Make in India push: Govt to partner with companies to build advanced stealth fighter jets

In a significant push towards enhancing India’s indigenous defence capabilities and fostering a robust domestic aerospace industrial ecosystem, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has approved the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) Programme Execution Model. The Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) is set to execute the programme through industry partnership.

The Execution Model approach provides equal opportunities to both private and public sectors on a competitive basis, which means only the winner of the bid will be able to execute the contract, with no natural choice by the government. A company can bid as a single entity or as a consortium to win the contract.

The entity/bidder should be an Indian company compliant with the laws and regulations of the country. The initiative is an important step towards harnessing indigenous expertise, capability, and capacity to develop the AMCA prototype, which will be a major milestone towards Aatmanirbharta (self-reliance) in the aerospace sector. ADA will issue an Expression of Interest (EoI) for the AMCA Development Phase soon, says the ministry.

What is AMCA

The Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) is India’s first 5.5 Gen stealth aircraft, equipped with cutting-edge features, and will be deployed for the Indian Air Force and Navy.

At the Aero India show at the Air Force Station Yelahanka, Bengaluru in February this year, the fighter model was showcased for the first time, equipped with cutting-edge features.

The stealth fighter jet is believed to be on par with contemporary aircraft. It has an internal weapon bay with a 1.5-tonne capacity. The first 5th Gen stealth aircraft has artificial intelligence, multi-sensor data fusion (MSDF), and is powered by an electronic pilot.

The materials used for the aircraft, including sensors, electronics, frames, and landing gears, are also indigenously made. Many MSMEs and over 300 tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3 industries are involved in the designing and manufacturing of the materials used in the aircraft, highlighting self-reliance in the sector.