India, Russia Cooperating re: “Fifth-Generation Fighter”

India, Russia Cooperating re: “Fifth-Generation Fighter” (NSI News Source Info) October 7, 2008: Russia’s SU-27/30 Flanker family fighters were invented in the 1980s and 1990s, and attempted to incorporate the lessons from America’s “teen series” fighters (F-14, F-15, F-16, F/A-18) into their designs. They were successful, and India’s Air Force may now be flying the world’s second best air superiority fighter in the SU-30MKI. Meanwhile, the USA is creating “5th generation” fighters like the F-22A Raptor that offer full stealth, supermaneuverability, an advanced AESA radar, huge computing power that creates a single “sensor fusion” picture from the plane’s array of embedded sensors and datalinks, and the ability to “supercruise” above Mach 1 instead of just making short supersonic dashes. To a lesser extent, there’s also the cheaper F-35 Lightning II, with some stealth, a smaller AESA radar, sensor fusion, and even more sensors embedded around the aircraft.

MiG 1.44 MFI

SU-30 MKIs

Russia’s MiG 1.44 (if indeed it was a real project?) and/or “I-21” type aircraft were an attempt to keep up, but lack of funds suspended both efforts. The obvious solution is a foreign partner, but Europe had limited funds and its own 4+ generation projects in the Rafale and Eurofighter. India has a longstanding Russian defense relationship, and from their point of view a joint development agreement is one way to restrict Russian cooperation with China along similar lines. See Vijiander K Thakur’s “Understanding IAF interest in the MiG fifth generation fighter” for more on the proposal to cooperate with MiG. Even so, India’s procurement history is full of dead-ends and “almost weres” – which is why reaction to past announcements has been very muted here. An cooperation memo has now been signed – but almost a year later, it is not yet a firm agreement, even as Russia prepares to flight test its PAK-FA/T-50 design in 2009. Then, too, the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) project has a non-trivial set of obstacles to overcome, in order to see production versions for India.