Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA)

India and France are going conclude a deal, for the joint development of a 125KN engine for the indigenous fifth generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA).

AMCA will be a single-seat, twin-engine, stealth all-weather swing-role fighter aircraft.
The AMCA design is optimised for low radar cross section and supercruise capability.
It would be a twin engine stealth aircraft with an internal weapons bay and a diverterless supersonic intake, which has been developed for the first time for which the design is complete.
It will be a 25-tonne aircraft with internal carriage of 1,500 kg of payload and 5,500-kg external payload with 6,500 kg of internal fuel.
The AMCA which is intended to perform a multitude of missions including air superiority, ground-strike, Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) and electronic warfare (EW) missions would be a potent replacement for the Sukhoi Su-30MKI air superiority fighter, which forms the backbone of the IAF fighter fleet.
The AMCA will have stealth and non-stealth configuration and will be developed in two phases, AMCA Mk1 with existing GE414 engine and an AMCA Mk2 with an advanced, more powerful engine.
There are two primary approaches to making a military platform more stealthy.
- Geometric stealth: the aircraft’s form is angled in such a way that maximum radar waves are deflected away, reducing the radar cross-section.
- Material stealth: The aircraft is made of radar-absorbing materials, which absorb radio waves and so reduce the radar footprint.

India has in the past unsuccessfully attempted to indigenously design and develop a jet engine for the LCA under the Kaveri programme sanctioned in 1989.
The Shakti engine, which powers the indigenous Advanced Light Helicopter and its later variants, is a joint development between Safran and HAL.

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