India seeks to join sixth-generation fighter programme

A full-scale model of India's fifth-generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft at Aero India 2025. India seeks to acquire an international sixth-generation fighter in tandem with the domestic AMCA. (Janes/Akhil Kadidal )

The Indian Air Force (IAF) has expressed interest in joining a global sixth-generation fighter aircraft programme, to improve its combat air capabilities.

During a parliamentary session in New Delhi with the Standing Committee on Defence on 18 March, the country's Chief of Defence Staff, General Anil Chauhan, explained that “two different consortia are currently working on sixth-generation aircraft”.

“To ensure that we do not lag behind in this regard, we will strive to collaborate with one of these consortia and begin deliberating on sixth-generation fighter aircraft right away,” General Chauhan said, according to the parliamentary report.

Gen Chauhan added that “one of these is a consortium comprising the United Kingdom, Italy, and Japan, while the other is a consortium of France and Germany”. The two consortia almost certainly refers to the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) under the Edgewing joint venture company and the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) respectively.

According to Gen Chauhan, India's involvement in either the GCAP or the FCAS will be conducted in tandem with India's domestic fifth-generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) programme, which is expected to enter service in 2035. “The AMCA design has already been finalised; however, deliberations are currently under way regarding who will undertake its manufacturing,” he said.

In a subsequent report tabled that same day, the Standing Committee on Defence said that it recommended to the Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) that it “chalk out a trajectory” and a “planning process for development and acquisition of sixth-generation aircraft [to] eventually enhance India's air domain capabilities in today's highly air-centric modern warfare”.