IAF Shows Commitment To India's AMCA

“IAF’s vision is that all military platforms to be acquired after the conclusion of ongoing procurements will be designed, developed and produced in India.”

- Vishal Thapar

THE INDIAN AIR FORCE (IAF) IS NOT CONSIDERING ANY FIFTH Generation Fighter Aircraft other than the indigenous AMCA (Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft), the new Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria declared at a press conference on October 4 in New Delhi, categorically ruling out any import.

“AMCA will be given priority. We will give full support. No import (of a fifth-generation fighter) has been planned in the foreseeable future. AMCA will take a lot of budgetary support. Technology and weapons are the underlying requirements,” he elaborated. Russia, the US, and Britain have pitched their Fifth and ‘Sixth’-generation fighters to India. The AMCA assertion fits in with the vision that all military platforms to be acquired after the conclusion of ongoing procurement will be designed, developed and produced in India.

He also made the significant disclosures that the IAF had not made any case for the acquisition of an additional 36 Rafale fighters and that no decision had been made so far to acquire MBDA’s ASRAAM as the standardized short-range air-to-air missile across the fighter fleet. The indigenous Astra Beyond Visual Range (BVR) air-to-air missile which will be standardised weapon across multiple fighter types.

“There’s a plan for (acquiring) 114 multi-role fighter aircraft. There’s no separate plan for an additional 36 Rafale fighters,” the Air Chief said. On the ASRAAM, he clarified: “ASRAAMs are for the Jaguars. We have not yet decided whether these will be acquired for others.”