AMCA's Upgrade-Focused Modular Design Ensures Long-Term Dominance

The Aeronautical Development Agency's (ADA) Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) program demonstrates a forward-thinking approach to fighter jet design.

By prioritizing a modular architecture and embracing spiral upgrades, the AMCA is poised to remain relevant and potent for decades to come.

The Benefits of Spiral Upgrades​

The AMCA's "Block" development strategy allows for seamless introduction of new capabilities and technologies over its lifespan.

Rather than requiring a total aircraft overhaul at fixed intervals, incremental updates maintain the AMCA's technological edge.

This approach ensures adaptability in a constantly shifting threat landscape and keeps operational costs in check.

Modular Design for Maximum Flexibility​

Central to the AMCA's upgradability is its modular design. A prime example is its engine bay, specifically designed to accommodate different engine variants without significant structural modifications.

This flexibility offers a significant advantage: as next-generation engines with increased thrust become available, they can be integrated into the AMCA, boosting its overall performance.

The Engine Evolution​

While initial AMCA prototypes and the Mk I variant will utilize F414 engines, the AMCA Mk II is set to feature a considerably more powerful engine, targeting 110kN of thrust.

The Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE) is seeking international collaboration for this new engine, but the AMCA's modular design promises a smooth integration process for any selected manufacturer.

This translates to a faster development timeline and reduced costs. Importantly, the AMCA's design leaves the door open for future engine advancements, safeguarding its performance superiority over the long term.

Future-Proofed for the Long Haul​

The AMCA's emphasis on upgradeability extends far beyond initial development stages. This philosophy ensures the fighter remains a potent asset even as technology continues its relentless march forward.

This intelligent approach by India's Aeronautical Development Agency demonstrates a deep understanding of the requirements for a truly future-proof fighter in the 21st-century battlespace.

 

[Sandeep]

India should First Finalise Foreign partner for 110kN-120kN Thrust Engine it will impact the Timeline of AMCA MK2 if is further delyaed.

They have already decided and signed a deal with Safran last year to develop a brand new engine which gives 100% of the technology and local production in India.

 

[Sandeep]

Don’t Evan post any articles as I know you cannot do it. Try to buy some foreign made fighter where the persons involved make huge money. How can Korea and turkey build one so quickly and are selling now in international market. How come Korea was behind India and now bidding to export the submarines. I feel you cannot do anything , don’t waste money. Tejas I can gaurentee if they roll out Evan 10 planes in 2024.

The only reason why they have managed to develop their stealth jet so quickly is because most of the technology, parts, equipment and components etc have mostly been bought from the USA and NATO companies. So South Korea isn't racing ahead as we are developing the AMCA completely by ourselves without any help which works out better in the long term.

Also the technology that we have developed for the AMCA will be 100% indigenously designed and made in India and it isn't a pipe dream. Currently they are already starting to make the items and parts now that the government has cleared the funds so private companies will be participating keenly. As for exporting their submarines they have again had help from the USA and NATO allies in technology transfer and they have had their military projects running continuously with upgrades and changes which incrementally makes each submarine more advanced than the last. India has never bothered until recently to design and develop their own submarines which take at least 10 years or more.

 

[Sandeep]

India has received funding so things will now start to move quickly. We will now move to the production phase now and purchases for the equipment, parts and components will take place. We need to move swiftly in manufacturing the first 4 jets to be used to test the technology but it will take time before production will even begin but hopefully no latter than 2032. All companies should plan ahead and make purchases beforehand or manufacturing the parts so there are no delays or time lag in waiting.

 

[Mridul baruah]

who said AMCA is Flying it Future Project & Funds are approved so Tentative Roll out is 2028 End. second Thing that is Real difference between other on going 4.75 Stealth Fighters project & AMCA. They too b inducted post 2030 or in Next Decade. and most likely Block Building with Foreign Help..India is going well planned approach.

2028 mein Tejas MK2 bhi ban gaya to bohot. AMCA iduction wont happen before 2040. India will be forced to buy Su57s paying three times their price as it will be a panic buying to counter Pak Air Force.

 

[Bikramjeet Goswami]

They have already decided and signed a deal with Safran last year to develop a brand new engine which gives 100% of the technology and local production in India.

There was a report just a few days back on this very site that India is close to choosing a partner for development of a new engine. 🤣

 

[Bikramjeet Goswami]

Ok, lets list down all things AMCA is
- AMCA is future proof.
- AMCA is 5.5 gen.
- AMCA is Stealthy.
- AMCA is AI aware.
- AMCA is indigenous.
- AMCA is super fast.
- AMCA will have Indian Jet Engine.
- AMCA will have DSI intakes.
- AMCA will have thrust vectoring.
- AMCA will have support for network centeic warfare.
- AMCA has great 3D renders made by ADA/HAL.

