People falling over each other to take a dekko. There she stands quite like a queen, the cynosure of all eyes at the 15th edition of Aero India being held at the Indian Air Force base of Yelahanka in Bengaluru. While fifth-generation fighters—the Russian Su-57 and the American F-35 share the tarmac outside—a billion dreams ride on the life-size engineering model display of what can propel Indian military might to unprecedented heights.
India has ticked most of the boxes to register her presence as a powerful and growing military producer on the global stage—from building warships to submarines to fighter aircraft—but the claim to make a home-grown stealth fifth-generation fighter has been elusive thus far.
#WATCH | Bengaluru | Project director of Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) at Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), Dr Krishna Rajendra Neeli says, "...We are expecting that this (AMCA) aircraft will be flying by 2028... it will be ready to participate in the net-centric… pic.twitter.com/DR5grs9nI5
— ANI (@ANI) February 10, 2025
It is this static display that makes the potent promises of the possible.
Known currently as the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) project, a suitable name will be found as is the practice when she takes to the skies most possibly by 2028.
Okayed by the government in March 2024, the twin-engine fighter is to be buoyed by advanced avionics, artificial intelligence and other niche technologies which would make it unique even among the extant fight-generation fighters of the day. With a weight of about 25 tons, the multi-role AMCA falls in the medium aircraft category.
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Conceptualised as a single-engine fighter, the AMCA is expected to have a Mach 2 plus at top speed and a combat range of more than 1,600 km with a 6,500 kg fuel capacity. It will have an internal weapons bay of about 1,500 kg payload and an external payload capacity of about 6,500 kg.
Besides very low detectability, weapon systems, and better survivability capability, what separates a fifth-generation fighter from the earlier generation aircraft is much better situational awareness and ability to penetrate Integrated Air Defence Systems.
The key role of a fifth-generation fighter aircraft is to penetrate the protection and defence systems of the adversary at the immediate start of a conflict. The primary targets are usually the communication systems and airbases.
That the AMCA will be a force multiplier for the Indian military is a foregone conclusion but more significantly it will highlight the indigenous capability of the growing Indian military industrial complex.
At a time when China has already deployed its much-touted J-20 in air bases close to the Indian border, an Indian stealth fighter is an imperative need for the IAF to bring in some semblance of symmetry of military capability in the South Asian region which has been leaning very strongly towards China, which had recently also unveiled its sixth generation fighter.
