SOURCE: AFI
India’s strategic defense community is expressing caution regarding the recent French offer to co-develop an engine for the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) program. This skepticism stems from past experiences with French aerospace giant Safran, previously known as Snecma, in a collaboration that proved largely unproductive.
In the late 2010s, India embarked on a journey to upgrade its indigenous Kaveri engine through a partnership with Snecma. The aim was to enhance the engine’s performance, particularly for use in the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA). However, after four years of discussions, the collaboration was mired in challenges, primarily due to Snecma’s reluctance to share pivotal technologies.
like that of the Single Crystal Blades an Essential for withstanding the extreme temperatures within jet engines, these blades are critical for engine efficiency and longevity. High-Temperature Materials an Specifically, materials needed for the combustion chamber, which must endure temperatures that can exceed 1,400 degrees Kelvin to generate the thrust required for modern fighter jets.
This reluctance was seen as a strategy to wait until India independently mastered these technologies, thereby reducing the technological advantage Safran could gain from the partnership. The AMCA, India’s ambitious fifth-generation fighter jet project, requires an engine that can produce between 110-120 kN of thrust, pushing the boundaries of engine technology in terms of both power and material resilience. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has already made significant strides in material science, particularly with nickel alloys capable of withstanding temperatures of 1,400-1,500 degrees Kelvin, which are crucial for the ‘hot end’ of jet engines.
Given this backdrop, the French proposal to co-develop a new engine for the AMCA raises several concerns. The history with Snecma has left Indian defense strategists wary of becoming overly reliant on foreign tech for critical defense projects, potentially compromising India’s long-term self-reliance goals.
While the offer from Safran to co-develop the AMCA engine could potentially accelerate the project, leveraging French expertise in jet engine technology, India must approach with caution