India Initiates Efforts to Join French-Led FCAS Sixth-Generation Fighter Programme

Key facts

• The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has initiated concerted efforts to co-join the French-led Future Combat Air System (FCAS), a sixth-generation fighter aircraft development programme.
• Germany has parted ways with the FCAS initiative over work allocation, divergent military requirements, and intellectual property rights differences.
• The Standing Committee on Defence recommended the MoD to sketch a strategic roadmap for the development and acquisition of sixth-generation aircraft.
• Two consortia are developing sixth-generation aircraft: one comprising the UK, Italy, and Japan (Global Combat Air Programme) and another comprising France and Germany.
• The Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) is a tri-national initiative to develop a stealthy, multi-role sixth-generation fighter jet intended to enter operational service by around 2035.
• India aims to avoid lagging in sixth-generation fighter development as it did with fifth-generation, and is also developing the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) indigenously.