New Delhi - India’s ambitious fifth-generation stealth fighter programme is set to enter a critical new phase, with the government likely to issue the Request for Proposal (RFP) next month to three shortlisted private sector-led consortia competing for the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) project, Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh said Tuesday.
The RFP will formally invite detailed commercial and technical bids from the shortlisted industry teams for development and production of the fighter.
Speaking at a Confederation of Indian Industry session on “Geostrategy, Supply Chains and Strategic Resilience” in the capital, Singh said the AMCA process had “fortuitously” resulted in three competing industry teams.
“We have ended up in the AMCA shortlisting process with three private sector-led consortia. Two of them are a happy blend of private and public, one is entirely private and hopefully they will receive RFPs in the next month or so,” he said.
The three consortia advancing in the process are led by Larsen & Toubro in partnership with Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and Dynamatic Technologies; Tata Advanced Systems Limited, which has bid independently and Bharat Forge, which has teamed up with state-run BEML and Data Patterns.
Singh said the government hoped the process would eventually create an additional fighter aircraft production line alongside Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
“It will create the kind of healthy competition that this country needs to build its aerospace industry at a large scale,” he said.
As reported earlier, HAL was eliminated at the financial evaluation stage of the AMCA programme. The decision was driven by the state-owned manufacturer’s existing order book, understood to be nearly eight times its annual turnover, raising concerns about its capacity to absorb additional high-risk development commitments. The decision also comes as HAL continues to grapple with delays in delivering the Tejas Mk-1A, which is already running over two years behind schedule.
Sources said the final selection is expected to be made on a lowest-cost or L1 basis rather than through a quality-and-cost-based system (QCBS) used in some recent unmanned aerial vehicle programmes. Once minimum technical thresholds are met, pricing will be the decisive factor.
Furthermore, the defence secretary hinted at a larger role for the private sector in missile production, including possible technology transfers for certain categories of ballistic missiles, a domain that has traditionally remained concentrated with state-run Bharat Dynamics Limited, which manufactures several of India’s conventional missile systems.
“Missile production is the other area where we have for the most part given orders largely to one public sector company,” he said. “Given the changing nature of warfare and the use of missiles as a conventional warfare tool, the willingness to transfer technology to the private sector for various types of ballistic missiles is something for which in my view the time has come.”