It’s Official: Kaveri Will Power India’s UCAV

Two bits of information from the government landed today confirming that India’s in-development Kaveri turbofan is being officially looked at, in modified form, to power the country’s secret stealth UCAV, codenamed AURA, a programme that was first revealed here on Livefist.

First, Indian defence minister A.K. Antony told Parliament today, “Kaveri spin-off engine can be used as propulsion system for Indian Unmanned Strike Air Vehicle (USAV).” (Never a shortage of acronyms in Indian defence projects).

A few hours later, a few kilometres away at the headquarters of the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO), as part of an annual awards ceremony, scientist Vikram Singh of the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) received the Young Scientist Award for his “valuable contribution in design of a controllable flying wing UCAV configuration for KAVERI Engine.”

Art / Anurag Rana

46 thoughts on “It’s Official: Kaveri Will Power India’s UCAV”

  1. Excellent, wondering when this will operational.. This will be a force multiplier for the armed force.

    Regards,

    Sachin

    1. Kaveri engine can power to your whole country fool, and kolkata based research institute have made a breakthrough in science and had discovered a technolngy to make an aircraft unrecognizable under power radar system and pakistan can only dream of such technos.

  2. @shiv Aroor

    This is really good piece of news, it means Kaveri engine (modified) will still be in use.

    But I have 2 querries

    1. Will Kaveri power the 2 engine AMCA?

    2. Is it true IJT Sitara project has been asinged to dustbin?

    Hope to get answers

    Thanks

    Joydeep Ghosh

  3. The same story has continued for more than 40 years with tejas. We want a confirmed deadline for the AURA induction.

  4. Hope its K9 with reworked Kabini core. Whatever ToT we get with K10 Snecma tieup (hopefully SCB tech) should be used to rework on K9 to improve it to (hopefully) eco standard.
    In my opinion Aura is good 10 years away so i guess if we get K9+ ready in 5 years that would do….

    hope for the best.

  5. In the end will the Kaveri engine be more costlier than the UCAV itself? And lets take another 15 years to make it a reality.

  6. Sometime ago, i heard that
    we have produced a new version
    copy of the Russian NPO Saturn
    36MT turbofan for drones. Now
    it says that Kaveri will power
    them…hmmm what is this
    scant pieces of info?

  7. @ anon 5:31pm

    First learn to spell properly,
    you hoodlum. Then you can
    think of deciding what Kaveri
    will power. Strange comments
    from you pakistanis who can't
    even built a small car engine,
    but are ever-ready to comment
    on India's jet engines.

  8. Good news! I hope the suitable Kaveri engine and UCAV both will be ready in time. This time no kolavari please and no shifting of the targets at least for the first variant. The architecture shall be open from the word go.

  9. The kolaveri engine.

    Just got confirmation that nothing is happening in GTRE.

    They are busy organizing all sorts of seminars and pocketing sponsorships.

  10. @Shiv… How is it possible to put a Jet Propulsion engine in small crafts like UAV/UCAV. All UCAVs engine run on heavy fuel, and not on the Jet Kerosene / JT2 etc, as popularly assumed by people.
    Moreover, putting a jet engine on a plane imparts high specific impulse, an a very high True Air Speed. Therefore, to control and maneuver such high speed crafts by remote signalling is not an easy job. The technologies are quite not available in India. Even till now the most popular UCAV is PREDATOR, which get its thrust from PUSHER type propeller. Doesn't it seem that DRDO is fooling us around.

  11. i see so many questions in the comments page!!! but all unanswered..Shiv i do understand u r busy man getting all that great stuff but do take a look on the page and answer atleast 2 out of 15 comments…LOL

    Ur Big fan

  12. The Kaveri engine will be used to power the flying car, being developed by a private entrepreneur in Bangalore.

    It is being designed to run on a mix of LPG and petrol.

    The single engine vehicle will feature the kaveri engine working on the tornado principle.

    Test flights are being carried out at Jakkur aerodrome.

    Last year r k singh allotted free space for the flying maruti at aero india.

    Picture:

    http://chhindits.blogspot.in/2011/02/flying-maruti-at-aero-india.html

    Read More at:
    http://expressbuzz.com/topic/flying-maruti-car-at-aeroindia-this-year/244233.html

  13. Over the years I have come to believe these "big" projects are nothing but procedures to syphon funds to whichever ( they are all very secular in this respect) party which is in the centre.With elections round the corner who will blame the poor politicians for their anxiety to retain their jobes. They have families and children too! Naturally the Technostructure will have their pound of flesh.So we have these NREGA programmes for the well connected. If I had money I would have bet that we never see an operational frying pan let alone an UACV.

    1. Can at least the theoretical work be carried on in parallel in the voluntary sector, even on internet forums like this one ?

      What is it about technical knowledge that requires employment in government bodies to be able to explore even the theory of equipment and processes ?

  14. It's official – but it's also embarrassing nonsense… an engine that doesn't work for a programme that doesn't exist and another DRDO shambles in the making. Why do you allow this madness to continue?

    1. Project Management requires the psychological skill of making an interacting set of technically qualified and capable persons do what ever they ought to be doing by sheer common sense.

      The need for Project Management arises because human beings are born anti social, and do not ordinarily exercise common sense when in a group.

      Most if not all of the apparent failures of defense research in India are failures of Project Management. It is hard for groups of Indians to work with common sense. It is a cultural limitation.

  15. Mere possession of Blue prints means little. Any tech transfer is not merely transfer of drawings,but of tooling,machining and transfer of the many parameters of the manufacturing process.The forging temperatures,times ,pressures are factors that are critical and built up over time and with expert knowledge.Full TOT transfer takes years and with active participation of the original manufacturer.
    Due to the Bofors scam and banning of Bofors,the tech transfer was never operationalised beyond transfer of plans.

    A 155mm Gun is not a bunch of Lego blocks that one will snap together with a drawing as a guide.

    The OFB made a mess of forging T72 gun barrels, and several burst as critical temperatures were not maintained during forging.
    So imagine what OFB would be able to do with just a bunch of line drawings.

    1. Is there any difficulty in employing materials scientists and engineers with qualifications like PhDs to decide about the correct forging temperatures and pressures ? Surely a PhD in India is of the same capabilities as else where.

  16. @ anon 8:58 PM

    It should be "build" and not "built". Please improve your own English before surmoning the Pakis.

    Hindustani

  17. Will Aura use a single Kaveri or 2? We should have a series of UCAVs in different weight and size categories.

  18. Err… Shiv, what do you mean 'secret' stealth UCAV. Even before the design was finalized, its name and various details were being discussed on Livefist and elsewhere. Hardly secret.

  19. Another piece of News from ur govt ! That's all this is….wat we need is a complete ecosystem for defense…from universities conducting research….to private companies…having tieups with those univ so there won't b any need for govt funding…….wat say?

  20. sing a song!!! Kaveri kaveri di!!! adi adi!!!! thirty ears no signu no signu ,,,,kaveri di di adi…whatu GTRE ..whatu drdo,,,onlee advertisementsu…kaveri di adi…..

  21. I am further reminded of dear C.Northkote Parkinson. He wrote about an imaginary Defence Science Laboratory presumably in the UK tasked to develop Rocket Fuel. After many delays,twists and turns where the Scientists play the condescending tyrants it turns out that the rocket fuel is a hopeless dud. Not to be beaten the Scientists say "…. but we find it is an excellent Paint Remover…". Forty years ago I thought Parkinson was joking…..

  22. After rigorous re-modelling, testing, brain-storming and all the lot, India's UCAV will emerge as a mini-micro flying thing. That will be used by the Weather Dept to replace weather balloons.

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