Andhra Pradesh AMCA Fighter Facility: Andhra Pradesh has got a very important place in India’s AMCA plan. The state has secured a major Aircraft Integration and Flight Testing Complex for the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft programme at Puttaparthi in Sri Sathya Sai district. The facility will be set up by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) under DRDO. It is meant to help India build more of its own combat aircraft and unmanned aerial systems.
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What wil; the new Facility do?
An official press release said, “Andhra Pradesh has secured the proposed Aircraft Integration and Flight Testing Complex for India’s Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) programme at Puttaparthi, reinforcing the state’s emergence as a key destination for aerospace and defence manufacturing,”. The project has already received in-principle approval from the Ministry of Defence after talks between the Andhra Pradesh government and the Centre. Under the plan, the state will give 350 acres in all. Out of this, 150 acres near the Puttaparthi runway will be used for the complex. The other 200 acres will be kept for a satellite office complex and a residential township.
Support Systems
The government will also help extend the runway to 10,000 feet. It will also support an ATC tower, navigation systems, and meteorological support facilities. The complex is expected to handle aircraft assembly, systems integration, and flight testing for the AMCA programme.
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It will also be used for other future combat aviation platforms being developed in India. This fits with the defence ministry’s approval of the AMCA programme execution model on May 27, 2025, under which ADA will run the project through industry partnership. ADA is also set to issue an Expression of Interest for the AMCA development phase.
A few days ago, Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh said the procurement work for AMCA was moving ahead and the next tender step should come soon for private sector bidders. “The procurement process is on, the RFP hopefully will be released soon to the shortlisted bidders who happen to be from the private sector, and hopefully that will then pick up pace,” he had said.
