Fighter jet engines to be made in India now, mega agreement with GE sealed

Published on: 23 Jun 2023 at 11:38 AM

Published by: thefactnews

The Fact News Service

New Delhi, June 23

In a massive push to the Narendra Modi government’s Make In India pitch, General Electric’s aerospace arm announced today that it has teamed up with the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited to make fighter jet engines for Indian Air Force in India.

The announcement came hours after Prime Minister Modi’s meeting with General Electric chairman H Lawrence Culp Jr in Washington. Soon after the meeting, the Prime Minister’s office had tweeted photographs of him with the GE chief. “PM @narendramodi held productive discussions with CEO of @generalelectric , H. Lawrence Culp, Jr. They discussed GE’s greater technology collaboration to promote manufacturing in India,” the PMO tweeted.

A statement issued by GE Aerospace said its Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is “a major milestone” amid Prime Minister Modi’s state visit to the US and a “key element in strengthening defense cooperation between the two countries”.

The agreement, the statement said, includes the potential joint production of GE Aerospace’s F414 engines in India. “GE Aerospace continues to work with the US government to receive the necessary export authorization for this. The effort is part of the Indian Air Force’s Light Combat Aircraft Mk2 program,” it said.