HAL shares tumbled by 5% to 6% after missing out shortlisting criteria for AMCA programme
Indian Public Sector Aerospace and Defence firm, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) has been reportedly knocked-out from the list of the shortlisted companies, hired to manufacture next generation fighter jets with state-run company not included in the list. The private entities who are reportedly shortlisted for the AMCA programme are Larsen and Toubro, Bharat Forge, and Tata Advanced Systems. With this, the shares of HAL are plunged over by 5.38% at Rs 4,230.90 at BSE.
However, the final bidder will be expected to be selected under the Advanced Multirole Combat Aircraft (AMCA) programme in the next three months. The shortlisting firm would submit detailed commercial proposals for manufacturing prototypes of the next-generation fighter jets that was reported earlier. The parameters on which the shortlisting was based were technical expertise, manufacturing capability, order book position, and financial strength. The bidders were required to demonstrate its ability with cutting edge capability of AMCA design, along with impressive experience in development, engineering, manufacturing, integration, and testing.
According to the current situation, the selected company will collaborate with the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) to build five AMCA prototypes. The Ministry of Defence under the Government of India has remarked an indicative budget of Rs 15,000 crore for the prototype development phase. The AMCA programme is considered to be one of the India’s largest ever military research and development initiatives.
The fifth-generation fighter jet is expected to form the mammoth air combat capability from the mid-2030s. The initial batch of 120 aircraft will likely to be ordered with the delivery timeline to begin around 2035. The total size of the order will rise substantially amid more advanced variants introduced with next-generation fighters are designed to incorporate cutting-edge military technologies, artificial intelligence integration, long-range targeting systems and the endurance to cooperate in coordination with unmanned platforms.