On the eve of the historic India-US F-414 jet engine deal, both Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) have geared up to produce Tejas Mark II fighter by 2027-28 with the former ready to roll out the GE-414 powered prototype by 2024 end. The GE-414 engine, which will be manufactured in India under 100 per cent transfer of technology (TOT) after approval from US Congress, will power not only Tejas Mark II but twin-engine advanced multi-role combat aircraft (AMCA-I) and twin-engine deck-based fighter (TEDBF).
This is a model of Tejas Mark II.
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Given that India has plans to produce at least six squadrons of Mark II fighters for the Indian Air Force after 83 F-404-powered Tejas Mark I A have been produced and handed over to the military. With eight F-414 jet engines already procured by the ADA, design frozen, and critical design review already approved by the IAF, the agency will roll out the Mark II prototype by 2024 end for testing and operational clearance.
As PM Narendra Modi and his national security team have been able to deliver on F-414 engine through the “Make in India” route, the HAL has girded up for the upcoming challenge as the PSU will focus only on manufacturing the GE engine as no less than 500 aircraft engines have to be produced in India. It is understood that the HAL Bengaluru division and even the Nashik division may be tasked to take up the job and start production in collaboration with the GE. HAL already has experience in manufacturing aircraft engines as it was assembling AL31 FP after burning turbofan engines for the Russian SU-30 MKI assembly in India.
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GE F-414 engine.
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According to experts, HAL will fully focus on the production of Mark II fighter as well as the GE-414 engine after the production line of Mark I A tapers off.
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According to experts, HAL will fully focus on the production of Mark II fighter as well as the GE-414 engine after the production line of Mark I A tapers off.
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The American defence major General Electric and HAL will sign an MoU for the manufacture of the F-414 engine on July 22 and exchange instruments before Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden in Washington.
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While the ADA under the DRDO is confident that it will deliver on Mark II on time, pressure will now be on HAL to energize the workers of PSU to meet the challenge ahead. Even as the engine will have to be produced by GE-HAL, the government may think of a special-purpose vehicle to produce Mark II fighters to meet the deadlines of the IAF.
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.
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Home/India News/Indian ADA to roll Tejas Mark II prototype with F-414 engine by 2024 end
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