India Approves Fifth-Gen Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft Project

Indian defense 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 and will shortly issue an Expression of Interest (EoI) for the AMCA Development Phase.

The Execution Model approach provides equal opportunities to both private and public sectors on competitive basis, an Indian MoD press release said,

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.

This is an important step towards harnessing the indigenous expertise, capability and capacity to develop the AMCA prototype.

The AMCA announcement puts to rest ambitious of foreign firms intending to sell India their fly-away fifth generation jets.

While Russia is hard-selling its Su-57, Japan is seeking partnership with India for its sixth generation fighter jet it is developing with Italy and the U.K.