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Economic Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Economic Times
Would you fly a jet with Chinese chips? Veterans say no to Russia's Su‑57, push for India's AMCA instead
India's fighter jet debate has split top Air Force veterans. One side backs Russia's Su‑57E offer with promises of full technology transfer. The other says importing any fifth‑generation jet risks national security and undermines self‑reliance. Ajay Ahlawat and RKS Bhadauria want India to put all weight behind the homegrown AMCA, now under design. With Pakistan eyeing Chinese stealth jets, the choice is stark: build at home or depend on foreign vendors. The stakes are clear. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Call for direct oversight Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads A different view Former chief says no Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Stronger defences the answer Where AMCA stands now Former Air Force officer Ajay Ahlawat has sounded a clear warning. He believes India must reject the lure of imported fifth‑generation fighters and put every resource into building its own stealth jet, the AMCA "It would be best if we eliminate the option to import FGFA ( Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft ). We have two bad choices. F‑35 comes with strings attached. US can not be trusted to steer a predictable foreign policy. Su57 is not really a FGFA. Moreover, a large part of electronics, avionics components and chips etc are sourced from China. Imagine being in a shooting war with your equipment vendor," Ahlawat wrote on words land at a time when Russia has made a tempting pitch: co‑produce the Su‑57E with complete technology wants more than just a rejection of imports. He wants the AMCA declared a national mission, personally monitored from the top."AMCA is the only viable option. Bring the program under PMO. Call it a mission of national importance. Nominate one IAF 3‑star as program head, reporting to NSA. All agencies under," he his view, India must break free from foreign dependency if it wants real air not everyone agrees. Former Air Marshal Sanjeev Kapoor sees strategic merit in Russia's plan. He thinks India should grab the chance while President Putin is set to visit."Just before Putin's visit on Thursday, Russia proposed a game changer offer for us, full tech transfer for co‑production of the Su‑57E at HAL Nashik (site of 220+ Su‑30MKI builds) plus direct delivery of Su‑35M jets in India's MRFA tender for 117 fighters. The dual offer promises deep localisation, source code access, it is a strategic boost for India's ' Make in India ' and our air power ambitions ," Kapoor said on him, Russian cooperation means faster firepower with local jobs and know‑ Ahlawat's view, former Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria stays firm. No shortcuts, no imported jets. He says India must stick with its plan to finish the AMCA, no matter how long it takes."My answer is no. Now, the government has clearly put their faith in AMCA, and now we need to do everything as a nation to expedite the AMCA," Bhadauria spoke against panic buys, especially since Pakistan is expected to get Chinese J‑20 or J‑35 jets."That cause of concern in terms of what Pakistan is going to get from China in the interim – be it J20 or J‑35 – let them get these. That will be studied. What is important is in the interim how do you handle these threats and there are ways and means of tackling this threat that they will have,' he stressed that India's answer lies in tougher air defences, not shopping abroad."We have already demonstrated our capabilities in the air defence zones… in air‑to‑ground precision zones in terms of standoff. So therefore we'll need to have an action plan to be able to sort this out and I think that's the way to go," he accepts that Pakistan may fly stealth jets before India. But he believes that does not have to tilt the balance."In terms of stealth capability Pakistan is likely to get before us, we'll have to take some other measures in order to be able to detect by some means, to be able to still hold them off our borders much inside so that they are unable to launch. And should they be able to launch their cruise missiles or their standoff weapons, we are able to tackle the weapons," Bhadauria AMCA, short for Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft, is India's first attempt to build a fifth‑generation stealth fighter on its own. DRDO, HAL and private firms are working together. The project is now in the detailed design stage. The first flying prototype is likely by the end of this stake is more than just an aircraft. The real test is whether India can build what it needs without outside help. If it works, the AMCA could close the stealth gap with rivals and cut foreign ties that come with hidden next few months will show which path India picks: build at home or buy from abroad. The debate has begun.
