India, Russia contract soon on 5th generation
fighter aircraft: Official
Both countries are co-developers, India will
have equal rights over the technology, official said.
Press Trust of India | Zhukovsky (Russia)
July 19, 2017 Last
Updated at 18:20 IST
India and Russia will soon sign a contract for jointly
developing the much-delayed fifth-generation fighter aircraft, a top Russian
official has said.
Sergei Chemezov, the CEO of Rostec State Corporation,
said that all decisions over the multi-billion dollar project to jointly
develop the fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) will be finalised in the
"nearest future".
India and Russia inked an inter-governmental pact for the FGFA project in 2007.
"As for the 5th generation (fighter aircraft) - the
work is underway. Stage one is over. Now we are discussing the second stage.
And I think that in the nearest future, all decisions will be made and the
contract documents will be signed," Chemezov told reporters on the
sidelines of Russia's premier air show MAKS 2017 here.
"But the work is going, it is very complicated, so
it is not going fast," said the head of Rostec, Russia's umbrella
organisation of 700 hi-tech civilian and military firms.
He stressed that Russia was the only country for India that without any restrictions transfer all
technologies.
Chemezov's remarks came more than two months after
government sources in New Delhi had said that almost all the ground work had
been completed to finalise the deal for the design of the FGFA jet as well as
some other critical issues.
"The contract for the detailed design would be
signed soon and that will be a major milestone. It should be signed in the
second half of the year," a top official involved in the negotiations
with Russia on the project had said.
The official had said that both the countries are
co-developers and India will have equal rights over the technology.
In February last year, India and Russia had revived talks on the project after a
clearance from then defence minister Manohar Parrikar.
Since then, a lot of issues related to work share,
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and technology transfer among others have
been sorted out between the two sides, along with the monetary commitments.
In December 2010, India agreed to pay USD 295 million towards the
preliminary design of the fighter, which is called in India as the 'Perspective Multi-role Fighter' (PMF).
However, negotiations faced various hurdles in the
subsequent years.
Chemezov also talked about Russia's own fifth generation
fighter jet programme PAK FA.
"Today one of Rostec's key project milestones is the
development of the second stage engine for PAK FA. New construction solutions
have been used in the development process, which are unparalleled in Russian
engine building," he said.
Talking about other projects of Indo-Russia cooperation, Chemezov said apart from the
Ka-226, the two sides have an enterprise that has been working for a long time
producing cruise missiles Brahmos.
"They are already completely localised today. Already
completely produced in India. This is one of the first projects that we
implemented in India. As well as, T 90, Su- 30MKI. That is a fairly
large number of projects - some have already been implemented, some are being
implemented," he added.
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