Defence Minister Rajnath Singh approves AMCA execution model through industry partnership

Defence Minister approves execution model for indigenous fifth gen fighter jet AMCA, crucial for maintaining technological edge against China.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has approved the execution model for the under development indigenous fifth generation fighter jet, the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), with the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) to execute the programme through industry partnership. Speeding up the development and induction of AMCA has become critical since China has already fielded two fifth gen fighters and is set to supply 40 J-35s to Pakistan, and especially so after the military confrontation under Operation Sindoor.

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The AMCA project, the country’s only fifth gen fighter programme, received approval from the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) in March 2024 at an approximate cost of ₹15,000 Crore as a 25-tonne twin engine stealth aircraft

“The execution model approach provides equal opportunities to both private and public sectors on competitive basis. They can bid either independently or as joint venture or as consortia. The entity/bidder should be an Indian company compliant with the laws and regulations of the country,” a Defence Ministry statement said.

As reported by The Hindu earlier, the design of AMCA is ready and the first prototype is expected to roll out by 2028-29 and production is expected to begin from 2032-33. The target is to have the aircraft ready for induction in 2034.

This is an important step towards harnessing the indigenous expertise, capability and capacity to develop the AMCA prototype, which will be a major milestone towards Aatmanirbharta in the aerospace sector, the Ministry said adding that ADA will shortly issue an Expression of Interest (EoI) for the AMCA development phase.

AMCA will feature internal weapons bay and diverterless supersonic intake which has been developed in India for the first time with an internal carriage of 1,500 kg of payload and 5,500 kg of external payload with 6,500 kg of internal fuel. Officials had stated earlier that Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) will be the lead production agency with significant involvement of the private sector to speed up the project.