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Indeed.

Unlike the Australian, Russian and American projects, this will be powered by two engines.


The best part? The engines are indigenous. HTFE-25

With the ground run a success, next would be taxi trials and eventually flight trials.

On the 21st of January 2025, India became the newest observer state in the Eurodrone programme.



The Organisation Conjointe de Coopération en Matière d'Armement (OCCAR) or Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation, oversees various European defense programmes, granted the Government of India Observer status following a formal request in Aug 2024.



The Eurodrone platform features an adaptable open- architecture design, making it capable of conducting a variety of intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISTAR) missions. This versatility is achieved through its advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), Electro-Optical/Infrared (EO/IR) sensors, and tactical signals intelligence (SIGINT) payloads, which can be customized for different mission requirements.

An observer nation usually receives access to technical information related to a given platform and can also place orders for it, but unlike full partners does not have a say over aircraft design, development or workshare decisions.
The OCCAR statement did not disclose any details about the benefits India will gain.

It's first flight is expected sometime around mid-2027.

ANI | India joins Eurodrone as an Observer

breakingdefense.com | India as an Observer in Eurodrone
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This would prove useful in advancing indigenous drone programmes like Archer and TAPAS.

Interesting, wonder how this program compares with the Predator program for example. Given the cleavage in terms of convergence of interests between the European and North American NATO countries, after the Big T took office, it is always prudent to hedge our bets, though the Americans have generally been more reliable suppliers than many European countries like Germany and Belgium recently.

If the Wikipedia page is to be believed, the Eurodrone is massive in comparison to the Predator.
- wingspan:- 98ft vs 65ft
- length:- 52ft vs 36ft
- MTOW:- 11tonnes vs 5tonnes
- endurance:- 18-40hrs vs 27hrs

Part of this is due to the twin engine configuration for the Eurodrone. Germany wanted to use the drone for border surveillance and in urban areas so they insisted on a twin engine design to ensure redundancy.

Another shot of this has surfaced.



Twitter | China's tailless stealth fighter

No vertical stabilizers on this one either. It does show swiveling wingtips.
TheWarZone | China's tailless stealth fighter

A US fifth-generation fighter jet, the F-35, crashed in Alaska on January 28th. The pilot ejected to safety, but the aircraft was badly damaged. Seems to be breaking records at crashing.

This is the third crash of the F-35 within a year, and it comes at a time when Elon Musk has been critical of its outdated and inefficient design.

Meanwhile Chinese scrambling to check their J-35's.

Source

I wonder why they opted for two engines on a relative small drone? Doesn't HAL produce a single larger engine?

There are usually two main reasons for twin engines, thrust and redundancy. Single engines providing the same thrust as two smaller engine will always be far more efficient which translates in more range and or airtime.

Jeroen

Looks like Aero India 2025 will have two fifth generation fighter jets: the F35 on static display and the Su-57 conducting aerobatic manoeuvres. It seemed for a second that the F35 display would be cancelled after the Russians confirmed the Su-57’s participation but turns out they are participating afterall.

Isn’t this the first time these jets would be sharing a space, atleast in the public domain? There is a possibility of previous interactions in the Syrian airspace that we don’t know about.

This comes as there is an increasing debate on India buying 5th gen fighters as a stop-gap after the Chinese shocked everyone with their new 6th gen fighters.

Lack of adequate thrust from a single engine and the absence of sufficiently powerful indigenous engine.

The combined thrust from the two turbojet engines is about 7kN. To put that into perspective, the similarly sized American Valkyrie is powered by a single turbofan producing roughly 10kN.


The single larger engine is the HTFE-25, problem is it's still under development.
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Yes that is correct. This is interesting :D

Though not entirely similar, it does remind me of this

If this Reddit post is to be believed, there'll be third as well. Does this count as third? It's only a mockup I believe.


Reddit | Su-75 @ Aero India 2025

From Twitter:

Only in India could American & Russian stealth fighters share a frame like this :

Russian Su-57 arrived yesterday, joined today by an American F-35 at Aero India 2025.





Hoping India finally goes for the Su-57, it looks way better :D

Given that this is the first photo of these two jets together, it really takes home the fact that these two are fundamentally different in both form and function. The Su-57 is clearly meant to be a hyper-manoeuvrable fighter for air domination while the F35 is a multi role strike fighter with a high emphasis on tech, sensors and data fusion. The Su-57 seems like a low slung Corvette sports car compared to the F35 which seems more like a Porsche Cayenne. Those massive razed thin canards really look like flippers of a turtle - adds to the looks. In a WVR dog-fight, there is no question on which fighter would dominate but then again, sneaky warfare is in vogue these days.

And I really want to meet the Indian guy who got the Russians and Americans to agree on parking these two side by side lol:

Russian aircrafts while looking great lacks the advance technology. Look at IAF, it likes it's Mirages and Rafale much more then Mig-29 and Su-MKI. While Su-57 may look good from outside, i doubt if it is anywhere close to F-35.

I guess that would be "Gandhi" on INR. Looks like both Russia & US are in fray to grab the order pie for India's urgent future needs for an immediate need of stealth fighter as China is leaping forward and our Tejas project is currently going on a snail's pace.

I would be interested if someone from HAL/Govt makes these jets (Su-57 & F-35) to carry out a dog fight as a contract clause before placing the orders, that would be a treat for public eyes. lol:

Found another such shot while scrolling through Twitter


Twitter | Livefist | Su-57 & F-35 @ AeroIndia 2025