India Reinforces Tejas Fighter Jet Production Path with Updated U.S. GE Engine Acquisition
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India has signed a new agreement with GE Aerospace for 113 F404-IN20 engines that will power the next 97 Tejas Mk 1A fighters for the Indian Air Force. The deal aims to prevent further production delays and stabilize India’s fighter fleet capacity through the 2030s.
According to information published by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and confirmed by Reuters, on November 7, 2025, India signed an agreement with GE Aerospace for 113 F404-GE-IN20 engines and a support package to power 97 Tejas Mk-1A light combat aircraft ordered for the Indian Air Force. The engines will be delivered between 2027 and 2032 and are directly tied to the Ministry of Defence’s major contract with HAL for the second large Tejas Mk-1A batch signed in September.Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link
The Tejas Mk-1A is a compact multirole fighter featuring an AESA radar, a digital electronic-warfare suite, nine hardpoints for air-to-air and precision-strike weapons, and an 85 kN F404 engine that delivers agile high-G performance for air-defense and frontline strike missions (Picture source: Indian MoD).
HAL has acknowledged that earlier F404 deliveries under a 2021 contract for 99 engines have been delayed, with GE citing global supply chain issues and India’s defence secretary admitting that the Tejas Mk-1A schedule slipped by almost a year. Reuters reporting that only four engines from that first order had arrived by late 2025 explains HAL’s urgency in securing a second batch before the new 97-jet order becomes another paper squadron.
The Tejas Mk-1A sits at the light end of India’s future fighter mix but is far from a simple point-defence machine. The single-engine, tailless delta measures about 13.2 meters in length, with a maximum take-off weight of around 13.5 tonnes and a payload capacity in the 4.5 to 5.3-tonne class across nine hardpoints. The F404-IN20 delivers roughly 85 kN of thrust in afterburner, giving the jet a thrust-to-weight ratio slightly above 1:1, +8 g maneuver limits, a top speed close to Mach 1.8, and a combat radius of roughly 500 km, extendable through in-flight refueling.
The Mk-1A configuration is substantially more capable than the earlier Mk-1s already flying with two IAF squadrons. It incorporates an active electronically scanned array radar, initially via an Israeli unit with a gradual shift to the indigenous Uttam, alongside a modern unified electronic warfare suite with a digital radar-warning receiver, towed decoy, external jammer, and onboard oxygen generation. Inflow refueling probes and significant software revisions further enhance endurance and mission flexibility. Weapons integration now includes Astra beyond-visual-range missiles, ASRAAM and R-73 short-range missiles, precision-guided bombs, glide weapons, anti-ship missiles, and upcoming dual-pylon configurations for air-combat loads.
Operationally, this gives the IAF a compact multirole fighter capable of quick-reaction alert, BVR engagements, maritime strike, and air-defense tasks along the borders with Pakistan and China. Its limitations, primarily payload and range, are clear when compared with the Su-30MKI or Rafale, both of which can carry nearly double the weapons load and operate at far longer ranges. Yet Tejas stands out for its small footprint, lower operating cost, and the ability to be built in India in large numbers, freeing heavier multi-role fighters for strategic missions.
The broader fleet context explains why the Tejas is becoming central: with the retirement of the MiG-21 fleet in October, the IAF now operates roughly 29 to 31 fighter squadrons against a doctrinal requirement of at least 42. Today’s force consists largely of Su-30MKI squadrons backed by Rafales, Mirage 2000s, MiG-29UPGs, Jaguar strike aircraft, and the initial Tejas units. The 97 additional Mk-1A jets are intended to replace MiG-21s and, later, Jaguars and MiG-29s, stabilizing squadron strength through the 2030s.
This brings forward the uncomfortable question: why must India import engines for a “home-grown” fighter? The answer rests in the long and troubled Kaveri turbofan programme. Originally meant to power Tejas, Kaveri never reached the thrust and durability required for a frontline fighter. It suffered repeated compressor failures, turbine-blade deficiencies, and could not reliably deliver the 85+ kN wet thrust the Tejas airframe demands. Indian propulsion officials openly admit that the country still lacks the industrial ecosystem for advanced fighter engines and will need more than a thousand modern turbofans across programmes by 2035.
This failure forced designers to adopt the U.S. F404 from the very beginning, making Tejas dependent on a foreign propulsion line. When GE deliveries slipped during the post-COVID bottleneck, HAL engineers resorted to rotating a small pool of engines across airframes and test aircraft, leaving several nearly complete jets waiting on the production floor. The new 113-engine order is meant to break that bottleneck before the second Mk-1A batch faces similar delays.
