AMCA put on "hold"

With Ministry of Defence which now officially has put “ on hold ” country’s ambitions fifth generation stealth multirole fighter development AMCA project to fast track delays incurred by the ADA in development of LCA Tejas combat aircraft and to make sure no more delays are incurred in achieving IOC-2 and later FOC for the aircraft in time . Now details are emerging that IAF also wants ADA and HAL to concentrate more on development and testing of Tejas MK-2 before they can restart work on AMCA.

If MOD and IAF are able to stall work on AMCA again, while raising concern on development of Tejas MK-2, AMCA project will be delayed beyond 2022 for even first flight to occur and production will only start in 2028-30. Sources in IAF, we (idrw.org) spoke to, are worried with delays Lca project is facing and have raised concerns that they might be further delays in development of Tejas MK-2 before it hits production. MK-2 needs to be revalidated on many test points before it is put to production and turnaround time from first flight to MK-2 entering Production is quite narrow (2 years) they are concerns in IAF if ADA and HAL will be able to carry out all tests and development work in the time period, said another source.

Defence experts like Rakesh Sharma in past have raised concerns how whole AMCA Project has been moving forward without clear technical or consultation partner for the Project, Key decisions related to development of New Kaveri engine to power AMCA is still pending and needs to be fast tracked to avoid mistakes which were committed on Lca Project which is still powered by imported American engine.

Defence analyst like Vinayak shetty wants AMCA project to be fast tracked and advocate separate team of manpower and foreign technical partner to work on project. He also mentioned that “Development has to continue parallel to other projects (FGFA, LCA) and priority has to given to Air Staff requirements (ASR) issued by IAF to avoid any technical deficiency in the aircrafts, further avoiding delays in the project.


Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) will require around $2-billion for funding development of AMCA and have received initial funds to carry out design phase of the project , ADA will be developing Two Technology Demonstrators (TD) by 2020 to prove concept before work on Seven prototypes are carried out . AMCA is a single-seat; twin-engine fifth-generation stealth aircraft optimised for strike roles and will be replacing British made Jaguars in IAF service currently.

Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) unveiled a 1:8 scale model at Aero India 2013. Which has strong resemblance to Northrop Grumman developed YF-23 prototype that lost the Advanced Tactical Fighter competition to the Lockheed YF-22 in 1991 in what became the F-22 program. ADA hopes to equip the AMCA with a panoramic active-matrix cockpit display, triplex fly-by-light architecture with an optical-fiber-based digital flight-control computer, serpentine air intakes to suppress radar signature and Advance Aesa Radar.

ASR issued by IAF lead to new and improved aerodynamic optimisation of the aircraft, since IAF wants fully Stealth aircraft rather than near stealth aircraft which ADA was hoping IAF will settle for. AMCA will be in 16-18 tonnes class aircraft with 2-tonnes of internal weapons and four-tonnes of internal fuel with max speed of Mach 1.8.