Waching daily Feb 3 2017

GTX-35VS Kaveri is an afterburning turbofan project developed by the Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE), a lab under the DRDO in Bangalore, India. An Indian design, the Kaveri was originally intended to power production models of the HAL Tejas fighter

also known as the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) being built by the Aeronautical Development Agency. However, the Kaveri programme failed to satisfy the necessary technical requirements or keep up with its envisaged timelines and was officially delinked from the Tejas programme in September 2008.

But recently, French defence manufacturer Safran agreed to help revive the Kaveri project and make it combat-worthy in 18 months, 20th December 2016 DRDO Director General for Aeronautics Cluster C P Ramanarayanan confirmed that DRDO and French Snecma have tied up to revive Kaveri Engine as part of the offsets deal for 36 Rafale jet. It is expected that the engine would be integrated and tested in LCA Tejas by 2018.

according to Indian media report, France offered to invest EUR 1 billion to revive India's combat jet engine project, proposing a joint development plan that could see the stalled Kaveri gas turbine powering indigenous Tejas fighters by 2020, Once engine clears few certification and safety related aspects only then, LCA-Tejas will be cleared to make its first flight with indigenously developed Kaveri engine which according to DRDO should happen by 2020.

The Kaveri project has been on the backburner for nearly a decade after GTRE, struggled to reduce its weight and improve its performance needed to power the fighter. So far, the government has spent Rs 2,100 crore on the engine that has tested on ground for over 3,000 hours and around 30 hours on a IL-76 transport plane in Russia. It has a marine variant that the Navy is testing and it is in talks with Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd and the Indian Railways to power rail engines.

Once the engine houses make it a flightworthy engine, we have numerous programmes coming up and there is more than one place for it to be fitted. The question is whether we will be able to fit it into only the LCA or will we be able to get it into the (GE) 414 with the higher power is a point that we are raising," said C P Ramanarayanan, DRDO Director General for Aeronautics cluster said.

The Indian Air Force has ordered for over 120 single engine Tejas fighters powered by a General Electric 404 engine, the powerplant the aircraft first flew in January 2001. So far the Tejas has flown nearly 3,300 sorties, which includes sorties by IAF chief Arup Raha and the air chief of Turkmenistan.

An upgraded Mark-2 aircraft of Tejas is being designed for a more heavier GE-414 engine by 2025, and the DRDO hopes that the upgraded Kaveri would qualify for the plane by then. If not, the Kaveri would power other programmes such as Ghatak, the unmanned combat aircraft vehicle of UCAV, for which studies have begun by the research agency.

"So we have Ghatak in our hand, we have so many other programmes coming up. Anyway we have to have indigenous engine development also. All that we are trying to do is trying to allocate one of the prototype for this and make use of some of the offset for this hand holding if possible," said Ramnarayanan.

India is among the few countries in the world such as Russia, Britain, US and France to have capabilities to build a gas turbine engine. The chief of Aeronautical Development Agency Commodore C D Balaji said that the agency expects around 40 aircraft of the 123 planes ordered by the IAF would be delivered by 2020 and the remaining 83 by 2025. He said the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd is doubling its production of Tejas to 16 from eight.