Dignitaries look at a CFM LEAP-1A engine after Safran Aircraft Engine Services’ inauguration at GMR Aeropark in Hyderabad on November 26, 2025.
NOAH SEELAM/AFP via Getty Images
India on Wednesday took a step that its aerospace planners have pursued for decades: it signed a contract not merely to manufacture a foreign-designed engine, but to co-design one from scratch. The agreement, finalized in Bengaluru between Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and France’s Safran Helicopter Engines through their joint venture SAFHAL Helicopter Engines Pvt. Ltd., launches the Aravalli turboshaft engine — a 3,500 to 4,000 shaft horsepower (shp) powerplant selected to fly India’s next-generation 13-tonne Indian Multi-Role Helicopter (IMRH) and its 12.5-tonne naval counterpart, the Deck-Based Multi-Role Helicopter (DBMRH).
What makes this announcement different from every prior chapter in HAL and Safran’s long partnership is the word “co-development.” Safran CEO Cédric Goubet said at the signing that this is the first time the company has ever agreed to jointly design an engine in this power class with any partner — not to license an existing design for Indian manufacture, but to build the engineering architecture together, with HAL engineers seated at the design table for the engine’s core components.
For a country that PM Modi has specifically identified as needing to develop its own jet engines, that distinction is not semantic.
What the Aravalli Actually Is
A turboshaft engine extracts power from a gas generator — the compressor, combustion chamber, and initial turbine stages that produce the hot expanding gas stream — and converts it into output shaft power through a separate, mechanically independent power turbine. The independence of those two sections (the free power turbine design) allows each to spin at its optimal speed, a critical advantage for helicopters, which must deliver torque at widely varying rotor loads without requiring complex multi-ratio transmissions.
The Aravalli sits in the medium-lift class, rated at 3,500 to 4,000 shp. To appreciate what that means, the HAL-Safran Shakti engine — the Ardiden 1H1 that powers the ALH Dhruv, the Prachand light combat helicopter, and the Light Utility Helicopter — produces approximately 1,000 shp. The Aravalli, at roughly three to four times the Shakti’s output, is a step-change in engineering complexity, not an incremental upgrade. It will require more compressor stages, higher turbine inlet temperatures, and more advanced materials — single-crystal turbine blades and thermal barrier coatings — to sustain that output under the demanding hot-and-high duty cycles the Indian Armed Forces impose on rotorcraft operating in the Himalayas and high-altitude deserts.
Each IMRH will carry two Aravalli units in a twin-engine configuration, meaning the design target for safe single-engine flight capability is implicit in how the power budget is split. The IMRH is designed to a 4,000 kilogram (8,820 lbs) payload at sea level, a cruise speed of approximately 145 knots (167 miles per hour), a range of 800 kilometers (497 miles), and a service ceiling near 6,500 meters (21,300 feet). Those numbers are intended to exceed the Mil Mi-17 in every major performance parameter — the Soviet-era workhorse that currently forms the backbone of the Indian Air Force’s medium-lift transport capability.
What Co-Development Actually Means — and Why It Matters
Since Turbomeca (now Safran Helicopter Engines) first granted HAL a manufacturing license for the Artouste turboshaft — an engine that powered the Cheetah and Chetak light helicopters derived from French designs — the standard model for Indian propulsion has been licensed production: a foreign partner designs the core, India builds it under license, accumulating manufacturing experience but limited design authority. The Shakti program moved the needle somewhat by involving HAL in production of the engine’s core, but the fundamental architecture remained Safran’s.
The Aravalli changes that baseline. The February 2023 workshare agreement — a precursor to this week’s final contract — explicitly included HAL in core engine component design and development for the first time in the partnership’s history. This means HAL engineers will participate in decisions about compressor blade geometry, combustion chamber design, and turbine architecture — the knowledge that, once a country has it, allows it to evolve an engine independently, support it without returning to the original manufacturer for every modification, and potentially adapt or export it without IP restrictions that belong to a foreign design house.
That is what “owning the engine” means in practice. India can already build helicopters. It has designed the Dhruv, certified the Prachand, and is developing the LUH. The airframe is a solved problem. Propulsion has been the gap — the single layer of the aerospace stack where foreign dependency has persisted even as the rest of India’s rotorcraft capability has matured.
