NEW DELHI, INDIA – As TASS reports, on the sidelines of the Aero India 2023 international airshow , Russia and India are discussing the joint development of fifth-generation fighters at the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited [HAL] facility .
The general director of the Russian arms export agency Rosoboronexport, Alexander Mikheev, stressed that everything will depend solely on India since the Russian side is ready to conclude a contract for the production of fighters, both generation 4++ and of the fifth generation.
Earlier, it was reported that on the sidelines of the Aero India 2023 aerospace exhibition, UAC offered the Indian side to assemble fighters at the Indian company HAL, developed based on the MiG-35 aircraft .
According to Mikheev, the joint experience of working on the Su-30MKI aircraft , the flagships of the Indian Air Force , has shown that Russia and India can cooperate on such highly complex and high-tech projects.
It should be noted that the Indian two-seat version of the Su-30MKI was developed with customer requirements in mind, based on the experience gained from the Su-37 fighter of the 4++ generation. To fully satisfy Indian requirements, the Su-30MKI variant was in turn fitted with AL-31FP thrust vectoring engines, which had never been fitted to export versions before.
In addition, H011M Bars with passive phased array antenna [PFAR], active phased array antenna [AFAR] and modified avionics [avionics] equipment created in joint cooperation between Russia, India, France and Israel.
Regarding the localization program for the production of military equipment, within the framework of the national project “ Made in India ”, in which the level of localization must be at least 70%, it is very likely that the Indian country will try in first to license and locate the production of Su-57 aircraft in the company of the main Indian aircraft manufacturer HAL.
Also, the Indians will try to license not the export version of the Su-57E with Al-41F1 engines but a modified version of the Su-57M with “second stage” engines and updated avionics. It should be noted that India and Russia had already participated in jointly developing the Su-57 modification as part of the Indian FGFA fifth-generation fighter program .
However, since the Indian side could make a relatively small contribution to this project, but was asking Russia for a full exchange of technology, including locating the production of “second stage” engines on its territory, which in fact was not arranged by the Russian side, all work in this regard was frozen.
Nonetheless, New Delhi’s entry into the Russian-Indian FGFA program testifies to the high degree of interest of the Indian Air Force in the Su-57, which at one point, even after the completion of the FGFA program , I was already ready to buy a Russian fighter of the 5 generations, as they say, “ off the shelf ”.
In conclusion, it is worth noting that, according to various publications, it became known that the plans to purchase Russian Su-57 fighters at once from two African countries. These are Algeria and Morocco .
According to information available from open sources, while Morocco is only planning to sign an agreement, Algeria has signed a firm contract. It will become the first foreign buyer of the Russian fifth-generation Su-57 fighter. According to the MenaDefense portal, an agreement has already been signed for the delivery of 14 aircraft in the export modification of the Su-57E to Algeria. The amount of the contract has not been disclosed.
However, it was noted that this contract was signed during the visit of the Algerian delegation to the MAKS-2019 fair, according to which the latest Su-57E fighters should be delivered to Algeria no later than the end of 2025.