India Jet Engines and Gas Turbines

[Nilgiri]

Kaveri engine approved for inflight testing: A breakthrough in Indian aerospace - ET Manufacturing

The Kaveri engine developed by the Gas Turbine Research Establishment under the Defence Research and Development Organisation has been cleared for inflight testing. This marks a significant milestone in India's aerospace sector with the engine now ready for integration with unmanned aerial...

manufacturing.economictimes.indiatimes.com

 

[hugh]

Kaveri engine approved for inflight testing: A breakthrough in Indian aerospace - ET Manufacturing

The Kaveri engine developed by the Gas Turbine Research Establishment under the Defence Research and Development Organisation has been cleared for inflight testing. This marks a significant milestone in India's aerospace sector with the engine now ready for integration with unmanned aerial...

manufacturing.economictimes.indiatimes.com

Is it reasonable to expect the engines first flight(other than the Russian testbed) within a year?

 

[Nilgiri]

Is it reasonable to expect the engines first flight(other than the Russian testbed) within a year?

Doubtful, this program has been given very low priority for so many years now and its suffered....as seen by this long space of time between the first flying test bed tests with Russians earlier being ~ 10 years etc.

With catch up need (of larger jet engine propulsion ecosystem) and also trying to deploy it (dry version) on the Stealth UAV platform (which will also take some years to complete), it will probably proceed at its leisurely place, dependent on where things stand now with the FTB results whatever those are and the later feedback loop created from afterburner version.

India is unfortunately very red-tape bureaucrat heavy on a number of things and it costs India a lot. There was simply lot more intra-service consensus and impetus w.r.t: space, missiles, radars etc (where production was actually done to learn, iterate and take forward with concrete design freezes where needed) compared to jet propulsion and it shows.

 

[hugh]

India is unfortunately very red-tape bureaucrat heavy on a number of things and it costs India a lot. There was simply lot more intra-service consensus and impetus w.r.t: space, missiles, radars etc (where production was actually done to learn, iterate and take forward with concrete design freezes where needed) compared to jet propulsion and it shows.

I remember, reading online, Indians boasting Modi for his approach towards the country's "neglected" defence industry. I thought he brought some urgency to the indigenous defence programs?

I'm not a fan of Erdogan but he takes this business very seriously. It's either you deliver(and deliver on time) or get sacked. I wouldn't want to venture out of my depth regarding Indian politics or bureaucracy but political will and good execution are vital for any major defence projects, imho.

 

[Nilgiri]

I remember, reading online, Indians boasting Modi for his approach towards the country's "neglected" defence industry. I thought he brought some urgency to the indigenous defence programs?

I'm not a fan of Erdogan but he takes this business very seriously. It's either you deliver(and deliver on time) or get sacked. I wouldn't want to venture out of my depth regarding Indian politics or bureaucracy but political will and good execution are vital for any major defence projects, imho.

Well Kaveri was already separated from its major end-use (Tejas) in 2008 or so as it missed some crucial parameters. This preceded Modi coming to power, there was some impetus from one defence minister he had (w.r.t Tejas, but again Kaveri was already disjointed from it)....but the larger issue is Indian govt fiscal resource strain and way it handles this with bureaucrats it has (who is delegated with prioritisation where).

Once you unlock deterrence levels with nukes + missiles and have the 80s-90s situation where India was facing massive fiscal pressure at low GDP per capita along with internal, regional and international security pressure that needed opex (further constraining what you have for capex especially from statist tax+ public debt+spend which has its own pressure from rest of larger govt)....this just baked in lot of things to begin with at to decision tree forks in the road. Things like jet engines need large amounts of commited capex in the end.

It affects means to an end (objectives wise) approach in various branches of govt and especially defence bureaucracy....when you can do means for sake of means somewhat inductively....the GDP per capita is still very low so there is large fiscal pressure overhang always if you look at Indian govt budget and reluctance for deep reform there (that needs to really come first for that attitude to expand to where statism is much more entrenched w.r.t defence autarky) etc.

 

[dronie]

I remember, reading online, Indians boasting Modi for his approach towards the country's "neglected" defence industry. I thought he brought some urgency to the indigenous defence programs?

I'm not a fan of Erdogan but he takes this business very seriously. It's either you deliver(and deliver on time) or get sacked. I wouldn't want to venture out of my depth regarding Indian politics or bureaucracy but political will and good execution are vital for any major defence projects, imho.

Well simply ask if they will get more votes and political support on building a jet engine or a massive high speed rail network ? His supporters and detractors both like to paint him as some strong man /dictator when all every indian PM has been is part of the buerocracy and having nukes makes you more "secure" in the mind.