Safran Commits to "Make in India" M-88 Engine Production to Boost Dassault's Rafale Jet Bid for MRFA Tender

In a move aimed at bolstering Dassault Aviation's bid for the Indian Air Force's (IAF) Medium Range Fighter Aircraft (MRFA) tender, Safran, a leading aerospace and defense company, has announced its commitment to manufacturing M-88 engines entirely in India. This strategic decision aligns with the Indian government's "Make in India" initiative and promises significant benefits for both countries.

The M-88 engine, renowned for its power and reliability, is the driving force behind the Rafale fighter jet, which Dassault is offering to the IAF. Safran's existing Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) facility in Hyderabad is already equipped to produce M-88 engines, and the company is prepared to significantly increase production capacity to meet the IAF's needs.

The IAF will require atleast 240 engines for its upcoming fleet of 114 MRFA jets, in addition to the 186 engines needed for its existing fleet of 62 Rafale aircraft. Should Dassault secure the MRFA contract, the IAF's total requirement for M-88 engines is projected to reach 350 over the next 40 years.

To ensure the long-term sustainability of the Rafale fleet in India, Safran plans to transfer M-88 engine production technology to its Indian subsidiary. This will enable the involvement of Indian private sector companies in the manufacturing process, further boosting indigenous content to at least 60%. This localized production is crucial for achieving a high maintainability rate of around 75%, essential for the operational readiness of the IAF's Rafale fleet.

By producing the M-88 engines in India, Safran aims to strengthen Dassault's position in the MRFA competition while contributing to India's self-reliance in the defense sector. This initiative not only aligns with the "Make in India" vision but also fosters a strong partnership between Safran and India, promoting technological advancement and economic growth within the country.

This development comes as India seeks to modernize its air force and reduce its dependence on foreign suppliers for critical defense equipment. The MRFA tender has attracted significant interest from global aerospace giants, with Dassault's Rafale facing competition from Boeing's F/A-18 Super Hornet, Lockheed Martin's F-21, Saab's Gripen, the Eurofighter Typhoon, and Russia's MiG-35.

 

[R. Singh]

France should bring its entire fighter jet making plants in India, Dassault Safran,Thales, MBDA and other necessary plants should be set up in India to make Rafale and next gen (5th & 6th) fighters in India for France,India and the world !

 

[TejasVikrant]

If this goes through it will be a huge huge boost for our make in India effort.

 

[sishir]

Great news our government must bring this initiative to conclusion asap.

 

[Andy]

Rafale pros:
1. Proven
2. Ecosystem in place
3. Reliable in terms of geopolitics

Cons:
1. Big pipeline pending
2. Expensive
3. No local pvt partner
4. M88 not compatible with Tejas mk1,2
5. Available versions outdated

 

[sanket]

Rafale pros:
1. Proven
2. Ecosystem in place
3. Reliable in terms of geopolitics

Cons:
1. Big pipeline pending
2. Expensive
3. No local pvt partner
4. M88 not compatible with Tejas mk1,2
5. Available versions outdated

Expensive on Base price & not Life cycle cost , Life cycle cost is way cheaper to its competitors , yeah it is very important u mentioned Geo-politics, Third Local development of MRO/Local Eco-system, Dassault may Relax on ToT & Local Pvt players production issue M-88 can b mated with kaveri for developing two variant for stop gap 90 kN variant & 98 kN for Tejas MK1A & Tejas MK2 Resp, this is the only option given current Geo-politics situation For Engine solution & Tejas MK1A delay, 10 years are enough Time to develop 100% 90 kN kaveri Engine Indigenously without Foreign Help

 

[Neal.B]

I'm not a big supporter of phased manner as COAS and retired vice marshal proposed in Major Arya's show knowing little bit of defence. We need 144 rafales under atmanirbhar bharat. Give dassault aviation land and everything they want and tell them we need at least 4 squadrons of F4/F4.2 version with 90-100% of ToT before 2030. And rest of the 4 squadrons of F4.2/F5 version before 2034-35. And there should be no delays or excuses to that. It will flourish our defence ecosystem along with engine manufacturing capability multifold and give us the kick to face chini aggression. At the same time we need to invest heavily in Tejas MK2, TEDBF and AMCA. For that we need to upgrade our defence budget to at least 3% if not more.

