Engines of opportunity

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Indian companies are betting on small jet propulsion

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Engines of opportunity

Indian companies are betting on small jet propulsion

10 min read | Updated On : Oct 10 2026 | 4:30 AM ISTShareBhaswar Kumar

Bharat Forge’s KGT-45 engine, designed and developed by its aerospace division, on a test bed at the company’s Gas Turbine Technology Development Centre in Bengaluru (PHOTO: Bharat Forge)

Combatants can increasingly reach from across great distances into defended airspace to inflict damage on targets of military, strategic and industrial significance. Two conflicts have abundantly displayed this through their conduct: Ukraine versus Russia, and the United States (US) alongside Israel against Iran. Both wars have witnessed massed strikes by ballistic and cruise missiles as well as long-range one-way attack drones or loitering munitions. Civilian infrastructure, too, has borne the brunt. When it comes to targeting military assets, the Indian subcontinent is no longer unfamiliar with standoff strike capacity’s importance either. May 2025 witnessed an intense four-day clash between India and Pakistan. India codenamed the conflict Operation Sindoor. It brought “kinetic, non-contact” warfare to the subcontinent: combat driven primarily by long-range precision weapons, limiting direct close-quarters engagement between opposing forces. The conflict included three military firsts for this region: India used air-launched cruise missiles; Pakistan employed conventionally armed short-range ballistic missiles; and both sides waged drone warfare. Indigenous Nagastra-1, ALS-50 and JM-1 loitering munitions were confirmed to have seen combat during Operation Sindoor. The impact became visible in March 2026, when India’s Defence Forces Vision 2047 roadmap made provision for a dedicated drone force. Defending against massed missile and drone strikes has proven an expensive prospect. Interceptor missiles, which underpin traditional air defence systems, carry a high cost that tilts unit economics towards the attacker. Mass precision — high-volume use of relatively cost-effective one-way attack drones and missiles, now also being expressly designed from the ground up to possess that attribute — will feature regularly in warfare going forward. A clutch of Indian private firms has caught onto this trend. To capitalise, these players are working on a key component they believe will either anchor their own development of such munitions or benefit from national demand for them. 

Firing up

Bharat Forge, already a private-sector player in artillery systems and armoured vehicles, has established a Gas Turbine Technology Development Centre in Bengaluru. At this centre in January 2023, it validated its indigenously designed and developed KGT-45, a 0.40-0.45 kN (kilonewton) small turbojet engine capable of operating up to 8-kilometre altitude. The company is also developing larger-thrust engines of up to 4 kN.

