Very good speech by DRDO scientist - Dr. Subrata Das . He didn't go into specifics and that maybe deliberate
# Four categories related to Engine Development- 1. Design & Technology. 2. Material & Manufacturing. 3. Quality, Reliability, Certifications, Life cycle testing etc. 4th is LRUs related to engine
# Breakdown of development cost - 40% Material, 30-35%, Manufacturing, 20-25% Sub-systems / LRUs
# When people talk of TOT, CKD, SKU, it only covers above 3. Nobody gives Design & Technology
# When Kaveri program started nothing was available - Design Tools, simulation or analysis tools, Material Characteristics Data. All had to be developed independently
# None of engine producers in country who have got so called ToT have got competence in the Design & Technology. It is available to the country now only because of Kaveri program (In short, they are doing screw-driver-giri only and have no autonomy)
# We’ve developed 35-40 material & manufacturers across country through Kaveri program.
# We now have 80-85% of required capability for Aero Engines locally i.e except in one or two areas
# Indian Engine will be on a Indian Aircraft in application role in two years
# We have some deficiencies in test facilities which has been presented in detail in many forums in many ways. So won’t speak of that here
# At GTRE. we have 5 test beds and all 5 are occupied 365 days a year. Two additional test beds for upto 130 KN coming up near Bengaluru
# When we have to integrate we got stuck although it is only 20% value., we had to go reverse engineer everything including lubricants, fuel systems etc
# All systems have gone through all sorts of test and certifications and will be seen flying in couple of years as we have ensured reliability & quality
# Contemporary Technologies such as BLISK, BLINK & Thrust Vectoring should be aimed for now. This needs co-ordination and integrated planning between Design agency like DRDO, certification agencies, user & industry. Unless this is done, we cannot be truly atmanirbhaar in Aero engines for next 20-30 years
