This comes after India and the United States agreed to a historic co-manufacturing agreement for General Electric GE F-414 jet engines with 80% ToT during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s’state’ visit.

Critical technologies that the US has up until now not even shared with treaty allies like the UK, France, and Australia will be transferred as part of the General Electric transaction.

The technologies comprise a number of metallurgical and manufacturing techniques, such as laser drilling of combustor tubes, bottle boring of shafts, coating and machining of single-crystal turbine blades, nozzle-guide vanes, and ceramic matrix components (CMCs), as well as thermal barrier coating for hot ends.

The Tejas Mk-2 and AMCA Mk-1 planes currently under development will be powered by GE F-414 engines.

The French proposal, on the other hand, calls for creating a 110KN-thrust high-thrust engine from scratch for the AMCA MK-2, which will enable the AMCA to supercruise.

Without using its afterburner, supercruising enables a jet to go above the speed of sound, extending its range, duration on station, and infrared signature while burning less fuel.

According to a Times Now report, the French company has already submitted an offer, and they are prepared to transfer all technology while putting “no restrictions on stopping any access to sensitive issues,” while General Electric of the United States and Rolls Royce (RR) of the United Kingdom are also vying for the contract.

It is important to note that the high-thrust 110-KN jet engine has not been created by the French.

According to a Times Now story, the engine under consideration will be a completely new design that will be developed jointly by Safran and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and “involve clear division of work.”

“This is going to be a learning process for both sides,” the article continues, “as issues like design involving the thrust to weight ratio, metallurgy, and manufacturing process will have to be discussed in detail.”