India, Russia hold talks on 5th generation fighter project

Moscow, Apr 23: Indian Air Force officials have held talks with Director General of Sukhoi, Mikhail Pogosyan, to develop and manufacture the fifth generation fighter aircraft.

The Russian delegation included representatives of Rosoboronexport state-run weapons trading company, ARMS-TASS reported quoting the Sukhoi press service. Specialists of the Sukhoi design bureau and the Komsomolsk-on-Amur production association named after Yu A Gagarin - which have been assembling pilot models since last December - familiarised themselves with opportunities of Indian design institutes and aircraft companies. The visit of the delegation and the talks are taking place under the agreement on joint development and production of the fifth generation plane, signed within the framework of the seventh session of the Russian-Indian intergovernmental commission for military-technical cooperation here on October 18.

In January, a delegation from the Indian Defence Ministry and the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) visited Moscow. It discussed the organisational and production aspects of the project, and the technical requirements to the plane set by the Indian Air Force.

The delegation visited the Sukhoi and Komsomolsk-on-Amur production facilities.

The intergovernmental Russian-Indian agreement on joint development of the fifth generation fighter is one of the largest joint programmes of cooperation between Moscow and New Delhi in the military field.

Russia's Sukhoi and India's HAL are the key project implementers.

UNI