Eurojet’s India Hopes Fade

Typhoon at Laage AFB, Germany | Photo / Shiv Aroor
India’s selection of the Rafale constitutes a major blow to EADS, but little or nothing has been said about its implications for Eurojet, the four nation cooperative entity that builds the EJ200 turbofan that powers the Typhoon. With the Typhoon losing out in the MMRCA, it now appears likely that Eurojet Turbo GmbH will never do business with India.
In September 2010, the Indian government announced that it had chosen the GE F414 to power the indigenous Tejas Mk.2, a huge disappointment for Eurojet, which had been confident of upstaging its American rival. I visited Eurojet headquarters in Hallbergmoos, Germany nine months before that, and the company had been quite confident that it would beat General Electric.

While India does a fair bit of business with Rolls-Royce — which has a maximum 34 per cent production share in the Eurojet consortium — it has little or nothing to do with Avio, MTU Aero Engines and ITP, the other three partners. As things stand, the EJ200 turbofan may now never power an aircraft for India.

19 thoughts on “Eurojet’s India Hopes Fade”

  1. The consortium did not accept the concept of Rafale as suggested by the French, so French went in their own ways. I feel that the EFT and F-16/18 were only peacetime fighters for India.

    Anyhow, this was to happen to any one of them. Without this order Rafale was under the risk of premature closure. Just see that Mig-35 is finished, Gripen is jolted and F-16/18 are jammed.

  2. One thing still they can do, is to sell the Engine technology to India in few millions or billion $. Specially the Single Crystal Blade technology.

    Now if they really want to enter Indian market and Indian defense, they have to take this bold decision.

  3. It's a pity, because the EJ200 is a more advanced engine than the F414 and with its growth potential would be ideal for powering a future AMCA in the next decade.

    But our inept government cared more about penny-pinching than future needs, after all they're not even sure they'll still be in power when the AMCA flies so they just want to make as much money as possible before getting kicked out.

  4. IF Eurojet Turbo GmbH DO NOT WANT TO DO ANY BUSINESS IN FUTURE WITH INDIA, THEN IT IS THERE POLICY AND PROBLEM. WE DO NOT REQUIRED EADS FOR OUR DEVELOPMENT IN ANY MANNER. WE ARE FUTURE SUPER POWER.
    IF THEY WANT TO WALK WITH US, MOST WELCOME OTHERWISE GO TO HELL, AND TRY TO SAVE YOUR ECONOMY.

  5. IF EADS DO WANT TO DO BUSINESS WITH INDIA, IT IS THEIR POLICY OR PROBLEM. WE DO NOT WANT THEM FOR OUR DEVELOPMENT IN ANY MANNER. WE ARE SUPERPOWER. THERE ARE LOTS OF COUNTRIES WITH US.
    IF THEY WANT TO WALK WITH US MOST WELCOME OTHERWISE GO TO HELL.

  6. The EJ200 is a suitable competitor engine for LCA/AMCA. India should invite them to sell,but beware,it is again 4 countries and as many companies in that consortium. Beware of the Brits in this as they will not allow high end technology transfer. Let us invite Cameron and ask him for the assurance.

  7. Shiv why are u sooo concerned about
    eurofighter and eurojet ???????

    we hav our own problems to deal with…

    and who will trust a country who plundered our wealth for more than 200 years in the name of trade ????

    just stop caring about EADS, rollceroyce,BAE systems.

    stop these shit abt ef&ej's

  8. The English, in particular have reacted very badly to the MRCA selection.Their attitude drips of arrogance and condescension,that how dare we reject them after all the 'aid they have given us and the 'good' they did during the Raj.The UK should understand that the days of the Raj are long gone and we certainly are not beholden to them for colonialism.The British Raj,no matter what its votaries say,was aimed only at one thing;the extraction of natural resources from India(and all its colonies)to benefit the.Whatever they claim as 'gifts' of the empire,the railways,civil- service, etc were designed to facilitate exploitation not development.

  9. That's not bad. Rolls Royce and P&H never tried to help Indian initiatives — from Marut to Jaguar (re-engine project). Let them take a hike and do business with China where they are more comfortable…

  10. Water under the bridge. Besides who in India cares if they do or don't do business with us? It' not like it makes much of a difference to us anyway.

  11. Hi Shiv is our army and DRDO still pursuing the tank ex programme as a part of T72 MBT upgrade with Croatian M84D 1200 hp engine? Thought the programme was scrapped?

  12. According to HAL assemblying of aircraft parts refers to "indigenous" production. It seems even if we install the jet engines used by raptors then also tejas will not be completed.

  13. Just to clarify, MTU and Avio take part in several commercial airliner engine ventures, which have Indian customers (both private and public), and ITP is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rolls Royce in the first place.

    Question: Some time ago you published a list of 'top contenders' for MMRCA and asked readers to choose which was the 'real' one, although you never revealed the actual result. As I recall, Rafale was not #1 on ANY of the lists (to my chagrin, as I would have ranked it #1 followed by EF/Gripen NG in either order). What gives?, since Rafale obviously DID come out on top in the end? Was that ranking not the final ranking, but simply one factor?

  14. Dear all, I am keeping a tap on the MMRCA too. Now the government has taken a decision in favour of one party and not favour of another. What we require now the complete transfer of technology and a dedication of HAL employees to get the aircraft on time w/o wasting any time and quality.

  15. The British are making damn sure that whatever hopes they have, of getting a Eurofighter deal in case the Rafale negotiations fall through, are completely gone. This is isn't Saudi Arabia where you can bribe your way through guys! You thought giving 250 million pounds of aid will be a sure shot way of getting a $20 Billion fighter deal????? What the hell were you thinking???

  16. Eurojet had a terific opportunity to re-engine the LCA. They lost that on price, and also had that German agent von Schonfeld who was expelled from India after he attempted to replace a higher price proposal by a lower one in connivance with some Ministry people. But for this unethical practice they lost that chance.

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