Eurojet in fray to power LCA MK-II
By
Sangeeta Saxena Published :February 2010
New Delhi. India’s Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) is a young aircraft and the European EJ200 is a young engine. “You can’t marry your young daughter to an old man,” quipped Managing Director Hartmut J Tenter of the Munich-based Eurojet Turbo GmbH.
On a visit to New Delhi as a member of German President Horst Koehler delegation early February, Tenter set on to do his business – increasing the Indo-German business partnership through transfer of the latest German technology, investment and building long-term viable partnerships.
The suave MD of the Munichbased company was clear that Eurojet would be happy to invest in India although it would prefer to have a bigger stake in any joint venture with an Indian company, more than the 26 per cent allowed at present to foreign companies. The investment could even be 100 percent, depending upon the project availability and viability, he told India Strategic in an interview.
India has sought bids from the Eurojet Turbo GmbH and the US General Electric Co to supply an engine for Tejas, the country’s first light combat aircraft, after an almost two-decade effort to develop a local version has failed to deliver a sufficiently powerful engine.
GE, whose 414 Mark-II powers the F/A 18 E/F Super Hornet, has offered that “mature” engine with some upgrades as required. It is also going to be the engine for Swedish Gripen if that aircraft is selected by IAF.
Mr Tenter says though – without naming it – that the engine in competition has reached its peak while the Eurojet EJ 200 is a “formidable baby” with tremendous development scope in the future. At present, this engine provides the power for the multi-role capability of the Eurofighter Typhoon.
The design of the engine allows for maximum availability and minimum operating costs throughout the life of the Eurofighter weapon system.
Both the Eurofighter and Super Hornet are in the six-corner fray for the IAF’s tender for 126-plus aircraft, and the choice of engine for the Tejas LCA, or vice versa, could prove to be a decisive factor in the overall selection.
According to Mr Tenter, talks with India’s Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) were progressing and that all the required submissions had been made.
The EJ200 engine is the latest generation military turbofan engine in the 20,000 lbf thrust class.
“It is designed to fulfil the most demanding requirements of a fighter aircraft, in particular the Eurofighter Typhoon. The EJ200’s advanced technology supersedes that of its competitors, delivering high thrustto- weight ratio with a simple engine architecture.”
The EJ200 is a two-spool turbobased fan with modular design. The wide-chord fan with integrally bladed discs (blisks) is light and aerodynamically efficient and possesses high levels of resistance to foreign object damage. The advanced aerodynamics employed in the fan allows optimum operation without the need for inlet guide vanes.
ADA Director P S Subramanyam said at the recent Second National Seminar on Aerospace Technologies (N-SAT.2) held by India Strategic that the Indian scientists were looking at the project in terms of the technology and capability and future upgrade potential.
Mr Tenter says that he can make a promise in that regard: If India chose EJ200, “Eurojet would enter a minimum of 40 years dependable relationship akin to an Indian marriage,” with further growth potential.
There should be no restrictions on sharing the best of technologies, and that, he pointed out, was an assurance from countries participating in the Eurojet programme, namely, Avio (Italy), ITP (Spain), MTU Aero Engines (Germany) and Rolls-Royce (UK).
Eurojet, which had made available sophisticated data on the EJ200 to the ADA, has offered to transfer all technology — including the key core technology — on the engine to India. The engine will eventually be manufactured in India.
The company’s responsibilities include the management of development, support and export of the new generation EJ200 powerplant and it operates out of its headquarters in Hallbergmoos, (near Munich airport). Eurojet is also working on developing thrustvectoring technologies to enhance the capabilities of whatever aircraft the engine is fitted into.
India’s Aeronautical Development Agency, which is developing the LCA, had floated a Request for Proposals (RfP) to GE and Eurojet last year. The selection process should complete shortly.
The delay in the indigenous engine availability is what has driven the Indian Government to go for an alternative engine. Tejas is a tailless single-engine supersonic fighter with delta wings — shaped like a triangle — which uses fly-by-wire technology that enables pilots to control the plane electronically through onboard computers. The plane is undergoing development trials with a GE 404 engine, but this falls short of the thrust it requires in operational conditions.