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 Bharat Forge is no stranger to the rigours of producing engine components. It supplies turbine blades for Rolls-Royce aeroengines, a task demanding expertise in working with high-temperature alloys. Its own engine ambitions, however, go beyond supplying parts, or even just the powerplant. “We own the intellectual property (IP) rights for both the engine and its control system,” said Rajinder Singh Bhatia, chairman of Kalyani Strategic Systems Limited. That firm is the defence business subsidiary of Kalyani Group’s Bharat Forge Limited. Bhatia, however, indicated that the goal went beyond simply developing small aeroengines. It lies in using them to power high-speed, long-range kamikaze (one-way attack) and loitering munitions, which the company is also building. “Our aim is to position ourselves as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM),” Bhatia added. Engines powering combat aircraft often produce 60-130 kN of thrust, which an afterburner can raise to between 110 and 190. Typically generating an average thrust of 0.05-5.0 kN, micro and small jet engines, whether turbojet or turbofan, appear underwhelming by comparison. Yet it is these engines which power unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), loyal wingmen (uncrewed combat aircraft that will fly alongside human-piloted fighter jets), cruise missiles and high-performance one-way attack drones. This segment also appears to have witnessed greater indigenous success, whereas India has chosen foreign collaboration in building a high-thrust advanced aeroengine for its under-development stealth jet, the advanced medium combat aircraft. Bharat Forge’s 4 kN target is no coincidence either. Designed and developed by Bengaluru-based Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE) for propelling cruise missiles, the “Manik” Small Turbofan Engine belongs to a 3.90 kN thrust class. GTRE is a laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation. In April 2024, Manik successfully powered the Indigenous Technology Cruise Missile, a long-range land-attack weapon. Another player is Hyderabad-based Azad Engineering. In July, the company built and handed over India’s first indigenous 3.4 kN-class expendable turbojet engine. The design, however, was GTRE’s. In August 2026, Kawa UAV Private limited (HoverIt), headquartered within the Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor, announced its ‘Divyastra Mk3’ system’s successful maiden flight. Its release called it the “first-ever flight of a 100 per cent indigenously designed, developed and manufactured jet-powered loitering munition in India…”. By Kawa’s account, it was also the first time any such munition “fitted with a fully indigenous Indian-made jet engine” had become airborne. Powering the Divyastra Mk3 is a turbojet designed and developed by Punjab-based DG Propulsion. Kawa’s release added that successfully validating it aboard Divyastra made DG Propulsion “the first Indian company to have its indigenous jet engine certified airborne on a domestically designed loitering munition”. Reflecting a trend of munitions being developed alongside their engines, Hyderabad-based Paninian India Private Limited announced its Yantur 4.5 kN turbofan and turbojet programme in July 2026. Its engines are intended to power Paninian’s proposed “Svayatt-L1” long-range land attack cruise missile. Paninian reportedly said the engine’s core could eventually be scaled to deliver 12.5 kN of thrust for loyal wingmen (collaborative combat aircraft). By July, according to Paninian, Yantur had completed its conceptual and detailed design phase. Subsystem testing and full-engine validation lay ahead. Paninian had also opened a $3 million fundraise. Bengaluru-based startups Nabhdrishti Aerospace and DheyaTech, both players in the small gas turbine engine segment, have also raised funding. No industry estimate exists, interestingly, of what domestic demand for such power plants is worth. The armed forces’ requirement for drones has been projected, yet it is once again difficult to estimate what proportion would be powered by micro or small jet engines. Even so, firms in the sector appear bullish on their prospects. “We are in an era of war where standoff strike matters. Barring the power plant, India’s technology readiness level (TRL) for munitions such warfare requires is very high. That is where the business case comes in,” explained Saurav Jha, founder and CEO of defence propulsion startup D-Propulse. In July 2026, D-Propulse, incubated at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, successfully demonstrated a national first: an indigenous 5 kN air-breathing rotating detonation engine (RDE). “The capital needed for small jet engines is not very high. Munitions and platforms they power — by extension, the engines themselves — are most often expendable systems, which will translate into very high consumption rates. A smaller initial contract can get your foot in the door, and larger follow-on orders may reasonably be expected thereafter. People are therefore willing to take the bet,” Jha added. The number of projectiles employed is a key factor distinguishing Operation Sindoor from Europe’s war and West Asia’s. One open-source estimate holds that from September 2022 through August 2026, Russia fired 130,672 drones along with 1,217 ballistic and 5,734 cruise missiles. Ukraine intercepted 79 per cent of those drones. Its interception rate against ballistic missiles stood at 21 per cent, versus 73 per cent for cruise missiles. Even so, the strikes have shown no sign of abating for now. Iran had launched an estimated 4,962 drones alongside 2,108 ballistic and 58 cruise missiles by April 6, 2026, in a war that began on February 28. Contrast those figures with what India’s armed forces said: “less than 50 weapons” sufficed in bringing Pakistan “to the talking (negotiating) table”. Operation Sindoor had its duration curtailed in significant measure by what the services have described as effective Indian “conflict termination”. Successive statements from Defence Minister Rajnath Singh have, however, indicated awareness that future conflicts could stretch far longer, requiring larger reserves across military materiel categories — both realised stocks and capacity for ramping up while hostilities are under way. West Asia’s conflict in particular has reportedly depleted even US stocks of weapons and interceptors alike. This has consequently reinforced the significance of possessing requisite “magazine depth” — essentially, a military force’s stockpiled reserves, whether ammunition, missiles, fuel or other expendable combat supplies, being sufficient in total size, capacity and resilience against contingencies it is preparing to meet. “For standoff weapons, propulsion is the key to ensuring magazine depth. Sensors and other components, while still important, are already available in-country, failing which sourcing or developing them is relatively easier. But being able to mass-manufacture the engines is key,” said Jha. 

