The defence ministry on Wednesday opened the door for the private sector to manufacture India’s fifth-generation stealth fighter jets and issued a request for proposal (RFP) to three shortlisted private sector-led consortia for the ₹15,000-crore project.
Tata Advanced Systems, the L&T-BEL-Dynamatic consortium, and the Bharat Forge-BEML-Data Patterns consortium have been invited for the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) programme — the country’s first indigenous fifth-generation stealth fighter jet project, sources said.
This is the first time state-owned defence major Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) has been kept out of the race, marking a major shift in India’s defence manufacturing ecosystem.
The AMCA programme, considered India’s most ambitious project, is expected to boost the combat capability of the Indian Air Force, which is grappling with a shrinking fighter fleet. These fighter jets are expected to take at least another decade to enter service.
According to a defence ministry official, an RFP is a document through which the government invites selected firms to submit technical and commercial proposals for a project. The winning bidder will work with the Aeronautical Development Agency of the Defence Research and Development Organisation to build five flying prototypes and one structural test aircraft.
The shortlisted firms, selected based on their technical capabilities, will compete to build prototypes of the fighter aircraft before a final production contract is awarded to the lowest bidder.
Sources said the five prototypes of the fifth-generation fighter jets were set to be rolled out by 2031, with the first expected by 2028. The IAF plans to have seven squadrons of the AMCA, starting 2035.
The IAF currently has fourth-generation aircraft, including the Rafale, Su-30MKI, Mirage-2000, MiG-29 and the Tejas Mk-1. They lack the features of China’s advanced J-35 and J-35A stealth fighters and its newly unveiled sixth-generation jets.
Pakistan is said to have planned to acquire 40 J-35s, which could give it a technological edge over the IAF.
The fifth-generation stealth fighter is likely to be a single-seat twin-engine jet and is expected to feature advanced low-observable capabilities, internal weapons bays, sensor fusion and next-generation avionics, placing it in the same class as some of the world’s most advanced combat aircraft.