In the changing geo-political situation India started developing a next generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) to give stealth power to the Indian Air Force. Ahead of the plane carnival, Aero India-2015, DRDO scientists started a Project Definition Phase (PDP) for the stealth project. After the success and realisation of lCA Tejas the DRDO team is confidant of taking it to a logical phase.
According to director general (Aeronautics), DRDO, K Tamil Mani, “the AMCA configuration has been frozen”. He said in Bengaluru, “We are targeting the first flight by the end of 2020. We will seek more funds from Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) for AMCA. Currently, the programme has been taken off with a seed money of Rs100 crore.”
According to a DRDO report, combat aircraft AMCA will have stealth features and can be achieved as global aircraft manufacturers. According to a source in DRDO, as part of the new found changing foreign policy equations with some of the developed countries the hitherto out of bounds “beyond-visual-technology” for India, may now be accessible and the country can look to build its own fifth generation aircraft in the near future.
The DRDO officials said that with India realising the four-and-a-half-generation light combat aircraft (lCA) Tejas, the country can showcase it at the 10th edition of Aero India, the biggest aerospace event.
The organisation will also foray into the unknown fifth generation terrain, sources said. A Defence Ministry sources said that a team of top scientists of DRDO is also pursuing to develop our own AMCA as the team is already working to achieve the objective. The AMCA dream has also crossed the first milestone with all feasibility projects getting completed. Confirmatory tests like low Speed Wind Tunnel test, High Speed Wind Tunnel Test and RCS Test have been carried out.
According to ADA Director, P S Subramnaiam, regarded as the man behind Tejas, a total of nine prototypes would roll out of the AMCA hangar. A large number of DRDO and CSIR labs, IITs, IISc and private industries are already involved in the AMCA project.