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