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 .
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 .