Air Chief Marshal AP Singh on Saturday made a pointed case for speeding up India’s stealth fighter plans, saying the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) programme must move faster and that the IAF must look at other options if it slips.
Addressing the Air Force’s annual press conference in the capital, ACM Singh said the service must prioritise the early induction of a fifth-generation aircraft, according to ANI. “We need to push the AMCA program forward,” he said. “If there are delays, we must make alternative decisions.”
He did not say what those alternatives might be, and the remarks stop short of setting a timeline for the indigenous jet.
Why the urgency
The call for speed came as ACM Singh was asked about the changing air balance in the region, in particular reports that Pakistan may acquire Chinese fifth-generation fighters in the near future. There are even reports that Pakistani pilots are already training in China, he noted.
The air chief called this a cause for concern, but not a hopeless situation. India, he said, has the capabilities it needs to respond, because the issue is not one aircraft but how well it fits into the wider system of sensors, weapons and command networks around it.
A lesson from Operation Sindoor
ACM Singh pointed to Pakistan’s own record to back that view. Pakistan has held other advanced platforms in the past, he said, yet it did not achieve anything significant with them during Operation Sindoor.
By the same reasoning, he said, the IAF should be able to counter the new threat if it integrates the aircraft it is buying and inducting well. That advantage, he cautioned, would last only until Pakistan integrates the new jets fully into its own systems, a reminder that the window is limited and that India needs a next-generation platform of its own.