Outrunning the defences

Rocket propulsion drives ballistic missiles, while air-breathing jet engines power their cruise counterparts. One-way attack drones and loitering munitions rely considerably on piston engines. As seen in Ukraine, jet engines are nonetheless increasingly making inroads into this latter category too, prompted by proliferating and advancing defences against it. Loyal wingmen and larger remotely piloted strike aircraft have been designed around jet engines from the outset. Brigadier Rahul Bhonsle (retired) made the case for more advanced uncrewed platforms powered by jet engines. Such propulsion, he reasoned, would make these platforms survivable against the air defence ground environment of Pakistan, and particularly China. The trade-off, he conceded, might come in range or endurance compared with piston-powered alternatives, depending on a platform’s size and weight. What jet power would offer in exchange is more speed and altitude. “Having industrial capacity to build power plants in-country is desirable. Turning that capacity into capability for the forces is also desirable, and I am sure planners are examining it,” said Bhonsle. He cautioned, however, that standoff strike capability can create its own incentive structure, influencing both the decision to initiate conflict and how it is conducted. Other conflicts, he noted, have seen such capabilities widely turned against industrial targets. In drafting associated doctrine, India would therefore have to weigh every aspect of employment with particular care, including escalation risks and adversaries’ standoff responses. “Industry running ahead of articulated doctrine is not necessarily a bad thing. Procurement and industrial developments, however, will ultimately hug doctrine closely,” he added. The quest for faster, more survivable uncrewed platforms and standoff munitions is also feeding innovation in this sector. “Speed is the new stealth,” said Jha. Unlike many other small-engine players, his startup has chosen a distinct technological route. D-Propulse’s RDE, which reached TRL-5 through its July 2026 test, benefits from pressure-gain combustion, Jha explained. Conventional air-breathing engines, by contrast, lose net pressure in their combustion chambers. Because combustion occurs at supersonic speeds, consuming the combustible mix quickly, an RDE needs a smaller chamber than conventional jet engines, making it lighter. The company claims it can offer 15–25 per cent higher thermodynamic efficiency than conventional air-breathing propulsion. “Conventional jet engines in the 5 kN-plus regime can power a high-subsonic cruise missile. An RDE producing that same output, however, can propel a supersonic weapon because of its higher thrust-to-weight ratio,” added Jha. Nor is simply providing an engine Jha’s ultimate aim. “We are looking to become an OEM with a bespoke munition designed around the RDE.” D-Propulse’s immediate target, however, is transitioning from an integrated prototype to a flight-ready engine by December 2027. An ecosystem for small jet engines has evidently already taken root in India. Its firms may go on to build uncrewed and autonomous systems themselves, or supply the manufacturers that do. Either way, their fortunes will rise or fall with demand for such drones and munitions. Around the world, however, companies producing them, often newcomers, have chafed at established procurement mechanisms, viewing these as tilted towards incumbents or too slow for a fast-moving field. Whether India’s engine makers meet similar headwinds, or fly smoothly after what appears to be an imminent take-off, remains to be seen.

Written By

Bhaswar Kumar

Bhaswar Kumar has over seven years of experience in journalism. He has written on India Inc, corporate governance, government policy, and economic data. Currently, he covers defence, security and geopolitics, focusing on defence procurement policies, defence and aerospace majors, and developments in India’s neighbourhood.

First Published: Oct 10 2026 | 4:30 AM IST

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Operation Sindoor defence manufacturing defence manufacturing sector Drones