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India’s ambition to field a home-grown fifth-generation fighter jet, the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), faces a silent but critical vulnerability that lies deep within its design process.
While the airframe will be manufactured in India and the engines are being developed with indigenous intent, the digital "brain" required to design these complex machines belongs almost entirely to foreign entities.
This uncomfortable reality reveals a strategic gap: while the hardware may be Indian, the software used to create it is owned abroad, posing a risk that policy planners have largely overlooked.
The Warning from May 2025
The dangers of this dependency were starkly illustrated in May 2025, when the United States abruptly cut off access to electronic design automation (EDA) tools for Chinese firms.In less than a week, a single policy shift in Washington effectively paralysed significant sectors of China’s chip design industry.
This event served as a clear warning to New Delhi. Despite spending lakhs of crores on defence platforms, India invests virtually nothing in developing its own design tools.
Consequently, the nation relies on a system that functions like a dormant kill switch—one that can be triggered remotely by foreign powers.
A Costly Dependency
Currently, India stands as the world’s second-largest purchaser of advanced design platforms such as Dassault’s CATIA and Siemens NX, which are the industry standards for aerospace and shipbuilding.However, India owns none of the intellectual property behind these tools. A revocation of export licences could freeze critical projects instantly, leaving the AMCA blueprints inaccessible inside foreign-controlled software.
Furthermore, this arrangement forces India to pay double: once for the aircraft and components, and again for the software licences required to design them.
In this exchange, the foreign vendors capture the high-value intellectual property, while India is left with only the manufacturing costs.
The China-India Contrast
The response to this technological threat highlights a widening gap between India and its neighbours.China anticipated the risk of software sanctions early. By the time Western tools were restricted, Beijing had already mobilised domestic alternatives through companies like Huawei and Empyrean. While these tools may not yet equal their Western counterparts, China has a functioning backup plan.
In contrast, India lacks a comparable national programme. There is no Indian equivalent for aerospace-grade Computer-Aided Design (CAD) or strategic simulation tools.
While the nation speaks confidently of self-reliance in manufacturing wings and turbines, the fundamental design logic remains dependent on foreign code.
The Policy Blind Spot
This contradiction is most visible in the government’s recent policy measures.India has released five positive indigenisation lists, placing import bans on 4,666 defence items ranging from assault rifles to complex radar systems.
However, these lists are conspicuously silent on software. Not a single entry targets CAD software, simulation platforms, or SCADA systems.
The prevailing policy suggests that "Atmanirbharta" (self-reliance) applies only to the factory floor, ignoring the laboratories where the weapons are actually conceived.
The risk is far from hypothetical. India is currently placed in Tier 2 of US export controls. While access to critical tools is permitted, it remains conditional.
A minor geopolitical shift could result in design houses across Bengaluru losing access to their primary tools, stalling not just aircraft projects but potentially naval and power infrastructure as well.
The lesson is that modern sanctions do not require physical force to cripple a nation’s capability; a simple licence revocation is sufficient.
A Beacon of Hope: The ISRO Model
Despite the gloomy landscape, there is a notable exception.The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully developed PraVaHa, its own computational fluid dynamics tool, to reduce reliance on foreign software for the Gaganyaan mission.
This success proves that when strategic intent is backed by sustained funding, indigenous solutions are possible.
However, outside of ISRO, such initiatives are rare. Private industry awaits government incentives, while the government expects market forces to fill the gap, leaving a dangerous void in the middle.
The Path Forward
The time to address this vulnerability is now. Experts suggest that the government must treat strategic software with the same urgency as physical weapons.Opening this domain to the private sector with targeted incentives—such as a Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for strategic software—could catalyse change.
A national mission dedicated to developing CAD, EDA, and simulation tools would allow India to leverage its massive pool of IT talent.
True self-reliance cannot stop at steel and composite materials; it must extend to the digital code that shapes them. Until India owns the tools used to design its fighters, ships, and chips, its defence capabilities will remain borrowed.
The battlefields of the future will be defined not just by who has the best jets, but by who controls the software that allows those jets to be built.
