From Marut to Tejas,India’s Quest for an Indigenous Fighter Aircraft – The Nazi connection

Readers frequently come across news items about India’s indigenously developed and failed, fighter aircraft –Tejas. Starting the Tejas programme in 1985, and after spending almost USD18.4 billion (including the money spent on the naval variant) the aircraft does not meet IAF and IN requirements. Both the services consider the aircraft underpowered and have rejected it. Interestingly, India’s quest for developing an indigenous fighter aircraft started much before Tejas.

During the Cold War, Jamal Abdel Nasser, the Egyptian President, had commissioned Nazi scientists who helped UAR (as Egypt was then officially designated) in producing supersonic fighter aircraft, biological weapons, and a delivery system (providing the backdrop for Frederick Forsyth’s thriller “The Odessa File”. More about The Odessa File later). While Messerschmitt was busy designing UAR’s Helwan fighter aircraft, Kurt Tank, another Nazi aeronautical engineer, was constructing the HF-24 Marut for India. Both these aircraft were to be powered by the Egyptian E-300 jet engine designed by Ferdinand Brandner, an Austrian aerospace designer, and an S.S. Standartenführer in wartime Germany.

Nasser and Nehru were aware that the foundations of the aerospace programmes of both the United States and the Soviet Union rested on WWII German military technology. Kurt Tank, a leading German aircraft designer and test pilot for the Nazis, fought as a soldier in World War I. He, then, studied electrical engineering and became a  qualified pilot. After working for a few aircraft manufacturers, he ended up at Focke-Wulf in 1931. Kurt Tank was among the ten top most scientists and engineers who were credited with raising Hitler’s war machine. He designed both the Fw 190 fighter aircraft and the Fw 200 transport aircraft. 

After the war ended, Tank immigrated to Argentina. He briefly worked on a jet aircraft for Argentina that was not successful. During the 1950s, the Indian Government was in the process of formulating a new Air Staff Requirement for a Mach 2-capable combat aircraft to equip the IAF. However, as HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) lacked the necessary experience in both developing and manufacturing frontline combat fighters, it approached Tank and invited him to India to establish and head the project to produce what would become India's “first indigenous fighter aircraft”. Upon arrival, he set about directing the design work for the prospective fighter.

 Whereas Marut was touted as the first Indian developed jet aircraft and also being the first Asian jet fighter to go beyond the prototype/test phase, and into successful production and active service, Indians had very little to do with its development. All the design work was done by Tank and his team of German experts. Indians were relegated to the role of draftsmen and assistants. On 17 June 1961, the prototype conducted its maiden flight; on 1 April 1967, the first production Marut was officially delivered to the IAF.

While the Marut had been envisioned as a supersonic-capable combat aircraft, it would never manage to breach the sound barrier, being limited to subsonic speeds only. This limitation was principally due to the engines used, which in turn had been limited by various political and economic factors. Multiple attempts to develop improved engines or to source alternative power plants were fruitless.

Criticism of the Marut's cost and lack of capability in comparison to contemporary aircraft were often made. A total of 147 Maruts were manufactured, the majority of which were introduced in service with the IAF. While it had been initially envisioned as a capable interceptor aircraft, it was primarily used for ground attack missions instead. In the ground attack role, the Marut saw active combat operations during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, notably participating in the Battle of Longewala. It would be pertinent to mention here that PAF was not present during the battle of Longewala, and IAF had a field day against a Pakistani brigade that was launched in the Indian territory without air cover.

By 1982, the Marut was increasingly considered to be obsolete and was gradually phased out during the late 1980s. While the Marut was being considered for phasing out, the IAF was finalizing, in 1985, the Air Staff Requirement for the LCA (Tejas) after which the Aeronautical Development Authority (ADA) started marshalling the resources and putting up on ground various facilities, laboratories, and infrastructure required for the development of the core competencies for this aircraft. Project definition commenced in 1987, with France’s Dassault Aviation in a reviewing/ advisory role.

HAL Tejas

One is surprised at how the Indians while developing the Tejas, have repeated the same mistakes they had committed during the Marut programme. IAF wants an aircraft with supercruise capability (ability to achieve supersonic speed without afterburners) and AESA radar. This means that IAF now demands an aircraft that is more modern and capable than the SU-30 MKI because SU-30 lacks supercruise capability and only has PESA radar. Supercruise means at least  40% more fuel to travel the same distance at subsonic speeds. Also, AESA radar will require a more powerful engine and a larger nose cone to house it.

So the desired aircraft will be bigger and heavier than the present Tejas. It will not be in the light combat category as stipulated in the original ASR. Tejas was supposed to replace MIG-21 which requirement, it sufficiently fulfils. But it does require a more powerful engine to 1) increase its combat radius and 2) provide adequate thrust to enable the naval variant to take off from IN’s relatively small aircraft carrier decks.

After the Kaveri engine failed to perform at high altitudes, Indian DRDO was considering a proposal to team up with French company Snecma for technical assistance to develop, using Snecma’s new core, an uprated derivative of the Rafale’s M-88-2 engine, providing 83-85 KiloNewtons of maximum thrust. The proposal was shot down by the IAF by objecting that the DRDO will be merely helping Snecma in making an engine with an “Indian made stamp” (Shukla, 2010).

 Such being the rivalries between IAF and various Indian defence agencies (ADA, DRDO, and HAL), one is reminded of the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping who had once remarked: “It does not matter whether a cat is white or black, as long as it catches mice”.

Composites are used in airframes to achieve:1) significant reduction in weight;2) significant reduction in the part count;3) elimination of costly fasteners;4) reduction in material fatigue; and 5)reduction in the signature. It is claimed that up to 45% of Tejas airframe employ composites, lowering the aircraft’s overall weight by 21 %. If this is correct, the advantage of weight reduction has not been utilized by making the aircraft perform efficiently with a less powerful engine. As for metal fatigue, PAF Sabres developed hairline cracks in their airframes in the1980s, after almost 20 years of operation. 

The Mirage aircraft operated by PAF, due to their better metallurgy, are still flying after being inducted almost half a century ago. Composites, despite the claims made by HAL and ADA, are costly materials that should be used sparingly in critical regions of the airframe. The use of these materials in Tejas is rather lavish.

Saleem Akhtar Malik

12 January 2022

The author is a Pakistan Army veteran who regularly writes on national and international affairs, defence, military history, and military technology. His talks on these subjects are aired on his YouTube Channel "The Observation Post". His blog "Sam1953.blogspot.com" features his articles.