GE to deliver first of 99 F-404 engines for Tejas MK 1A by March-end

12 engines are expected in 2025, with 20 engines each expected to be delivered by GE every year to fulfill the 2021 99-engine contract worth USD 716 million.

Updated on: Mar 22, 2025, 09:33:57 IST

By Shishir Gupta

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New Delhi: Amidst anxiety over India-US trade tariffs, there is forward movement on the security front, with US aircraft engine major GE expected to deliver the first of the 99 GE-404 engines to HAL this month after a contractual delay of two years. The much awaited GE-404 engines powers Tejas Mark 1-A fighters, delays in deliveries of which has caused much concern in the Indian Air Force (IAF).

IAF Chief ACM A P Singh and Army Chief Gen Upendra Dwivedi in Tejas fighter. (File)

According to at least two officials in knowledge of the matter, the first of the contracted engines is already on the test-bed and is expected to be delivered by end of this month. A total of 12 engines are expected in 2025 with 20 engines each expected to be delivered by GE every year to fulfill the 2021 99-engine contract worth USD 716 million.

Parallelly, the HAL, despite its Indian PSU mindset, is working with GE for manufacturing the more powerful GE-414 engine in India under transfer of technology regime worked out by iCET (initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies) between India and US National Security Advisors. The GE-414 engine will power the advanced multi-role combat aircraft (AMCA) being developed by the DRDO.

Faced with delays in the supply of 83 LCA MK 1 A aircraft by HAL and frustration voiced by none other than the IAF Chief over the same, the Defence Ministry under the Chairmanship of Defence Secretary R. K. Singh has set up a committee to work out a business model for the proposed fifth generation fighter. This committee will not go into any technical aspects of the proposed AMCA but will work out a model which involves private sector participation in the fifth-generation program. The whole idea is that India should have other options than HAL to manufacture fighter jets to fulfill the country’s national security requirements for the future.

While US President Donald Trump has made an offer to supply India with a proven fifth-generation F-35 fighter, the Indian focus is simultaneously looking at the French option, which envisages the manufacture of Rafale fighters along with the M-88 engine in India under the ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ route.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shishir Gupta
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.Read More

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