Want immediate delivery of 5th-gen fighter: India to Russia

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 23      

Faced with a dwindling fleet of fighter jets, India is pressing its military ally Russia for immediate delivery of the fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGFA).

New Delhi has suggested to Moscow that the T-50 fighter jet (being built as an FGFA) can be supplied to the Indian Air Force (IAF) while the research to improve upon the aircraft can carry on simultaneously. The same formula of graded improvements was applied in the case of Sukhoi-30 MkI jets.

Top government sources told The Tribune that Russians have been insisting on a $ 11-billion R&D contract for the FGFA project. 

India, on its part, says since the plane is already flying, such a contract can be inked along with simultaneous deliveries of the plane to the IAF.  Russia is yet to decide on India’s request.

Bulk deliveries of the T-50 jet for Russian forces will commence in 2016.  India wants Russia to deliver 144 jets. Russian go-ahead will give the IAF necessary number of planes to phase out  ageing MiG-21s and MiG-27s. In a war scenario with China, an aircraft such as the T-50 would be ideal for missions deep into Tibet. Beijing has a very good border infrastructure that poses threat to India.

Indications of a breakthrough in the deadlock over FFGA deal had come at the just-concluded Aero-India.  Both sides separately acknowledged they were close to finalising the T-50 deal for the PAK-FA (Prospective Airborne Complex of Frontline Aviation) programme being run by Russia.

IAF Chief Air Chief Marshall Arup Raha had last week said: “The future belongs to fifth-generation fighters.  Pending issues with Russia will be resolved soon and we will have a compressed timeline for deliveries”.

From the Russian side, the state-owned United Aircraft Corporation's (UAC) president Yuri Slyusar had said: “The Russian and Indian parties have reached a consensus on the work share of each party”.