New Delhi: In a significant development, the Narendra Modi government has approved the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) programme execution model, under which the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) will have to bid, along with private firms, to bag the contract.
The decision has been taken by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh as part of plans to enhance India’s indigenous defence capabilities and foster a robust domestic aerospace industrial ecosystem.
The Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) is set to execute the programme through industry partnership.
“The Execution Model approach provides equal opportunities to both private and public sectors on a competitive basis. They can bid either independently or as joint ventures or as consortia,” read a statement released by the defence ministry. “The entity/bidder should be an Indian company compliant with the laws and regulations of the country.”
This means that no one entity will be considered as a natural choice and everyone will have to bid to win the contract, sources in the defence establishment told ThePrint.
This implies that HAL, which has been the only entity in India to manufacture fighter planes, will have to compete against private companies, like TATA, Adani, L&T and other interested players to bag the contract to build the prototype.
Sources further explained that HAL can bid as a single entity, or even as a consortium with private players. Private players can also bid as single entities, or as consortia of private players, or with HAL.
This goes against the current practice, where HAL would have been the natural choice as the production agency, which would have then tied up with private players for manufacturing components and parts.
“ADA will shortly issue an Expression of Interest (EoI) for the AMCA Development Phase,” the defence ministry statement said.
Sources said according to the timeline decided, the five prototypes of India’s own fifth-generation fighter are set to be rolled out by 2031, and the series production is slated to start by 2035.
The IAF plans to have seven squadrons of the AMCA, starting 2035.
“We have fixed a 10-year timeline, starting today. After the first prototype is developed, we will go in for series production, which should commence by 2035,” a source explained.
The idea is for the ADA to select the best possible partner to speed up the development and production rather than depend on any one entity, sources added.
There has been a lot of criticism against HAL for the tardy progress in the development and production of the Tejas fighter programme.
“For the first time, you have a private player like TATA, which has tied up with Airbus to manufacture military transport aircraft C295 in India. The private companies are supplying components for international fighters. Now, they can bid for the AMCA programme too,” said the source quoted above.
The development comes amid reports that China is expediting delivery of its fifth-generation fighter—J-35A—to Pakistan, which will widen the capability gap with the Indian Air Force (IAF). While in terms of pure numbers, the IAF has more fighters, Pakistan has a higher mix of 4.5-generation fighter jets.
China also unveiled what are being claimed to be two sixth-generation fighter jets—Chengdu J-36 and Shenyang J-50—last December.
Sources declined to comment on whether India will go in for limited purchase of fifth-generation fighters, like the F-35 of the US, which is yet to be formally offered. They said that India is currently pushing ahead with the AMCA programme, and that is what is on the cards.