Time of India
4 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Would you fly a jet with Chinese chips? Veterans say no to Russia's Su‑57, pushes for India's AMCA instead
Former Air Force officer Ajay Ahlawat has sounded a clear warning. He believes India must reject the lure of imported fifth‑generation fighters and put every resource into building its own stealth jet, the AMCA . "It would be best if we eliminate the option to import FGFA ( Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft ). We have two bad choices. F‑35 comes with strings attached. US can not be trusted to steer a predictable foreign policy. Su57 is not really a FGFA. Moreover, a large part of electronics, avionics components and chips etc are sourced from China. Imagine being in a shooting war with your equipment vendor," Ahlawat wrote on Tuesday. His words land at a time when Russia has made a tempting pitch: co‑produce the Su‑57E with complete technology transfer. Play Video Pause Skip Backward Skip Forward Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration 0:00 Loaded : 0% 0:00 Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 1x Playback Rate Chapters Chapters Descriptions descriptions off , selected Captions captions settings , opens captions settings dialog captions off , selected Audio Track default , selected Picture-in-Picture Fullscreen This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Opaque Semi-Transparent Text Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Caption Area Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Drop shadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Dukung Orang Terkasih Menghadapi Limfoma: Mulai Di Sini Limfoma Pelajari Undo Call for direct oversight Ahlawat wants more than just a rejection of imports. He wants the AMCA declared a national mission, personally monitored from the top. "AMCA is the only viable option. Bring the program under PMO. Call it a mission of national importance. Nominate one IAF 3‑star as program head, reporting to NSA. All agencies under," he added. Live Events In his view, India must break free from foreign dependency if it wants real air power. A different view But not everyone agrees. Former Air Marshal Sanjeev Kapoor sees strategic merit in Russia's plan. He thinks India should grab the chance while President Putin is set to visit. "Just before Putin's visit on Thursday, Russia proposed a game changer offer for us, full tech transfer for co‑production of the Su‑57E at HAL Nashik (site of 220+ Su‑30MKI builds) plus direct delivery of Su‑35M jets in India's MRFA tender for 117 fighters. The dual offer promises deep localisation, source code access, it is a strategic boost for India's ' Make in India ' and our air power ambitions ," Kapoor said on Monday. — sanjeev__kapoor (@sanjeev__kapoor) For him, Russian cooperation means faster firepower with local jobs and know‑how. Former chief says no Backing Ahlawat's view, former Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria stays firm. No shortcuts, no imported jets. He says India must stick with its plan to finish the AMCA, no matter how long it takes. "My answer is no. Now, the government has clearly put their faith in AMCA, and now we need to do everything as a nation to expedite the AMCA," Bhadauria said. He spoke against panic buys, especially since Pakistan is expected to get Chinese J‑20 or J‑35 jets. "That cause of concern in terms of what Pakistan is going to get from China in the interim – be it J20 or J‑35 – let them get these. That will be studied. What is important is in the interim how do you handle these threats and there are ways and means of tackling this threat that they will have,' he said. Stronger defences the answer Bhadauria stressed that India's answer lies in tougher air defences, not shopping abroad. "We have already demonstrated our capabilities in the air defence zones… in air‑to‑ground precision zones in terms of standoff. So therefore we'll need to have an action plan to be able to sort this out and I think that's the way to go," he said. He accepts that Pakistan may fly stealth jets before India. But he believes that does not have to tilt the balance. "In terms of stealth capability Pakistan is likely to get before us, we'll have to take some other measures in order to be able to detect by some means, to be able to still hold them off our borders much inside so that they are unable to launch. And should they be able to launch their cruise missiles or their standoff weapons, we are able to tackle the weapons," Bhadauria added. Where AMCA stands now The AMCA, short for Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft, is India's first attempt to build a fifth‑generation stealth fighter on its own. DRDO, HAL and private firms are working together. The project is now in the detailed design stage. The first flying prototype is likely by the end of this decade. At stake is more than just an aircraft. The real test is whether India can build what it needs without outside help. If it works, the AMCA could close the stealth gap with rivals and cut foreign ties that come with hidden risks. The next few months will show which path India picks: build at home or buy from abroad. The debate has begun.
