The Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) has taken another step in the development of India’s Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) by issuing a consultancy tender for electrical harness design activities and drawing release.

The tender, numbered GEM/2026/B/8164482, was released on 15 October 2026, with bid submissions closing on 5 November and opening on 6 November.

The contract is structured as a consultancy engagement and is expected to run for approximately two years. Bidders are required to furnish an earnest money deposit of ₹10 lakh.

Electrical harness design represents a critical phase in aircraft development. It is the point at which every sensor, actuator, avionics unit and onboard computer is assigned a physical wiring route throughout the aircraft.

The work establishes how electrical power, data and control signals move between systems, forming the backbone that links flight controls, communications equipment, electronic warfare suites, sensors and mission computers.

For a stealth fighter such as the AMCA, harness routing must be carefully integrated with the aircraft’s structure and equipment layout. Engineers must account for factors such as electromagnetic compatibility, redundancy, electrical loading, maintainability, weight optimisation and system isolation. 

The wiring architecture must be finalised before structural arrangements are firmly frozen, making this a key milestone in the overall design process.

The release of harness design work should not be interpreted as the beginning of production. Rather, it reflects important engineering groundwork that must be completed before prototype construction and later manufacturing activities can proceed efficiently.

Alongside the harness-design contract, ADA has also issued a separate tender, GEM/2026/B/8152801, covering the procurement of 431 computing units. A corrigendum issued on 3 November pushed the bid-closing date from 5 November to 19 November.

The computing procurement includes desktop systems, engineering workstations, high-performance workstations, professional laptops, AI mini workstations and network switches. The scale and mix of the acquisition indicate a significant expansion or modernisation of ADA’s engineering and simulation infrastructure, supporting activities such as computer-aided design, structural analysis, modelling, simulation, software development and systems integration.

Taken together, the two tenders highlight continued progress in the AMCA development effort. While neither signals the start of aircraft production, both point to the programme advancing through crucial design and engineering stages required before the aircraft moves towards prototype realisation and eventual flight testing.

Agencies