Will Putin's India visit break the ice over 5th gen fighter jet

Ahead of President Vladimir Putin's visit to New Delhi, Indian and Russian officials will be holding talks on the multi-billion dollar Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft joint project.

Defence sources said talks would be held before Putin's visit on December 10 as both India and Russia are keen to go ahead with the FGFA.

However, there are issues on which both sides have not arrived at a consensus.

"There are issues that exist. Talks were held earlier too but nothing concrete has emerged so far," the sources said, adding another round of talks will be held on December 9.

The preliminary design agreement on FGFA had been signed in 2010 between HAL and Russian Sukhoi Design Bureau to build the jet for use by both countries.

But the final R&D contract, which was to be signed by 2012, is still to be finalised.

The contract would pave the way for prototype development and flight testing.

Sources said that it is "unlikely" that the contract would be signed during Putin's visit.

Though India is investing 50 per cent of the cost of the multi-billion dollar programme, its work share in the research and development and other aspects of the programme has come down to only around 13 per cent, something which Indian officials are not happy about.

They say this will impact India's indigenous capabilities to develop such an advanced fighter aircraft. Sources also said that there are issues related to other aspects of the plane too.

The FGFA project is based on the Russian Air Force's Sukhoi T-50 PAK-FA platform. The Indian version will be tweaked to add some more advanced features.

The total programme is expected to cost India about $25-30 billion.

The ambitious fifth-generation fighters are superior to current "Generation 4.5" fighters like the Sukhoi-30MKI. The FGFA is supposed to be a stealth aircraft having super sonic speed and futuristic avionics and missiles.

The Russian had earlier this year held a demonstration flight for technical evaluation on request by Indian officials. However, a fire erupted aboard a prototype as it landed near Moscow.

After a visit to Moscow in August 2012, then Air Chief Marshal N A K Browne had said that the first FGFA prototype would undergo extensive user trials in 2014 at the IAF's Ojhar airbase at Nashik, with two subsequent prototypes, incorporating recommended changes, following in 2017 and 2019.

However, the sources said the deadlines are now way off the mark.