Yet Tejas remains a genuinely Indian aircraft in meaningful ways: indigenous content on the Mk-1A has been rising steadily, with mission computers, avionics, electronic-warfare systems, weapons, composites, and structural sections increasingly sourced from Indian companies. Private suppliers such as VEM Technologies are now producing major fuselage assemblies, effectively expanding India’s fighter-manufacturing ecosystem. With HAL operating two lines in Bengaluru and an additional line at Nashik, the industrial model is gradually shifting from state-centric to distributed, a prerequisite for higher annual output.
Pakistan has modernized its fleet with the JF-17 Block III and J-10C armed with long-range PL-15 missiles, forming an increasingly networked and digitally-fused air combat system. China’s rapid expansion of J-10C, J-16, and J-20 fleets has created an overwhelming numerical and qualitative margin along the Line of Actual Control. The fighting seen during Operation Sindoor and the 2025 India–Pakistan conflict revealed that long-range missiles, networking, and hardened command-and-control mattered more than raw squadron counts. In this environment, a compact AESA-equipped fighter integrated into India’s air-defense grid offers critical density at a sustainable cost.
India and GE have agreed to co-produce the F414-INS6 engine for the upcoming Tejas Mk-2 and the first batches of India’s future AMCA stealth fighter. A manufacturing license and expanded U.S. technology transfer have been cleared, and India plans to set up a dedicated engine production facility near Bengaluru. If executed successfully, this would mark India’s first real step toward building advanced turbofan modules domestically.
Export ambitions also shape India’s decisions: Tejas has been actively pitched to Malaysia, Argentina, and other countries. A secure, long-term U.S. engine supply chain strengthens India’s credibility as an emerging exporter and reassures potential buyers that lifecycle support will be reliable.
Ultimately, the 113-engine deal does not resolve India’s reliance on foreign propulsion and will not alone restore the IAF to its required strength. What it does provide is a crucial bridge: it stabilizes Tejas production, buys time for F414 co-production, and supports India’s long-term goal of developing a domestic fighter engine. In a region where Pakistan fields networked J-10Cs and China produces J-20s at scale, this may be the only realistic path toward a sovereign Indian combat-air ecosystem in the next decade.
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{loadposition sidebarpub}
India has signed a new agreement with GE Aerospace for 113 F404-IN20 engines that will power the next 97 Tejas Mk 1A fighters for the Indian Air Force. The deal aims to prevent further production delays and stabilize India’s fighter fleet capacity through the 2030s.
According to information published by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and confirmed by Reuters, on November 7, 2025, India signed an agreement with GE Aerospace for 113 F404-GE-IN20 engines and a support package to power 97 Tejas Mk-1A light combat aircraft ordered for the Indian Air Force. The engines will be delivered between 2027 and 2032 and are directly tied to the Ministry of Defence’s major contract with HAL for the second large Tejas Mk-1A batch signed in September.
Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link
The Tejas Mk-1A is a compact multirole fighter featuring an AESA radar, a digital electronic-warfare suite, nine hardpoints for air-to-air and precision-strike weapons, and an 85 kN F404 engine that delivers agile high-G performance for air-defense and frontline strike missions (Picture source: Indian MoD).
HAL has acknowledged that earlier F404 deliveries under a 2021 contract for 99 engines have been delayed, with GE citing global supply chain issues and India’s defence secretary admitting that the Tejas Mk-1A schedule slipped by almost a year. Reuters reporting that only four engines from that first order had arrived by late 2025 explains HAL’s urgency in securing a second batch before the new 97-jet order becomes another paper squadron.
The Tejas Mk-1A sits at the light end of India’s future fighter mix but is far from a simple point-defence machine. The single-engine, tailless delta measures about 13.2 meters in length, with a maximum take-off weight of around 13.5 tonnes and a payload capacity in the 4.5 to 5.3-tonne class across nine hardpoints. The F404-IN20 delivers roughly 85 kN of thrust in afterburner, giving the jet a thrust-to-weight ratio slightly above 1:1, +8 g maneuver limits, a top speed close to Mach 1.8, and a combat radius of roughly 500 km, extendable through in-flight refueling.
