Death Knell for Kaveri Jet Engine?

See this piece by Ravi Sharma in The Hindu today.

7 thoughts on “Death Knell for Kaveri Jet Engine?”

  1. this is just because GTRE always refused to accept foreign help in kaveri engine on time

    even till now its not clear that whether snecma is there to help or not

    90kN thrust of kaveri with snecma help would not be bad for LCA just see pakis don't make hip hops about the smoky rd33 engine in their jf17 its just our armed forces doing like this

    IAF wants 96-98kN thrust in LCA then why not just fit al31 or f110 engines in LCA

    but again its going to be like arjun,akaash and after sometime IAF will refuse LCA too or LCA will be trimmed to less numbers

  2. India's urgent requirement for 155mm ultra-light howitzers has become jammed in controversy, forcing the Indian army's artillery modernization plans to be put on hold until it is decided whether or when the request for proposals (RFP) will be reissued.

    The ministry of defense and Indian army offered no comment.

    Aerospace DAILY reported that India recently received a consignment of 155mm light howitzers from Singapore Technologies (ST) Kinetics, despite a temporary ban on procurements from ST and six other companies (Aerospace DAILY, June 23). The ban followed the arrest of four people for allegedly "fixing" several defense deals, and will last until the investigation is over.

    The defense ministry did not inform ST Kinetics of the postponement of the trials for the guns until June 5, around four days after the guns had been delivered in Mumbai.

    "There has been no official advisory from the Indian authority on the temporary suspension of business activities in relation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigation of former director-general of the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB)," the company told Aerospace DAILY.

    "We do not have any Joint Venture with OFB and have not signed any agreement with OFB," said Gaius Ho, spokesman for ST Kinetics.

    ST Kinetics says OFB approached it when the Ministry of Home Affairs was looking for a modern rifle, as the OFB's rifles had failed during internal trials. "ST Kinetics' SAR21 was presented for trials and evaluation. The discussion was for ST Kinetics to license its intellectual property to OFB if the MHA should decide to select the SAR21 and award a contract. There has been no decision to date," Ho explained.

    Following the ban, "ST Kinetics has since approached the authority for clarifications and presented to the ministry a list of all our business activities in India. While awaiting a response from the ministry, we have offered all cooperation to assist with any investigation as appropriate and hope that the ministry will quickly review the matter and clear ST Kinetics' reputation," Ho said.

    "We are perturbed by the change of events and feel strongly that we have not been fairly treated as a legitimate bidder who is committed to helping the Indian MoD with its modernization efforts," Ho added. "ST Kinetics is definitely a victim of the whole situation."

    ST Kinetics' Pegasus LWH is a lightweight gun with self-propelling capability. The Pegasus LWH offered to the Indian defense ministry was customized to fully meet the requirements of the RFP, Ho said.

  3. No body should have had any illusions regarding the complexity involved in developing turbofan technology. Even the Russians lag behind the west in this sphere. RR had also stated last year that the thermodynamic cycle of Kaveri was two decades old compared to that of EJ2000. Kaveri therefore may not have the growth potential to meet IAF requirement. We need to invest heavily in material sciences before we can attempt to design a contemporary jet engine. Nobody including Snecma will part with such a prized technology.

  4. Maybe India's jet engine manufacturing equipment is either nowhere near Western standards or simply poor QC.

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