00:05It's a major boost to India's indigenous defense manufacturing ambitions,
00:12Atmanirbhar Bharat in defense and that too in fighter jets.
00:16The Ministry of Defense has issued RFP or request for proposal for the prototype development
00:22for India's fifth generation fighter jet, the advanced medium combat aircraft, the AMCA.
00:27This is India's flagship fifth generation stealth fighter jet program.
00:32This move marks a very crucial step forward in India's attempt to join an elite group of nations
00:38capable of designing, developing and taking to the skies of the next generation stealth combat fighter,
00:49the fifth generation stealth fighter.
00:51Of course there are three consortiums that have been shortlisted for this extremely ambitious project.
00:57These include the Tata Advanced Systems, Larson and Tubro in partnership with Bharat Electronics Limited
01:04and of course Bharat Forge with BEML.
01:08Hindustan Aeronautics Limited or HAL, it's not a part of this consortium or this bidding.
01:14That's the second line.
01:15So now you have two lines of fighter jet manufacturing because those are the numbers that India desperately needs.
01:22The AMCA is expected to be a highly advanced multi-role stealth fighter equipped with cutting edge technologies including,
01:30well it should be very low on the radar observability, internal weapon base, supercruise capabilities, advanced electronic warfare systems and
01:40next generation avionics.
01:42Now the aircraft is being designed to significantly strengthen the Indian Air Force and to make it future combat ready
01:48at a time when regional airpark competition is intensifying.
01:52Remember, China already has a fifth generation fighter fleet and China is already selling fifth generation fighters or at least
01:59there's a proposal to sell them to Pakistan.
02:02But there are very few countries that can make a good fifth generation stealth fighter.
02:07China of course is rapidly expanding its fifth generation fleet.
02:10Officials indicate that due to the complexity of design, testing and integration of stealth technologies,
02:15the AMCA program is likely to take several years.
02:19Of course, these are only prototypes until the final product is inducted.
02:24Hopefully, it'll become operational around 2025, but that's a tall ask.
02:29I quickly want to cut across to India today's Sandeep Puneethan joining us with the latest on this.
02:34Sandeep, a very important step finally taken.
02:38You know, the transition should have happened much earlier, but the fact that there are three Indian consortiums that are
02:44in the fray.
02:45What do you make of the step being taken now and the flight path ahead?
02:51Well, Gaurav, you know, this is one, this is India's most ambitious project to build a fighter aircraft.
02:57We already have the light combat aircraft, Tejas, that's, you know, being built by HAL.
03:02This is a fifth generation fighter aircraft and a fifth generation fighter aircraft very quickly is something that has all
03:09-round stealth capabilities,
03:11that has super crews, which is the ability to fly supersonic without using afterburners, which has internal weapon base,
03:19which means nothing is carried externally under the wings.
03:23And finally, it has sensor fusion capabilities.
03:26It has the ability to crunch massive amounts of data.
03:28So this is the kind of aircraft we are attempting to build all by ourselves.
03:32Now, very few countries in the world have this capability as you've outlined.
03:37It's primarily it's the United States and it's China and Russia as a distant number three.
03:43China has one of the world's largest fifth generation fighter fleets.
03:46In fact, after the United States, it's the only country with two fifth generation fighter aircraft in service.
03:52They would have something like a thousand fifth generation fighter jets by the end of this decade.
03:58So India should have done this, Gaurav, years or decades ago.
04:02We began this in 2007, but better late than never, Gaurav.
04:06Now we've got on with it.
04:08These what we what happened today is that those three consortiums have been awarded this have been asked to bid
04:15for this thing of making those first five prototypes.
04:18Now, these one of these three consortium costatas is all by themselves.
04:25One of these three companies consortiums is going to be given the contract to build the first five prototypes of
04:32the advanced medium combat aircraft.
04:34Fingers crossed that they keep to time.
04:36They keep to time and they're able to deliver because India needs the fifth generation fighter jet as quickly as
04:42possible.
04:42Thank you for the moment.
04:42We will send you the next kind.
04:42Thank you for the moment.
04:43Many thanks for joining me.
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