India and France have entered into a landmark strategic partnership to co-develop a next-generation fighter jet engine with full transfer of technology (ToT).

This deal, estimated at over ₹61,000 crore (approximately $7 billion), allows India to own the complete intellectual property rights of a high-powered engine in the 110-130 kN thrust class, critical for powering India's fifth-generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA).

France's aerospace major Safran will provide full technology transfer, including sensitive hot section metallurgy, enabling India to manufacture these engines indigenously and establish a robust aerospace industrial ecosystem.​

This co-development deal is a watershed moment for India's defence indigenisation, addressing the long-standing challenge of mastering jet engine hot section technology, which had eluded projects like the Kaveri engine for over three decades.

Prior to this, India depended on foreign engines, mainly American GE engines for Tejas fighters, posing risks of sanctions or supply disruptions. Now, with full IP ownership and technology transfer, India gains strategic autonomy, removing such vulnerabilities.

Moreover, this establishes a domestic supply chain involving major industrial players like Tata, Godrej, and HAL, positioning India to move from being the world's largest arms importer towards becoming a key aerospace exporter.​

For France, the deal ensures long-term revenue from decades of maintenance, upgrades, and manufacturing partnership with India, which remains a critical and reliable defence customer. Safran solidifies its role as a strategic partner distinct from the US and Russia, gaining preferential access to India’s growing aerospace market, including civil Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) services. The collaboration also enhances the Indo-French defence relationship, reinforcing France as an "all-weather" partner committed to unrestricted technology sharing and cooperation.​

Safran will collaborate closely with DRDO's Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE) and HAL to co-develop a clean-sheet turbofan engine optimised for AMCA’s stealth, supercruise capability, and combat endurance.

Expected to take about a decade, the project includes work on compressors, turbines, and other critical components, with the transfer of advanced metallurgy techniques for turbine blades enduring temperatures above their melting point.

This transfer empowers Indian engineers and industries to escalate technology absorption and innovation, potentially aligning engine prototype readiness with AMCA's projected flight timeline around 2030-2035.​​

This ₹61,000 crore partnership is set to boost India’s aerospace manufacturing capacity domestically, leveraging public and private sector enterprises for an end-to-end supply chain. It exemplifies India’s push towards Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India), as the nation secures long-term defence autonomy by owning critical technologies and intellectual property.

The alliance also reduces dependence on Western suppliers with restrictive end-use clauses and Russian suppliers facing geopolitical and supply chain uncertainties.​​

This historic Indo-French jet engine co-development pact marks a transformative leap for India’s defence aerospace industry, ensuring future strategic freedom, enhancing industrial capabilities, and deepening bilateral cooperation with a trusted global partner.

Challenges In Hot Section Technology Transfer

Transferring hot section technology for jet engines, particularly turbine blades enduring temperatures exceeding 1,700°C, presents profound engineering hurdles due to extreme thermal, mechanical, and chemical stresses. These components demand nickel-based superalloys processed via single crystal casting, directional solidification, and advanced coatings to resist melting, creep, and oxidation beyond material melting points. India's past struggles with the Kaveri engine underscore the difficulty in replicating proprietary French expertise from Safran without decades of iterative R&D.​

Metallurgical Complexity

Mastering single crystal blade metallurgy requires precise control over alloy chemistry, vacuum melting, and crystal growth to eliminate grain boundaries that initiate cracks under centrifugal loads up to 15,000 RPM. Safran's transfer must impart know-how for superalloys like those in MCrAlY coatings, where mismatches in thermal expansion cause delamination during cycling. Indian facilities lack scaled production of these brittle, high-purity materials, risking defects like topologically closed packed phases that degrade ductility.​

Cooling System Precision

Hot sections rely on intricate internal cooling—convection, impingement, and film cooling—using 1-3% compressor bleed air through serpentine channels and micro-perforations to sustain blades 200-300°C below gas path temperatures. Transferring design validation demands high-fidelity CFD simulations and rig testing to optimise blowing ratios without efficiency penalties or "lift-off" where coolant detaches. GTRE must build ecosystem for porous TBCs like Yttria-Stabilised Zirconia, prone to sintering and spallation under oxidation.​

Manufacturing And Process Barriers

Investment casting for single crystal blades involves withdrawal rates in crystal selectors under vacuum, a guarded process historically withheld from India in prior Safran deals. Forging turbine discs and EDM for cooling holes require sub-micron tolerances, with inspection via ultrasonics revealing flaws invisible to standard methods. Scaling additive manufacturing for complex geometries faces powder purity issues for nickel superalloys, delaying prototypes by years.​

Testing And Validation Demands

Endurance requires 10,000+ hours of real-time testing simulating missions—high-cycle fatigue, creep rupture, and bird strikes—at facilities like GTRE's high-altitude rigs. Transfer includes proprietary life prediction models accounting for HCF from vibrations and hot corrosion from ingested contaminants. Certification hurdles via CEMILAC demand OEM-level data, with barriers in designer acceptance for retrofits or novel alloys.​

Supply Chain And Ecosystem Gaps

India imports critical precursors like cobalt (74% from Congo) and titanium sponge (China-dominated), hindering alloy consistency for hot sections. Building Tier-1 suppliers like HAL for blisk integration lags behind Safran's ecosystem, with workforce upskilling needed for non-destructive evaluation. Full ToT risks IP leakage concerns, prolonging negotiations despite recent approvals.

IDN (With Agency Inputs)