![\"India](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/india-france-sign-aravalli-engine-deal-first-co-designed-turboshaft-replace-mi-17-fleet.jpg\")
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Dignitaries look at a CFM LEAP-1A engine after Safran Aircraft Engine Services’ inauguration at GMR Aeropark in Hyderabad on November 26, 2025.
\nNOAH SEELAM\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
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 \u2014 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).<\/p>\n
What makes this announcement different from every prior chapter in HAL and Safran’s long partnership is the word “co-development.” Safran CEO C\u00e9dric Goubet said at the signing that this is the first time the company has ever agreed to jointly design an engine<\/a> in this power class with any partner \u2014 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.<\/p>\n For a country that PM Modi has specifically identified as needing to develop its own jet engines, that distinction is not semantic.<\/p>\n What the Aravalli Actually Is<\/p>\n A turboshaft engine extracts power from a gas generator \u2014 the compressor, combustion chamber, and initial turbine stages that produce the hot expanding gas stream \u2014 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<\/a>) 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.<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 the Ardiden 1H1 that powers the ALH Dhruv, the Prachand light combat helicopter, and the Light Utility Helicopter \u2014 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 \u2014 single-crystal turbine blades and thermal barrier coatings \u2014 to sustain that output under the demanding hot-and-high duty cycles<\/a> the Indian Armed Forces impose on rotorcraft operating in the Himalayas and high-altitude deserts.<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 the Soviet-era workhorse that currently forms the backbone of the Indian Air Force’s medium-lift transport capability<\/a>.<\/p>\n What Co-Development Actually Means \u2014 and Why It Matters<\/p>\n Since Turbomeca (now Safran Helicopter Engines) first granted HAL a manufacturing license for the Artouste turboshaft \u2014 an engine that powered the Cheetah and Chetak light helicopters derived from French designs \u2014 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Aravalli changes that baseline. The February 2023 workshare agreement \u2014 a precursor to this week’s final contract \u2014 explicitly included HAL in core engine<\/a> 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 \u2014 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.<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 the single layer of the aerospace stack where foreign dependency has persisted even as the rest of India’s rotorcraft capability has matured.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Timeline That Makes This Urgent<\/p>\n The Indian Air Force’s Mi-17 fleet \u2014 approximately 240 aircraft of three variants, operated across the IAF, Army, and Navy \u2014 is slated to begin phasing out in 2028<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 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<\/a> than the Aravalli’s target output, a gap that will close as the new engine matures through certification.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n Why This Is a First for Safran, Too<\/p>\n C\u00e9dric 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 \u2014 the Shakti\/Ardiden 1H1 at roughly 1,000 shp \u2014 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<\/a> as much as it is for India.<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 offshore transport, utility missions, and high-value VIP transport \u2014 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.<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 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 \u20b94,936.55 on the Bombay Stock Exchange<\/a> on Wednesday (roughly $52 per share), extending the stock’s year-to-date gain to approximately 12%.<\/p>\n Where Turboshaft Development Can Go Wrong<\/p>\n A candid accounting of the Aravalli program’s ambition has to include the history of the program that preceded it. The ALH Dhruv \u2014 powered by the Shakti engine, the closest predecessor to Aravalli in the HAL-Safran partnership \u2014 has experienced more than 23 accidents<\/a> 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<\/a> after four of seven delivered aircraft crashed.<\/p>\n These were airframe and systems integration failures as much as engine failures \u2014 the Shakti engine reviews conducted following the groundings resulted in modifications, and the fleet was cleared for return to service<\/a> 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 \u2014 and the Shakti program produced documented quality control and systems integration challenges that India’s defense aerospace industrial base is still working to resolve.<\/p>\n The Aravalli contract is a milestone in stated intent. Whether the engineering execution \u2014 certification on schedule, high-altitude performance as specified, operational reliability at the fleet scale \u2014 matches that intent is a question that only years of testing will answer.<\/p>\n How Do an Engine and an Airframe Get Certified Together?<\/p>\n Turboshaft certification requires the engine to demonstrate performance, durability, and failure-mode behavior across the full range of flight conditions \u2014 including the hot-and-high cycles that Indian military operations demand \u2014 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 \u2014 a deliberate de-risking choice that keeps the airframe program moving without betting everything on the new engine’s schedule.<\/p>\n