5th generation AMCA on backburner

[Agent_47]

By SP's Special Correspondent

August 19, 2014: The Aeronautical Development Agency's concept Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), a stealth fifth generation concept, could be placed on the backburner with the Indian Air Force, HAL and DRDO deciding to bring to bear the full might of their resources on the LCA Mk.2, the variant of the indigenous aircraft that will see combat service, unlike the 40 Mk.1s. It has become increasingly clear that two squadrons of LCA Mk.1s will be employed as advanced/lead-in jet trainers, a psychological blow to the programme, but a practical one according to the IAF, which only sees operational sense in looking more closely at the Mk.2, powered by an F414 engine. The IAF has also sent out a strong message to HAL to focus strongly on the FGFA, rather than get roped into fabrication work on the AMCA programme. Sukhoi has begun front-end engineering work on a prototype of the PAK FA that will finally derive down to the configuration that the Indian version, the Prospective Multirole Fighter (PMF), will be.

5th generation AMCA on backburner
- SP's MAI

 

[Abingdonboy]

a psychological blow to the programme,

Seriously? It's not even close to a blow- it's not as if the IAF is going for another a/c 40 Mk.1 as LIFTs (great news btw as the IAF needs supersonic LIFTs) and 150+ Mk.2s is a colossal success how this could be interpreted as a "psychological blow" to anyone is beyond me.....

 

[Daedalus]

he IAF has also sent out a strong message to HAL to focus strongly on the FGFA, rather than get roped into fabrication work on the AMCA programme.

It has become increasingly clear that two squadrons of LCA Mk.1s will be employed as advanced/lead-in jet trainers,

It was all written on the wall. Finally IAF had the guts to tell HAL to come out of their dream world and focus on more realistic projects and complete some god damn project within the deadline.

 

[Echo_419]

Seriously? It's not even close to a blow- it's not as if the IAF is going for another a/c 40 Mk.1 as LIFTs (great news btw as the IAF needs supersonic LIFTs) and 150+ Mk.2s is a colossal success how this could be interpreted as a "psychological blow" to anyone is beyond me.....

It must be a big blow for that Secretive HAL Division,let me give you a link
Welcome to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited

By SP's Special Correspondent

August 19, 2014: The Aeronautical Development Agency's concept Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), a stealth fifth generation concept, could be placed on the backburner with the Indian Air Force, HAL and DRDO deciding to bring to bear the full might of their resources on the LCA Mk.2, the variant of the indigenous aircraft that will see combat service, unlike the 40 Mk.1s. It has become increasingly clear that two squadrons of LCA Mk.1s will be employed as advanced/lead-in jet trainers, a psychological blow to the programme, but a practical one according to the IAF, which only sees operational sense in looking more closely at the Mk.2, powered by an F414 engine. The IAF has also sent out a strong message to HAL to focus strongly on the FGFA, rather than get roped into fabrication work on the AMCA programme. Sukhoi has begun front-end engineering work on a prototype of the PAK FA that will finally derive down to the configuration that the Indian version, the Prospective Multirole Fighter (PMF), will be.

5th generation AMCA on backburner
- SP's MAI

Good thing we need more focus on LCA mk2 & FGFA not these Khiali Pullaows from HAL

 

[ANPP]

Seriously? It's not even close to a blow- it's not as if the IAF is going for another a/c 40 Mk.1 as LIFTs (great news btw as the IAF needs supersonic LIFTs) and 150+ Mk.2s is a colossal success how this could be interpreted as a "psychological blow" to anyone is beyond me.....

A project which was aimed to become the primary fighter ended up in trainer......is it not psychological blow.

Than why we are wasting money on miraj, mig and jaguars. Amazing

 

[EternalJives]

Good riddance. There is hope for LCA MK II afterall.

 

[Juggernautjatt]

IAF is only air force in world uses concept of small,medium, heavy fighters. That is why they are suffering from logistical nightmares. But glad to see that they are coming on right track by concentrating on single project rather than riding on many boats.

 

[Abingdonboy]

A project which was aimed to become the primary fighter ended up in trainer......is it not psychological blow.

Than why we are wasting money on miraj, mig and jaguars. Amazing

The Mk.1 will be the trainer, the Mk.2 will be a formidable little frontline fighter and will be what the IAF wants. This would have been known for some time considering the AFSQRs that are there.

It must be a big blow for that Secretive HAL Division,let me give you a link
Welcome to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited

I really don't see how. Is everyone failing to comprehend that it is only the 40 MK.1s that will be used for LIFT roles, the MK.2s that will be ordered in 150+ units will be used in combat ops. I've long wanted HAL to develop a variant of the LCA to be used as a supersonic LIFT for the IAF so this is win-win.

