Russia prepares 5th-generation fighter for India

Moscow, Aug 15 (IANS/ITAR -TASS) Russia's United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) has completed the front-end engineering design of the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) for India's Air Force, UAC president Mikhail Pogosyan said Friday.

The UAC is preparing the contract on the aircraft's full-scale development for signing, he told Arms-Tass.

"We have completed the front end engineering design stage," he said. "The work on the preparation of the contract on the FGFA full-scale development is now in progress," he added.

The FGFA development and production is a major project of Russian-Indian military-technical cooperation.

The two sides signed the corresponding agreement in Moscow in October 2007. In December 2010, Russia's Rosoboronexport arms exporter, Sukhoi company and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited signed a contract on the aircraft's front end engineering design development.

Since January 2012, a group of India's specialists has been working in Russia, and Russia's specialists in India. The two sides have established the required information exchange.

FGFA is developed on the basis of the Russian PAK FA fifth-generation fighter project. However, it will differ from the prototype to meet Indian Air Force's specific requirements.

--IANS/ITAR-TASS

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