India's maiden bid to develop a fighter engine has been caught in various hurdles, but American experts are holding out a promise that Kaveri can be developed into a contemporary world-class engine.
"We are ready to join in partnership with the Defence Research and Development Organisation to make Kaveri work," General William J Begert of the world's leading aircraft engine manufacturers, Pratt and Whitney, told PTI.
DRDO scientists had kept the development of the Kaveri engine under wraps, exuding confidence that India had developed the technological edge to develop its own aircraft engine, so far confined to handful of developed countries.
But after considerable in-house progress, with scientists even going in for a number of high-altitude proving tests in sites in Russia, the development almost came to a dead end forcing the DRDO to look for technology partner.
American engine manufacturers had to pull out and fly in retired gas turbine experts as they too were initially foxed by the Indian Kaveri engine.
But, now the US experts say that Kaveri is truly a world-class engine.
But, like the DRDO officials, they refuse to say where the Indian engineers had got stuck merely commenting that the DRDO gas turbine technology is 'truly Indian and a very responsive effort'.
Country's top defence scientist, M Natarajan, says that though DRDO had agreed to go in for international collaboration to make Kaveri airborne, the partners will have to work to their terms.
Besides Pratt and Whitney, there are two more major manufacturers who have responded to the Indian Request For Proposals for the Kaveri collaboration project including French Snecma of the Safran group.
Confirming that Safran had responded to Indian RFP, Francois Courtot, vice president international affairs said that company's subsidiary Snecma had helped in the Kaveri project during previous hitches and had a better understanding of the engine.
DRDO secretary Natrajan said a committee in which IAF experts would be included would evaluate the bids to decide on 'how much to take and from whom'.
"But Kaveri is and would remain an Indian project."
"We have gone this way to shorten time for making the engine airborne, as we don't wont to delay the LCA induction schedule," he said clarifying that this is an effort to 'add value and look for a partner to stand guarantee'.
The first two squadrons of the LCA, proposed to be cleared for induction would be powered by another American manufacture General Electric's GE404 engines and strangely the company was among the last bidders for the RFP.
'We are not selling an American pie,' Pratt and Whitney said adding, 'we want a rich and sharing partnership with the DRDO on the engines'.
The former US Air Force General said that his company had also held wide ranging discussions with officials of Hindustan Aeronautics on the proposal to produce parts of F100 fighter engines, which power the Lockheed-Martin F-16, fighting falcons.
