Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft Agreement Signed Between India and Russia

Relationship between India and Russia reached another milestone with the Intergovernmental Agreement for ‘co-development’ of a Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA), a truly contemporary air-superiority aircraft that should be inducted around 2012-15 and serve the Indian Air Force through the next 30-40 years. The landmark agreement was signed during the seventh session of the Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission (IRIGC) on Military-Technical Cooperation by Indian Defence Minister A K Antony and his Russian counterpart Anatoly Serdyukov on 18th October 2007. It had taken six years of prolonged negotiations before the deal could be finalised in January this year.

Speaking to reporters shortly after the signing ceremony, Mr Antony said “We will further strengthen all-round defence cooperation and extend it to the future”. He continued saying “We have decided to expand our cooperation in R&D and have more co-development and co-production projects in aviation and other defence hardware.”

Mikhail Pogosyan, General Director of the Sukhoi aircraft company said, joint work on the project would be modeled along the lines of the BrahMos missile joint venture. He further said, “We will share the funding, engineering and intellectual property in a 50-50 proportion”.

The fifth-generation fighter deal was signed along with other important agreements such as transfer of technology to India to produce the RD-33 engines for India’s MiG-29 fleet (and the maritime version fighters to be delivered with the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier) and a protocol of intent for the joint development and production of a Multi-role Transport Aircraft (MTA).

Indian version of the combat aircraft will be different from the Russian because of the specific Indian requirements.