The Wire
29-05-2025
- Business
- The Wire
India's Fighter Jet Ambitions: From Russian Roulette to Indigenous Dreams
For the best experience, open on your mobile browser or Download our App. Next Support independent journalism. Donate Now Security Rahul Bedi 5 minutes ago After abandoning a $295 million joint project with Russia, India fast-tracks its indigenous fifth-generation fighter programme—but faces familiar challenges that have plagued its defence manufacturing for decades. In this image released by @SpokespersonMoD via X on May 27, 2025, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh approved the Execution Model for the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) programme. The Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) will lead the project in partnership with Indian industry. (@SpokespersonMoD via PTI Photo) Real journalism holds power accountable Since 2015, The Wire has done just that. But we can continue only with your support. Contribute Now Chandigarh: The Ministry of Defence's intent, announced earlier this week, to fast-track development of its indigenous fifth-generation fighter via the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) programme, is not its first brush with such lofty ambitions. For 11 years, until 2018, the MoD and the Indian Air Force (IAF) were in advanced negotiations with Russia's Sukhoi Design Bureau to co-develop a Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) under a 2007 agreement, aimed at delivering a near-bespoke advanced stealth platform tailored largely to Indian requirements. Designated the Perspective Multi-Role Fighter by the MoD, the FGFA was based on the Sukhoi T-50—then known as PAK-FA (Perspektivnyi Aviatsionnyi Kompleks-Frontovoi Aviatsii)—which later morphed into the Sukhoi Su-57 stealth fighter. This putative 30-tonne, twin-engine platform promised super-cruise capabilities, advanced stealth, internal weapon bays and next-generation avionics. Consequently, in 2010-11 India paid $295 million towards the FGFA's preliminary design, as part of its equal financial but partial technical partnership. Thereafter, in 2013 Russia demanded an additional $5 billion as half its share to further progress the fighter's developmental costs, which it had pegged at around $10 billion. The MoD refused to pay but continued negotiating, and in 2016 reached a compromise under which it was agreed that each side would contribute $3.7 billion apiece—to be paid over six to seven years—towards the FGFA's further development, in addition to incorporating IAF-specific requirements on the platform. These comprised some 50-odd major and minor modifications, like replacing the fighter's NPO Saturn AL-41F1 engine with a more powerful power pack and improving its stealth features and weapons carriage system. The IAF also called for an advanced version of the fighter's nose-mounted Byelka electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, easier maintainability and assorted additional safety features. Industry sources said that at the time Sukhoi also agreed to share critical FGFA design information with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL)—the platform's designated series manufacturing agency—which it had earlier withheld, and to try and restore its work share in the programme, which had been reduced by more than half to merely around 13%. This included providing tyres for the under-development fighter, basic navigation equipment, laser designation pods, heads-up displays and coolant for its radar, as there was little of major technological input that HAL or the IAF had to offer to the FGFA programme. Sukhoi also undertook, in principle, to deliver three single-seat FGFA prototypes by 2019-20 to the IAF for user trials, ahead of erecting a series production line for the fighters at HAL's facility in Nashik. Pulling the plug on Sukhoi Initially, the IAF had planned on procuring 200-250 single and twin-seat licence-built FGFAs, with deliveries scheduled to begin by 2017-18. This number was later reduced to 127 single-seat FGFAs, but soon after in April 2018, India opted to withdraw from the programme, forgoing all the money it had advanced to it. No accountability for any of the officials involved in the stillborn project was forthcoming. Many IAF veterans, however, were of the view that had India stayed the course with the FGFA project, by overcoming myriad shortcomings in its dealings with Russia, it would have been operating a fleet of Su-57-like fifth-generation fighters years earlier, like other advanced air forces, including China's. Besides, by staying the FGFA course, despite the hurdles, it could also have built up a firmer research and development base for future indigenous projects like the AMCA. Instead, it now faces a longer, costlier and technologically riskier path toward vindicating its fifth-generation combat aircraft goals. Industry sources, meanwhile, clarified that the decision to call off the FGFA was not taken lightly, as years of delays, cost escalation, performance shortfalls in the FGFA prototype and lack of transparency from the Russian side had steadily undermined Indian confidence. More critically, both the MoD and the IAF were dissatisfied with the level of technology transfer, the aircraft's underwhelming stealth profile and its engines, which did not meet the expected thrust-vectoring and super-cruise benchmarks. New attempt to fast-track 5th gen But the retreat from the FGFA programme did not signal a withdrawal from India's fifth-generation fighter ambitions, which sluggishly lumbered on until operational urgency thrust upon the IAF after Operation Sindoor prompted Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to pre-approve and advance the AMCA project on May 27. Alongside, the prevailing decline in the IAF's fighter squadrons from a sanctioned strength of 42.5 to merely 30-odd squadrons presently had also triggered urgency in the AMCA project. Under it, the MoD has sanctioned the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and HAL to develop a fifth-generation fighter from the ground up, by leapfrogging technological barriers using local