All about India’s indigenous fifth-gen fighter jet Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), and why it is important

Subject: Science and tech

Section: defence

Context:

The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) this week cleared a Rs 15,000 crore project to design and develop the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), India’s fifth-generation fighter multirole fighter jet.

More on news:

The Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will be the nodal agency for executing the programme and designing the aircraft.
It will be manufactured by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
The aircraft will put India in a select group of nations that have their own fifth-generation fighter aircraft.

Features of AMCA

STEALTH:

The 25-tonne twin-engine aircraft, which will be bigger than other fighters in the Indian Air Force inventory, will have advanced stealth features to avoid detection by enemy radar.

FUEL & WEAPONS:

The aircraft will have a large, concealed internal fuel tank of 6.5-tonne capacity, and an internal weapons bay for a range of weapons, including indigenous weapons, to be buried in its belly.

ENGINE:

The AMCA Mk1 variant will have the US-built GE414 engine of the 90 kilonewton (kN) class, while the more advanced AMCA Mk2 will fly on the more powerful 110kN engine, which will be developed indigenously by DRDO’s Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE) in collaboration with a foreign defense major.
Other features such as a diverterless supersonic inlet for controlling air flow into the engines, and a serpentine air intake duct to shield the engines from radar emissions, are likely to be part of the AMCA.

Why AMCA is special

The initial plan was to jointly develop the aircraft with Russia under a Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) programme.
India withdrew from the FGFA project in 2018.
The AMCA will be India’s indigenous fifth-generation fighter aircraft.
The indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas is a 4.5-generation single-engine multirole aircraft.
Stealth features such as an internal weapons bay and a bigger internal fuel tank are part of fifth-generation aircraft like AMCA.
External fuel tanks and externally attached weapons leave a huge signature and are easy to detect for radar.
This will be aided by the inclusion of a comprehensive Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) system to keep track of multiple structural components, and to assess the condition of the aircraft in real-time.

Other fifth-generation fighters

Only a few countries have built a fifth-generation stealth fighter aircraft.
The list of the aircraft currently in service includes the F-22 Raptor and F-35A Lightning II of the US, the Chinese J-20 Mighty Dragon, and the Russian Sukhoi Su-57.