SAFHAL, the 50:50 joint venture incorporated in India in November 2023 with a dedicated production facility in Tumakuru, Karnataka, will be the vehicle for translating the co-development agreement into production hardware. Both parent companies will contribute design, manufacturing, testing, and product support expertise, with the stated intent of meeting international aerospace certification standards.
The Timeline That Makes This Urgent
The Indian Air Force’s Mi-17 fleet — approximately 240 aircraft of three variants, operated across the IAF, Army, and Navy — is slated to begin phasing out in 2028. HAL estimates a total IMRH requirement of 314 helicopters across the Indian Armed Forces (200 for the Air Force, 100 for the Army, 14 for the Navy), with an additional 123 naval helicopters possible depending on DBMRH program outcomes.
That creates a compressing operational window. The IMRH is targeting military certification around 2031, with service introduction expected to follow over several years thereafter. Early prototype aircraft are expected to fly with existing available engines while the Aravalli matures through its development cycle — a deliberate sequencing decision that allows airframe trials to proceed before propulsion is finalized. The FlightGlobal reporting on the IMRH program notes that prototype engines deliver less power than the Aravalli’s target output, a gap that will close as the new engine matures through certification.
The path to this week’s final contract has been methodical. A memorandum of understanding to create SAFHAL was signed in July 2022. The workshare agreement followed in February 2023. SAFHAL was formally incorporated in November 2023. An airframer contract to begin joint design work launched on August 30, 2024. Wednesday’s final contract is the capstone that converts those preparatory steps into a committed development and production program, per the full program timeline.
Why This Is a First for Safran, Too
Cédric Goubet’s statement at the ceremony was pointed: this is not merely a milestone for India, but for Safran. His company has co-developed turboshaft engines before — the Shakti/Ardiden 1H1 at roughly 1,000 shp — but has never before taken on genuine co-development at the 3,500 to 4,000 shp level with any partner, in any market. That distinction makes Aravalli a first for Safran as much as it is for India.
The commercial logic for Safran is straightforward: India is one of the world’s fastest-growing defense markets, and a genuine co-development arrangement creates a more durable industrial presence than a simple equipment sale. Beyond the 314-helicopter military pipeline, the Aravalli program has flagged potential civil applications — offshore transport, utility missions, and high-value VIP transport — that could widen the addressable market. A co-development partner that owns part of the engine’s IP has a stake in those downstream markets that a licensee does not.
The Aravalli program fits a broader pattern. In February 2026, India and France elevated their bilateral relationship to a “Special Global Strategic Partnership,” explicitly endorsing co-development and co-production across defense platforms — a framework that already encompasses Rafale fighter jets, Scorpene submarines, and now the Aravalli helicopter engine. HAL’s shares registered the market’s confidence in the program, rising approximately 1% to ₹4,936.55 on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Wednesday (roughly $52 per share), extending the stock’s year-to-date gain to approximately 12%.
Where Turboshaft Development Can Go Wrong
A candid accounting of the Aravalli program’s ambition has to include the history of the program that preceded it. The ALH Dhruv — powered by the Shakti engine, the closest predecessor to Aravalli in the HAL-Safran partnership — has experienced more than 23 accidents in Indian domestic service over its operational life, with at least 17 military personnel killed. Multiple investigations have identified failure modes in flight control systems (aluminum control rods in the gearbox, since replaced with steel rods across the fleet), as well as engine component issues that required batch recalls. Ecuador terminated its ALH export contract in 2015 after four of seven delivered aircraft crashed.
These were airframe and systems integration failures as much as engine failures — the Shakti engine reviews conducted following the groundings resulted in modifications, and the fleet was cleared for return to service in May 2025. But the Dhruv’s troubled record is a data point that any honest engineering assessment of the Aravalli program has to engage with. Building a new engine in a more demanding power class, on a new airframe, to new certification standards, is a harder problem than the Shakti program presented — and the Shakti program produced documented quality control and systems integration challenges that India’s defense aerospace industrial base is still working to resolve.
