India to say 'No' to American GE engine offer : India France engine talks in advanced phase

Source : IgMp Bureau

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According to latest reports, the talks between the DRDO and French firm Safran have progressed considerably and are currently in final stages to sign an agreement for the joint development of a 110 kilonewton engine and there is hardly any chance for the American firm General Electric to make a late entry which had refused to transfer core technology in 2019 and was also not ready to incorporate the DRDO developed technology in the new proposed engine and offered only a local license manufacturing contract similar to the AL-31F engine deal that India has with Russia for Sukhoi Su-30, where the entire supply chain from spares and components would remain with General Electric with no scope of India carrying out any improvements or upgrades.

The new Indo-French engine will not be based on the Snecma engine but will share some technology initially but later variants will have much more improve components the Indo-French engine will have smaller dimensions as compared to American F-414 engine so that it can be equipped on the Tejas Mk 2 at a later stage without any modification to the airframe.