This shouldn't be news to anyone- the Mk.1 was always going to be a sub-par product that wasn't quite what the IAF wanted.

 

[sancho]

Seriously? It's not even close to a blow- it's not as if the IAF is going for another a/c 40 Mk.1 as LIFTs (great news btw as the IAF needs supersonic LIFTs) and 150+ Mk.2s is a colossal success how this could be interpreted as a "psychological blow" to anyone is beyond me.....

For the developers (ADA / DRDO) it's clearly a blow, since the name itself states what it was meant to be, a Light COMBAT Aircraft and not an advanced trainer. But I don't think that's the official position of the IAF, more the interpretation of the author. The simple fact that IAF keeps aiming on 2 fully fledged squads, of which most fighters will be single seat versions, makes clear that training is not the aim. Neither is insisting on fulfilling AoA goals, or adding IFR capabilities, let alone weapons necessary for the trainer.
But then again, Airbus (back than EADS) had asked for a joint development of a trainer version of LCA, which we sadly didn't go for. Would had been great for the project to have them as a propper partner, that also increases the chances for exports by far, even if it would had been a trainer varient.

Finally IAF had the guts to tell HAL to come out of their dream world and focus on more realistic projects and complete some god damn project within the deadline.

Not really, they actually once again confirmed that they don't care about ADA's / DRDO's dreams about AMCA and urged HAL to focus on what the IAF actually wants, FGFA!
HAL is not the developer of LCA nor AMCA, it just gets a share of the blow although they hardly have done much on these projects so far and ADA / DRDO messed most of it up. That's why it's indeed better for HAL to come up with a successful FGFA project, to seperate themself from ADA and DRDO.

 

[trident2010]

Good news !! Focus of Tejas MK2 and induct them in numbers. AMCA can wait.

 

[sancho]

Good news !! Focus of Tejas MK2 and induct them in numbers. AMCA can wait.

Don't put too much hope on high numbers of LCA MK2, we already hear it from many different sources, that IAF hardly sees much future for the fighter in the long term, because of the long delays. The primary point of LCA and N-LCA is development of an indigenous aero industry now and no matter how good the Mk2 turns out, it will come in a time only, when IAF gets MMRCAs and FGFAs, which makes LCAs pretty low on their priority list, at least for procurements. It will take time till the 80 they have ordered so far will be inducted, more orders will depend on the operational need beyond 2020 and that might call more for optional MMRCAs or additional FGFAs, rather than more LCAs, but then again, we also produced the Jags far longer than we actually needed.

 

[NKVD]

IMO Tejas Mk 2 has too short wingspan. Plus, Tejas Mk 2 has no DSI like JF-17 has.

Don't worry IAF have kites with DSI it will be enough for you super duper aircraft

 

[karan21]

A bad decision in my opinion. India does have the capability to focus on more than one fighter program at once. If then then expand your capability and capacity. Hire and train more engineers, outsource work to private companies and partner institutes. Just becuase we need Mk2 doesn't mean we need to put AMCA on back burner.

Just imagine during the cold war, the soviet and Americans were working on over 10 fighter, bomber, transport plane programs at the same time to maintain an edge over each other. Chinese today are working on 2-3 fifth gen planes and bunch of 4.5 gen plane programs.

 

[Alfa-Fighter]

Its is stepping stone , If your can't make body of one plane , done expect you design twin engine plane.... IAF asked HAL stop making excuses and launch projects after projects , Finish this one first... learn from Mistake and rectify it in another program.

Its a learning curve.

Army has learn the hard way when World tank manufactures told them that New tank design from scratch is not Possible and only tanks build one design over another (Gen after Gen ) on same design pattern with improvements.

Thats why IA now agree to build future tanks on Arjun foundations.... same way IAF telling build Plane and based on that model build improve plane.

 

[NKVD]

A bad decision in my opinion. India does have the capability to focus on more than one fighter program at once. If then then expand your capability and capacity. Hire and train more engineers, outsource work to private companies and partner institutes. Just becuase we need Mk2 doesn't mean we need to put AMCA on back burner.

Just imagine during the cold war, the soviet and Americans were working on over 10 fighter, bomber, transport plane programs at the same time to maintain an edge over each other. Chinese today are working on 2-3 fifth gen planes and bunch of 4.5 gen plane programs.

Don't make your assessment on jus one stupid article we seen many on MMRCA, INS kolkata getting delayed many as you remember last year.its too early to say anything Amca program will be delay but It will be delivered by believable timeline which is 2025.