Now lets list down things AMCA isn't:-
- AMCA is not flying

Umm, oh well!

Government, Defence Ministry, ADA, HAL, Air Force - everyone seems to be day dreaming. This isn't Swatch Bharat Abhiyan, where you can post a few pics and claim success. A plane actually needs to fly to be a plane. I wonder when these people will wake up and actually focus on Tejas production numbers and R&D for AMCA.

 

[Bikramjeet Goswami]

DRDO has always been in "lala" land and in spite of more pressure from GOI remains hopelessly inadequate and the only thing they excel in are periodic bombastic statements. There is a lot of blatant lying going on and either the higher ups are part of the conundrum or they lack intent to set this right. The third possibility is that we do not have any other viable options.

I doubt politicians and even air force officers understand the realities of current research and production capacity in India.

 

[ABHIJIT APSINGIKAR]

The only reason why they have managed to develop their stealth jet so quickly is because most of the technology, parts, equipment and components etc have mostly been bought from the USA and NATO companies. So South Korea isn't racing ahead as we are developing the AMCA completely by ourselves without any help which works out better in the long term.

Also the technology that we have developed for the AMCA will be 100% indigenously designed and made in India and it isn't a pipe dream. Currently they are already starting to make the items and parts now that the government has cleared the funds so private companies will be participating keenly. As for exporting their submarines they have again had help from the USA and NATO allies in technology transfer and they have had their military projects running continuously with upgrades and changes which incrementally makes each submarine more advanced than the last. India has never bothered until recently to design and develop their own submarines which take at least 10 years or more.

And do tell who stopped DRDO/HAL from doing the same and accelerate the project. Their job is to develop defense technologies on time not 2-3 decades after world has moved on form that technology.

 

[Rajesh Bhatnagar]

Why we have started talking of 110KN whereas initially it was mentioned 120+ KN thrust, So why 110KN??

 

[Rajdeep Dey]

As we r arriving late in 5th Gen Fighter development, I personally think that we should develop AMCA on 2 options !
One should be a Single Engine Varient and the other should be A Dual Engine Varient !
There should also be a factor of Cost !
We should always secure bang on bucks technique !
Just like the US development of F 15 and F 16 !
For High Intense warfare and Dogfights it's F 15 !
But for Raids and Low Intense warfare itz F 16 !
I am damn Sure we could hit the export market , as a single engine Fighter would be more cost effective and easy to maintain!

 

[Sandeep]

There was a report just a few days back on this very site that India is close to choosing a partner for development of a new engine. 🤣

Yes that was fake news because it was published in the media when the PM went to France and made the deals.

 

[Pad UwU]

The only reason why they have managed to develop their stealth jet so quickly is because most of the technology, parts, equipment and components etc have mostly been bought from the USA and NATO companies. So South Korea isn't racing ahead as we are developing the AMCA completely by ourselves without any help which works out better in the long term.

Also the technology that we have developed for the AMCA will be 100% indigenously designed and made in India and it isn't a pipe dream. Currently they are already starting to make the items and parts now that the government has cleared the funds so private companies will be participating keenly. As for exporting their submarines they have again had help from the USA and NATO allies in technology transfer and they have had their military projects running continuously with upgrades and changes which incrementally makes each submarine more advanced than the last. India has never bothered until recently to design and develop their own submarines which take at least 10 years or more.

I don't think your right that SK are not in the lead.... Korean government and it's air force ink a deal of 1st batch of kf21 Boramae mk1 to buy 40 aircraft at a price of $65m each....

Doesn't matter if they get help or not.... Our own decisions of soloing and the development made us slowpoke anyway... Those Korean and Turks will gradually replacing each US and European components that they will develop for every version and batch they'll make... While us is still in delululandia waiting if AMCA will materialize it's oh so overhype ,over engineered and over delayed prototype before 2035 😹😹😹

 

[Sandeep]

And do tell who stopped DRDO/HAL from doing the same and accelerate the project. Their job is to develop defense technologies on time not 2-3 decades after world has moved on form that technology.

The biggest hold up to defence deals that need large funds have to be vetted by the defence ministry who then send the information to the finance ministry who need to look at the detail and files to make sure everything is ok and proper along with the CCS before final approval is given. They aren’t going to just hand over a billion dollars without making sure everything is fine and no corruption is taking place.

 

[Pad UwU]

Kf21 and kaan, fc31 are pseudo 5th gen fighters at best. They are mainly made for export market, basically rich countries like saudi and UAE can buy them, since they cant get their hands on true 5th gen jets.

