HAL Plans 8-9 Month Prototype Rollout to Fast-Track AMCA Development

India's ambitious Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) program is gaining momentum, with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) planning to roll out each prototype at intervals of 8-9 months. This strategic approach aims to maintain a rapid pace of development for the indigenous fifth-generation fighter jet.

Following the Cabinet Committee on Security's approval earlier this year, the AMCA program has entered a critical phase. Industry sources indicate that the first prototype's maiden flight is anticipated in late 2028, with a potential rollout by late 2027 or early 2028. Work on the second prototype is already underway, ensuring its readiness for developmental flight trials in 2029.

Learning from the experiences of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas program, the developers have adopted a phased approach for the AMCA prototypes. The initial three prototypes will primarily focus on developmental flight trials and collecting crucial feedback from the Indian Air Force (IAF). This feedback loop will facilitate necessary refinements before the aircraft enters production.

The subsequent two prototypes will be dedicated to rigorous weapons trials, ensuring the AMCA's combat readiness. HAL and ADA's aggressive rollout schedule aims to expedite the validation of various fifth-generation technologies, including advanced avionics, powerful sensors, and a critical stealth design.

This ambitious plan underscores India's commitment to developing a cutting-edge indigenous fighter jet. The AMCA, upon successful completion, is expected to significantly enhance the IAF's capabilities and bolster India's position in the global aerospace arena.

 

[sanket]

Countdown begins for Indigenous Stealth Fighter.

 

[Neal.B]

2028-29 is too much faster. Let's root for 2038-39.

 

[Satya Dev]

Meanwhile China's J-20 5th gen fighter program has progressed at an impressive rate since its inception, resulting in the production of approximately 250 aircraft, with over 200 currently in active service. The J-20 series includes three main variants: the initial production model J-20, the thrust-vectoring J-20A, and the twin-seat J-20S.

 

[shivkumar sinha]

Hopefully , ADA and HAL have learnt lessons from development of Tejas and fast track AMCA. I am sure ,it will be much better than so called chinese 5th generation fighter J-20 in all respects including stealth, power , avionics,sensors and weapons.

 

[Sudha]

Why should Bharat's fighter programme always behind the world by one generation? ADA after its work on TEDBF designing should focus on initiating designing a 6th gen fighter by 2025-26 itself.

 

[NSR]

So AMCA IOC/FOC may happen three years after start of flight test trials in 2029 which makes it 2032 at most.
Approvals may take their Royal Time Frame so if all goes well then productions will start in 2035 which is 11 years from now.

Awfully long time to wait for a 5th Generation fighter when all of the world already moving to 5th gen right now.
Some countries are trying to field 6th generation fighter by 2035.

My best advice to GoI, MoD, and IAF is to become a fourth foundational partner of UK/Italy/Japan consortium for 6th generation fighter which will become reality between 2032 to 2035.
For 1/4th of investment, India as a foundational partner will get a lot of technology and TOTs which may even help India in its TEjas Mk2, TEDBF and AMCA.

Not joining will increase risk of failures in Indian programs which we never know when they will fructify.
Be wise and join for 6th generation fighter.

 

[prabar]

2028-29 is too much faster. Let's root for 2038-39.

2048- 50

 

[prabar]

Plans to roll out each prototype at a interval of 9 months, if we take into account a minimum of 3 months of delay then most optimistically 1 prototype per year

 

[Radha Ramanan]

believe me any fighter takes 10- to 15 years Leave alone a stealth fighter. Take the f-16 or the rafale itself. All this is wish full thinking according to " informed sources" unsubstantiated.

 

[Akshat]

Countdown begins for Indigenous Stealth Fighter.

That countdown began long ago and will keep on going for decades

 

[vinod nair]

We can tweak the design further afterwards but commence the flight testing as soon as possible as soon ioc is achieved start inducting into services

 

[Sandeep]

Meanwhile China's J-20 5th gen fighter program has progressed at an impressive rate since its inception, resulting in the production of approximately 250 aircraft, with over 200 currently in active service. The J-20 series includes three main variants: the initial production model J-20, the thrust-vectoring J-20A, and the twin-seat J-20S.

Again you keep saying the same thing each time like your in love with them. The J20 is not an actual 100% stealth fighter at all and the technology and capabilities that China claim it can do is not true. The technology is inferior, problematic, faulty, unreliable and its weapons package faces similar problems with the missile range falling short, seeker failure and easily jammed to. Our own Sukhoi jets can easily see their J20 stealth jet across the border using 20 year old technology.

 

[Prit]

believe me any fighter takes 10- to 15 years Leave alone a stealth fighter. Take the f-16 or the rafale itself. All this is wish full thinking according to " informed sources" unsubstantiated.

HAL plans to build 5 prototypes for AMCA. 1st prototype is supposed to come out around 2028. By 2033 all the prototypes should be ready @ 1 per year and by 2035, AMCA should enter series production. This is quite reasonable timeline HAL & ADA is giving us. Whether they would be able to follow it, is another question and we'll see the answer to that with time.

