India’s most ambitious military aviation program, the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), is entering a new chapter. Hopefully.
India’s dominant military airframer Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has received expressions of interest (EOI) from no fewer than 28 private sector firms eager to tie up for the country’s stealth fighter project, reports Hindustan Times. It is the latest and most concrete sign yet that India’s fifth-generation fighter push is seeking the momentum it has long struggled to find.
Livefist had first reported the new public-private direction that the program had embarked on five years ago. Despite attempts to forge partnerships, the model never took off. Now, in the wake of India’s military offensive on Pakistan and a significantly more urgent need for stealth aircraft, the Indian Government is hoping things fall into place.
HAL, the state-owned aerospace major, has confirmed that it has been approached by a wide range of private companies, each offering capabilities that range from advanced avionics and composites to critical systems integration. According to the Hindustan Times report, a committee inside HAL is now tasked with shortlisting a maximum of two companies from this pool to form a consortium that will co-develop, prototype, and take forward the aircraft into series production.
The formal process follows the Aeronautical Development Agency’s (ADA) expressions of interest call earlier this year. Responses to that call are being weighed even as HAL prepares to define its own partner ecosystem. ADA, under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), continues to lead the design and system architecture of the stealth fighter, while HAL is expected to serve as principal production partner.
In February this year, a full-scale mockup of the AMCA was unveiled at the Aero India 2025 show in Bengaluru. Three months later, the Ministry of Defence cleared all stakeholders to re-attempt a public-private partnership model to progress the AMCA.
This competitive interest comes at a crucial moment. The AMCA, originally sanctioned as a technology demonstrator more than a decade ago, has been dogged by delays and skepticism. India’s Light Combat Aircraft Tejas experience has only sharpened concerns about timelines. HAL chairman Dr D.K. Sunil, however, sounded a note of realism this week in media interviews, acknowledging that clauses in the ADA tender effectively make it nearly impossible for HAL to execute the AMCA alone. By design, private sector partnerships are now essential, not optional.
Livefist’s 2020 newsbreak detailed how HAL was internally preparing to push AMCA into a public-private partnership model. That proposal suggested the company had accepted that India’s stealth fighter ambitions could not be driven by a state monopoly alone. Yet, despite the significance of the idea, the plan went nowhere. The pandemic, internal resistance within sections of HAL and government, and lack of political bandwidth saw the initiative stall before it could take its first steps.
Five years later, the very contours of what was envisioned then are now being revived, albeit under far greater urgency. The sheer size of the potential order book has made private sector participation inevitable. ADA’s criteria for partners explicitly favor companies with the ability to build manufacturing ecosystems and share financial risk. For India’s private aerospace sector, firms such as Larsen & Toubro, Adani Defence, Tata Advanced Systems, and Mahindra Defence, the AMCA represents not just a contract, but a chance to stake a permanent claim in fighter aircraft production.
The roadmap envisages five AMCA prototypes, with the first flight scheduled no earlier than 2029, though this seems optimistic at the program’s current run rate. ADA has targeted a design freeze by the end of this decade, followed by a phased test campaign. If achieved, squadron service would only begin in the mid-2030s, if that.
Such timelines highlight both the ambition and the risk. India’s air force is already staring at a fighter squadron strength crisis. With legacy MiG fleets retired or retiring, and Jaguars and MiG-29s set to begin drawing down in the foreseeable future, the IAF is banking heavily on accelerated Tejas deliveries and the 36 Rafales already in service. Even then, a capability gap is inevitable through the 2030s. The start of deliveries of 180 Tejas Mk1A jets next month doesn’t come a day too soon. Separately, the IAF has formally moved a case to acquire 114 Rafale fighters, which, if accepted by the MoD, will ring a long-anticipated death knell to the meandering Multirole Fighter Aircraft (MRFA) contest, that theoretically pitted the Rafale against other jets, including Boeing’s F-15 Eagle II, Gripen E, Su-35 and others.
Which is why the AMCA is both a promise and a problem. A promise, because it places India in the rare league of nations pursuing indigenous stealth combat aircraft, albeit massively delayed. A problem, because the risk of slippages is immense, and the costs will only rise.
Adding an intriguing twist to this already complex picture are reports emerging in recent weeks that India is seriously evaluating the purchase of a limited number of Russia’s Su-57 Felon stealth fighters. The discussions, according to sources in Moscow and Delhi, are at a preliminary stage, but the logic is clear: with the AMCA unlikely to field squadrons before 2035, a stopgap option is being considered to preserve stealth capability in the near-term.
The Su-57, a troubled program in its own right, has long been on India’s radar. New Delhi was once a partner in the joint Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) program with Russia’s Sukhoi, before pulling out in 2018 citing design concerns, work share tensions and spiraling costs. Today, with the AMCA’s timelines stretching into the horizon, a reassessment appears to be underway. Officials caution that any decision would be shaped by geopolitics, sanctions environments, and the aircraft’s performance in real combat conditions, including its ongoing deployment in Ukraine. Still, the fact that the option is on the table underscores just how precarious India’s fighter roadmap has become.
The sudden clustering of 28 companies around HAL’s tender illustrates the broader churn within Indian defence industry. The government’s atmanirbhar policy thrust has dramatically changed the tone in recent years, with private firms more willing to invest capital and resources in long-cycle military projects. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has called the program a national priority and a symbol of India’s aerospace maturity. It remains to be seen if urgency will mean the AMCA becomes a project directly monitored by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
But even with this policy push, the challenges remain formidable. The financial risks of stealth fighter development are significant, and the technical challenges even greater. The AMCA will require mastery of low observable shaping, advanced composites, engine integration, and sensor fusion, areas where India has partial but incomplete expertise. Each of these elements will be scrutinized not only by the IAF but by export customers India hopes to attract in the long run.
For HAL and ADA, the experience of the Tejas program hangs like a shadow. Nearly four decades elapsed between its sanction and operational induction. Critics argue that India cannot afford such a gestation period again. Proponents counter that Tejas has built a foundation of skills and supply chains that make AMCA achievable in a far shorter timeframe.
The reality is likely to fall somewhere in between. The partnerships HAL is now seeking with private industry will need to function far more efficiently than any previous arrangement. That, in turn, requires an unprecedented degree of transparency, accountability, and program management.
For the IAF, the AMCA remains non-negotiable. The service has already committed to at least two squadrons of the initial Mk1 variant, followed by seven squadrons of an improved Mk2 version with more powerful engines and indigenous sensors. If these numbers hold, India could see at least 14 stealth fighter squadrons by the 2040s. A new Indo-French engine built by the DRDO and Safran could well power later variants of the jet.
Whether that vision materialises will depend on the decisions taken in the next 12 months. HAL’s shortlist, ADA’s partner selection, and the funding commitments made by government will define the pace of progress. Meanwhile, the Su-57 reports will continue to swirl, offering a reminder that strategic necessity often forces choices that are far from ideal.
In many ways, the AMCA today stands at the same crossroads Livefist reported five years ago. The difference now is that India has no more time to lose.