India evaluating American, French engine offers for indigenous aircraft projects

New Delhi : In a significant step towards indigenising critical warfighting equipment, India is evaluating proposals from American and French firms for its Made in India aircraft including the LCA Mark 2 and the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft.

The evaluation of the proposals from both sides is going on. The key factors for these proposals would be the extent of transfer of technology and pricing, government officials told ANI. The American side is offering the GE-414 engines which have been finalized for the LCA Mark-2 program and given a conditional clearance by the government.

The proposal would depend on the level of transfer of technology to be done by the American firm.

The two sides are already discussing the programme, and the issue may be finalized before the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the US, sources said.

India wants that it should have the most critical technologies from the project, which will allow it to manufacture power plants for its future projects in the long term.

The Safran engine proposal is for the most advanced version of the planned AMCA aircraft with fifth generation technologies.

This project would be a co-development one where India and France would be required to develop a totally new engine with 100 percent transfer of technology.

India and France have been discussing this project for quite some time now. (ANI)