PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU (DEFENCE WING): GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
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REPLY BY DEFENCE MINISTER ON QUESTION ON LCA TEJAS
New Delhi: Agrahayana 23, 1931
December 14, 2009
The proposal on the Kaveri-Snecma engine joint venture for the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas is under consideration of the Government.
Request for Proposal (RFP) for procuring 99 engines have been sent to two short-listed engine manufacturers, namely GE F414 from General Electric Aviation, USA and EJ200 from Eurojet Germany.
The engine houses have responded to the RFP. Both Commercial and technical responses have been received for procurement of 99 engines along with Transfer of Technology.
This information was given by Defence Minister Shri AK Antony in a written reply to Shri Gajanan D Babar and others in Lok Sabha today.
What does 'interest' mean? Mere 'Interest' to me is lack of conviction unless its followed up in letter and in spirit.
ReplyDeleteI always had this question or rather suspicion.
ReplyDeleteAre all the Indian experts in designing and building this LCA aircraft, Kaveri engine over the years still working with their respective organisations (like ADA, DRDO, etc) OR have many of the engineers/experts used the opportunity to improve themselves and their resumes and gone overseas to work with Boeing, Snecma, Western companies for much better pay and perks?
I always had the suspicion because the Russians are always / have always been ready to help with aircraft, engine design but there isn't any key LCA components like Engine developed with the Russians. Hindustan Aircraft HAL has for decades been making Russian designed aircraft and engines I thought it would be easier to acquire Russian technologies than to re-invent the wheel.
Unless, the reason for choosing western technologies over Russian could be self interest of the LCA Engineers, because gaining expertise with Russian technologies won't do much good to LCA engineers resumes, wheir objective is to seek work in Western companies ?
I'm not pointing fingers or anything and hope someone can let me know why no Russian technologies were chosen, when it is as good and has always been readily available.
Anon @ 11:41:
ReplyDeleteAttrition in DRDO and HAL was a huge problem up till a couple of years back. The LCA/Kaveri program received a severe jolt when GE JFWTC arrived in Bangalore! They simply poached almost the entire core team of LCA/Kaveri.
Now as it stands these guys who moved to GE then are manning some top RnD positions in JFWTC. They were instrumental in developing a lot of critical techs for Boeing 787 Dreamliner's engine. One only needs to look at the volume of critical IP coming out of JFWTC in the areas of aircraft engines, SC tech etc. to know what Indian talent is doing there. A large number of these guys have worked for DRDO and later moved on.
Same is the case with other aero majors like Snecma, Safran etc. They managed to get the best of Indian talent when DRDO and MoD were lamenting on the unavailability of trained manpower for working in critical areas.
But things are changing. The sixth pay commission coupled with global recession has proved to be a lifeline for DRDO. The results will definitely show some 5-10 years from now.
No point crying over spilled milk! We as a nation have come a long way. Progress in our country is slow but assured!