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Will AMCA Be India’s Last Manned Fighter Jet Programme? | idrw.org
++
Will AMCA Be India’s Last Manned Fighter Jet Programme?
.
.
SOURCE: SP PUBLICATIONS
With the amount of energy and focus the
government has invested, and continues to
invest, in the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA)
programme, some crucial evolutionary efforts
get blindsided. Of particular interest is the
Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), a
stealthy fifth generation manned fighter concept
intended to produce a potent multirole platform
(with a focus on strike profiles) that will, in time,
supplant the Indian Air Force’s Jaguars and
MiG-27s. The government prefers that the AMCA
project, headed by scientist Dr A.K. Ghosh,
remains below the proverbial radar, but the
secrecy with which the effort progresses has led
many to wonder if the AMCA could actually be
India’s final indigenous manned fighter aircraft
programme. (The question assumes huge
importance considering that full scale engineering
development (FSED) of the platform could begin
within a year.) That notion is supported by to
facts: one, the aeronautical establishment will be
investing majorly in unmanned combat aerial
vehicles (specifically the Predator-like Rustom-H
and stealthy flying wing AURA) going with
doctrinue, and two, the fighter types that will be
inducted in the next decade — both Indian and
foreign — will be templates for improved variants
that could be in use for at least the next half-
century.
For now, however, the AMCA is a well-defined
programme that looks to deliver tangible results
in terms of a credible, potent combat aircraft
platform on the lines of the Lockheed-Martin F-35
Lightning-II. It makes sense, therefore, for the
Indian military-industrial complex to develop
evolutionary technologies that will find place both
on manned and unmanned platforms. On the
AMCA, Indian scientists are looking to push the
envelope further than they’ve ever tried to before.
Every little bit makes a difference when a legacy
leap is at play, which is why, from engine
performance parameters to control surfaces to
control laws to cockpit ergonomics, everything is
up for change.
The obvious evolutions are clear: low-observable
shape and airframe materials, extensive use of
carbon composites, internal weapons bays, low
bypass low-emmission engines, modular
internals etc. The deeper you go, the more
complicated and revolutionary the plans actually
become.
If AMCA project director Dr Ghosh meets his
objectives, then one of the most compelling
aspects of the AMCA will be its cockpit and man-
machine interface. To begin with, unlike the
decidedly crowded, fourth-generation cockpit of
the LCA Tejas, the AMCA cockpit is being
developed with a panoramic active-matrix
display, of the kind available on American fifth
generation aircraft. Switches, bezels and keypads
stand to be replaced with touch screen interfaces
and voice commands. What Dr Ghosh’s team
wants is for the future IAF pilot to have a helmet-
mounted display system that allows the
dispensing of a head-up display (HUD) from the
cockpit altogether, a revolutionary concept. The
Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADA),
which oversees the AMCA programme, has
asked private industry in the country to explore
the feasibility of creating primary panoramic
displays and other avionics displays that would
befit a fifth generation cockpit environment. The
cockpit, however, is simply one of what is a
hugely ambitious technology wishlist that Dr
Ghosh and his team are pinning their hopes on
for the aircraft they ultimately produce.
The proposed evolutions begin at the lowest level
— system architecture — and will attempt to
build a triplex fly-by-light electro-optic architecture
with fiber optic links for signal and data
communications, unlike the electrical links on the
Tejas platform. Significantly, unlike centralized
architecture on the Tejas, the AMCA proposes to
sport a distributed architecture with smart sub-
systems. Likewise, unlike the LCA’s centralised
digital flight control computer (DFCC), the AMCA is
likely to have a distributed system with smart
remote units for data communication with
sensors and actuators, a system that will almost
definitely require much faster on-board
processors.
Sensors will be a proving ground for just how
advanced the AMCA programme is, and will be in
reality a test case for future applications on
unmanned vehicles. Scientists will be working
towards getting the mechanical gyros and
accelerometers, standard on the Tejas, to evolve
on the AMCA into fiber optic gyros, ring laser
gyros and MEMS gyros. The pressure probes and
vanes that make up the air-data sensors will
become an optical and flush air data system, and
position sensors will be linear/rotary optical
encoders. Importantly, actuators — currently
electro-hydraulic/direct drive — could be electro-
hydrostatic to accrue substantive weight savings
on the AMCA. Sensor fusion for an overarching
situation picture is something the ADA is already
attempting to achieve on the Tejas suite, so one
the AMCA it should be a standard requirement.
