Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft [AMCA] Development | Updates & Discussions.

[Dr Gupta]

Will they rope in a consultant like Saab to help? would make sense for such a ambitious project.

 

[greatone]

Can anyone post the final design of AMCA and give an aeronautical analysis of its strengths and weaknesses ?

 

[$@rJen]

Make-in-India: Plan to develop 5th-generation fighter aircraft
Published January 8, 2015 | By admin
SOURCE: TNN

India plans to kick-off its own fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) development project this year to build on the expertise gained in the long developmental saga of the indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft.

Top defence sources on Wednesday said the preliminary design stage of the futuristic fighter called the advanced medium combat aircraft (AMCA), with collaboration among IAF, DRDO and Aeronautical Development Agency, is now “virtually” over.

“Once the project definition and feasibility is completed in the next few months, the defence ministry will go to the cabinet committee on security for approval. It will require Rs 4,000-5,000 crore for the initial design and development phase,” said a source.

The aim is to fly the first twin-engine AMCA prototype by 2023-2024, which will be around the time deliveries of Tejas Mark-II fighters will be underway. IAF is slated to get its first Tejas Mark-I in March this year, over 30 years after the LCA project was first approved in August 1983. But the Tejas Mark-II jets, with more powerful engines, will start to come only by 2021-2022, as was first reported by TOI.

“After Tejas-II, we have to move ahead to a fifth-generation-plus AMCA. Basic design work of AMCA as well as presentations by five to six global aero-engine manufacturers is over. Simulation modelling is also in the works,” said the source.

India, of course, is also trying to sort out its differences with Russia over their proposed joint development of the Indian “perspective multi-role fighter” based on the latter’s under-development FGFA called Sukhoi T-50 or PAK-FA.India, in fact, had told Russia it cannot wait till 2024-2025 to begin inducting 127 of these single-seat fighters, which will entail an overall expenditure of around $25 billion. But India also wants its own home-grown AMCA project in the long-run for strategic and economic reasons.

A swing-role FGFA basically combines advanced stealth, supercruise (capability to achieve supersonic cruise speeds without use of afterburners), super-maneuverability, data fusion and multi-sensor integration on a single fighter.

But the 20-year long development of the American F/A-22 “Raptor”, the only fully-operational FGFA in the world today, has shown that such a project is an extremely complex and costly affair.

The US shut down the production of Raptors in 2012 after inducting 188 of them at an overall cost of $67 billion due to huge costs, technical glitches and time overruns. The US is now finally moving towards operationalizing a more advanced FGFA, the F-35 “Lightning-II” joint strike fighter. With the project yet to overcome all technical and software glitches, the overall cost for the planned induction of almost 2,500 such fighters stands at around $400 billion.

 

[ngocdien]

This project is dead or alive so!.

 

[$@rJen]

This project is dead or alive so!.

Project is alive... but funds have been not diverted or given attention to this project properly yet. if funds were given this year then the first prototype will be coming by 2024 as per drdo's claims... but still can't trust them

 

[halaku]

Why AMCA is called medium class isn't. It belongs to the same Chinese 5TH generation class?

 

[sancho]

This project is dead or alive so!.

It's a DRDO project and as such it's alive, but neither got government funding nor IAF support so far, so anything is possible, but it remains a long shot.

Why AMCA is called medium class isn't. It belongs to the same Chinese 5TH generation class?

Because it aims to the medium weight class of fighters, just as the F35 or J31, while Pak Fa / FGFA, J20 or F22 are heavy weight class fighters.

 

[rockstarIN]

It's a DRDO project and as such it's alive, but neither got government funding nor IAF support so far, so anything is possible, but it remains a long shot.

You know what, now people count AMCA time line from 2008! even with out proper funds in 2015.

"In October 2008, the Indian Air Force asked the ADA to prepare a detailed project report on the development of a Medium Combat Aircraft (MCA) incorporating stealth features"

 

[halaku]

It's a DRDO project and as such it's alive, but neither got government funding nor IAF support so far, so anything is possible, but it remains a long shot.



Because it aims to the medium weight class of fighters, just as the F35 or J31, while Pak Fa / FGFA, J20 or F22 are heavy weight class fighters.

Thanks,also is weight the only difference between FGFA and AMCA?

 

[$@rJen]

Thanks,also is weight the only difference between FGFA and AMCA?

both are 5th Ge fighters.... FGFA is being build by both Russia and India for Indian air force ( Indian version of PAK-FA) while AMCA is indigenous

 

[sancho]

You know what, now people count AMCA time line from 2008! even with out proper funds in 2015.

"In October 2008, the Indian Air Force asked the ADA to prepare a detailed project report on the development of a Medium Combat Aircraft (MCA) incorporating stealth features"

Hehe of course, just as in LCA and because IAF provided basic ASR for AMCA back then and people will say IAF wanted it, but the reality is different. IAF supports NG indigenous technology developments, but doesn't need the fighter for their operational needs.

 

[ngocdien]

Thanks.

Project is alive... but funds have been not diverted or given attention to this project properly yet. if funds were given this year then the first prototype will be coming by 2024 as per drdo's claims... but still can't trust them

 

[sancho]

Thanks,also is weight the only difference between FGFA and AMCA?

The smaller weight class obviously changes the requirements for engines or size, but what we know so far, DRDO aims on similar capabilities to FGFA (twin engine design, with Supercruise and TVC capabilities), which also is the silly part, because it doesn't add something that IAF wouldn't have with FGFA anyway.

 

[jha]

Good. 5000 crores is not that much since we are ready to spend 20 times more for a phoren maal.

There seems to be some seriousness this time as they have already decided to meet engine manufacturers . even LCA is gaining momentum.

 

[sancho]

Good. 5000 crores is not that much since we are ready to spend 20 times more for a phoren maal.

There seems to be some seriousness this time as they have already decided to meet engine manufacturers . even LCA is gaining momentum.

LCA MK1 FOC planned for Dec 2014, now end of 2015
N-LCA NP1 roll out planned for Nov 2014, now possibly Jan 2015

The Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) is in the paper design phase… We feel aircraft development is a 15-year cycle, so by 2027-2030, we should be able to have AMCA.

Source: DRDO Director General Avinash Chander

‘Our budget was stagnant for 5-6 yrs… This has been restored’, Avinash Chander, Director General,DRDO | The Indian Express