​AMCA or the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft is a fifth-generation fighter aircraft which will be manufactured by HAL. The AMCA programme is envisaged as replacement for a host of aircraft currently operated by the IAF as well as to fill gaps left by retirement of the Dassault Mirage 2000s, SEPECAT Jaguars and Mig-27s.ADA describes the AMCA as a "multirole combat aircraft for air superiority, point air defense, deep penetration/strike, special missions".
 
Unofficial design work on the AMCA started in 2008 with official work started in 2011 and completed in 2014. In 2008 Indian Navy also showed interest in the naval variant of AMCA. All the design work is completed and ADA is waiting for the approval of Indian government to develop the first prototype.
 
The broad requirements outlined for the AMCA are to incorporate a high degree of stealth, a high internal and external weapons payload, high internal fuel capacity, and the ability to swing from an air-to-air role to air-to-ground. It is also expected to have the ability to super cruise. This allows the aircraft to travel at supersonic speeds with greater endurance as the afterburners do not have to be used with the additional fuel usage. Even though future air combat has been envisaged as being beyond visual range excluding the likelihood of aerial dogfights as before, the AMCA is expected to sport a thrust vectoring engine. The ADA is designed the AMCA as a platform with high survivability, to meet the challenges of future air defense environments through a combination of moderate stealth, electronic warfare capability, sensors and kinetic performance. The design philosophy seeks to balance aerodynamics and stealth capabilities.
 
The aircraft will have a weight of 16-18 tons. 16-18 tons with 2-tons of internal weapons and 4-tons of internal fuel. Combat ceiling will be 15-km, max speed of 1.8-Mach at 11-km. The AMCA will be powered by 2 x 90KN engines with vectored nozzles.

The IRST ( infrared search and track) is a device used to detect targets. The IRST pics uo heat signals from a target. Heat is transferred in three modes, namely conduction, convection and radiation. The heat getting transferred via radiation to the surrounding us picked up by the IRST sensor. For ex. The F 22 Raptor when flying at it's normal cruising speeds emit hot gases from it's engine of the tempreture around 800° C. This much heat is enough to detect Raptor and engage it with a heat seeking missile. There are a large number of Four plus generation aircrafts that have IRST devices. QWIP IRST is the latest.

ENGINE & REAL FUSELAGE IR SIGNATURE

The aircraft rear fuselage has a large surface area at relatively low temperature, which is primarily heated by the embedded power plant & external aerodynamic heating. Earth shine & sky shine reflections add to the IR emissions from the rear fuselage & become especially important in 8-12 micrometer band for low surface emissivities. The engine casing & nozzle act as grey bodies & emit radiation in all IR bands there by making IR detection easier. After burner flames further enhances IR emissions from the power plant due to much higher temperatures of chemically reacting species & the glowing carbon particles. After burning significantly increases the rear fuselage skin temperature & the temperature of the jet pipe almost doubles while the rear fuselage temperature almost increases by about 70K. Apart from the hot combustion products in the power plant, aerodynamic heating also has significant effect on the rear fuselage skin temp.

​AVATAR is a single-stage reusable spaceplane capable of horizontal takeoff and landing, being developed by India's Defense Research and Development Organization along with Indian Space Research Organization and other research institutions; it could be used for cheaper military and civilian satellite launches. According to the Designers, Hyperplane projects of the 1980's - the X-30, Tu-2000 etc, failed due to their immense weight. Hence it is the weight which is the promising aspect of AVATAR. It is planned to be the size of a MiG-25. AVATAR was first announced in May 1998 at the 'Aero India 98' exhibition held at Bangalore.

The HSTDV is an unmanned scramjet demonstration aircraft for hypersonic speed flight. The HSTDV program is run by DRDO.HSTDV is awaiting a crucial test . A 20-22 second test of the HSTDV would be crucial for the hypersonic missile program. The design for airframe attachment with the engine was completed in the year 2004. We have eclusive images of that testframe.