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The proposal for India and Russia to jointly develop an advanced fighter — the eponymous Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) — has been formally buried. Business Standard has learnt that National Security Advisor Ajit Doval conveyed the decision to a Russian ministerial delegation at a “Defence Acquisition Meeting” in end-February. Doval and Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra, who attended the meeting, asked the Russians to proceed alone with developing their fifth-generation fighter. They said India might possibly join the project later, or buy the fully developed fighter outright, after it entered service with the Russian Air Force. New Delhi and Moscow...

Looking to cut costs and prune military imports, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has halved its demand for Russian-built fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGFA). It now wants just three squadrons of the fighter jets which are to be inducted into the Russian Air Force in 2016. Sources say the IAF has scaled down its needs and now indicated that just three squadrons (around 18 planes in each), besides a few more for training of the pilots, will be enough for now. This works out to be 65 planes, almost half from the earlier projection of 127 FGFAs to be jointly...

Development and production of perspective multi-role fighter is the largest joint project of Russian-Indian military-technical cooperation. In December 2010 during the visit of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to India, the Rosoboronexport, the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and the Sukhoi Company signed a contract to develop a preliminary design project of the new aircraft. This is the first of a series of documents governing the obligations of the parties at different stages of the program. The PMF project includes the design and development of a next-generation fighter, which will have such advanced features as stealth, supersonic cruise speed, high maneuverability, highly integrated...

Indian defence minister AK Antony has re-affirmed his nation's commitment to the fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) being jointly developed by Hindustan Aeronautics and Russia's Sukhoi, while also voicing his optimism about one of its other key military aviation programmes. "The difficulties in joining this programme are over," he says of the first project. "We've signed a deal with the Russians, and we will see the FGFA inducted by 2017." Russia's developmental PAK FA fighter had its maiden flight in early 2010, and late last year it agreed with India to cooperate on a combined project. New Delhi will send engineers...

A Russian-Indian fifth-generation fighter jet could be developed by 2015-2016, a Russian defense industry official said on Tuesday. Moscow and New Delhi are expected to sign a contract on a joint development of the new fighter in the near future, focusing on the design concept and technical requirements put forward by India. "I hope that we will be able to build a joint fifth-generation aircraft in the next five to six years. It is a time-consuming and complex project," said Alexander Fomin, first deputy head of the Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation. The new aircraft will be most...

Moscow: Russia has started initial tests of its futuristic fifth generation stealth fighter jet, dubbed the PAK-FA programme, which it is partnering with India. The PAK-FA, or the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) programme, as it is referred to in India, hopes to match, or outperform, the American F-22 Raptor. The F-22 Raptor, which is an air superiority fighter, is the worlds only existing fifth generation fighter aircraft programme. A related, fifth generation ground attack version, the F-35 Lightning II, is currently under development. An Interfax report, without specifying details of time, said that the first prototype of the FGFA...

NEW DELHI: India and Russia, after protracted negotiations and some glitches, are now going full steam ahead to finalise the joint project for the stealth fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA), which will have super-manoeuvrability and supersonic cruising ability. The FGFA, along with other R&D projects like the multi-role transport aircraft (MTA) as well as the BrahMos-2 `hypersonic' cruise missiles, will gain further momentum when PM Manmohan Singh holds a summit with President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow this December. India and Russia will then also ink the fresh inter-governmental agreement on military-technical cooperation to extend their "strategic partnership'' by another 10 years,...