MCA to AMCA: Journey of Cutting edge Next Gen Fighter
MCA 1.0 – Concept and initial idea for development of Twin engine based Medium combat aircraft can be traced back to late 90's. That's even before first flight of the LCA TD-1 had taken place, Medium combat aircraft (MCA) then was a tailless delta design with two engines, combined with a thrust vectoring control capability.
Aircraft was designed keeping in mind LCA-Tejas Delta wings and was a direct derivative from LCA , as per original idea it was supposed to have maximum spare and design commodity with Tejas at that time. Main purpose was to replace the aging Jaguar & MiG-27 fleet from the Indian Air force, original design weight was supposed to be less than 20 tonne. And was supposed to be a Strike aircraft with secondary role of a point defence fighter , In Beginning very small team of Scientist were working on it which was privately funded by ADA from its own budget, but without Tejas proving its mettle first, India air force nor Government of India was Interested to seriously consider this Proposal by ADA, till Tejas Program started gaining popularity among IAF and Defence Ministry whole MCA Project was in cold storage and put under back burner only to revived again in mid-2004-5. A twin-engine delta wing version was been shelved by ADA then.
MCA 2.0 aka Next Gen Fighter aircraft (NGFA) – MCA got a new name "Next Generation Fighter Aircraft "on recommendation from the Secretary, Defence Production. DRDO and ADA again began to work on MCA aka NGFA in Mid-2006 after initial success of Tejas and with the backing of the government. Indian Air Force asked the ADA to prepare a detailed project report on the development of a Medium Combat Aircraft (MCA) incorporating stealth features. larger team of scientist were assigned to work on the Program, even in this period there was no funding from the Government but a request for Proposal was asked to ascertain if the project can be viable. This was completely new design based on low observability design elements. First look at the aircraft was only available in 2009 when a wind tunnel model was displayed in Aero India 2009 for the first time; Aircraft featured Serpentine air intakes with reduced RCS, and Internal Weapons Bay.
Earlier Design of MCA (MCA 1.0) was supposed to be a 4.5 Gen aircraft with larger payload , Range and powered by two Kaveri engine, but new MCA (MCA 2.0) had added stealth elements (Semi – stealth) with frontal section getting more Stealth element and also with Reduced Cross Section (RCS) , and with Empty weight of 17 tonne along with 2 tonne internal Weapons and 4 tonne of Fuel , new MCA could have MTOW (Maximum Take of weight) of 22 tonne powered by two Kaveri thrust vectoring engine based on Snecma's M88-3 core producing 90k of thrust .
AMCA 3.0 (Advance Medium combat aircraft) – Indian Air force after studying ADA's Proposal and after working out its own Air Staff requirements (ASR) for the AMCA issued its ASR to DRDO and ADA in April 2010. Indian air forces ASR threw few surprises for MCA Project, like a demanding customer which IAF has been all this year came up with more stringent requirements. some of the Requirements asked by the IAF in its ASR are below and how MCA (2.0) became AMCA
1) AMCA will not exceed 25 tons weight.
2) Twin engine powered aircraft with higher thrust.
3) AESA Radar
4) Semi – Stealth is not an option, IAF wants it to be fully stealthy aircraft with low RCS.
5) Redesign in its currently proposed air frame design to make it stealthier
6) More of Locally developed technology and less imported technology (Radars, Engines, and Avionics)
7) Multi-Role all weather stealth aircraft (Earlier idea by ADA was a Strike aircraft with other capabilities)
8 ) Twin pilot configured
ADA is currently studying the ASR put forward by Indian air force and officially will began work on AMCA in mid-2011, MCA (2.0) design will get further optimization of airframe shaping to further enhance Stealth in it, it will also get further treatment to reduce its IR Signature through Nozzle design, better Bay cooling along with reduction on exhaust temperature from the engine nozzles, special coatings for polycarbonate canopy to make AMCA India's first stealth fighter aircraft.
ADA has asked for 18 months to further improve the Airframe changes required to meet ASR issued by the IAF, other than the wind tunnel model displayed in Aero India 2009 there are more three other variants which never has been displayed yet, DRDO is currently planning three Prototypes of AMCA and two production series trial jets which will carry out initial test flights. ADA has promised first flight of AMCA by 2017 which looks highly unlikely, since ADA will need to work on Airframe optimization first and if it fails to get better optimization on stringent requirements laid down by IAF then it might have to work on completely new design itself . $2 billion funding is set to be allocated over the next three years for its development and ADA already received initial funds to start the project.
Whole MCA program has seen many changes From a 4.5 Gen aircraft to Semi-Stealth aircraft to fully stealth aircraft.
Engine: Plans are to use Two Kaveri engine based on M88-3 (Core) , if the engines are not ready by the time for first flight either Ge's F-414IN engines which will power Tejas MK-2 will be used or original lower thrust Kaveri engine might be used for Technology demonstrator aircrafts , still clarity on engine part will come in coming years .
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