2024-03-24 05:40:04
Moscow: It is finding it challenging for India to develop engines to power indigenous fighter aircraft. However, following an agreement with Russia, India will soon start manufacturing RD-33 engines. This engine will power the MiG-29 fleet of the Indian Air Force. This will increase the operational life of MiG-29 fighter planes. A variant of the RD-33 engine powers Pakistan’s JF-17 Thunder fighter aircraft. JF-17 is jointly developed by Pakistan Aeronautical Complex and Chengdu Aircraft Corporation of China. JF-17 is a light, multi-role and single engine fighter aircraft.
HAL gets contract worth Rs 5,249.72 crore
On 1 March, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) received a ₹5,249.72 crore ($650M) contract from the Defense Ministry to manufacture RD-33 engines. “These aero engines will be produced by HAL’s Koraput division,” the Indian Defense Ministry said in a statement. These aero engines are expected to meet the requirement of the Indian Air Force (IAF) to maintain the operational capability of the MiG-29 fleet. The engines will be produced in India under transfer of technology (TOT) license from Russian original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
India’s MiG-29 will get strength
The statement said the program will focus on indigenization of several high-value critical components, which will help in increasing indigenous content in future repair and overhaul (ROH) of RD-33 aero-engines. HAL has won a contract to manufacture over 100 Klimov RD-33 engines for the Indian Air Force’s Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29 fighter aircraft. Earlier, HAL was only assembling these engines. India-Russia cooperation in the field of aircraft engines has a long history and is growing steadily.
It is still difficult to make indigenous jet engines
During the last Defense Expo in Gandhi Nagar, Gujarat, HAL had said that developing indigenous aero engines is challenging because of lack of technical know-how in India. He said the private sector does not have the capacity required to do this. The lack of capacity is shocking as HAL has decades of experience in manufacturing and maintaining hundreds of engines for all types of Indian military aircraft.