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The General Electric F414 is an American afterburning turbofan engine in the 22,000-pound (98 kN) thrust class produced by GE Aerospace (formerly GE Aviation). The F414 originated from GE's widely used F404 turbofan, enlarged and improved for use in the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet .
The engine consists of a three-staged fan, seven axial stage compressor arrangement, single stage low and high pressure turbines, an augmentor, and produces maximum thrust of 16,000 lbf (71.2 kN) in the original F404-GE-400 model. The engine was designed with a higher priority on reliability than performance.
In 2009, Eurojet entered a bid, in competition with the General Electric F414, to supply a thrust vectoring variant of the EJ200 to power the Indian HAL Tejas Mk2 after both the indigenous Kaveri engine and the General Electric F404 used in prototypes and early production models proved to have insufficient performance.
The Mark 1A variant will be powered by the same powerplant, [158] while the heavier Tejas Mark 2 will be powered by a General Electric F414-INS6 engine. [158] On 17 August 2021, HAL placed an order of ₹ 5,375 crore (equivalent to ₹ 60 billion or US$700 million in 2023) for 99 F404-GE-IN20 engines. [158] [159] [160]
The GE F414 INS6 engine has a maximum thrust output of 98 kN and also offers improved specific fuel consumption over the F404 IN20 engine selected to power both Mark 1 and Mark 1A variants of Tejas. [48] The aircraft is designed keeping in mind that GE's F414 will be replaced once an Indian powerplant is available.
On 18 November 2023, Dr. Samir V. Kamat of DRDO announced that the United States has provided the necessary permits, opening the door for GE Aerospace and HAL to jointly produce the General Electric F414 engine in India for HAL Tejas Mark 2 and for the first two squadrons of AMCA. [33] [34]
GE Aviation, part of the General Electric conglomerate, currently has the largest share of the turbofan engine market. Some of their engine models include the CF6 (available on the Boeing 767, Boeing 747, Airbus A330 and more), GE90 (only the Boeing 777) and GEnx (developed for the Boeing 747-8 & Boeing 787 Dreamliner and proposed for the Airbus A350) engines.
The report noted that the weight of engine has been reduced to 1,180 kg (2,600 lb) and there has been advancements in turbines, compressors, gearboxes, ECS technologies, and metallurgy. Also, 3 engines have been upgraded to K9+ standard. However, much more developments and funding are required to replace F404 engines onboard HAL Tejas. [35]