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The Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) project of India has gone deep into the detail design phase now. Along with the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), hundreds of scientists spread across at least 20 labs of Defence Research and Development Organisation are now engrossed in critical work to find solutions to a number of next-generation technologies that need to be proven. With the project definition phase (PDP) getting over in 2017, Onmanorama can confirm that scientists have already walked some distance designing the AMCA, India’s stealth fighter. ADA, the designer of Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas, is spearheading the AMCA mission....

The US-India defence relationship needs an engine to drive it, say leaders on both sides. But there are different perceptions on what that engine might be. Americans believe the engine should be the "Defence Trade and Technology Initiative" (DTTI), a high-level committee of officials from both sides that moots projects for working together, and removes bureaucratic roadblocks. In January, when President Barack Obama met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, they "emphasised the ongoing importance of the (DTTI) in developing new areas of technology cooperation", according to a joint statement issued at that time. Indian officials are focused on...

A major engine upgrade for the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fleet is being seriously considered by the US Navy for a programme launch in Fiscal Year 2016. GE Aviation and the navy jointly funded a one-year study – which kicked off last October – to examine the details of implementing a nearly 15-year-old proposal to upgrade the F414-GE-400 with the “enhanced durability engine” (EDE) kit. Following a decade of component and rig testing and several false starts on the export market, the study may be GE Aviation’s best hope of salvaging a programme that could improve the thrust of the...

GE Brings Good Things To Hornet, Gripen Posted by Bill Sweetman at 4/21/2011 7:53 AM CDT If the Pentagon leadership is successful in its goal of shutting dwon the Joint Strike Fighter's F136 alternate engine program (and may I add that if they brought such zeal and sense of purpose to bear on other issues, the world might be a better place, but I digress) there will be an important consequence: the JSF program will acquire a new and powerful enemy, in the form of General Electric. Evidence of this trend may be coming to light. At yesterday's roll-out of...

Saab Receives FMV Funding for JAS-39 Gripen Upgrades Posted 10-Jul-2006 10:17 Saab received a SEK 1 billion ($130 million equivalent) order from the Swedish Defence Material Administration (FMV), covering continued development of the JAS-39 Gripen fighter. The order reportedly covers various software upgrades, as well as other development activities supporting the long term development of the Gripen system. Work will be performed at Saab Aerosystems and Saab Aerotech in Linkoping, Sweden as well as at Saab Avitronics in Jarfalla and Kista, Sweden. See release. The JAS-39 Gripen is a 4th generation lightweight fighter in service since 1993, and adopted by...