India, Russia Cooperating re: "Fifth-Generation Fighter"

From India's point of view, a firm development agreement that helps finance Russia's next-generation plane is one way to restrict Russian cooperation with China along similar lines.

See Vijiander K Thakur's "Understanding IAF interest in the MiG fifth generation fighter" for more on the proposal to cooperate with MiG. Even so, India's procurement history is full of dead-ends and "almost weres" – which is why reaction to past announcements has been very muted here.

Our response is still inclined to be rather muted, until working designs are discussed and more is known. A "fifth-generation fighter" could be a project as ambitious as Indo-Russian cooperation on a MiG 1.44 (if indeed it was a real project?) or "I-21" type aircraft. Or, it could turn out to be an updated version of the SU-30 family. Then, too, the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) project has a non-trivial set of obstacles to overcome, in order to see production versions for India.

For the specific releases and coverage to date, and analysis of the program's current state and future hurdles, DID offers this Spotlight article…

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