The Background: India's Engine Problem
India designs its own fighter jets — the Tejas LCA and the upcoming Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) — but has never produced the engines that power them. The Tejas flies on GE F404 engines. Its upgraded Mark 2 variant will use the more powerful GE F414. This dependency on foreign engines is not just a supply chain risk — it's a strategic vulnerability. Engine technology is the most closely guarded secret in aerospace. The United States, Russia, France, and China are the only countries that have independently developed and produced high-thrust military turbofan engines. India's previous attempt — the Kaveri engine program, also led by GTRE — provided valuable experience in gas turbine engineering but fell short of the performance requirements for a frontline combat aircraft. The lessons from Kaveri, however, are now being channeled into the Advanced High Thrust Class Aero Engine (AHTCE) program.
What the EOI Covers
GTRE — the Gas Turbine Research Establishment, a DRDO lab based in Bengaluru — issued Expression of Interest number GTRE/AHTCE/EOI/01/25-26 seeking a Development-cum-Production Partner for the 120 kN class turbofan engine. The EOI closed on March 26, 2026, with offers opened on March 27. The partner's scope is massive: production engineering and manufacturing of approximately 2,500 individual components across 11 sub-systems, 34 assemblies, and 125 sub-assemblies. The partner will also handle final assembly, integration, quality assurance, and certification support. GTRE retains overall design authority — this is not a joint venture where the partner brings their own engine design. GTRE designs the engine; the partner builds it.
Engine Specifications and Timeline
The AHTCE is a 120 kN class turbofan engine with a capability range of 110–130 kN — putting it in the same thrust class as the GE F414 (98 kN) and the Eurojet EJ200 (90 kN), but with higher thrust targets. The primary application is the AMCA, India's fifth-generation stealth fighter currently under development by HAL and ADA. Secondary applications include unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) and other advanced platforms. The development roadmap spans approximately 10–12 years. Around 18 test engines will be produced during the initial 10-year development phase, with the first prototype engine firing targeted for approximately 2030. Series production will cover up to 200 engines — enough to power India's planned AMCA fleet.
What the Partner Needs to Bring
The financial bar is high. Prospective partners must demonstrate a minimum consolidated annual turnover of ₹1,500 crore (approximately $180 million) and a minimum net worth of ₹1,500 crore. This effectively limits the field to India's largest industrial and defense manufacturing companies — firms like Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Bharat Forge, Larsen & Toubro, Godrej Aerospace, or potentially a consortium of mid-tier aerospace manufacturers. The partner must bring production engineering expertise, advanced manufacturing capabilities (including precision forging, casting, and machining for turbine blades and compressor components), and the quality management systems required for aerospace-grade certification.
The Safran Factor
Running parallel to the domestic partner search, India has been in discussions with France's Safran — one of the world's leading aero-engine manufacturers — for co-development and technology transfer in the 120 kN class. The Safran collaboration would accelerate the program by providing access to proven turbine blade metallurgy, high-pressure compressor design, and full-authority digital engine control (FADEC) systems. The balance India is trying to strike is delicate: accelerate development through international collaboration while progressively increasing indigenous content and maintaining sovereign control over the engine's design and production. This is fundamentally different from simply buying an engine off the shelf — India wants to own the technology, not just the product.
TSS's Perspective
At TSS, we see the AHTCE program as one of the most consequential engineering projects in India's defense history. Aero-engine development is often called the 'crown jewel' of aerospace engineering — it combines extreme materials science, precision manufacturing, computational fluid dynamics, and systems integration at a level that very few organizations on Earth can achieve. The program's structure — GTRE as design authority with an industrial production partner and international technology collaboration — is a model that could be applied to other critical defense technologies where India needs to build indigenous capability while maintaining global competitiveness. This is exactly the kind of ambitious, systems-level engineering challenge that TSS was founded to champion.
The engine that powers a fighter jet defines a nation's sovereignty in the sky.