The Aravalli contract is a milestone in stated intent. Whether the engineering execution — certification on schedule, high-altitude performance as specified, operational reliability at the fleet scale — matches that intent is a question that only years of testing will answer.
How Do an Engine and an Airframe Get Certified Together?
Turboshaft certification requires the engine to demonstrate performance, durability, and failure-mode behavior across the full range of flight conditions — including the hot-and-high cycles that Indian military operations demand — before it can be cleared for the production aircraft it is designed to power. A simultaneous airframe development program means HAL must manage two interdependent certification tracks, with the engine’s maturation timeline having a direct bearing on when the IMRH can enter operational service. Early prototypes will fly with interim engines at approximately 80% of the Aravalli’s target power — a deliberate de-risking choice that keeps the airframe program moving without betting everything on the new engine’s schedule.
The Tumakuru production facility, where SAFHAL will manufacture the Aravalli, is part of a broader Karnataka aerospace industrial corridor being built south of Bengaluru. The facility is expected to generate indigenous maintenance, repair, and overhaul capacity for a higher power class of engine — an area where India has historically depended on original-equipment support, meaning every engine requiring significant work had to route through foreign facilities. Developing MRO capability in-country is the operational sustainability argument for co-development that persists long after the last aircraft rolls off the production line.
Frequently Asked QuestionsWhat is the difference between the Aravalli and the Shakti engine?
The Shakti (formally the Ardiden 1H1) is a roughly 1,000 shaft horsepower turboshaft developed jointly by HAL and Safran that powers the ALH Dhruv, the Prachand light combat helicopter, and the Light Utility Helicopter — all aircraft in the 5 to 6 tonne class. The Aravalli is a new-generation turboshaft in the 3,500 to 4,000 shp class, designed for the 13-tonne IMRH and its naval variant. The power gap is roughly three to four times, which means a substantially more complex engineering program — more compressor stages, higher turbine temperatures, and more advanced materials. Critically, while India helped manufacture the Shakti, the Aravalli is the first engine in this power class that Safran has agreed to co-design with HAL rather than merely license for Indian production.
When will India’s IMRH actually replace the Mi-17 fleet?
The Indian Air Force’s Mi-17 fleet is scheduled to begin phasing out in 2028. The IMRH is targeting military certification around 2031, with service entry following over several subsequent years. There is, therefore, a potential gap period during which the Air Force will be retiring Mi-17 aircraft faster than IMRH deliveries can replace them — a situation that makes the Aravalli engine’s development timeline directly consequential for India’s operational medium-lift capacity. Early IMRH prototype aircraft are expected to fly with existing available engines while the Aravalli matures, keeping the airframe program on track independent of the engine’s schedule.
What is SAFHAL Helicopter Engines, and who owns it?
SAFHAL Helicopter Engines Pvt. Ltd. is a 50:50 joint venture between Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and Safran Helicopter Engines SAS, formally incorporated in India in November 2023. It is dedicated specifically to the design, development, production, sales, and lifecycle support of new-generation helicopter engines in India. SAFHAL will produce the Aravalli at a dedicated facility in Tumakuru, Karnataka. The 50:50 ownership structure means both partners share equally in the venture’s commercial outcomes — a different arrangement from a licensed-production contract, in which the design-owning partner retains the IP regardless of manufacturing volumes.
Does the ALH Dhruv’s safety record affect confidence in the Aravalli program?
The ALH Dhruv — powered by the Shakti, the predecessor HAL-Safran co-developed engine — has experienced more than 23 accidents in Indian domestic service, raising documented questions about HAL’s systems integration and quality control capabilities. The Shakti engines were reviewed and modified following groundings in 2023–2025, and the fleet returned to service in May 2025 after a safety overhaul. These were predominantly airframe and systems integration failures rather than isolated engine failures, but they are a meaningful precedent for assessing the industrial challenges ahead. The Aravalli program is technically more ambitious than the Shakti — a higher power class, a new airframe, new certification standards — which means the engineering and manufacturing disciplines that produced problems in the Dhruv program will need to perform at a higher level. Independent technical audit of the Aravalli’s development progress, as it matures through testing, will be the most reliable indicator of whether those lessons have been internalized.