HAL and Safran Sign Final Contract to Build the 'Aravalli' Engine, India's First Indigenous High-Power Helicopter Powerplant

A First for Indian Aviation

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Safran Helicopter Engines have signed the final contract to design, develop, manufacture and support a new helicopter engine wholly conceived and built in India — a milestone the two companies and independent reporting describe as the first time a high-power helicopter engine has been designed and developed on Indian soil.

The contract was executed on August 26, 2026 through SAFHAL Helicopter Engines Private Limited, the 50:50 joint venture HAL and Safran Helicopter Engines have run since 2017. It commits the partners to the "Aravalli" engine program, named after one of the world's oldest mountain ranges, which runs through Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi and Gujarat.

What Aravalli Is For

Aravalli sits in the 3,500–4,000 shaft horsepower class, a power band India currently has no indigenous helicopter engine to fill. It has been selected to power two aircraft still under development at HAL: the 13-tonne Indian Multi-Role Helicopter (IMRH), intended to eventually replace the Mi-17 fleet in Indian Air Force and Army Aviation service, and its naval sibling, the Deck-Based Multi-Role Helicopter (DBMRH), built for operations off Indian Navy ships.

Both platforms have so far depended on the design and supply chain of foreign engine-makers for anything above roughly 2,000 shp. An indigenous engine in the 3,500–4,000 shp class closes that gap and, in principle, insulates the IMRH and DBMRH programs from the export-control and supply-chain risk that comes with importing powerplants for platforms India intends to fly for decades.

Who Signed, and What They Said

The contract was signed by K. Ravi, HAL's Chairman and Managing Director, and Cédric Goubet, Chief Executive Officer of Safran Helicopter Engines, with execution formalized by Ajay Kumar Shrivastava, HAL's Director of Engineering and R&D, and Olivier Savin, Director at SAFHAL and Executive Vice-President for Sales and Marketing at Safran Helicopter Engines.

Both companies have framed Aravalli as more than a single engine order. HAL and Safran have said Indian engineers will work through the entire design, development and certification cycle alongside their French counterparts — direct exposure to international engine-design methodology, test protocols and certification standards of a kind Indian industry has rarely had for a clean-sheet powerplant. HAL has pointed to Aravalli as building intellectual property and engineering capability it expects to carry into future indigenous aero-engine programs, beyond this one aircraft family.

Where It Gets Built

Manufacturing will be sited at Tumakuru in Karnataka, where HAL has been building out its helicopter production infrastructure for the IMRH program. Public reporting places the program's targeted completion — covering design, development, testing and certification — in the 2032–33 timeframe, reflecting the multi-year cycle typical of clean-sheet turboshaft engine development anywhere in the world.

Why This Matters Beyond One Engine

India's helicopter fleet, across the Air Force, Army, Navy and Coast Guard, is overwhelmingly powered by foreign-designed engines — a dependency that has shaped everything from spares logistics to what India can promise export customers for HAL-built airframes. The Aravalli program is the clearest attempt yet to change that specific piece of the supply chain, rather than the airframe alone, which HAL has indigenized more successfully through platforms like the Dhruv and the Light Utility Helicopter.

SAFHAL itself is not new — the joint venture was formed in 2017 specifically to pursue Indian helicopter-engine development with Safran's technology base and HAL's manufacturing and certification experience with India's Ministry of Defence and the Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification. Aravalli is the JV's first program to reach a signed development-and-production contract of this scale.

What to Watch

The 2032–33 target completion window means Aravalli will not power an operational IMRH or DBMRH for years yet — the IMRH program itself is still working toward its own first flight and certification milestones. The near-term signals worth tracking are procedural: whether SAFHAL publishes a detailed development schedule, whether HAL discloses the split of design authority between Tumakuru and Safran's French facilities, and whether the Ministry of Defence formally folds Aravalli into the IMRH program's approved cost and timeline.

For now, the signed contract marks the shift from an announced intent — SAFHAL and Aravalli have been discussed since at least 2024 — to a funded, scheduled development program, which is itself the more consequential step in a business where announcements of intent to co-develop engines are common and contracts that commit real engineering hours are not.

Sources

• https://avitrader.com/2026/08/27/hal-safran-sign-aravalli-helicopter-engine-contract/
• https://theprint.in/defence/hal-safran-to-jointly-develop-aravalli-engine-for-multi-role-helicopters/3025581/
• https://www.safran-group.com/pressroom/hal-choisit-safhal-helicopter-engines-developper-produire-moteurs-aravalli-destines-aux-helicopteres-2024-08-30
• https://www.airforce-technology.com/news/hal-safran-india-helicopter-engine/
• https://www.business-standard.com/markets/capital-market-news/hal-collaborates-with-safran-helicopter-engines-and-safhal-for-aravalli-engine-programme-126082600606_1.html
• https://verticalmag.com/press-releases/hal-and-safran-helicopter-engines-sign-final-contract-with-safhal-launching-development-and-production-of-aravalli-engine/