Russian 5th-gen fighter to commence test flights by year-end

Komsomolsk-on-Amur: Russian deputy prime minister, Sergei Ivanov, has confirmed that flight tests of a fifth-generation fighter will commence by the end of 2009.

"By the end of this year, the plane will rise into the air and flight tests will begin," Ivanov told journalists in the Russian Far East, adding that serial production will start in 2010.

Russia's advanced multirole fighter, dubbed the PAK-FA, is being developed by the Sukhoi design bureau, part of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), in collaboration with Indian defence and aerospace establishment, the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL).

The collaboration has been made possible through a preliminary inter-governmental agreement signed in October 2007.

The first prototype is expected to make its maiden flight before the end of 2009. 

PAK-FA