'Fund Kaveri Engine' trending across India

Minding the constant threats of cross-border violations from Pakistan and China, Indian social media users prevailed upon the government to expedite the Kaveri engine project. The hashtag # fundkaveriengine also started trending on Indian social media. Project Kaveri is India’s ambitious program to develop an indigenous jet engine without relying much on the United States and France for fighter jets.

The main aim behind the hashtag going viral is India's utmost need to be self-reliant and not to grovel before military superpowers for building fighter jets.

The project was a vision of the Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE), a DRDO lab based in Bengaluru. Despite making initial progress, the project faced many roadblocks. The engine was initially planned to power Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas.

Tejas ended up opting for GE’s F-404 engine but project Kaveri never lost steam and was not abandoned fully.

To make an indigenous jet engine is no mean task. It is a monumental task requiring advanced engineering, big financial investment and a conducive industrial environment. Fighter jet engines are complex, which provide supersonic speeds in aircraft which comes in handy during combat.

Only Engineers adroit in aerobatics, thermodynamics and material science can meticulously complete this complex task.

We must be the only nation in history where people are running a crowd campaign to fund a gas turbine. Gratifying 😸🫡

1/2 pic.twitter.com/QnmDdvwm5E

— dharmic aeroplate v2 (@daeroplate_v2) May 26, 2025

Kaveri Engine is a low bypass twin-spool turbofan engine of 80 kN thrust class. The engine incorporates flat-rated characteristics to mitigate the thrust drop due to high ambient intake temperature and or high forward speed. Twin Lane full authority digital engine control with an adequate manual backup is a salient design feature of the Kaveri Engine.

In 2024, DRDO had cleared the Kaveri engine for inflight testing. A test in Moscow was also on cards. Despite this, the project was stalled many times due to the superpower countries' denying critical technologies and materials, particularly single-crystal blade technology and high-performance superalloys to India.

Now, Indians are rallying behind PM Modi requesting him to seriously consider revamping the Kaveri Engine project.