India-Russia 5th-gen jet deal ‘soon’

Zhukovsky (Russia), July 19

India and Russia have entered the second stage of negotiations for jointly developing the Fifth-Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) and the two sides will sign a contract “in the near future”, a top Russian official has said.

Sergei Chemezov, the CEO of Rostec State Corporation, said all decisions over the multi-billion dollar project to jointly develop the FGFA will be finalised in the “near future”. The two nations inked an inter-governmental pact for the FGFA project in 2007.

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“As for the 5th generation (fighter aircraft), the work is underway. Stage one is over. Now we are discussing the second stage. And I think in the near future, all decisions will be made and contract documents will be signed,” Chemezov said on the sidelines of Russia’s premier air show “MAKS 2017” here.

“But the work is going, it is very complicated, so it is not going fast,” said the head of Rostec, Russia’s umbrella organisation of 700 hi-tech civilian and military firms.

He stressed that Russia was the only country for India that transferred all technologies without any restrictions.

Chemezov’s remarks came more than two months after government sources in New Delhi said almost all the ground work had been completed to finalise the deal for the design of the FGFA jet and other critical issues.

“The contract for the detailed design would be signed soon and that will be a milestone. It should be signed in the second half of the year,” a top official involved in the negotiations with Russia on the project had said.

The official had said both countries were co-developers and India would have equal rights over the technology.

In February last year, India and Russia had revived talks on the project after a clearance from then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar.

Since then, a lot of issues related to work share, Intellectual Property Rights and technology transfer among others have been sorted out between the two sides, along with the monetary commitments. In December 2010, India agreed to pay $295 million towards the preliminary design of the fighter, which is called in India as the “Perspective Multi-role Fighter”. However, negotiations faced various hurdles.

Chemezov also talked about Russia’s own fifth generation fighter jet programme PAK FA. “Today one of Rostec’s key milestones is the development of the second stage engine for PAK FA.” — PTI