An Indian design, the Kaveri was originally intended to power production models of the HAL Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

[11] Continuing development problems with the Kaveri resulted in the 2003 decision to procure the uprated F404-GE-IN20 engine for the eight pre-production Limited Series Production (LSP) aircraft and two naval prototypes.

[15] In April 2005, M. Natarajan, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister told The Hindu that "there is good progress" on the development of the Kaveri engine.

"We are ready to join in partnership with the Defence Research and Development Organisation to make Kaveri work," General William J Begert of Pratt & Whitney, told PTI.

"[17] On 5 February 2007, Scientific Adviser to Defense Minister M Natarajan said nearly 90 to 93 per cent of the expected performance had been realized and the government had recently floated an expression of interest to seek partners to move the programme further.

[20] In July 2008, a press release announced a development of modified Kaveri Marine Gas Turbine (KMGT) to propel Indian Navy warships.

As an ongoing project, the air force will be involved at the point of integrating the upgraded version of the engine with the aircraft," he told Flightglobal.

[27] A press release in August 2010, stated that GTRE with the help of Central Institute of Aviation Motors (CIAM) of Russia is trying to match objective of fine tuning of Kaveri engine performance.

The test was conducted with the testbed aircraft at Gromov, with the engine running right from the take-off to landing, flying for a period of over one hour up to an altitude of 6,000 m (20,000 ft).

The engine helped the Il-76 aircraft test bed fly at speeds of 0.6 Mach in its maiden flight, according to the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

[7][35] In August 2010, regarding the reasons for delay, a Ministry of Defence press release reported:[31] As of 2011, the DRDO hoped to have the Kaveri engine ready for use on the Tejas in the latter half of the 2010s decade and the time to complete its research has been extended to 2011-2012.

[3] In March 2012, Defence Minister A K Antony told the parliament that Kaveri was being developed with foreign assistance and would need another ₹2,839 crore (equivalent to ₹54 billion or US$620 million in 2023).

[37] In May 2012, A K Antony told in a written reply to Lok Sabha that DRDO has not prepared any timeline for the Kaveri engine but plans to start flight trials as technology demonstration on Tejas Mk 1 aircraft within 3 years.

[3] In Lok Sabha on 10 December 2012, A K Antony gave another update on the progress made by the Kaveri Engine Development Project:[39] Kaveri Engine was integrated with Il-76 Aircraft at Gromov Flight Research Institute (GFRI), Russia and flight test was successfully carried out up to 12 km (39,000 ft) maximum altitude and maximum forward speed of 0.7 Mach.

This has been a great achievement in the aerospace community of the country, when the first ever indigenously developed fighter aircraft engine was subjected to flight testing.

[40] In January 2013, the GTRE director said that they are abandoning the plan for co-development with Snecma, but they still need an overseas partner, which will be selected through competitive bidding.

[41] In November 2014, The Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) decided to abandon the Kaveri engine (GTX-35VS ) programme due to its shortcomings.

[42] On 4 July 2016, according to Indian media report, France offered to invest € 1 billion to revive India's combat jet engine project, proposing a joint development plan that could see the stalled Kaveri gas turbine powering indigenous Tejas fighters by 2020.

[45] An auditing team from Safran certified the Kaveri engine in 2018, stating that it had attained a level of maturity appropriate for restricted aircraft integration.

[47][48][49] As per government statement in Rajya Sabha during Winter Session 2021, HAL Tejas FOC variant demands higher thrust which present Kaveri engine architecture is unable to provide hence will not be used.

[51] In February 2022, DMRL has developed Nickel base superalloy DMR SN 742, which is a medium alloyed material that is used as high pressure compressor (HPC) and turbine (HPT) rotors in a variety of aero engines.

A performance test was carried out on the second prototype, which included a new fan module, a short jet pipe, and an engine fuel control system.

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.

[60] On 23 December 2024, GTRE announced that the Kaveri engine's dry variant for DRDO Ghatak has been approved for in-flight tests onboard an Ilyushin Il-76 testbed aircraft for performance evaluation under varied flight conditions.

There has been much lack of public understanding of the degree of realism in the DRDO's planning schedules for various elements of the LCA programme, most particularly for the Kaveri development effort.

France's Snecma, with over half a century of successful jet engine development experience, took nearly 13 years to bring the Rafale fighter's M88 engine to low-volume production after bench testing had begun, which had spent enormous research funds, iterative development programs with cost overruns (but cost overruns were seen as integral part of R&D) and resources to fulfil their ambitious programme.

Similar low amounts of bypass on earlier engines, required only for afterburner and nozzle cooling,[65] introduced the term "'leaky turbojet".

It consists of a high-bypass-ratio turbofan based on the Kabini core and a non-afterburning version intended for on an under development advanced jet trainer, the HAL HJT-36.

[66][67] As per Ex Director Y. Dilip, right now the development is on 73 kN engine with an afterburner, which is ready to go and the team is making an effort to fly it on HAL Tejas.

[56][75] By early 2024, the company plans to complete the first stage of development and be manufacturing eight modules comprising six 48 kN dry engines without an afterburner.