India’s Minister of Defense approved a framework to build the most advanced stealth combat plane in the country, the Ministry of Defense said Tuesday in the middle of a new arms race with Pakistan weeks after a military conflict between the neighbors.
The Aeronautical Development Agency of India, which is executing the program, will soon invite the initial interest of defense companies to develop a prototype of the combat plane, planned as a fighter of the fifth double engine generation, said the ministry.
The project is crucial for the Indian Air Force, whose French aircraft squads, Russians and former Soviet have fallen to 31 from an approved force of 42 at a time when the Chinese rival is expanding its air force quickly.
Pakistan has one of China’s advanced planes, the J-10, in its arsenal, which claims to have used to demolish the latest French rafale planes of India in recent fighting.
The military of the India and Pakistan nuclear weapons neighbors faced in four days of fighting this month, which saw the use of combat aircraft, missiles, drones and artillery on both sides before the president of the United States, Donald Trump, announced a high fire.
It was the first time that both parties used drones at scale and the powers of southern Asia are now locked in an armed drone race, according to Reuters‘Interviews with 15 people, including security officials, industry executives and analysts in the two countries.
India will be associated with a national company for the stealthy combat program, and companies can offer independently or as a joint business, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement, added that offers would be open for private and state companies.
In March, an Indian Defense Committee had recommended including the private sector in the manufacture of military aircraft to underpin the capabilities of the Indian Air Force and reduce the burden of Hindustan Aeronautics LTD of state property, which manufactures most of the military planes of India.
The head of Indian air, Marshal Ama Preet Singh, previously criticized Hindustan Aeronatics for the slow delivery of light combat aircraft tiles, a 4.5 generations fighter, who the company blamed the slow delivery of General Electric engines due to supply chain problems faced by the US company.