The Mk-1A configuration is substantially more capable than the earlier Mk-1s already flying with two IAF squadrons. It incorporates an active electronically scanned array radar, initially via an Israeli unit with a gradual shift to the indigenous Uttam, alongside a modern unified electronic warfare suite with a digital radar-warning receiver, towed decoy, external jammer, and onboard oxygen generation. Inflow refueling probes and significant software revisions further enhance endurance and mission flexibility. Weapons integration now includes Astra beyond-visual-range missiles, ASRAAM and R-73 short-range missiles, precision-guided bombs, glide weapons, anti-ship missiles, and upcoming dual-pylon configurations for air-combat loads.
Operationally, this gives the IAF a compact multirole fighter capable of quick-reaction alert, BVR engagements, maritime strike, and air-defense tasks along the borders with Pakistan and China. Its limitations, primarily payload and range, are clear when compared with the Su-30MKI or Rafale, both of which can carry nearly double the weapons load and operate at far longer ranges. Yet Tejas stands out for its small footprint, lower operating cost, and the ability to be built in India in large numbers, freeing heavier multi-role fighters for strategic missions.
The broader fleet context explains why the Tejas is becoming central: with the retirement of the MiG-21 fleet in October, the IAF now operates roughly 29 to 31 fighter squadrons against a doctrinal requirement of at least 42. Today’s force consists largely of Su-30MKI squadrons backed by Rafales, Mirage 2000s, MiG-29UPGs, Jaguar strike aircraft, and the initial Tejas units. The 97 additional Mk-1A jets are intended to replace MiG-21s and, later, Jaguars and MiG-29s, stabilizing squadron strength through the 2030s.
This brings forward the uncomfortable question: why must India import engines for a “home-grown” fighter? The answer rests in the long and troubled Kaveri turbofan programme. Originally meant to power Tejas, Kaveri never reached the thrust and durability required for a frontline fighter. It suffered repeated compressor failures, turbine-blade deficiencies, and could not reliably deliver the 85+ kN wet thrust the Tejas airframe demands. Indian propulsion officials openly admit that the country still lacks the industrial ecosystem for advanced fighter engines and will need more than a thousand modern turbofans across programmes by 2035.
This failure forced designers to adopt the U.S. F404 from the very beginning, making Tejas dependent on a foreign propulsion line. When GE deliveries slipped during the post-COVID bottleneck, HAL engineers resorted to rotating a small pool of engines across airframes and test aircraft, leaving several nearly complete jets waiting on the production floor. The new 113-engine order is meant to break that bottleneck before the second Mk-1A batch faces similar delays.
Yet Tejas remains a genuinely Indian aircraft in meaningful ways: indigenous content on the Mk-1A has been rising steadily, with mission computers, avionics, electronic-warfare systems, weapons, composites, and structural sections increasingly sourced from Indian companies. Private suppliers such as VEM Technologies are now producing major fuselage assemblies, effectively expanding India’s fighter-manufacturing ecosystem. With HAL operating two lines in Bengaluru and an additional line at Nashik, the industrial model is gradually shifting from state-centric to distributed, a prerequisite for higher annual output.
Pakistan has modernized its fleet with the JF-17 Block III and J-10C armed with long-range PL-15 missiles, forming an increasingly networked and digitally-fused air combat system. China’s rapid expansion of J-10C, J-16, and J-20 fleets has created an overwhelming numerical and qualitative margin along the Line of Actual Control. The fighting seen during Operation Sindoor and the 2025 India–Pakistan conflict revealed that long-range missiles, networking, and hardened command-and-control mattered more than raw squadron counts. In this environment, a compact AESA-equipped fighter integrated into India’s air-defense grid offers critical density at a sustainable cost.
India and GE have agreed to co-produce the F414-INS6 engine for the upcoming Tejas Mk-2 and the first batches of India’s future AMCA stealth fighter. A manufacturing license and expanded U.S. technology transfer have been cleared, and India plans to set up a dedicated engine production facility near Bengaluru. If executed successfully, this would mark India’s first real step toward building advanced turbofan modules domestically.
Export ambitions also shape India’s decisions: Tejas has been actively pitched to Malaysia, Argentina, and other countries. A secure, long-term U.S. engine supply chain strengthens India’s credibility as an emerging exporter and reassures potential buyers that lifecycle support will be reliable.
Ultimately, the 113-engine deal does not resolve India’s reliance on foreign propulsion and will not alone restore the IAF to its required strength. What it does provide is a crucial bridge: it stabilizes Tejas production, buys time for F414 co-production, and supports India’s long-term goal of developing a domestic fighter engine. In a region where Pakistan fields networked J-10Cs and China produces J-20s at scale, this may be the only realistic path toward a sovereign Indian combat-air ecosystem in the next decade.
