India, US close to inking over $600 m jet engine deal

[karan.1970]

from ur point of view it seems good but overall as u compare the price of lca mk2 is touching 40-45 miilion dollars and is expected to rise more,is it worth the plane

Cost really does not matter too much as long as 80-90 percent of that is going into Indian economy.. As a matter of fact that money is moved into more profitable avenues of economy instead of lying unspend in govt budget..

 

[SpArK]

There will be an engine maintenance unit along with the deal for sure like in the swiss case or a collaboration with them.

FARNBOROUGH: Ruag licensed to maintain GE F414 engine

Ruag has gained a powerful boost to its military engine maintenance business.

General Electric has licensed the Swiss aerospace and defence technology group to maintain the F414 engine, which powers the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet combat aircraft.

The new deal deepens GE's relationship with Ruag, which has for a decade offered maintenance, repair and overhaul services on the J85 engines, which power the Northrop F-5 fighter operated by Ruag's biggest MRO customer, the Swiss air force.

Ruag is also licensed on the F404 engine, which powers the F/A-18 Hornet, another fighter in Swiss service.

There are no limits on Ruag's deals with GE, so it has full access to customers for the engines. However, initially it will rely on subcontracts from the powerplant maker for the F414 work.

The Super Hornet is operated by the USA and Australia. The US Navy operates 269 Super Hornets plus 50 EA-18G Growler variants, with 79 and 64 on order respectively, according to Flightglobal's World Air Forces 2011/2012 special report. The Royal Australian Air Force operates 24 Super Hornets.

FARNBOROUGH: Ruag licensed to maintain GE F414 engine

 

[regular]

Whenever U trust Americanz then U are doomed......

 

[SpArK]

Whenever U trust Americanz then U are doomed......

Depends on the end user.

The military dealings of US with a lot of countries are smooth, fair and swift.

 

[golmaal]

why only engines??? US has made more than 180 f22 just for IAF...........

Damn.. I didn't know that..

 

[karan.1970]

Depends on the end user.

The military dealings of US with a lot of countries are smooth, fair and swift.

Am not aware of any country buying hardware from USA in a clear and simple financial transaction being screwed over bad..

 

[sancho]

from ur point of view it seems good but overall as u compare the price of lca mk2 is touching 40-45 miilion dollars and is expected to rise more,is it worth the plane

Not sure where you get that price from, but even if we take that, it would be cheaper than the Girpen NG, which comes around 45 to 50 mios flyaway, with similar technical capabilities.
The price is defenitely not an issue, because having this cost-effective 4.5 gen fighter inducted next to the costly MMRCAs, MKIs and later FGFAs will be important to reduce the overall high operational costs too. The real problem are the delays in the induction and production!

 

[dott]

Not sure where you get that price from, but even if we take that, it would be cheaper than the Girpen NG, which comes around 45 to 50 mios flyaway, with similar technical capabilities.
The price is defenitely not an issue, because having this cost-effective 4.5 gen fighter inducted next to the costly MMRCAs, MKIs and later FGFAs will be important to reduce the overall high operational costs too. The real problem are the delays in the induction and production!

the price will be much less once the mass production starts. that should not be the issue here.

 

[Mughal-Prince]

must be including the some running maintenance etc..RD 93 that powers JF 17 is priced at about 3 million a pop i think.. So by that comparison, its not too high

Its 2.5 Million not 3 million with all perks Karan

 

[tvsram1992]

why only engines??? US has made more than 180 f22 just for IAF...........

We cant afford to pay for F22s . Even US is still having difficulty to pay for them . We can use it like stop gap engine for AMCA . Those are best engines available for 5th gen aircrafts as of now .

 

[Boson]

Western engines are known to have a lower lifetime cost than russian engines.

So far, we have basically britsh (rolls royce engines) on jaguars and french engines on mirages.. but no american engines (except on LCA mk-1).

Operational experience is the first step.. to taking the next step to building the same capactities in domestic turbofan engines.

Meanwhile, Kaveri will fly with an LCA prototype in 2015.

Combat aircraft engines are a complicated technology, but we should gain experience with every little step.

 

[sancho]

the price will be much less once the mass production starts. that should not be the issue here.

That's another point, all I said is, that the GE engines are cheap for a proven and higher quality engine compared to what Russia offers. Also important is, that it offers better thrust ranges (especially dry thrust) compared to the RD 93.