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Sukhoi to sign another contract with India on fifth generation multi-role fighter

MOSCOW, August 02. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s Sukhoi aircraft manufacturer plans to sign another contract with India in the framework of the joint project for the construction of a fifth generation multipurpose combat jet, Alexander Klementyev, a Sukhoi deputy director general told Itar-Tass on Friday.

“We hope the contract [for experimental design works] will be signed soon,” he said.

The intergovernmental agreement on this project was signed back in 2007. Three years after, the sides inked a general contract on joint design and production and then the first engineering development contract. Works under this agreement were completed in 2013. “Since then, we have been working on the second contract for experimental design works,” Klementyev said, adding that this was a unique project aiming at long-term cooperation.

“We have never had such a format of cooperation before,” he said. “There used to be licensed production in China and in India, but now it will be joint designing and production of a new combat aircraft.”

The Sukhoi/HAL Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) or Perspective Multi-role Fighter (PMF) is a fifth-generation fighter being developed by India and Russia. An agreement on the project was signed in Moscow on October 18, 2007. The future aircraft will have a number of differences from its Russian prototype - the PAK FA fifth generation fighter - to adjust it to the requirements of the Indian Air Force.