Two top govt panels to assess 7 firms vying for India's stealth fighter jet project

TWo top out regime panels testament assess the capabilities of the heptad public and buck private sector entities competing for the development of India’s fifth-generation stealth fighter jet or the AMCA (advanced medium combat aircraft) programme, officials aware of the matter said on Monday.The firms will be first evaluated by a committee of senior DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) officials and their findings will be sent to a panel headed by the defence secretary for further review, the officials added, asking not to be named.Those eyeing the AMCA programme include Hindustan Aeronautics Limited that has partnered with two smaller firms, Tata Advanced Systems Limited, Adani Defence and Aerospace, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) with Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Goodluck India along with BrahMos Aerospace Thiruvananthapuram Ltd and Axiscades Technologies, and Bharat Forge Ltd in partnership with BEML Ltd and Data Patterns.These firms have responded to a call for expressions of interest (EoI) by the DRDO’s Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) for building prototypes and supporting flight test and certification of the indigenous stealth fighter.The evaluation process is expected to be completed in a month after which the government will issue a request for quotation to the firms and evaluate their responses before negotiating a contract with one of them for building five AMCA prototypes and one structural test specimen, HT has learnt.ADA invited the EOI in June to shortlist Indian companies to kick-start the stealth fighter project, weeks after the defence ministry unveiled its plan to fast-track the development of AMCA and announced that the execution model will be competitive and provide equal opportunities to public and private sector firms. The ADA is executing the programme through industry partnership.The entity must be capable of setting up a manufacturing facility for the series production of AMCA, and the duration of the contract for development, prototyping, flight test and certification should not exceed eight years, the EOI states.The first prototype is expected to make its maiden flight in 2029, and AMCA’s development is likely to be completed by 2034 before it enters production a year later.Speeding up the AMCA programme is critical as China has already deployed the J-20 fifth-generation fighters, is rolling out the J-35 stealth fighters that Pakistan is looking at buying, and has tested two so-called sixth-generation platforms designated J-36 and J-50.Last year, the Cabinet Committee on Security approved AMCA’s design and prototype development at a cost of around ₹15,000 crore. IAF’s modernisation map envisages the deployment of around 120 stealth fighters (six squadrons) 2035 onwards.The first two squadrons will consist of the Mk-1 version powered by the American F-414 engines, while the rest will have the more advanced Mk-2 version equipped with an even more powerful engine to be built in India with French collaboration.The government is likely to soon approve a joint project involving French firm Safran and India’s Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE), a lab under the DRDO, to develop and produce a 120-kilonewton thrust class engine to power the AMCA. The Safran-GTRE combine, HT learns, will develop nine prototypes in a time frame of 12 years, with 100% transfer of technology and intellectual property rights to India.IAF is wrestling with a worrying shortage of fighter jets --- it operates around 30 fighter squadrons compared to an authorised 42.5. An in-house assessment after Operation Sindoor indicates that IAF may need to field more than the authorised number of squadrons to meet future challenges. To be sure, the defence ministry has awarded two contracts for 180 light combat aircraft (LCA Mk-1As) to HAL to boost the IAF’s combat readiness.On October 3, chief of the air staff Air Chief Marshal AP Singh said the French-origin Rafale was one of the options to shore up the air force’s fighter fleet, speaking in the context of the need for 114 multi-role fighter aircraft to be made in India by a foreign original equipment manufacturer and a local partner.