"Reliance and Rolls-Royce partner to develop combat engine for AMCA programme"
AMCA (Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft)
India's fifth-generation stealth fighter programme developed by ADA under DRDO with HAL as production partner.
IDDM
Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured; highest procurement priority category under DAP 2020.
India's quest for strategic autonomy in defence has long been constrained by its structural dependence on foreign arms suppliers. For decades, this dependence translated into supply-chain vulnerabilities, foreign-policy leverage by supplier nations, and a persistent drain on foreign exchange. The decisive institutional response came through the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative, which elevated defence manufacturing to a national priority. This was operationalised through the Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020, which replaced the earlier DPP-2016 and introduced the IDDM (Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured) category as the highest procurement priority — a formal signal that platforms conceived and built in India would receive preferential treatment in government orders.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), established in 1958 under the Ministry of Defence, has historically anchored India's defence R&D ecosystem. Its portfolio spans the Arjun Main Battle Tank, the Akash surface-to-air missile, the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (developed with HAL), the Pinaka multi-barrel rocket system, and the Astra air-to-air missile. Complementing DRDO's role, the government liberalised FDI in defence manufacturing to 74% under the automatic route and up to 100% via the government route, and established two Defence Industrial Corridors — one in Uttar Pradesh (focused on electronics and small arms) and one in Tamil Nadu (focused on aerospace and engineering) — to catalyse private-sector participation beyond traditional public-sector undertakings.
The Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) is India's most ambitious indigenous aerospace programme — a fifth-generation stealth fighter being developed by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) under DRDO, with HAL as the production partner. The AMCA is designed to incorporate stealth features, supercruise capability, internal weapons bays, and advanced avionics, placing it in the same class as the American F-22 Raptor and the Russian Su-57. The programme is structured in two phases: the Mark 1 variant will use a foreign engine (the GE F414 from the United States), while the Mark 2 variant is intended to be powered by a fully indigenous engine in the 110-kilonewton thrust class — the gap that the Reliance–Rolls-Royce partnership is now positioned to fill.
The engine is the most technologically demanding component of any combat aircraft. Developing an Aerospace Gas Turbine capable of powering a fifth-generation fighter requires mastery of high-temperature metallurgy, single-crystal turbine blade manufacturing, advanced combustion engineering, and precision control systems — capabilities that very few nations possess. …
Which one of the following is the best description of 'INS Astradharini', that was in the news recently?
Which one of the following pairs of semiconductor plants in India and their locations is not correctly matched?
Consider the following statements regarding the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) programme:
1.AMCA is being developed by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) under DRDO.
2.The AMCA Mark 1 variant is intended to be powered by an indigenous engine.
3.HAL is designated as the production partner for the AMCA programme.
4.AMCA is classified as a fourth-generation combat aircraft.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
With reference to India's Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020, which one of the following statements is correct?
Which of the following correctly describes the purpose of India's 'Positive Indigenisation Lists (PILs)' in the defence sector?
Assertion (A): India's AMCA Mark 1 variant will use a foreign engine, while the Mark 2 variant is intended to be powered by an indigenous engine.
Reason (R): India's Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE) successfully developed the Kaveri engine, which now powers the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft.
Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above Assertion and Reason?
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