The AMCA bid deadline has been extended to 30 October 2026, giving vendors close to two more months to file their proposals for the development of India's fifth generation fighter.

The Aeronautical Development Agency issued the corrigendum on Thursday. The new submission date of 30 October, at 3 pm, replaces a deadline that had been set for 27 August. Bids will be opened on 31 October, a day later, in place of 28 August.

AMCA bid deadline extended to 30 October

Two dates moved. The bid submission end date shifted from 27 August to 30 October, and the bid opening from 28 August to 31 October, each timed at 3 pm. All other terms and conditions of the tender remain unaltered, the notice said, over the signature of the Director, Materials Management.

Defence officials said the dates were pushed back because the bidders had sought more time to submit their proposals.

What the AMCA tender covers

The tender belongs to the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft programme, India's effort to design and build a twin engine, fifth generation stealth fighter for the Indian Air Force. The Aeronautical Development Agency, which works under the Defence Research and Development Organisation, is the design authority for the aircraft, and this contract carries the programme from the drawing board into the building and flight testing of prototypes.

Public reporting has put the value of this development phase at around Rs 15,000 crore. It covers five flying prototypes along with structural test articles and the long tail of certification work that a new fighter needs before it can enter service.

A competitive development model

The role of development partner has been opened to competition, with public and private sector firms invited to bid. Under the model reported for the tender, the winning bidder is to set up a dedicated Indian company to carry out the work, while the government keeps rights over the technology built with public money.

The bidders include the Larsen & Toubro-Bharat Electronics Limited combine, Tata Advanced Systems, and Bharat Forge in partnership with BEML.

Engine, prototypes and timeline

The first prototypes are to fly with the American GE F414 engine, the same class of powerplant now being taken up for co-production in India. A more powerful engine, developed with a foreign partner, is being sought for the later production aircraft.

First flight of an AMCA prototype has been targeted for around 2028 in earlier reporting, with induction into the Air Force planned for the middle of the next decade. The aircraft is to carry an indigenous active electronically scanned array radar and a weapons load housed inside an internal bay to hold its stealth shaping.

India's fifth generation ambition

The AMCA is India's first attempt at a home built stealth fighter, a class of aircraft that only a small group of countries operate today. The programme is meant to give the Air Force a fifth generation jet of its own to sit beside imported fleets such as the Rafale, even as the government looks further ahead and Parliament has sought a roadmap for a sixth generation fighter.

The immediate step is the bidding itself. The revised AMCA bid deadline gives firms until the afternoon of 30 October, with the bids opened the following day.