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Military aircraft and engines
Aero engine self-reliance is the gap in India's defence aviation, and August's news was all about closing it or going round it: Reliance and Rolls-Royce will co-develop an engine for the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft, the National Aerospace Laboratories have unveiled micro gas turbines for drones, and the Navy is leasing two MQ-9B Sea Guardians rather than buying them. The rotating detonation engine was demonstrated in Hyderabad but remains research.
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2026: stealth technology, radar cross-section and radar absorbing material
- Prelims 2026: drone swarms and how they are countered
- Prelims 2025: unmanned aerial vehicles, their landing, hovering and power
- Prelims 2024: which of the listed aircraft are fifth generation fighters
- Prelims 2023: how ballistic and cruise missiles are propelled
Where India stands on aero engines
- Aero engine self-reliance remains a gap in India's defence technology, which is why the engine for the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) is being developed with a foreign partner.
The aircraft
- The AMCA is India's planned fifth-generation fighter, a stealth design.
- A high altitude long endurance (HALE) aircraft is a remotely piloted design built to loiter at height for very long sorties.
The rotating detonation engine
- A rotating detonation engine (RDE) burns fuel in a continuous detonation wave travelling around a ring shaped chamber, rather than by steady combustion.
- In theory its thermodynamic efficiency is 10 to 25 per cent higher, which suits rockets and hypersonic missiles.
- Sustaining a stable detonation, and finding materials that survive the heat, remain hard.
What has happened
25 Aug 2026
The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research's National Aerospace Laboratories (CSIR-NAL) unveiled three indigenous micro gas turbine engines.
- The NJ-05, NJ-50 and NJ-100 are rated at 5, 50 and 100 kg thrust.
- They are meant for tactical unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), drone interceptors and compact missiles.
PIB, 25 Aug 2026: CSIR-NAL unveils indigenous micro gas turbine engines (opens in a new tab)
18 Aug 2026
The Ministry of Defence signed a contract with General Atomics to lease two MQ-9B Sea Guardian drones for the Navy, for 30 months.
- They are HALE remotely piloted aircraft carrying advanced sensors.
- They are to strengthen maritime domain awareness and surveillance across the Indian Ocean Region.
PIB, 17 Aug 2026: MQ-9B Sea Guardian drones leased for the Navy (opens in a new tab)
18 Aug 2026
An Indian startup demonstrated a rotating detonation engine at a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) facility in Hyderabad.
- Every such engine is still in research.
The Hindu, 18 Aug 2026: Rotating detonation engines: promise and reality (opens in a new tab)
15 Aug 2026
Reliance Industries and Rolls-Royce announced plans to design, develop and manufacture an indigenous engine for the AMCA.
- They will also explore an aerospace gas turbine complex in India as a centre for propulsion technology.
- Bids for the AMCA's development were extended to 30 October 2026.