The ministry has told officials that ongoing talks should be concluded within a month as the matter has been hanging for a while, mainly due to differences on the financing of research and development costs for a new jet engine.
India requires a new 110 kilonewton powered engine for the future class of advanced medium combat aircraft (AMCA) and has been in discussions with France to leverage some of the offsets accruing from the Rafale fighter jet deal towards the project.
In December last year, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has said that France has agreed to make a military engine in India under the strategic partnership model, after talks with his counterpart Florence Parly who was on an India visit.
As reported by ET, a new fighter jet engine complex spearheaded by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is in the works, with advanced discussions with French manufacturer Safran to co develop a 110 kn jet engine.
Being set up as a national mission to achieve critical jet engine technology that few nations across the world possess, initial assessments are that an engine for next generation combat aircraft can be produced within seven years of the project getting sanctioned.
French engine manufacturer Safran has offered a compete technology transfer to develop the engine and use the offset credits from the Rafale deal. Discussions to use part of the 3.5 billion euro offsets commitment for obtaining jet engine technology have been on since 2016.
The talks had hit a deadlock after it emerged in detailed studies that a part of the offsets – just over 250 million Euro – could be utilised for the project while the remaining 500 million euros had to be raised by the government. Efforts are now on to find a way to take the project ahead by reducing the costs.
Engines are part of the most critical systems on fighter jets with few nations able to master the technology. Rough estimates show that for a fleet of 200 Light Combat Aircraft in service, the cost of engines alone would be in excess of 25 billion Euros over the lifecycle of the planes.
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