One of the key areas that India has lagged behind
on is control laws. The AMCA should feature
highly evolved integrated control laws for flight,
propulsion, braking, nose wheel steer and fuel
management and adaptive neural networks for
fault detection, identification and control law
reconfiguration. All of this will cost the country
much, but will find valuable applications in the
unmanned programmes, particularly AURA.
Unlike the Tejas, which features an avionics
systems architecture based on functionality-
based individual computer systems connected on
MIL-STD-1553B buses and Rs. 422 links, the
AMCA’s avionics systems architecture, it is
hoped, will feature a “central computational
system connected internally and externally on an
optic fiber channel by means of multiport
connectivity switching modules”. In such a
system, functionality will be mapped on
resources optimally and reallocated when faults
occur. Data communications on the AMCA’s
processing modules will be through a high-speed
fiber channel bus, IEEE-1394B-STD. The
connectivities will be switched by means of a
multiport switching matrix, with data speeds of
400MB/second. In literature made available on the
programme, these facets reveal the stunning leap
scientists are looking to make with this one
manned aircraft programme.
The AMCA is almost certain to have integrated
radio naviation systems, where all burdens earlier
borne by analogue circuits will be carried out by
digital processors. Communication systems will
be based on software radio ranging from UHF to
K band, with data links for digital data/voice data
and video.
One of the most exciting new area being exploited
for the AMCA is algorithms. While the LCA suite
no major decision aid to the pilot, the AMCA
commander will have the ability to plan attack
strategies, avoidance tactics, retreat strategies and
evasive strategies for himself and his partners in
the air. Each of these technologies, planned in a
manned environment are being evolved and
developed for extension to an autonomous
unmanned environment as well. Critics would
argue that the establishment needs to focus on
finishing what it has started before dreaming big.
Others would say, it’s better to think big now,
than face repeated obsolescence even before
your bird flies.
++
Will AMCA Be India’s Last Manned Fighter Jet Programme?
.
.
SOURCE: SP PUBLICATIONS
With the amount of energy and focus the
government has invested, and continues to
invest, in the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA)
programme, some crucial evolutionary efforts
get blindsided. Of particular interest is the
Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), a
stealthy fifth generation manned fighter concept
intended to produce a potent multirole platform
(with a focus on strike profiles) that will, in time,
supplant the Indian Air Force’s Jaguars and
MiG-27s. The government prefers that the AMCA
project, headed by scientist Dr A.K. Ghosh,
remains below the proverbial radar, but the
secrecy with which the effort progresses has led
many to wonder if the AMCA could actually be
India’s final indigenous manned fighter aircraft
programme. (The question assumes huge
importance considering that full scale engineering
development (FSED) of the platform could begin
within a year.) That notion is supported by to
facts: one, the aeronautical establishment will be
investing majorly in unmanned combat aerial
vehicles (specifically the Predator-like Rustom-H
and stealthy flying wing AURA) going with
doctrinue, and two, the fighter types that will be
inducted in the next decade — both Indian and
foreign — will be templates for improved variants
that could be in use for at least the next half-
century.
For now, however, the AMCA is a well-defined
programme that looks to deliver tangible results
in terms of a credible, potent combat aircraft
platform on the lines of the Lockheed-Martin F-35
Lightning-II. It makes sense, therefore, for the
Indian military-industrial complex to develop
evolutionary technologies that will find place both
on manned and unmanned platforms. On the
AMCA, Indian scientists are looking to push the
envelope further than they’ve ever tried to before.
Every little bit makes a difference when a legacy
leap is at play, which is why, from engine
performance parameters to control surfaces to
control laws to cockpit ergonomics, everything is
up for change.
The obvious evolutions are clear: low-observable
shape and airframe materials, extensive use of
carbon composites, internal weapons bays, low
bypass low-emmission engines, modular
internals etc. The deeper you go, the more
complicated and revolutionary the plans actually
become.
