JV on 5th Gen fighter jet to India was offered 15 years ago : Sukhoi Design Bureau

Speaking to idrw.org on sidelines of Aero India 2015 official from Sukhoi Design Bureau revealed that Joint venture on development of 5th generation fighter aircraft which would eventually replace Su-30 and Mig-29 was offered to India for first time in year 2000, almost 15 years back when the Sukhoi Design Bureau was only conducting preliminary design study for development of 5th generation fighter aircraft.

First T-50 Prototype designed by Sukhoi had its first flight in 2010, almost a decade after such offer was made to India informed official. India had enough time to take a call and it could have helped at design stage to factor in requirements of India if they had entered into the joint venture in the development of 5th-generation fighter aircraft much earlier, but after a point we could not wait any longer and had to start developmental work for the project to move forward , Russia Defence ministry awarded Sukhoi Design Bureau contract to built 5th generation fighter jet in 2002 as informed to idrw.org .

Officials from Irkutsk Aircraft Production Organisation (IAPO) who were in India in late 2000 to sign an agreement with HAL for License production of 140 Sukhoi Su-30MKI to be manufactured in India, was when for first time IAPO officials had expressed willingness to develop 5th generation fighter aircraft with India . India agreed to be part of the project only in 2007 and agreed to a preliminary design contract in 2010 since then both countries have struggled to resolve their differences over work share agreement and technological shortcomings.

Recently both have agreed upon the amount and division of work during the research and development (R&D) stage of the fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) project to be based on Pak-Fa variant of which IAF will have committed order for 144 aircrafts . Both are still working on resolving issues related to HAL’s work share which has been on a decline over last few years and was limited to development of non-critical technologies.

                                                             SOURCE : http://idrw.org/