Why in News?

India’s next indigenous fighter jet – the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) – is expected to make its first flight by 2032.

Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft:

• The aircraft will be powered by the same GE-414 engine on the LCA Mk-2 variant which is in the design phase.
• A GE-414 produces 98kN thrust compared to 84kN thrust of the GE-404 engine which is on the LCA Mk1.
• The Indian Air Force has given land to the Defence Research and Development Organisation to set up facilities for the project.
• The plan is to build on the capabilities and expertise developed during the development of the light combat aircraft (LCA) and produce a medium fifth generation fighter aircraft.
• At Aero India 2016, DRDO officials had stated that the basic design configuration has been frozen after wind tunnel testing and there are three critical technologies that need to be developed — stealth, thrust vectoring and super cruise.

Improvising Stealth Capacity:

• There are two major ways of making a military platform stealthier. One is geometric stealth and other is material stealth.
• In geometric stealth, the shape of the aircraft is designed at such angles so as to deflect away maximum radar waves thereby minimising its radar cross section.
• In material stealth, radar-absorbing materials are used in making the aircraft which will absorb the radio waves thus reducing the radar footprint.
• The AMCA will initially be based on geometric stealth.