Our Bureau
New Delhi
India is taking strides forward in improving the Indian Air Force’s air power capability. They are building an indigenous fifth-generation stealth fighter jet which will strengthen the Indian Air Force. The execution model has been named Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) and will be developed by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) with the help of industry partners.
Former IAF Chief, Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria (Retd.) explained the importance of taking steps forward to lift up the prowess of the Indian Air Force especially after the recent tensions surrounding the country. He spoke on how the Ministry of Defence has decided to give other firms from the private sector to pick up a project of such significance.
Air Chief Bhadauria said, “I have seen this development today with great interest, and there was a lot of debate on this issue on AMCA in terms of participation of the private sector along with the HAL…it’s a huge leap of faith in terms of what the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has demonstrated their faith in the private sector to be able to take up such kind of project. And this is the top-end project that the industry is going to handle.”
The chief was asked if this project was initiated after seeing the conflict India had with Pakistan in recent times. The Air Chief denied it saying that there were discussions happening for a year and a lot of work was already done just the announcement wasn’t made.
“A lot of discussion on this matter had been going on to the best of my knowledge. The fact that this announcement was not made doesn’t mean that in the last year, after the AMCA project was cleared, no work has happened. ADA has been fully into it in terms of design and development work that needed to go on. But this decision was important. What China has done and what Operation Sindoor has changed in terms of how we look at standoff capability in terms of survivability in a contested environment,” he said.
The AMCA will have advanced stealth coatings along with internal weapons bays that will be quite similar to what fighter jets like Su-57, F-22 and the F-35, have to offer. The new fighter jet will also use AI and Manned-Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T). This is a combination of manned fighter jets and drones for missions.
