Is India Abandoning the AMCA Project?

India has decided to postpone the indigenous development of the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) program because the Ministry of Defense because the MoD first wants to complete the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) program.

The MoD has spent in excess of $1 billion developing the project that has been delayed for over 15 years.

DRDO spokesman Ravi Gupta said the AMCA project is still at a feasibility stage and is awaiting government approval.

He denied that the project is being abandoned and did not comment when asked if it was postponed.

If the AMCA program is canceled, India might buy additional medium multirole combat aircraft from overseas, a MoD source told Defense News.

In 2006, the AMCA was conceived as a twin-engine, stealth/multirole fighter weighing 20 tons and fitted with air-to-air missiles and other precision weapons.

The AMCA development budget is $3 billion under which a prototype would be developed after 2020. By 2035, nearly 200 aircraft are planned to be produced by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.

The AMCA project is an extension of the LCA project, which was conceived in 1983 and is still in the prototype stage. The Indian Air Force has awarded a contract for 40 Mark-1 LCAs expected to be inducted in 2016-’17. Another order of more than 80 Mark-2 LCAs is pending.