If AMCA project director Dr Ghosh meets his
objectives, then one of the most compelling
aspects of the AMCA will be its cockpit and man-
machine interface. To begin with, unlike the
decidedly crowded, fourth-generation cockpit of
the LCA Tejas, the AMCA cockpit is being
developed with a panoramic active-matrix
display, of the kind available on American fifth
generation aircraft. Switches, bezels and keypads
stand to be replaced with touch screen interfaces
and voice commands. What Dr Ghosh’s team
wants is for the future IAF pilot to have a helmet-
mounted display system that allows the
dispensing of a head-up display (HUD) from the
cockpit altogether, a revolutionary concept. The
Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADA),
which oversees the AMCA programme, has
asked private industry in the country to explore
the feasibility of creating primary panoramic
displays and other avionics displays that would
befit a fifth generation cockpit environment. The
cockpit, however, is simply one of what is a
hugely ambitious technology wishlist that Dr
Ghosh and his team are pinning their hopes on
for the aircraft they ultimately produce.
The proposed evolutions begin at the lowest level
— system architecture — and will attempt to
build a triplex fly-by-light electro-optic architecture
with fiber optic links for signal and data
communications, unlike the electrical links on the
Tejas platform. Significantly, unlike centralized
architecture on the Tejas, the AMCA proposes to
sport a distributed architecture with smart sub-
systems. Likewise, unlike the LCA’s centralised
digital flight control computer (DFCC), the AMCA is
likely to have a distributed system with smart
remote units for data communication with
sensors and actuators, a system that will almost
definitely require much faster on-board
processors.
Sensors will be a proving ground for just how
advanced the AMCA programme is, and will be in
reality a test case for future applications on
unmanned vehicles. Scientists will be working
towards getting the mechanical gyros and
accelerometers, standard on the Tejas, to evolve
on the AMCA into fiber optic gyros, ring laser
gyros and MEMS gyros. The pressure probes and
vanes that make up the air-data sensors will
become an optical and flush air data system, and
position sensors will be linear/rotary optical
encoders. Importantly, actuators — currently
electro-hydraulic/direct drive — could be electro-
hydrostatic to accrue substantive weight savings
on the AMCA. Sensor fusion for an overarching
situation picture is something the ADA is already
attempting to achieve on the Tejas suite, so one
the AMCA it should be a standard requirement.
One of the key areas that India has lagged behind
on is control laws. The AMCA should feature
highly evolved integrated control laws for flight,
propulsion, braking, nose wheel steer and fuel
management and adaptive neural networks for
fault detection, identification and control law
reconfiguration. All of this will cost the country
much, but will find valuable applications in the
unmanned programmes, particularly AURA.
Unlike the Tejas, which features an avionics
systems architecture based on functionality-
based individual computer systems connected on
MIL-STD-1553B buses and Rs. 422 links, the
AMCA’s avionics systems architecture, it is
hoped, will feature a “central computational
system connected internally and externally on an
optic fiber channel by means of multiport
connectivity switching modules”. In such a
system, functionality will be mapped on
resources optimally and reallocated when faults
occur. Data communications on the AMCA’s
processing modules will be through a high-speed
fiber channel bus, IEEE-1394B-STD. The
connectivities will be switched by means of a
multiport switching matrix, with data speeds of
400MB/second. In literature made available on the
programme, these facets reveal the stunning leap
scientists are looking to make with this one
manned aircraft programme.
The AMCA is almost certain to have integrated
radio naviation systems, where all burdens earlier
borne by analogue circuits will be carried out by
digital processors. Communication systems will
be based on software radio ranging from UHF to
K band, with data links for digital data/voice data
and video.
One of the most exciting new area being exploited
for the AMCA is algorithms. While the LCA suite
no major decision aid to the pilot, the AMCA
commander will have the ability to plan attack
strategies, avoidance tactics, retreat strategies and
evasive strategies for himself and his partners in
the air. Each of these technologies, planned in a
manned environment are being evolved and
developed for extension to an autonomous
unmanned environment as well. Critics would
argue that the establishment needs to focus on
finishing what it has started before dreaming big.
Others would say, it’s better to think big now,
than face repeated obsolescence even before
your bird flies.
