- Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), a state-owned aersospace company, has dropped out of the race to deliver India’s fifth generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA)
- Only three private industry groups are left pursuing the ambitious programme
- GlobalData analysis suggests leaning on private industry is preferable to a state-run provider like HAL, which is already overstretched with other programmes
India’s state-owned aerospace company HAL has dropped out of the race to deliver India’s fifth generation AMCA fighter jet.
As a result, the government will lean on a group of private companies to deliver AMCA, breaking its long-time reliance on HAL as the sole manufacturer of indigenous combat aircraft for the Indian Air Force.
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In the past, HAL has built the HF-24 Marut fighter-bomber in the 1960s and 70s, the HTT-40 trainer, the Twin Engine Deck Based Fighter for the Navy, and recent iterations of the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft.
Can India build a fifth generation fighter?
India’s defence industry is growing quickly: once relying on imports and foreign suppliers, the country’s domestic market is now expanding. While the republic boasts highly advanced and sovereign capabilities like its own nuclear powered attack submarines, other areas are still emerging, namely its aerospace sector.
A fifth generation, twin-engine combat aircraft like the AMCA represents a significant leap forward in this space. And for an industry that struggles to deliver programmes on time, it will prove difficult to produce an aircraft by 2035. Notably, this is the the same delivery schedule as Italy, Japan and the UK in their endeavour to build a sixth generation fighter, a programme that is also facing potential issues.
Still, in building such an advanced fighter, the programme would place India as the fourth country – after the US, China and Russia – to design and manufacture such a sophisticated aircraft type.
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By GlobalDataValued at 15,000 crore ($1.8bn), the three private industry groups, including TATA, will put forward five aircraft prototypes, which will be followed by series production.
Mounting pressure
Part of the reason HAL has been supplanted for the AMCA programme comes down to a 16-month delay for the Tejas Mk1A due to slow engine deliveries: only five of 180 aircraft have been delivered. While the company opened its third Mk1A production site in Nashik in October last year to improve output, taking on numerous responsibilities in India’s indigenous combat aircraft sector has created scheduling pressure.
Concurrently, HAL is also tasked with building a prototype for the Mk2 variant, which is approaching its flight-test phase. Likewise, the company is also assembling the GE-F414 engine and providing ongoing support for legacy fleets and test activities.
This build-up in activity has left HAL overstretched. Problems across India’s roadmap for combat aircraft are said to go back a decade, contends GlobalData defence analyst Pratim Debbarma.
“Opening AMCA to private firms including major industrial consortia introduces competitiveness and diversifies technical capabilities, which can help address historical bottlenecks in large, complex aerospace programmes,” Debbarma observed.
“The private sector’s flexible project management, manufacturing innovation, and supply chain discipline are critical in meeting ambitious timelines for prototype build, flight testing, certification, and eventual production roll-out,” he added.
Engine dependence
A key challenge for the AMCA programme will be the engine. In this field, India currently benefits from technology sharing from American and European strategic partners, General Electric and Safran.
India imports the former’s F404 engine for Tejas Mk1 and 1A aircraft, while in October 2025 Safran opened another maintenance, repair and overhaul workshop for M88 engines, which India use to power its Dassault Aviation Rafale fighters.
One engine HAL produces, with support from Safran in a joint venture with HAL, the two produce the Aravalli engine to power the Air Force’s two future heavy lift helicopters.
But crucially, Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh revealed on the social media platform X in August 2025 that India will own the intellectual property for a 120 kilonewton AMCA engine currently in development. It is reported that Safran will support the Gas Turbine Research Establishment, a subsidiary of India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), to develop the engine.
‘Make In India’ policy
In private hands, the AMCA programme feeds into the government’s ‘Aatmanirbharta’ (Self-Reliance) policy.
Private sector leadership is expected to catalyse the growth of a comprehensive domestic vendor network across avionics, composites, precision machining, systems integration, and software engineering.
“By decentralising work packages and engaging specialised suppliers,” Debbarma noted, “India can nurture a robust aerospace supply chain that supports not only AMCA but future defence platforms, facilitating scalability and resilience.”
A wider supplier network expands quality benchmarks, enhances interoperability across projects, and reduces single-point dependencies, thereby increasing overall sectoral productivity.
But HAL remains a central pillar of India’s aerospace ecosystem, particularly in serial production and systems integration.
“However, freeing the AMCA programme from capacity overlap while empowering capable private players increases the probability of on-time delivery, scalable production, and industrial spillovers,” Debbarma concluded.
