India-Russia fail to sign additional protocol on 5th-gen stealth fighter
19 Jun 2010
Russia's Sukhoi design bureau director general, Mikhail Pogosyan, has confirmed that India and Russia have decided not to sign additional agreements to create a joint venture for the production of a fifth-generation fighter. Sukhoi has combined with India's Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) to jointly develop the fifth-generation stealth fighter jet designed by Sukhoi.
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| The Sukhoi T-50 PAK-FA |
HAL is working on a two-seater derivative of the aircraft.
Earlier, it had been made clear that an additional agreement would be signed specifying the work load of each side in the project, but on Friday Pogosyan said the Russian company now hoped work would begin soon without any such deal.
"We don't plan to sign a joint venture. We have agreed on joint work with our Indian colleagues," Pogosyan said. He said the joint work could be carried out under the current agreement.
"We will do our part of the work, our Indian counterparts theirs," Pogosyan said. "At the initial stage it is not necessary to have a joint venture."
The current prototype of the 5th generation stealth fighter, known as the T-50, was designed by the Sukhoi design bureau and is being built at a plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, in Russia's Far East.
Russian officials have hailed the fighter as "a unique warplane" that combines the capabilities of an air superiority fighter and attack aircraft, which will far surpass the qualities of equivalent Western-origin fighters, such as the American F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lightning II.