 

[Sandeep]

It’s important that we quickly develop the prototype as soon as possible and manufacture two jets at the same time which will allow us to carry out more tests at a faster pace. They should ideally complete all tests and trials within 2 years to have its first flight so they can test all of the technology, equipment and capabilities even more.

Once they finish all of that and it’s ready for production then they should have at least 4 production lines operational with the capability of increasing it more so that we can quickly induct more jets as soon as possible.

 

[alpha numeric]

Again you keep saying the same thing each time like your in love with them. The J20 is not an actual 100% stealth fighter at all and the technology and capabilities that China claim it can do is not true. The technology is inferior, problematic, faulty, unreliable and its weapons package faces similar problems with the missile range falling short, seeker failure and easily jammed to. Our own Sukhoi jets can easily see their J20 stealth jet across the border using 20 year old technology.

But said technology exists, providing them an Avenue to further refine it with inputs from real time experience in the future iterations. It's their first time building it, we made mistakes during our Tejas build but unlike them we took North 3 decades to get anything done, Considering where they started out even with all the stolen IP you can't just put it together like legos reverse engineering in itself requires substantial capital and technical prowess it's inarguably easier than going through a developmental cycle were they have to start from scratch but that's still more than what we have, They had to build almost everything from scratch without willing foreign assistance and thus lacking any expert feed back when things go south, We on the other hand haven't even begun. As for the Soviet hardware we possess, we didn't build it and even the things we build(engines specifically) we rely on the Russians, Actively. The Chinese were smart enough and ripped them off. We used to say the same thing about products made in china anything until it got to the point that only they make the everything including the high q and low q stuff. You are grandstanding as if we are anywhere close to even possess anywhere close to their industrial capacity.
when you start something new you make mistakes, As Indians who have inarguably the shittiest industrial ecosystem amongst great powers in terms of competitiveness despite a 30 year lead on China and A 20 year lead on South Korea, we really have no ground to stand on to thump our non existent superiority, because we have none. We can defend our borders from them(praise be to our geography) thanks to the terrain which makes large armoured columns untenable, but given the innovations in anti personel air borne ammunitions and aerial warfare in the last couple of years even that could be up for grabs.

 

[Pramkumar]

meanwhile Tejas MK1A should be fast tracked for production.

 

[Nvs rao]

All the countries will retire their 5gen stealth jets and faseout, when india roll out amca
that is our government dedication on the project.
designs completed in 2016 but government to be approved till date, wah modiji wah

 

[ASHOK CARROL]

The breadth of the WAD needs to be increased like the one fitted in F-35 and the outdated headup display replaced with American or Israeli built Helmet where the Data is streamed on to the visor

 

[Amit Solanki]

Hopefully , ADA and HAL have learnt lessons from development of Tejas and fast track AMCA. I am sure ,it will be much better than so called chinese 5th generation fighter J-20 in all respects including stealth, power , avionics,sensors and weapons.

Definitely ours amca would be much much better with some of the state of art features as compared to Chinese local use &throw black boxes

 

[Pink Panther]

Countdown begins for Indigenous Stealth Fighter.

I think AMCA prototype is possible only after TEDBF prototype, because both products have a lot of similarities, including same engine, twin engine setup and other things, so 2028 is definitely not possible, unless TEDBF and AMCA prototypes are rolled out at the same time, realistically it will be in 203X.

 

[PKPRS]

Countdown begins for Indigenous Stealth Fighter.

Will the special variant of F35 with Israeli Avionics that LM is making be ready by that time.

 

[Mayank Shukla]

Russia needs our support ask them to make Su - 57 in India basis ToT, it's a win win.
Russia will have funds, infra and scale, India will have technology and localisation for future.
Don't waste money and time on AMCA

 

[Subh]

All the countries will retire their 5gen stealth jets and faseout, when india roll out amca
that is our government dedication on the project.
designs completed in 2016 but government to be approved till date, wah modiji wah

Please stay out of this discussion thread as this is for people with little bit of knowledge. For your info In 2015, the basic design configuration of AMCA was finalized and has been accepted by IAF in 2016. The design work was completed in 2023, and approval for the ₹15,000 crore project for prototype development was received in March 2024. This govt. is actually serious about fighter jets . Unless we wouldn't even talking about delays. Keep your propaganda to yourself and don't politicize everything.

 

[Ravishankar]

Hopefully , ADA and HAL have learnt lessons from development of Tejas and fast track AMCA. I am sure ,it will be much better than so called chinese 5th generation fighter J-20 in all respects including stealth, power , avionics,sensors and weapons.

Non delivery of even a single MK1A so far a worrying prospect.

