Work on AMCA to begin by Mid 2011

[marcos98]

Work on AMCA to begin by Mid 2011​

BY: IDRW NEWS NETWORK

India’s Aeronautical Development Agency which is currently fast tracking its work on development of Tejas MK-II aircraft ,will also officially start its work on development of countries Next Generation 5th Gen fighter aircraft from mid of 2011 onwards .

Aeronautical Development Agency which is currently developing Tejas MK-2, which will be powered by American GE F414 higher thrust (98kn) will have its first flight by 2014 and will hit production by 2016 , Aeronautical Development Agency has already studied official Air Staff Requirement (ASR) submitted by Indian Air force earlier this year and also has been working unofficially on the design of AMCA and other technology for a while now .

Official of ADA have told idrw.org that ADA plans to have first flight of AMCA by 2018-19 time frame ,since most of the design characters of the aircraft have been already done, but the design is still kept for improvement , which means design has not been frozen yet by ADA .

ADA had earlier has shown a wind tunnel model of AMCA in last years Aero India 2009 , a final or a close AMCA design models may be reveled in next year Aero India 2011 air show claims defence expert Rakesh sharma .

AMCA was earlier called the Medium Combat Aircraft, and basic designs of first sketches where available in late 90′s , MCA or even AMCA is still not officially sanctioned Project by government of India ,it was mostly in house Research and Development by ADA .

Official funding will mark the official development of the aircraft it self , AMCA is projected to have Max take off weight not exceeding 25 tones very similar to Mig-29 , with” Full Stealth” characters as requested by Indian Air Force , which will be supported by locally built active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar which will be likely spin off of AESA radar which is under development for Tejas MK-2 .

It is likely that the Kaveri Mk-2 engine presently being developed by French Company Snecma and DRDO’s Gas Turbine Research Establishment will be used for the AMCA.but ADA will also have GE’s F-414 has back up in case Kaveri Mk-2 does not hit production by 2016 . Kaveri Mk-2 is likely to also power Tejas MK-1 when Ge F-404 engines which currently powers them will come up for engine change .

 

[Markus]

Hmmm.....first flight in 2018/19, so induction possibly after 2025.

 

[SpArK]

Possibilities are there for GE-414 engine with AMCA.....if the timelines arent kept.

 

[ISRO Go!]

its better late than never

 

[jha]

ADA plans to have first flight of AMCA by 2018-19 time frame ,since most of the design characters of the aircraft have been already done, but the design is still kept for improvement , which means design has not been frozen yet by ADA .

This is a good part. ..Most of design characters are done.
Officially work starts from 2011. My best estimate for first flight will be 2018-2020..Lets hope for the best..

 

[kali]

DRDO should speed up this project...

 

[Kinetic]

Its good time to start the project. If they manage the first flight in 2020 and induction by 2025 that will be enough. 'Full stealth' feature requested by the IAF is interesting.

According to Shiv Aroor, IAF wants AMCA to be 'be a twin-pilot configured multirole stealth aircraft capable of "close air support, all weather interception, air defence suppression, long-range strike, electronic attack, limited command & control and reconnaissance". IAF will buy 250 of them and will replace mainly Jaguars.

 

[SpArK]

Its good time to start the project. If they manage the first flight in 2020 and induction by 2025 that will be enough. 'Full stealth' feature requested by the IAF is interesting.

According to Shiv Aroor, IAF wants AMCA to be 'be a twin-pilot configured multirole stealth aircraft capable of "close air support, all weather interception, air defence suppression, long-range strike, electronic attack, limited command & control and reconnaissance". IAF will buy 250 of them and will replace mainly Jaguars.

Twin seater ...

So the Jaguars are gonna stay till 2025 atleast.

 

[jha]

Jaguars were staying till 2025 anyways..Thats why all the drama of DARIN-III upgrades including engine...

 

[Urbanized Greyhound]

Once the final design is frozen .....given our experiences with radars, composites ,EW suites , and most other AC parts ...picked up from the LCA project.....only the engines remain an issue ....if the AESA can be acquired from Isreal and the GE 414 chosen over the Kaveri.....then the first prototype can be produced before 2018....

nice to know the IAF high brass will be closely scrutinizing this project from the inception .....any delays in developing in-house tech will probably be cut down by foreign assistance to the DRDO , compelled to accept by the IAF.....

 

[jha]

We must involve israel for atleast some systems like JHMS, EW protection system and maybe Radar..However all that is in distant future..

 

[kingdurgaking]

Twin seater ...

So the Jaguars are gonna stay till 2025 atleast.

I guess not..there was a separate report from IAF chief about different kinds of Aircraft in inventory... He said plan to have 5 aircraft only in a decade....
1)PAKFA
2)SU MKI
3)AMCA
4)Tejas
5)MMRCA


so naturally they are trying to eliminate Mirage, Jaguar and Migs


and it is good to hear that AMCA is on his spot light always..

 

[sudhir007]

Aeronautical Development Agency which is currently developing Tejas MK-2, which will be powered by American GE F414 higher thrust (98kn) will have its first flight by 2014 and will hit production by 2016 ,

So the lca Mk-2 come at 2016-2017 ???? too late.........

 

[Dash]

The most intersting part is that IAF is looking for a fully stealth plane, which is none other than Raptor itself.

The aorframe and aerodynamics design will be the most challenging part. Coz there are huge calculations that will go into it.

Avionics is not a big aspects of this plane, as radars and EW can be done or be fitted by foreighn vendors, but Airframe design....Looking forward to this project.

 

[SpArK]

Old article but looked debatable.


Why Israel should join AMCA

ADA along with HAL have embarked into developing a 5th generation aircraft all alone , AMCA project has per IAF ASR (Air staff requirement) has to be Fully stealth aircraft and also should be a multirole aircraft able to play role of both Air superiority fighter and also be able to carry precision air strikes ,very similar role which Tejas MK2 might have to carry out when inducted into Air force .

Constant delays in Tejas program have made many defence experts in India, question the whole AMCA project which India wants to carry out on its own with out any International defence partner , Many including Defence Expert Rakesh Sharma have suggested an international defence partners help to carry out this project , and why Israel fits the bill for the AMCA project .

Israel have technical knowing and might bring its expertise in Avionics and its subsystems to develop a highly capable aircraft , and in return India will get an international partner for Export and they will also play a crucial role in getting export orders for AMCA in international market , Israel are currently disappointed regarding F-35, since they will not be able to do any local upgrades to F-35 they indent to purchase and rising cost of this aircraft already has forced Israel to cut back on number which they earlier indented to induct .


while induction numbers of F-35 might be small for Israeli air force , Israel will also face another problem since it will have to carry out fleet replacement of older F-16 and F-15 in service with them , Israel is second largest operator of F-16 in the region and soon older Blocks will require replacement and Israel might struggle to replace them in one to one basis with F-35 ,and to avoid shriking of aircraft they too will require adding new variant of fighter aircraft or induct more similar aircrafts already in their force .

A Joint Venture between two will be a win win situation for both countries and their respected air force , it will also benefit whole AMCA project since it will cut down time for development of many systems and subsystems which India needs to develop for a 5th generation aircraft , and whole aircraft project will take shorter time to turn into reality , this will also keep Bossy IAF happy and steady export customer for ADA and HAL will make the whole project feasible and it might also lead to further orders in international market .