India’s share in research-and-development work for the joint Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) project with Russia is currently limited by India’s domestic industrial capabilities but will gradually increase with the project’s implementation, a Russian military expert said Friday.
India’s The commercial Times newspaper reported on October 17 that Indian military officials were concerned over the country’s work share inside the FGFA project, that’s currently only 15 percent despite the fact that New Delhi is bearing 50 percent of the price.
According to the paper, India’s defense minister is anticipated to elevate that issue during his visit to Russia beginning November 15.
“The figure cited by the Indian side reflects current capabilities of India’s industry, primarily the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited [HAL] corporation,” said Igor Korotchenko, head of the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of worldwide Arms Trade.
“With the progress within the implementation of this project, we think the Indian engineers and architects to approach the percentage determined within the [Russian-Indian] agreement: 50 percent,” Korotchenko said in an exclusive interview with RIA Novosti.
Russia will definitely provide all necessary knowledge and logistics support to Indian specialists, but developing skills and acquiring experience in design and development of advanced fighter aircraft takes a very long time and substantial effort, the expert added.
The FGFA project began following a Russian-Indian agreement on cooperation within the development and production of the viewpoint multirole fighter, signed on October 18, 2007.
The Indian fighter jet would be according to the Russian single-seat Sukhoi T-50 or PAK-FA fifth-generation fighter, which now has four prototypes flying, nonetheless it may be designed to fulfill about 50 specific requirements by the Indian Air Force (IAF).
In December 2010, Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport, India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and Russian aircraft maker Sukhoi Company signed a preliminary design development contract worth $295 million for the hot aircraft.
Currently the $11 billion final design and research-and-development contract is under negotiation between the 2 countries. The entire program is predicted to price India about $25 billion to 30 billion.
The IAF had initially planned to reserve 166 single-seat and 48 twin-seat fighters, but India’s chief of air staff said in October last year that New Delhi would now opt for only 144 single-seat jets, with domestic production slated to start out in 2020.
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