The advanced medium combat aircraft (AMCA), India’s planned fifth-generation fighter jet, hit a new milestone on Tuesday with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh approving its programme execution model: the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) will have to bid independently or in partnership with other firms to get the contract for manufacturing it.
This is a deviation from the past when such projects would be handed over directly to HAL for manufacturing, without it having to compete with others to bag the project.
The Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)—the agency that will design the aircraft—is set to execute the programme through industry partnership. It will shortly issue an expression of interest for the AMCA development phase, a statement from the defence ministry said.
In a significant push towards enhancing India’s indigenous defence capabilities and fostering a robust domestic aerospace industrial ecosystem, Raksha Mantri Shri @rajnathsingh has approved the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) Programme Execution Model. Aeronautical…
As per the ministry, the execution model approach provides equal opportunities to both private and public sectors on a competitive basis. It said they can bid either independently or as a joint venture or as consortia and the entity/bidder should be an Indian company compliant with the laws and regulations of the country.
The ministry said this was an important step towards harnessing the indigenous expertise, capability and capacity to develop the AMCA prototype, which will be a major milestone towards Atmanirbharta (self-reliance) in the aerospace sector.
The development comes amid tensions with Pakistan and in the immediate aftermath of Operation Sindoor, which has seen significant participation of a range of fighter jets and air-launched weapons of the Indian Air Force, including the modern Rafale jets.
While Pakistan is acquiring Chinese fifth-generation fighter jet J-35 A, China has conducted test flights of sixth-generation fighter prototypes—the J-36 and J-50—being developed by the Chinese Chengdu Aircraft Corporation and Shenyang Aircraft Corporation, respectively.
The new milestone comes a year after the Cabinet Committee on Security cleared the project to design and develop AMCA.
AMCA will be a 25-tonne twin-engine aircraft with advanced stealth features—which means it can avoid getting detected by enemy radars. This means the aircraft would emit a low electromagnetic signature that enemy radars would not be able to detect, but at the same time have advanced sensors and weapons to detect and take down enemy aircraft.
The aircraft will have a bigger internal fuel tank—which can carry 6.5 tonnes of fuel but will remain concealed. It will also have an internal weapons bay for a range of weapons—including indigenous ones—to be buried in its belly.
As of now, the cost of the project is estimated to be around Rs 15,000 crore.
AMCA Mk1 will fly on the existing 90kN class engine (GE 414 engines from the US) and AMCA Mk2 will be powered by a stronger engine of 110kN to be developed indigenously by the DRDO’s Gas Turbine Research Establishment in collaboration with a foreign defence major.
Officials had earlier told that the ADA expected to have the first flight of the aircraft within five years after the cabinet approval.
The total duration of development of the aircraft is expected to be around 10 years from now. The plans were to manufacture five prototypes of the aircraft first before manufacturing of the jet began.
The manufacturing of the aircraft will bring India into a select league of nations that possess its fifth-generation fighter aircraft—the US (F-22 Raptor and F-35A Lightning II), China (J-20 Mighty Dragon), and Russia (Sukhoi Su-57).
