Can India build a competitive military turbofan engine?

Every one of India's 220-plus HAL Tejas fighters flies on an imported engine. As of 2025, 100% of the operational military turbofan inventory is powered by the American GE F404. In November 2025, India ordered 113 more F404-IN20 engines to cover 97 Tejas Mk1A aircraft — a fresh dependence layered on an old one.

A combat turbofan is among the hardest machines a nation can build. Only five countries — the United States, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and China — design and produce advanced military turbofans at scale. The difficulty is physical: turbine blades must survive gas temperatures above 1700K without deforming, demanding single-crystal blade casting and high-temperature nickel superalloys stable past 1200°C. Every one of those foundational capabilities is still emerging in India.

The Kaveri programme captures the climb. Launched in 1986 by DRDO's Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE) to power the Tejas, it was delinked from the aircraft in September 2008 after missing thrust and reliability targets. Progress since has been real. By June 2024 the engine's weight was cut to 1,180 kg with advances in turbines, compressors and metallurgy. The Kaveri Derivative Engine (KDE) was cleared for inflight testing on a Russian Il-76 testbed in December 2024. Godrej Aerospace, which invested ₹500 crore in a 100-acre facility at Khalapur, delivered the first serial-production unit (D1) in September 2025; a March 2026 GTRE directive shifted deliveries from modules to fully assembled engines from D-3 onward.

On 18 February 2026, a full afterburner test — using a module developed by BrahMos Aerospace — reached 81–83 kN of thrust, the closest the programme has come to the level a Tejas demands. DRDO has restarted the effort as Kaveri 2.0, targeting completion around 2031–32, with flight trials on a Tejas Mk1 airframe planned for 2030.

The gap persists because an engine is only as capable as the materials, controls and test infrastructure beneath it. Certification to military durability, altitude and flame-out standards remains incomplete. High-altitude testing still relies on Russian facilities while a domestic INDIRA testbed is built. FADEC control units exist but await integration certification.

What it would take is now visible in the strategy. A November 2025 Safran–DRDO agreement commits to co-developing a clean-sheet engine for the AMCA, with full technology transfer and 100% Indian IP, prototypes expected around 2029–30. With projected demand exceeding 700 engines over 40 years, the mountain and the reason to climb it are both clear.