 

[Sandeep]

But said technology exists, providing them an Avenue to further refine it with inputs from real time experience in the future iterations. It's their first time building it, we made mistakes during our Tejas build but unlike them we took North 3 decades to get anything done, Considering where they started out even with all the stolen IP you can't just put it together like legos reverse engineering in itself requires substantial capital and technical prowess it's inarguably easier than going through a developmental cycle were they have to start from scratch but that's still more than what we have, They had to build almost everything from scratch without willing foreign assistance and thus lacking any expert feed back when things go south, We on the other hand haven't even begun. As for the Soviet hardware we possess, we didn't build it and even the things we build(engines specifically) we rely on the Russians, Actively. The Chinese were smart enough and ripped them off. We used to say the same thing about products made in china anything until it got to the point that only they make the everything including the high q and low q stuff. You are grandstanding as if we are anywhere close to even possess anywhere close to their industrial capacity.
when you start something new you make mistakes, As Indians who have inarguably the shittiest industrial ecosystem amongst great powers in terms of competitiveness despite a 30 year lead on China and A 20 year lead on South Korea, we really have no ground to stand on to thump our non existent superiority, because we have none. We can defend our borders from them(praise be to our geography) thanks to the terrain which makes large armoured columns untenable, but given the innovations in anti personel air borne ammunitions and aerial warfare in the last couple of years even that could be up for grabs.

No we didn’t make mistakes in our jet program but no progress was made at all due to the corrupt jihadi party and their corrupt deals in importing weapons and neglecting our indigenous weapons program.

As for their stolen technology they can assemble a huge amount of weapons ranging from guns, tanks, armoured vehicles, ships, missiles, SAM and jets. Inside a platform there are hundreds of components, parts and equipment like a jets radar, EW, IRST, jet computer, A2A missiles or air to surface missiles so they can manage to develop a lot. That can be applied to other platforms like naval ships, naval gun, metal composition armour, engines, radars, anti ship missiles or land attack missiles. So China copied a lot of weapons from Russia and around the world. India has followed the rule of law and made legal agreements and paid a lot of money in buying it or manufacturing it in India. We never tried to copy anything because of the threat of sanctions, sued for breaching IP, sued for breaching foreign contracts and agreements. China leveraged their place at the UNSC to make it hard for the west to put pressure on them for small issues like breaking any weapons agreements so they simply made no military deals with them.

Also they have managed to grow their economy much quicker than ours because of their very close trade relationship with the USA who invested heavily in setting up massive manufacturing facilities and supply chain at cheaper costs. This allowed China to invest more in their military research programs. In India we didn’t get a lot of FDI until recently and we are just managing to receive it this last 10 years. We are also making a lot of progress in our indigenous programs but developing new weapons takes time and money.

As for the fear that China is able to use its massive military strength, equipment and capabilities against us then you are wrong and it has nothing to do with geography. We have nuclear weapons which is why China can’t go to war against India because that will destroy their country entirely. So while our conventional forces is weaker but slowly gaining strength our nuclear force is gaining strength and the size is increasing.

 

[Prit]

All the countries will retire their 5gen stealth jets and faseout, when india roll out amca
that is our government dedication on the project.
designs completed in 2016 but government to be approved till date, wah modiji wah

Lol, US & its allies intend to use F35 till 2070. You are a special kind of person if you think India won't have AMCA by then.

Lockheed F-35 service life extended to 2070

The projected life of the F-35 Lightning II has been extended by six years to 2070 after the US military services tweaked the number of flight hours their fleets should log before retirement.

www.flightglobal.com

 

[Prit]

Non delivery of even a single MK1A so far a worrying prospect.

It mainly happened due to delay in engine supply from GE.

At India-US 2+2 ministerial dialogue on Friday, India likely to take up F404 engines supply delay

GE Aerospace has already handed over 75 such engines to the manufacturer of the Tejas fighter jets, HAL, post 1986 and an additional 99 F404-GE-IN20 engines, having better thrust, are on order for which the delivery was to commence from August, this year, but has not happened so far, say...

www.thehindubusinessline.com

 

[Viniamogh]

But I don’t think it’s a possibility, before planning anything else, first secure engines for these planes, the F414 engine is the planned engine for this fighter, the GE is not even giving adequate F404s for production variants of Tejas MK1A using delaying tactics and you are planning AMCA already, they may give you F414 for prototypes and then block or delay actual engines when you start production. So have to thread cautiously.

 

[Prit]

But I don’t think it’s a possibility, before planning anything else, first secure engines for these planes, the F414 engine is the planned engine for this fighter, the GE is not even giving adequate F404s for production variants of Tejas MK1A using delaying tactics and you are planning AMCA already, they may give you F414 for prototypes and then block or delay actual engines when you start production. So have to thread cautiously.

Supply chain issues are world wide phenomenon. Since Russia is an important supplier of titanium, Russia Ukraine war has disrupted its supply. This is not just affecting GE but other companies too. No wonder Modi visited Russia and now plans to go to Ukraine to do his part in solving this problem.