India's 5th-Gen Stealth Fighter Jet Project Takes Off As Defence Minister Rajnath Singh Approves AMCA Programme Execution Model

New Delhi: In a major boost to India’s indigenous defence capabilities, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday approved the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) Programme Execution Model. It is significant step towards indigenously develop a fifth generation deep penetration advanced medium combat aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF).

As per the Defence Ministry, the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) is set to execute the programme through Industry partnership.

"The Execution Model approach provides equal opportunities to both private and public sectors on competitive basis. They can bid either independently or as joint venture or as consortia. The entity/bidder should be an Indian company compliant with the laws and regulations of the country," the ministry said in a press release.

"This is an important step towards harnessing the indigenous expertise, capability and capacity to develop the AMCA prototype, which will be a major milestone towards Aatmanirbharta in the aerospace sector," it added.

Notably, ADA will shortly issue an Expression of Interest (EoI) for the AMCA Development Phase.

The cabinet committee on security led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given in-principle approval to the fighter jet programme last year. The initial development cost of the project has been estimated at around Rs 15,000 crore.

The IAF has been pushing for the AMCA project for a long time.

Notably, the development of the Defence Ministry giving approval to the AMCA programme came amid reports of Pakistan likely getting fifth generation fighter jet J-35 from China by the end of 2025 or the early next year.