2 Fifth Generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) under development.
The announcement stated, "In the future, India and France will extend their groundbreaking defense cooperation in advanced aviation technologies by supporting the joint development of a fighter aircraft engine."
“Safran and the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) are expected to prepare a roadmap for this jet engine later this year,” the announcement further stated.
This follows another agreement signed with the US just two weeks ago (June 22), for the co-production of General Electric GE F-414 jet engines with up to 80% Transfer of Technology (ToT).
An Indian agreement parallels the one with the USA
The agreement with the US engine manufacturer General Electric concerns an already developed jet engine, namely the GE F-414 INS6 for use in the Tejas Mk-2, 99 of which India ordered in 2010. Among other things, the US has also sold drones to India.
These GE F-414 engines produce a maximum thrust of 98 KN with the agreement to manufacture these engines in India by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
Remarkably, the US government allowed GE to share manufacturing technologies for the first time ever that it had hitherto not shared even with its treaty allies such as the UK, France and Australia.
Technologies include special coatings for corrosion and erosion and thermal barrier for hot end, machining and coating for single crystal turbine blades, guide vanes for nozzles and other hot end parts, powder metallurgy disc machining for turbine, thin wall titanium casing and CMC (Ceramic Matrix Composites) for nozzle.
It also included full technology transfer for blisk machining, friction/inertia welding for fan and afterburner, PMCs (polymer matrix composites) for bypass duct, laser drilling technology for combustor, and bottled shaft boring.
This deal will essentially transfer jet engine manufacturing know-how to HAL.
Instead, the deal with French engine maker Safran will result in the development of an all-new high-thrust jet engine for the AMCA Mk-2.
This engine will be an entirely new class of engine, producing 110 kN thrust compared to 98 kN for the GE F-414.
This high-thrust rating will allow the AMCA Mk-2 to exceed the speed of sound at cruise and without afterburners, which the Tejas Mk-2 will not be able to do.
AMCA mk2
DRDO and Safran will jointly own the intellectual property rights (IPR) for critical technology developed under the project. This will result in a clear division of labor between DRDO and Safran on the design and development of new metallurgical and manufacturing processes for the engine.
A works sharing agreement will be signed between DRDO and Safran and the resulting development cost will be borne by both entities and will involve the transfer of the engine know-how and know-why to India.
The know-how transfer will allow India to develop new engines entirely on its own or to upgrade AMCA engines when required, while the know-how will only transfer the capability to produce the technology.
These two agreements show an Indian military technological realignment: leaving the Russian-Chinese supplies and turning to Western countries, but with Know How transfer agreements that will allow, in the future, the development of autonomous systems. The latest tank, the Arjun, for example uses a German-designed power unit. The transfer of knowledge will also allow Western countries to supply themselves with components at low cost, above all if they have to deal with emergency situations.
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The article India agrees with France and the USA for the production of jet engines comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/lindia-si-accorda-con-francia-e-usa-per-la-produzione-degli-motori-dei-jet/ on Sun, 23 Jul 2023 16:00:52 +0000.