NEW DELHI, Feb. 4 -- Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has been knocked out of the race to develop India's fifth-generation stealth fighter jet or the AMCA (advanced medium combat aircraft) programme, the first time that the state-run aircraft maker will not be involved in one of the country's most significant military projects, officials aware of the matter said on Tuesday. Of the seven consortia of public and private sector firms that bid for the programme last year, three have met the mandatory criteria and progressed to the next stage of the process involving the submission of cost bids for building five AMCA prototypes and one structural test specimen, the officials added. HAL bid for the programme with two smaller firms that did not meet the mandatory criteria, HT has learnt. Apart from HAL, those competing for the programme included Tata Advanced Systems Ltd, Adani Defence and Aerospace, L&T with Bharat Electronics Limited, Goodluck India along with BrahMos Aerospace Thiruvananthapuram Ltd and Axiscades Technologies, and Bharat Forge Ltd in partnership with BEML Ltd and Data Patterns.P11...