<p >Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has provided approval for the work to proceed on the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) fifth generation fighter program, work on which will be spearheaded by the Aeronautical Development Agency through a number of industry partnerships. The program has the potential to be a major landmark for the country’s aviation sector, which has not previously attempted such an ambitious development effort. The Defence Ministry referred to the program’s approval as providing "a significant push towards enhancing India's indigenous defence capabilities and fostering a robust domestic aerospace industrial ecosystem.” The AMCA program has been under development for close to a decade, with the state owned aerospace and defence company Hindustan Aeronautics Limited having begun the detailed design phase in February 2019. In March 2022 the firm announced that the construction of the first prototype <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/india-has-begun-construction-of-first-stealth-fighter-prototype-what-is-the-future-of-the-amca-program" target="_blank">had begun</a>. The fighter is not expected to enter service until the late 2030s or early 2040s, with the preceding much less ambitious Tejas program having operationalised a lightweight fourth generation fighter two decades behind schedule, despite relying heavily on foreign avionics, weaponry and engines.&nbsp;</p><p ><img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/05/28/article_68368ccda00780_92786527.jpg" title="AMCA Model at Aero India 2021 "></p><p >Regarding the schedule for developing the AMCA, former financial advisor to the Indian Finance Ministry Amit Cowshish was in 2022 one of many to predict on the basis of the precedent set by the Tejas program’s delays: “As for AMCA, it certainly seems to be back [on the agenda], but AMCA will take much longer to develop than is being currently projected.” Retired senior officer in the Indian Air Force Air Marshal Anil Chopra in February <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/indian-air-marshal-strong-argument-su57-procurements" target="_blank">observed</a> that the AMCA&nbsp;program was only expected to reach a prototype stage within 11 years, and that “realistically – it may take more time.”&nbsp;“By 2035, China could have around 1,500 J-20s when India optimistically plans to induct the AMCA,” he added, stressing that the AMCA program was far from a near term solution to the country’s requirements for modern fighter aircraft, but a long term investment. India is thus <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/indian-pakistani-clashes-win-su57" target="_blank">expected to procure</a> Russian Su-57 fifth generation fighters before 2030, potentially under a <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/india-considering-plans-su57-license-production" target="_blank">license production deal</a> or a<a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/expert-outlines-india-three-paths-forward-procure-su57" target="_blank"> joint program</a> to develop a customised derivative, which is considered its <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/trump-pledges-export-f35-stealth-fighters-india-derail-su57" target="_blank">only viable option </a>to field fighters of the latest generation until the AMCA can join the fleet approximately a decade later.&nbsp;</p><p ><img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/05/28/article_68368cf44bd082_68051247.png" title="Su-57 (top) and F-35 at Aero India 2025"></p><p >The scale of research and development in India, and the degree of sophistication of its industrial base, are likely to force it to rely heavily on technology transfers to develop the AMCA, with such transfers expected to be provided by Russia under a license production deal for the Su-57. Standards for fifth generation fighters have nevertheless varied greatly between countries, and while no country’s fighters are currently close to a peer level with the Chinese J-20 or American F-35, a number of much less capable aircraft have been marketed as having fifth generation level capabilities. The most extreme example is the Turkish TF-X fighter, with the country’s almost total lack of experience in the fighter industry, and very limited technological base and scale of advanced R&amp;D, making development of even a more advanced ‘4+ generation’ fighter appear unachievable. Should it succeed, the AMCA program is likely to produce a fighter considerably more capable than the TF-X, and possibly on a comparable level to the KF-21 jointly developed by South Korea and the United States, although still much less capable than the latest variants of the Russian Su-57 or than the latest Chinese or American stealth fighters.&nbsp;The AMCA will enter service close to a decade after China and the United States begin fielding their first sixth generation fighters. Work on the program could nevertheless place Indian industry in a more competitive position to develop future fifth and sixth generation fighters.</p>
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