Mr Tenter explained that EJ200 is physically smaller with an improved weight to thrust ratio. If you fly an aircraft powered with it, you will concentrate on the mission and the engine just needs to be pushed literally and simply like an accelerator in the car, he emphasized.
“It is not only fuel efficient and environment friendly due to lesser emission rate, but also has the range to fly.” He reiterated that the EJ200 engine needs minimum changes – every engine will need some to fit an airframe it was not designed for – and will not delay the LCA programme.
For the Tejas to be able to take in an EJ200, the engine will need “minor” modifications. These include some changing to the mounting assembly, a different hydraulic pump and an additional generator pack for starters. In addition, engine interfaces might need changes depending on how the LCA is configured.
Discussions between the Indian government and Eurojet are currently at the Q&A phase – a period post- RFP, where the buyer smoothens out details and calls upon the vendor to explain, clarify or expand anything put forth in their technical bid. Eurojet received a set of 32 such questions from the ADA out of which 26 are technical, while the remaining six pertain to transfer of technology issues.
Mr Tenter believes that the tailor-made EJ200 for the LCA can be ready – certfication tests and all – in about two years flat. Significantly, he asserted that the EJ200’s installation will require absolutely no airframe and intake changes to the LCA.
He also said that Eurojet’s LCA campaign was different than that of the Eurofighter’s MRCA campaign.
“When we demonstrated the engine’s performance to a team from HAL and DRDO in November last year, they were amazed that there was no thrust droop in the EJ200. The engine is designed to compensate for thrust droop,” says Tenter, confident that this unique selling point makes the Eurojet a frontrunner in the race for future.
Eurojet says that its five-stage compression engine, the only one of its kind in the world, had the capability to meet IAF’s requirement of 100kN power, and that technologically, it supersedes its competitors in delivering the highest thrust-to-weight ratio with the most simple engine architecture.
It delivers highest reliability levels and provides power for multimission capability of the Eurofighter Typhoon. The design and technology of the engine allows for a maximum availability and minimum operating costs throughout the life of the aircraft.
Mr Tenter said that EJ200 engine has been designed with a special focus on reliability and maintenance costs. The engine systems’ reliability, together with the engine components’ long life technology and the intelligent life management system allow for a maximum availability and minimum operating costs.
“Ours is the most modern engine and we have already delivered 650 to six nations, including four core Eurofighter partner countries. In addition to that, we have also supplied engines to Saudi Arabia and Austria.”
According to Mr Tenter, with all these countries, Eurojet has forged a deep partnership, and this is what it will seek with India. “I do not believe in making promises, but in a commitment,” he said, adding, “we have given comprehensive details to ADA about how we will go about our partnership with them. It is true that partnership means effort, but if you make the effort, you get better results. And when I use the word partnership, I am doing so fully aware that it implies working together on problems and ironing them out… removing the chinks, so to speak.”
Tenter’s roadmap stipulates jointdevelopment and not just jointproduction. Eurojet is already working on thrust-vectoring and would be able to put the thrust vectoring nozzle when required.
They have also done feasibility study for high-altitude flying, and that is very important factor. “You don’t want to have the limitation of low-level sorties only.” Eurofighter could be the highest-flying aircraft among the six MRCAs in the IAF competition.
Mr Tentor said that Eurojet had a “very successful cockpit simulator”already. Among the other developments, it is working on improved life cycle cost, less fuel burn and enhanced operational capability.
In terms of production, Eurojet currently delivers nine to 10 engines in a month, but has the capacity to do 15. Hence, it is very well placed to meet the Indian requirement when it comes. More so as he says, “If we win the contract, we will start with 30 per cent of production in India and eventually move onto 50 per cent being done here.”
The spirit of winning and confidence in a better product is Eurojet,s mantra, to begin this affair with India. It will be a win-win situation for both the buyer and the seller, assures a smiling Tenter.
© India Strategic
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