LCA engine, 'eye in the sky' top priority

Kaveri, the indigenous engine being developed for India's light combat aircraft (LCA), will not be fully operational for another five to six years, Defence Research Development Organisation's (DRDO) top officials told reporters at the Aero India 2005 show here on Friday.

This also means that the first 40 LCAs that the Indian Air Force will get, starting 2008, will be fitted with the American GE 404 engines.

M Natarajan, scientific advisor to the defence minister and chief executive of the DRDO, said bringing up to speed the development of the Kaveri, and building an airborne early warning and control (AEWC) system will be the "top priorities" of the umbrella organisation he heads.

"We aim to have the Kaveri in limited operational mode by late 2006 or early 2007, but further development of the engine, to full operational capability will be after 2010," Dipankar Banerjee, the DRDO's chief controller of research and development said. "We are confident the Kaveri will succeed and it will power the LCA," he added.

The engine, being developed by Bangalore-headquartered Gas Turbine Research Establishment, was expected to provide better overall performance compared with the American engine, supplied by GE.

"While the thrust of the GE 404 engine reduces with increase in altitude, the Kaveri is designed to have a flat rate... it preserves the thrust despite increase in altitude," Banerjee said.

On the delay in the development of the engine, "There were two kinds of problems, associated with the design and 'manufacturability'... I believe we have overcome both and in two years we will start working with the users (the air force) for military airworthiness of the engine," he said.

DRDO had consulted a wide range of organisations, private and public, including firms such as French propulsion and equipment maker Snecma Group, in developing the engine, he said.

Vincent Gorry, Snecma's head in India, told Business Standard that three group companies "" Hispano Suiza, Snecma Moteurs and Tech Space Aero "" were providing the hydromechanical systems, turbine blades and bearings and seals for the Kaveri engine.

"We are now providing these parts for the development of the engines, but it is possible that the final version of the engine may also use our parts," Gorry said.

The AEWC was being developed with an executive jet for the platform, Natarajan said, and "a completely different type of radar than the previous radome type".

We will use a "phased array radar" said K U Limaye, the director of the Electronics and Radar Development Establishment, which has developed the radars, to be manufactured by Bharat Electronics Limited.

Natarajan refused to confirm that DRDO had entered into a memorandum of understanding with Brazilian aircraft maker Embraer for its executive jet as a potential platform for the AEWC.

"We are in talks with Embraer and others too... we can't audit what statements they give out," he said. In a press statement at Aero India, Embraer officials said they had signed an MoU with DRDO to supply three Emb 145 aircraft as platforms for India's AEWC.

Among the limited number of models of AWACS, as they are more popularly called, available are the Hawkeye by US shipmaker Northrop Grumman and a Russian make that uses the Ilushin aircraft as a platform, which India is also said to be considering.

The DRDO may also develop a high altitude long endurance unmanned airborn vehicle (UAV) for surveillence and reconnaissance, Banerjee said.

Such an UAV could, in the future, take its place in a strategic network enabled warfare system which will include considerably greater integration of the armed forces, along with aircraft, anti-ballistic missiles, sophisticated long range tracking technologies, surface-to-air missiles, and command and control stations.