India's fifth generation stealth fighter jets will be built in Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh, and the state cabinet has approved giving 600 acres of land to the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) for the project. About 140 Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) are expected to be manufactured in this facility. According to central government officials, this project is expected to bring investment of about Rs 1 lakh crore.
This decision was taken by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. This comes a year after Chandrababu Naidu appealed to Defense Minister Rajnath Singh to set up an AMCA production unit in his state. Information about this appeal of Naidu was first given in the media report on May 24, 2025. According to people quoted earlier, AMCA's system design, testing and assembly of modules will be done at the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) facility in Bengaluru. ADA is an autonomous organization working under DRDO.
The module will be transported to Puttaparthi, which is located about 50 km from the Karnataka border in Sri Sathya Sai district. The final assembly and ground testing of the prototype will be done at this location. The state government has provided free land to build a flight testing complex, housing township for scientists and a production facility. This facility will be built by ADA's private production partner. Three companies—Tata Advanced Systems, L&T and Bharat Forge—have been selected to develop and build the AMCA.
According to people, Andhra Pradesh has acquired the AMCA unit due to easy airstrip access and well-organized airspace coordination at Puttaparthi. A senior central government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told ET in the report that the AMCA facility requires a dedicated flight testing range. An assembly line is planned close to the flight path. A dedicated flight test range reduces development time and ensures speedy execution of work.
The official said that it was necessary for this range to be close to ADA, whose headquarters is in Bengaluru. Due to the workload at the airport in Bengaluru, it was not possible to make it there. This is why DRDO was looking for land near Bengaluru. He further said that an ADA team has inspected the piece of land and it meets all the requirements. Puttaparthi does not have a busy airport and is also close to the ADA headquarters. Another person said that the project could open up wider investment opportunities in Andhra Pradesh by promoting a strong supporting industry.
Last year, Naidu's initiative to set up an AMCA facility in Andhra Pradesh had sparked a war of words as Congress-ruled Karnataka saw it as an attempt to snatch aerospace manufacturing from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) from Bengaluru. Now, Naidu has acquired the manufacturing unit and state-owned HAL is out of the race to produce the next generation fighter aircraft.