 

[Leo red]

I think 10000 artillery and 5000 missiles are enough for pakistan. Blockade their water and they are done. On first light of war (not sun) send all missiles and find their fighters. Rest make in India is only solution.

 

[Anant]

I think 10000 artillery and 5000 missiles are enough for pakistan. Blockade their water and they are done. On first light of war (not sun) send all missiles and find their fighters. Rest make in India is only solution.

Russia is literally using thousands of artillery rounds a day, so your estimate is probably an order of magnitude or two short.

 

[Leo red]

We need long range Kamikaze drones boats to completely block pak waters. Just like Ukraine war. Fighters are just for corruption and marketing tools useless in ground war. When strong Sam's are waiting.

 

[Anant]

I'm not a big supporter of phased manner as COAS and retired vice marshal proposed in Major Arya's show knowing little bit of defence. We need 144 rafales under atmanirbhar bharat. Give dassault aviation land and everything they want and tell them we need at least 4 squadrons of F4/F4.2 version with 90-100% of ToT before 2030. And rest of the 4 squadrons of F4.2/F5 version before 2034-35. And there should be no delays or excuses to that. It will flourish our defence ecosystem along with engine manufacturing capability multifold and give us the kick to face chini aggression. At the same time we need to invest heavily in Tejas MK2, TEDBF and AMCA. For that we need to upgrade our defence budget to at least 3% if not more.

Um, not disagreeing on the necessity of MRFA, but the rest of what you put is downright impossible:

1. Assuming we did give land and everything to Dassault, it would take a minimum of 3-4 years to get the production line going. That means that you won't get the first jet until 2028-29. Therefore, 4 squadrons by 2030 is impossible. The best case scenario would be 1 squadron by 2030, with succeeding squadrons following at roughly 1 per 18 months.

2. That puts the 4 squadron timeline at 2035 or so, with 8 squadrons (more than the 6 under MRFA) by 2040-42.

3. I am all for increasing the defence budget. However, please do highlight where we should get the money for that from. Remember that increasing the defence budget to 3% of GDP means you need around Rs. 3.6 lakh crore, or around 40-43 billion USD. Where should we get this money from?

 

[Anant]

We need long range Kamikaze drones boats to completely block pak waters. Just like Ukraine war. Fighters are just for corruption and marketing tools useless in ground war. When strong Sam's are waiting.

Yeah... no. Don't try to directly toss in lessons from Russia's invasion of Ukraine into a hypothetical India-Bhikaristan conflict. The strategic balance is far different here, and so is the geography and the like.

Yes, we need kamikaze drones (both aerial and seaborne) against Bhikaristan. No, they are not a one-stop solution.

 

[ramdas]

EF typhoon engines should also be looked into. They will also come in strongly with their offer. It's more powerful than M88 and e-captive radar is equivalent to the Virupaksha radar

 

[Akshat]

Rafale pros:
1. Proven
2. Ecosystem in place
3. Reliable in terms of geopolitics

Cons:
1. Big pipeline pending
2. Expensive
3. No local pvt partner
4. M88 not compatible with Tejas mk1,2
5. Available versions outdated

I would say 1 is a pro for most of the fighters in the competition except Gripen and the Russian planes. Agree for 2 and 3.

But coming to the cons.
1. Dassault’s order book for Rafale isn’t big enough to constraint supplies to us. They can supply more than 12 planes annually to us, assuming no other deals happen.
2. Cost is in fact one of the pros for Rafale. It has always been L1. It has beaten EF and F18 directly. F15 is more expensive than F18 so that will lose as well. Gripen’s cost to Brazil exceeded Rafale’s price to us. Su30 is more expensive than Rafale so I am guessing Su35 will be as well. In case of F21, even LM has refused to say that it t can beat Rafale in costs, when they were directly asked that question. That leaves only Mig35 with a possibility in terms of cost.
3. That can be done after the contract is given, if it is given to them.
4. Agreed.
5. The latest version is 4.2 which is nowhere close to outdated. It has a European weapons package, the best in the world, with an EE package second probably only to US. So it is as good as you can get, unless you have access to F35.