Then AMCA is 5gen PAPER PLANE😹😹😹 with a 6gen PAPER technology 🙃🤭

 

[Pad UwU]

2028 mein Tejas MK2 bhi ban gaya to bohot. AMCA iduction wont happen before 2040. India will be forced to buy Su57s paying three times their price as it will be a panic buying to counter Pak Air Force.

Yeah AMCA is very fine in printed 3d render PAPER with oh so overhype, over engineered tech and over delayed date 😹😹😹 plus it cannot fly until the developer decided it needs a working prototype

 

[Pink Panther]

Let us have the Mk1A first flight and MK 2 production dirat

and future proof picture too.

 

[ABHIJIT APSINGIKAR]

The biggest hold up to defence deals that need large funds have to be vetted by the defence ministry who then send the information to the finance ministry who need to look at the detail and files to make sure everything is ok and proper along with the CCS before final approval is given. They aren’t going to just hand over a billion dollars without making sure everything is fine and no corruption is taking place.

Actually, the problem.lies with the way DRDO works on R&D projects. The bereaucratic red tape of getting approval from finance ministry is standard worldwide, what's not standard however is attempting to do everything at once on a project. KAI abd TAI succeed because they unlike DRDO know their limitations and focus on putting the platform in service first by sourcing components and sub systems from third party suppliers worldwide. However DRDO thinks its OK to waste away 2-3 decades while attempting to domestically produce everything at once.

Now LCA was delayed by 1-2 decades just because they kept waiting for GTRE to come through with a workable Kaveri, which of course it never did. Had they instead just acquired the engine from get go and put it in sky we could have started inducing LCA a lot earlier.

 

[Sandeep]

I don't think your right that SK are not in the lead.... Korean government and it's air force ink a deal of 1st batch of kf21 Boramae mk1 to buy 40 aircraft at a price of $65m each....

Doesn't matter if they get help or not.... Our own decisions of soloing and the development made us slowpoke anyway... Those Korean and Turks will gradually replacing each US and European components that they will develop for every version and batch they'll make... While us is still in delululandia waiting if AMCA will materialize it's oh so overhype ,over engineered and over delayed prototype before 2035 😹😹😹

No your wrong because with SK it doesn’t even have an internal weapons bay to call it a stealth fighter at all.

Also you can’t simply insert and replace foreign parts, components or equipment as easily as you think you can. To replace parts you need permission from the OEM who then has to certify that the part you made will work with the rest of the plane. You need to access the jets computer and make changes to the software and other hardware which only the OEM will have access to. So say you have developed a new EW system and want to use it instead of the original one and you install it. You might have developed it for let’s say 5 lakh but if you install it and something seriously goes wrong and the plane crashes that mistake will cost you around $50 million worth of damage if that plane crashes. So on foreign equipment and weapons you need the OEM guidance and permission to certify it but they usually charge a large price because they don’t want to lose out on making money in supplying you with original parts. You can’t just plug in your own parts and technology and expect it to work in the same way with the rest.

 

[Sandeep]

Actually, the problem.lies with the way DRDO works on R&D projects. The bereaucratic red tape of getting approval from finance ministry is standard worldwide, what's not standard however is attempting to do everything at once on a project. KAI abd TAI succeed because they unlike DRDO know their limitations and focus on putting the platform in service first by sourcing components and sub systems from third party suppliers worldwide. However DRDO thinks its OK to waste away 2-3 decades while attempting to domestically produce everything at once.

Now LCA was delayed by 1-2 decades just because they kept waiting for GTRE to come through with a workable Kaveri, which of course it never did. Had they instead just acquired the engine from get go and put it in sky we could have started inducing LCA a lot earlier.

Yes DRDO are very rigid and their way and method in developing advanced technology needs to change as there’s very little accountability and oversight with far to many small cluster’s focusing on one main technology rather than the entire product. They also need to work more with the private sector who can help out much more with talent and expertise that they don’t have. Bureaucracy is always a problem but India has been led with corruption since independence thanks to the corrupt jihadi party and we are paying the price now. Those rules keep power and money in check but it also slows down approvals.

The LCA program wasn’t given the funds or expertise right from the start and at best it was only being developed on paper. Instead they preferred foreign jets because they got large commissions. Progress only happened when the B J P came to power and fixed the mess out along with creating the Tejas 2, TEDBF and AMCA programs to develop that advanced technology if we want to become a superpower. As fire the Kaveri engine progress has also been made by producing 50KN of dry thrust which has been certified and will be used on the UCAV Ghatak drone. We are also developing the Kaveri Marine engine and good progress is being made so it can even power light to medium ships.

 

[BCharlie]

5th to 7th gen will take atleast a minimum of 5 to 6 decades time frame.

Yes, for sure sir.; for 5th to 7th gen that time of 6 decades from now, we may or may not have end result... but by 6 decades from now, the world will have maybe 9th or 10th gen fighters.