India’s indigenous Kaveri Derivative Engine has reportedly completed high-altitude and in-flight trials in Russia, marking a significant step toward powering the proposed Ghatak stealth Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV). This was reported earlier as breaking news by IDN.

Developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation’s Gas Turbine Research Establishment in Bangalore, the non-afterburning engine achieved a peak dry thrust of 48.5 kilonewtons during the Russian test campaign. This exceeded the 46 kN performance target set for the UCAV application.

The tests were undertaken at Russia’s Central Institute of Aviation Motors and the Gromov Flight Research Institute. They assessed engine operation under demanding altitude, speed, ambient-pressure and thrust conditions.

Reports indicate that flight evaluation involved an Ilyushin Il-76 flying test-bed fitted with the Kaveri engine in place of one of its standard powerplants. Such trials are intended to establish the engine’s behaviour in actual airborne conditions before airworthiness certification and integration on its intended platform.

The engine is a dry, or non-afterburning, version of the original Kaveri turbofan. An afterburner provides a short-duration thrust boost at the cost of substantially higher fuel consumption; its removal makes the derivative engine more suitable for an unmanned platform such as Ghatak, where endurance, fuel efficiency and internal airframe integration are important.

The original Kaveri program began in the late 1980s to provide an indigenous engine for the Light Combat Aircraft Tejas. It was not selected for the production Tejas fleet after it fell short of the required thrust-to-weight and weight parameters for that fighter requirement.

The Kaveri derivative has instead been tailored for the Ghatak UCAV, a planned jet-powered, tailless flying-wing combat aircraft intended to combine deep-strike capability with reduced radar observability.

CEMILAC, the Bangalore-based Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification, is expected to examine the Russian trial data before granting the necessary airworthiness clearance. Certification will be followed by engine-airframe integration and flight trials of the Ghatak system.

The reported achievement does not mean immediate operational induction. The engine must still complete certification, platform integration and UCAV flight testing, including testing undertaken with Indian Air Force support. A defence source quoted in the report projected induction in roughly two to three years, subject to these stages being completed successfully.

Ghatak is designed around a flying-wing layout, with curved intake ducts and a shaped exhaust arrangement intended to reduce radar signature. Its extensive use of carbon-fibre prepreg composite material is intended to save structural weight while contributing to low-observable characteristics.

The UCAV is expected to carry missiles, bombs and precision-guided weapons internally, avoiding external stores that would compromise its radar signature. Its prospective roles include penetrating defended airspace, striking command-and-control nodes and radar sites, supporting suppression of enemy air defences, and potentially operating alongside future manned platforms such as TEJAS and the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft.

If the reported Russian trials and subsequent Indian certification are confirmed through the full integration process, Kaveri’s transition from the Tejas requirement to the Ghatak program would represent a significant indigenous aero-engine milestone.

It would also provide India with a domestically developed powerplant option for future high-performance unmanned combat aircraft.

Agencies