New Delhi: Months after ThePrint reported that India and France are in talks to collaborate on the sixth-generation fighter programme, the defence ministry has informed Parliament that it is indeed in talks with the French for the Future Combat Air System (FCAS).
“The Ministry of Defence has initiated efforts in a concerted manner to co-join the 6th Generation Fighter Aircraft Development Programme viz. Future Combat Air System (FCAS) spearheaded by the French Government,” the defence ministry said in its report to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence.
The committee Friday submitted its report titled “Action Taken by the Government on the Observations/Recommendations contained in the Twentieth Report of Standing Committee on Defence (18th Lok Sabha) on Demands for Grants of the Ministry of Defence for the year 2026-27 on ‘Army, Air Force, Navy, Joint Staff, Ex-Servicemen’ Contributory Health Scheme and Director General of Armed Forces Medical Services (Demand Nos. 20 and 21)”.
The report said that the committee was earlier informed that two consortia are working on a sixth-generation aircraft. One is a consortium of the UK, Italy, and Japan and the other of France and Germany.
The committee had then recommended that the defence ministry chalk out a trajectory and expedite the planning process for development and acquisition of a sixth-generation aircraft which would eventually enhance India’s air domain capabilities in today’s highly air-centric modern warfare. “The progress made in this regard may kindly be intimated to the Committee at the time of furnishing theAction Taken Notes,” the previous report stated.
In the latest report, the committee noted that the defence ministry in its Action Taken report stated it is in talks to join the FCAS.
The committee has now asked the defence ministry to submit a detailed status report on the acquisition of sixth-generation aircraft and any roadmap prepared for it, along with a tentative timeline for acquisition, which may be given at the time of submitting Action Taken Statement for the perusal of the committee.
In February this year, ThePrint had reported that India is exploring the possibility of teaming up with France for co-development and co-manufacturing of the futuristic FCAS. By the time, initial talks had already been held on the possibility of India entering the programme launched in 2017 by France, Germany and Spain to ensure European sovereignty in defence and security.
India is also developing its own fifth-generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) and collaboration on FCAS could potentially accelerate its exposure to sixth-generation technologies such as manned-unmanned teaming, combat cloud networking and advanced propulsion and stealth.
This is the second time India would be teaming up with a foreign country for the development of future technology in the aviation sector. It had earlier tied up with Russia for the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) but walked out of the programme in 2018 due to work share issues and the inability of the aircraft to meet fifth-generation standards.
New Delhi has now placed its trust in France in continuing with a partnership that dates back to the 1950s. There has never been a period since when the Indian Air Force (IAF) has not flown a fighter built by Dassault Aviation or one with a French connection.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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