What's new

India to spend $6 billion on stealth fighter jet project with Russia

Ruag

FULL MEMBER
Joined
Aug 4, 2009
Messages
754
Reaction score
0
India plans to spend $6 bln on joint stealth fighter project with Russia

MUMBAI, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- India plans to cost nearly six billion U.S. dollar to jointly develop a stealth fighter with Russia over the next ten years, local media reported on Sunday.

Following years of hard negotiations, India has finalized a preliminary design contract(PDC) with Russia. In which, India will jointly develop a so-called fifth-generation stealth fighter with Russia, the Indian newspaper Business Standard reported, citing a senior official of the Indian Ministry of Defense.

The Indian Committee for Security may discuss the PDC this month. If approved, the contract will be signed during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to India in December, said the official.

Navak, Chairman of HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) which would be the Indian designer and builder of the stealth fighter, said: "Once the PDC is signed, we will accomplish the design of the stealth fighter in one and a half years, while its development and manufacture will take about ten years. The Indian side will nearly cost six billion U.S. dollar."

India will shoulder about 30 percent of the total design in the stealth fighter project, and mainly focus on the composite components with the stealth function and some electronics equipments, such as avionics, electronic warfare systems and cockpit displays. Additionally, India will be responsible to design from the single-seat stealth fighter into a two-seat type which would be deployed by the Indian Air Force, said the HAL official.

The Indian Air Force will deploy about 250 stealth fighters, each of which will cost about 100 million U.S. dollars, said the official of the Indian Ministry of Defense.

Since the 1990s, Russia's Sukhoi Design Bureau has been developing the stealth fifth-generation fighter PAK-FA with a range of more than 5,000 km, so as to compete with the U.S-made stealth fighter F-22, the world's only fifth-generation fighter in service so far. In January 2010, a prototype of the fifth- generation fighter made by Sukhoi Design Bureau made its virgin flight.

India plans to spend $6 bln on joint stealth fighter project with Russia
 
Back
Top Bottom