During Indian defence minister Manohar Parrikar's visit to the United States, the U.S defence secretary Ash Carter and Parrikar discussed the matter of joint development of the engine. Reports emerged in 2019 suggested that initial two squadrons of AMCA dubbed as "Mark I" are expected to use 98 kN General Electric F414 while next 5-6 squadrons, variant dubbed as "Mark II", will use a 110 kN class that will be developed indigenously with a foreign partner. AMCA uses a modular approach in its design, development and production. Most of the assembly and equipment are outsourced to both private firms and public sector undertakings. A consortium of more than 140 firms are taking part in the programme. This is a major departure from HAL's previous fighter aircraft, the HAL Tejas, which used in-house production with minor outsourcing. Additionally, AMCA uses a modular method of production in order to reduce the time required for development and production. This method of production also results in increased on-schedule delivery resulting in an increased rate of production. Firms participating in the programme include HAL as the prime contractor, while sub assembly is carried out by Tata Advanced Systems, Reliance Aerospace, Larsen & Toubro, and Godrej Aerospace. Sub-assembly carried out by sub-contractors includes the wings, tail, tail fins, raydome, rear fuselage and landing gear. The development and production of the aircraft is carried out by four types of firm:  Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on April 4, 2018 while answering a written reply in Lok Sabha summer Session said the feasibility study of the project had already been completed and given go ahead by the Indian Air Force (IAF) to the relevant agencies associated with the programme led by Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to initiate AMCA Technology Demonstration Phase before launching full Scale engineering development phase Two technology demonstrator and four prototype are scheduled to go under various type of testing, analysis and development during Testing Phase on January 2019, . As of 2019, defense ministry has been seeking approval from Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) to go ahead with the Prototype Development Phase. The AMCA is a multirole fighter aircraft, with shoulder mounted diamond shaped trapezoidal wings, a profile with substantial area-ruling to reduce drag at transonic speeds, and an all-moving Canard-Vertical V-tail with large fuselage mounted Tail-wing.