Article Posted on : - Sep 20, 2009

The fighter would be jointly developed by HAL and Sukhoi.

MOSCOW (PTI): Russian Air Force will begin the induction of fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGFA), which it is developing in partnership with India, from 2015, a senior defence official has said.

“Beginning from 2015 we will begin the induction of fifth generation fighters. They will have stealth features, greater engine resource, enhanced target acquisition, new weapon suites and airframe different from the present generation of fighters,” Deputy Defence Minister, General Vladimir Popovkin told the Ekho Moskvy radio.

India is partnering Russia in the joint development and production of the FGFA under an agreement signed here in 2007 during Defence Minister A K Antony's Moscow visit.

The two nations are expected to finalise the FGFA contract next month during Antony’s Russia visit for the annual session of Indo-Russian Intergovernmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation.

According to earlier reports, the FGFA would be developed on the basis of Sukhoi Corporation's secret PAKFA project.

Under the understanding reached between the two countries, a lighter twin-seater version of the fifth generation fighter would be developed for India.

The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) will be involved in the development and production of the fifth generation fighter along with Sukhoi Corporation's Komsomolsk-on-Amur aircraft plant.

According to sources in Sukhoi, the fifth generation two technology demonstrators have already been built and are expected to make their maiden flight by the end of this year or early in 2010.