India’s 5th Gen Fighter Jet: A Future Miracle or a Distant Dream?

Udit Tripathi
Nov 6 · 4 min read
Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft model displayed at Aero India 2013

As the newly appointed Indian Air Force Chief RKS Bhadauria recently stressed on indigenous efforts to develop the next generation combat jet and have ‘full control’ in ‘defining technologies’, indigenous fifth generation aircraft AMCA (Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft) programme came into spotlight whose design phase is currently in advanced stage and its first flight is expected in 2025.

If everything goes on as proposed, it would be nothing short of a technological miracle for India to develop a fifth generation combat aircraft from scratch, which is all about stealth, high performance airframe, advanced and integrated avionics.

The major characteristic which differs a 4.5x generation combat aircraft from a 5th generation is stealth. Let’s have a brief description of AMCA’s stealth:

· ‌AMCA’s stealthy design prevents detection of the aircraft from L band, C band and X band radars. It includes planform alignment of edges (continuous curvature, leading and trailing edges with equally sloped angles). Due to the shear shape of the airframe the radar return would be quite low as compared to the earlier generation aircrafts.

· ‌Fixed geometry Serpentine air intake that prevents line-of-sight of the engine from any exterior view.

· ‌Internal Weapons Bay: It hides the missiles from any kind of detection by radars.

· ‌Use of Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), Nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) and advanced carbon composites in the airframe with Radar Absorbent Material (RAM) coating.

· ‌Reduction in Infrared (IR) signature by:
1. Thrust vectoring (ability to manipulate the direction of thrust from its engine) nozzle, also reducing threat from IR guided missiles.
2. Active cooling of leading edges, special paint coating.
3. Supercruise, i.e. sustained supersonic flight without the use of afterburners.

· ‌Frequency Selective Surface (FSS) radome, which performs the function of electromagnetic wave filter in order to reduce the radar cross section (RCS) of the target and achieve stealth effect.

Apart from these stealth features, the major features that AMCA will include are Advanced Air Avionics, Extended Detection Range sensors and Net-centric Warfare Capability (with the help of Integrated Air Command and Control System, IACCS).

But what could be the factors which can prove to be a hurdle in the development of AMCA?

· ‌Delay due to LCA programme: In 2013, AMCA development was put on hold and delayed its development for at least 5 years to focus energies on LCA Tejas development and revive the project. The orders of LCA Mk1 is currently on production while the improved variant Mk1 A’s production (83 units ordered by IAF) will commence from 2023. Also, Tejas Mk2 which is still under development is an entire new aircraft of medium category and it will not be ready for its first test flight for at least another five years. And also seeing HAL’s slow production of 8 aircrafts per year currently, if AMCA programme is further delayed due to LCA as done earlier, it would be catastrophic for the Fifth Generation aircraft development as well as IAF and its depleting squadrons.

· ‌The Kaveri saga: Kaveri engine which was intended to power the LCA was abandoned in 2014 by DRDO due to its underpowered engine and was later slated to power AMCA with its improved version for which a tie up between French company Safran (formerly Snecma) and DRDO was done as a part of offsets deal for 36 Rafale jets worth €4Bn. But currently, it seems to reach a deadlock on account of financial reasons. DRDO has now officially confirmed that Kaveri won’t be a part of AMCA project. It will now be powered most probably by General Electric’s F414 engine from US as the indigenous Kaveri engine after 3 decades of development and around INR 20Bn (excluding Rafale offset amount) investment turned out to be a failure as of now and powering homegrown combat jet from the indigenous engine still proves to be a major hurdle for India.

· ‌The curious case of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited: Unlike Tejas LCA project, the production of AMCA will follow modular approach (outsourcing of different equipments with private partners and PSUs) with HAL as a primary contractor and main assembly firm. This modular approach may speed up the production, but seeing the track record of HAL (main assembly firm) which has a history of delayed productions may not prove to be much good if it isn’t improved with respect to the proposed time frame. For example, one of the many reasons of Dassault reaching a deadlock with HAL over production of Rafale in Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft 1.0 contract was because of HAL quoting much more time than the proposed man hours to produce 108 Rafale aircrafts.

Also, HAL which assembles the Su30MKI (mainstay combat aircraft of IAF), the cost per unit built by HAL is $70.3mn whereas a Russian made Su30MKI costs around $42.15mn. If the cost of production from HAL remains on a higher side in AMCA production too then it may become a major headache for Defence Ministry for its procurement.

· ‌DRDO and critical technologies: DRDO doesn’t have a great record when it comes to manufacturing newer, critical technologies that too in the required time frame, eg.- Uttam AESA radar was supposed to be the radar in LCA Tejas, but unfortunately it is still under development due to which Israel’s Elta EL/M-2052 AESA radar was procured. Similarly as far as Air to Air weapons are considered, Astra Beyond Visual Range missile (range of 70km) is the only bright spot and IAF has to depend on foreign missiles like Meteor, Scalp, Mica missiles from MBDA France, Israel’s Derby, I-Derby, Python missiles, Russia’s R73, R77 missiles etc. Hence, critical technologies in specified time frame are a necessity for any successful defence project including AMCA.

Let’s hope every challenges of AMCA are addressed effectively in a timely manner so that AMCA proves to be one of the best assets for the IAF and the world.

Written by

News Junkie; Budding Defence writer, honest Indian.

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