India’s fighter ambitions have long been judged by the aircraft on the runway. Yet the more consequential contest is happening inside the engine bay.

The TEJAS MK-2 is designed to fly on the General Electric F414-INS6, a 98 kN-class engine that represents a major leap over the F404 powering earlier TEJAS variants. But the agreement to make that engine in India remains unfinished. And that uncertainty has forced India to develop something more ambitious: a 120 kN indigenous fighter engine.

A senior Defence Research and Development Organisation official has said the indigenous 120 kilonewton-class engine, proposed for the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft, could also power the TEJAS MK-2.

That includes possible use in future mid-life upgrades of the fighter. In other words, the TEJAS MK-2 may not be permanently tied to an imported powerplant.

The central issue is not whether India can buy engines. It can. The issue is whether India can design, build, test, upgrade and sustain them without external permission.

A fighter aircraft can be purchased from another country. A modern military jet engine almost never is.

It is widely regarded as the single hardest technology in aviation. It combines extreme heat, enormous rotational stress, precision metallurgy, advanced cooling, digital control and years of validated testing. No supplier fully transfers that capability. Even generous industrial partnerships usually stop short of complete design authority and intellectual property.

This is why the engine matters more than the airframe. Master it, and India is never again told what it may or may not fly. The proposed F414 arrangement between General Electric Aerospace and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited has been under negotiation for more than three years.

The two sides signed a memorandum of understanding in June 2023 during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to Washington. That agreement envisaged the potential co-production of F414 engines in India for the TEJAS MK-2.

The United States completed the required congressional notification process in late August 2023, clearing the way for detailed technical and commercial discussions.

India’s Ministry of Defence has sought the transfer of about 80 per cent of the relevant technology. General Electric and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited are still working to convert that requirement into a workable agreement.

The difficulty is not simply the quantity of technology transferred. It is the quality and depth of that transfer.

Manufacturing know-how, assembly methods and overhaul capability are valuable. But they are not the same as access to an engine’s core intellectual property. Nor are they the same as design authority, the ability to modify the engine, or the freedom to upgrade it independently in future.

India wants more than the ability to assemble a foreign engine. It wants the industrial and technical foundation to control its own fighter-engine future.

The F414 is central to more than one Indian platform.

It is intended to power the TEJAS MK-2, the heavier and more capable successor to the TEJAS MK-1A now in service with the Indian Air Force.

It is also the planned interim powerplant for the fifth-generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft.

Separate but related discussions cover an initial requirement of around 14 to 15 engines for AMCA prototypes and limited-series production aircraft.

The Twin Engine Deck Based Fighter is another future naval combat aircraft whose engine requirements are being pursued separately. There is reportedly no single agreement covering the TEJAS MK-2, AMCA and TEDBF engine needs.

That fragmentation adds risk. It also underlines why India needs a common, sovereign high-thrust engine base. If the F414 co-production agreement goes through, it would provide a reliable route to serial production.

It would also give Hindustan Aeronautics Limited experience in manufacturing, assembly, testing and support of a modern high-performance fighter engine. Reports indicate that technical discussions between General Electric and HAL have made substantial progress.

The proposed program involves the local manufacture of 99 F414 engines in the first tranche. India’s Air Force is expected to require between 120 and 130 TEJAS MK-2 fighters. The F414 would therefore remain the practical near-term solution for the aircraft’s initial production and operational introduction.

But India is not waiting passively for that outcome.

The Gas Turbine Research Establishment, part of the Defence Research and Development Organisation, has moved to strengthen India’s native engine industry.

It has issued an Expression of Interest to identify an Indian industrial partner for an Indigenous Advanced High Thrust Class Aero Engine.

The document seeks a Development-cum-Production Partner capable of handling aero-engine integration and precision manufacturing.

The submission deadline was March 26, with bids scheduled to be opened the following day. The initiative is a deliberate effort to create a domestic industrial base for high-thrust fighter engines. It is not merely a research exercise. It is an attempt to build the manufacturing ecosystem required to produce engines at scale.

The DRDO official has made clear that a contingency plan is already being developed. If the agreement for local production of the F414 does not proceed, General Electric-supplied engines would still be used for TEJAS MK-2 prototypes.

They could also power the first production batches of the aircraft.

This ensures that the TEJAS MK-2 program is not held hostage to a single unresolved negotiation. The aircraft’s design also permits a later switch to the indigenous 120 kN-class engine once it becomes available.

That change could be aligned with a mid-life upgrade.

Such a replacement would give the TEJAS MK-2 a further boost in performance during its service life. A 120 kN engine would provide substantially more thrust than the F414. That additional power could improve acceleration, payload carriage, energy retention in combat and growth potential for future variants.

It could also reduce dependence on imported engines across India’s fighter fleet.

The indigenous engine is being developed primarily for the AMCA, India’s planned fifth-generation stealth fighter. But its potential use in the TEJAS MK-2 transforms its strategic importance. It would no longer be only the powerplant for a future stealth aircraft. It would become a national backup option for India’s broader fighter-engine requirements.

That backup is intended to protect India against stalled negotiations, supply disruptions and shifts in the geopolitical environment.

The lesson from decades of Indian aerospace development is clear. India can design capable aircraft. The harder challenge has been providing them with engines designed, produced and controlled at home. The Kaveri engine program demonstrated both the difficulty and the necessity of this effort.

Despite years of development, the Kaveri did not reach the performance and reliability standards required to power the Tejas in operational service. But it gave India invaluable experience in engine design, testing, materials and systems integration. The new 120 kN program represents a more mature and better-resourced attempt to close that gap.

It also comes at a time when India has greater industrial capacity, deeper private-sector participation and stronger international partnerships.

The coming months may prove decisive.

The selection of GTRE’s Indian development-cum-production partner will progress alongside continuing talks between General Electric and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

If the F414 deal is finalised, it will serve as a crucial stepping stone to serial production and industrial learning. If it fails, the domestically developed 120 kN engine is being positioned as a future replacement rather than a distant aspiration.

Either way, India’s objective remains the same.

It wants an air force whose combat power is not dependent on another country’s export approvals, pricing decisions or strategic calculations. The TEJAS MK-2 may be the aircraft that carries India’s next-generation air combat capability.

But the 120 kN engine could be the technology that gives India lasting control over it. By achieving self-reliance in this critical domain, a country ensures complete operational independence, breaking free from foreign restrictions and permanently securing the autonomy of its defence fleet.

Agencies