resources, timelines and control. The ADA-HAL combine aims to involve a wide consortium of public sector and private vendors like Bharat Electronics, Larsen & Toubro and Godrej Aerospace under the government's Aatmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) policy, and from lessons drawn from past setbacks with the snail-paced Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA) programme. Unlike the FGFA, the AMCA is being designed to meet specific Indian doctrinal needs from the outset. Conceived as a twin-engine, 25-tonne multi-role stealth fighter, the AMCA aims to integrate internal weapons bays, serpentine air intakes, radar-absorbent materials, AI-assisted mission systems and sensor fusion. It is also envisioned in two variants—a Mark 1 with an imported engine (possibly General Electric's GE F414 power pack) and a Mark II with an indigenous to-be-developed engine. Delivery of the first few prototypes is scheduled by 2035. Obstacles ahead Analysts, however, said the pathway to AMCA's development was riddled with multiple challenges. They maintained that though the FGFA was flawed, it did offer the IAF a relatively fast track to a stealth platform. Furthermore, by exiting the FGFA, India had ceded early stealth fighter experience that might have enriched its R&D ecosystem in the AMCA project. In contrast, the AMCA's development trajectory was wholly unproven. The technological risks—especially in stealth shaping, low-observable materials, propulsion and mission computers—were significant. The most pressing hurdle remained engine development, as India could still not produce a fifth-generation capable power pack, relying instead on US-origin General Electric GE F414 engines, whose full technology transfer under a 2023 agreement for HAL to make them locally remained riddled with uncertainties. GE has historically been cautious about sharing sensitive 'hot section' technologies with overseas customers, like those involving single-crystal turbine blades, thermal barrier coatings and cooling channels—core to engine durability and thrust-to-weight ratios. And while India seeks full transfer of manufacturing know-how for these components to reduce dependence on the US, Washington's export control laws under its International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and internal GE risk assessments had reportedly limited its scope. Indian officials had also flagged ambiguity over intellectual property (IPR) ownership for technologies co-produced or indigenised with regard to the GE-414s. The fundamental concern, industry sources said, was over HAL or the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), or both, not being able to modify, even minutely, any indigenously built version of the F414 power pack without GE consent. This, in effect, would put paid to jugaad or innovation that had, over decades, served India's military industry admirably. Moreover, establishing a full-scale production line domestically for a 4.5/5-generation jet engine is a massive industrial effort, for which HAL is reportedly still amassing specialised tooling and a quality-controlled supply chain ecosystem to meet GE's strict quality audits and oversight. Unhelpful history India's failure in building a domestic modern fighter manufacturing network can be traced back to the unravelling of the 2007-08 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) deal, which many senior IAF officers and veterans consider a 'turning point' in which a major opportunity was lost. The MMRCA project sought to procure 126 fighter jets, with a clear mandate that 108 would be built in India under transfer of technology (ToT) agreements. France's Rafale emerged as the winner in 2012 from amongst six competing rivals, but protracted negotiations over cost, technology transfer and liability clauses led to the collapse of the deal in 2015. Instead, India opted for a direct purchase of 36 Rafales in flyaway condition, further delaying the development of indigenous manufacturing capability. This missed opportunity meant India continued to depend heavily on foreign original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for advanced combat aircraft, without acquiring the institutional knowledge and industrial base needed for independent production. Unlike China, which leveraged joint ventures and aggressive reverse-engineering to build a competent domestic fighter aircraft industry, India's public sector defence units like HAL remained underfunded and over-regulated. In the meantime, indigenous programmes like the Tejas LCA were beset by delays and capability gaps, and when its Mk1 variant eventually entered limited service, its combat potential was initially constrained by issues related to engine performance, radar integration and weapons payload. Efforts to address these shortcomings through the Mk1A and Mk2 variants are presently underway, delayed by several years. In the interim, the FGFA was expected to usher India's entry into fifth-generation capabilities, but this too was called off, cumulatively delaying India's goal of building a robust domestic fighter manufacturing base. And though the AMCA project now seeks to course-correct—but without an established supply chain, proven stealth technology or a domestic jet engine—it faces an uphill battle. It proposes to feature a cleaner stealth profile fighter with internal weapon bays and fully indigenous avionics, including an AESA radar, AI-based sensor fusion and advanced electronic warfare systems. And unlike the FGFA, AMCA emphasises modularity, digital fly-by-wire systems and next-generation cockpit ergonomics, aiming for full design authority and autonomy in both development and future upgrades. That being said, India's ability to manufacture a fifth-generation fighter hinges not just on technology, but on policy coherence, private sector integration and decisive leadership—elements sorely missing in earlier decades. So unless these structural issues are swiftly and meaningfully addressed, India risks repeating its earlier FGFA missteps with the AMCA. World The French Are Anxious to Know the Fate of Rafales in Operation Sindoor Combat View More
