India’s Aeronautical Development Agency which is currently fasttracking its work on development of Tejas MK-II aircraft ,will alsoofficially start its work on development of countries Next Generation5th Gen fighter aircraft from mid of 2011 onwards .
Aeronautical Development Agency which is currently developing TejasMK-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 StaffRequirement (ASR) submitted by Indian Air force earlier this year andalso has been working unofficially on the design of AMCA and othertechnology for a while now .
Aeronautical Development Agency which is currently developing TejasMK-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 StaffRequirement (ASR) submitted by Indian Air force earlier this year andalso has been working unofficially on the design of AMCA and othertechnology for a while now .
Official of ADA have told idrw.org that ADA plans to have firstflight of AMCA by 2018-19 time frame ,since most of the designcharacters of the aircraft have been already done, but the design isstill kept for improvement , which means design has not been frozen yetby ADA .
ADA had earlier has shown a wind tunnel model of AMCA in last yearsAero India 2009 , a final or a close AMCA design models may be reveledin next year Aero India 2011 air show claims defence expert Rakeshsharma .
AMCA was earlier called the Medium Combat Aircraft, and basic designsof first sketches where available in late 90′s , MCA or even AMCA isstill not officially sanctioned Project by government of India ,it wasmostly in house Research and Development by ADA .
Official funding will mark the official development of the aircraft itself , AMCA is projected to have Max take off weight not exceeding 25tones very similar to Mig-29 , with” Full Stealth” characters asrequested by Indian Air Force , which will be supported by locallybuilt active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar which will belikely 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 byFrench Company Snecma and DRDO’s Gas Turbine Research Establishmentwill be used for the AMCA.but ADA will also have GE’s F-414 has back upin case Kaveri Mk-2 does not hit production by 2016 . Kaveri Mk-2 islikely to also power Tejas MK-1 when Ge F-404 engines which currentlypowers them will come up for engine change .
