Kautilya

India’s northern frontiers present conditions in which the environment itself can become a serious operational threat. Soldiers deployed at extreme altitude must contend not only with sub-zero temperatures but also strong winds, snow, moisture, reduced oxygen and rapidly changing levels of physical activity.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation has developed an increasingly sophisticated family of indigenous radar-stealth materials that could form an important part of this low-observable ecosystem as the AMCA moves towards prototype development.

Fresh details emerging indicate that the British proposal envisages full transfer of technology for the new combat engine being offered to India. The arrangement would be substantially different from conventional licensed production, under which an Indian manufacturer assembles an overseas-designed engine without gaining complete access to the technology required to independently modify or evolve it.