The 110/120kn engine JV deal will be a similar repeat I fear. If we really want a JV, might try with Rolls Royce. Although I'm not confident on RR either. The Chinese way is the way to go, but Indians being Indians won't risk a massive investment without a guarantee of success. This "being smart" attitude is really working against us here. The AL-31FP engines have 2000 hours of MTBO, 500 hours for the thrust vectoring nozzles. Why are we going forward with the attitude that our first indigenous turbofan in service HAS to have 4000 hours of MTBO. Even if Kaveri has 2000 hours of MTBO at ideal thrust, use it and go forward from there. I bet the AL-31 has already been reverse engineered, use it and go forward from there. Make a drone big enough to use the Kaveri with the afterburner and validate it's reliability; and address issues from there.