 

[Rajesh]

What use if they transfer the technology to its subsidiary company. This engine is even insufficient to power our other projects like mk1a. M88-3&4 should be made similar to aravalli engines . This engines can also be used for other projects and both countries benefits form this . We dont have to depend on backstabbing amerikans for engines and the humungous price of rafale can be justified for its price by the engine deal .

 

[Akshat]

EF typhoon engines should also be looked into. They will also come in strongly with their offer. It's more powerful than M88 and e-captive radar is equivalent to the Virupaksha radar

Agree with most of what you said. But as far as the radar is concerned, not sure about Virupaksha but the radar is quite inferior to Rafale’s, and that too before they even start making the full GaN package for Rafale from next year. And these are not my words but the words of a British researcher who was hired by the Eorocomsortium to evaluate their plane and compare with others.

Also, the price. EF lost to Rafale on price, and now we won’t even require the training and we also will require less infrastructure and less spares. So unlikely that they can beat Rafale on price.

And most importantly, I don’t think India will buy any planes other than Russian or French. That’s because all our imported planes have to be nuclear capable. I don’t think we can do that to other planes.

But yes, it can surely be used to drive down the price.

 

[What the heck]

Rafale pros:
1. Proven
2. Ecosystem in place
3. Reliable in terms of geopolitics

Cons:
1. Big pipeline pending
2. Expensive
3. No local pvt partner
4. M88 not compatible with Tejas mk1,2
5. Available versions outdated

and Extremely slow in this era, may be faster 45 years ago, yes eco system in place in France, not in India.

 

[Spectre]

EF typhoon engines should also be looked into. They will also come in strongly with their offer. It's more powerful than M88 and e-captive radar is equivalent to the Virupaksha radar

In-fact IAF originally wanted EF Typhoon and wanted EJ200 engine for Tejas as it is more compact and almost produce fouble the thrust of Snecma M-88, but politics played and Macron did black magic to M0di during his France visit and made him buy 36 Rafale’s.

 

[Spectre]

What use if they transfer the technology to its subsidiary company. This engine is even insufficient to power our other projects like mk1a. M88-3&4 should be made similar to aravalli engines . This engines can also be used for other projects and both countries benefits form this . We dont have to depend on backstabbing amerikans for engines and the humungous price of rafale can be justified for its price by the engine deal .

SNECMA M-88 is not even enough to power Rafales, countries like UAE are already complaining and wanted powerful engines.

 

[Muthukumar Ponnambalam]

LET IT.

BUT MOD AND THE MINISTRY SHOULD PUSH DRDO/ADA TO REVIVE KAVERI TO MAKE IT THE INDIAN F-414 TO POWER ALL TEJAS AND ALL FUTURE JETS.

NO MORE PIGGYBACKING ON THE WEST.

INDIA SHOULD HAVE SOME SPINE AND STAND FIRM ON ITS OWN LEGS.

IF NOT, THEN THERE'S NO POINT IN BOASTING ABOUT IITs AND IISc AND CHEST THUMPING ABOUT INDIAN BRAINS.

 

[Taus Melek]

All these countries offering to manufacture jet engines in India, but all of them will hold back on one thing - manufacture/tech transfer of single crystal blade . Without this 80%, 90% .. manufacturing in India is meaningless.

 

[Phantom]

Rafale pros:
1. Proven
2. Ecosystem in place
3. Reliable in terms of geopolitics

Cons:
1. Big pipeline pending
2. Expensive
3. No local pvt partner
4. M88 not compatible with Tejas mk1,2
5. Available versions outdated

Rafale was never used in any wars, All US and Russian jets have seen multiple wars, Rafale was only used against terrorists with AK-47 to drop bombs from 50,000 ft., so proven should go to the cons list, absolutely no Ecosytem, it should go to the CONS list as well, Relianle, only time will tell, it shouldn’t go to either PROS or CONS list.

 

[V K Singh]

M88 engine with TOT will boost the Indian defence and Aeronautic sector. Good to go for Safran engine in quest for self-reliance.