New Delhi: In what marks a major structural shift in India’s fighter aircraft ecosystem, the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) has issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) to three shortlisted bidders, all private firms, for the development of prototypes for the country’s 5th generation fighter, the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA).
State-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has been kept out of the bidding process. The TATA group has entered as a solo bidder, followed by a Bharat Forge-led consortium with DPSU BEML and private firm Data Patterns (India); besides another consortium led by private firm L&T, with DPSU Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) and private firm Dynamatics Technologies.
The winning bid will be selected based on technical evaluation of the bid and the bid price.The RFP mandates that the first flight must take place within 30 months from the date of contract signing. All together 1,800 sorties are planned for AMCA which have to be carried out within 84 months from the date of contract signing. The RFP clearly states that the 84-month (7-year) timeline is mandatory. It is only after this that series production will begin.The first prototype is expected to be rolled out by 2029 using the GE F414 engine.The IAF plans to have seven squadrons of the AMCA, starting 2035, when the series production will begin.The RFP marks an opportunity for the country’s private defence sector to transition from being suppliers and vendors to playing a central role in the country’s most ambitious combat aircraft programme.Incidentally, among the companies in the fray, only TATA has the experience of setting up a final assembly line which they have done for the C-295 transport aircraft, in partnership with Airbus. Other firms, including TATA, have experience of making components, wings and fuselage for various foreign original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) besides for the Tejas programme.Going by the current timeline, the five prototypes of India’s own fifth-generation fighter are set to be rolled out by 2031. The Request for Proposal lays out a completely new industrial structure for India’s fifth-generation stealth fighter programme.It seeks the development of five AMCA flying prototypes and one structural test specimen besides associated tooling, jigs, fixtures and testing infrastructure.The RFP document says the programme will continue to remain under the design control of ADA, which retains ownership over the aircraft’s configuration and architecture. But, the selected bidder will be responsible for end-to-end realisation of the prototypes, including manufacturing, assembly, systems integration, infrastructure creation and support during flight testing and certification.The selected bidder will have to establish manufacturing infrastructure, tooling and associated test facilities besides integrating Line Replaceable Units (LRUs) sourced through multiple channels, including equipment supplied directly by ADA and systems procured through ADA-nominated vendors. The winning bidder will also support ground testing, structural testing, flight testing and certification activities, including troubleshooting and defect rectification during the developmental phase.
