The biggest defence programme in India's history — the contract for the preliminary design of the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) — was signed on Tuesday between Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Russia's Rosoboronexport and Sukhoi. It will involve the production of 200-250 aircraft.
The FGFA will have advanced features such as stealth, super-cruise, ultra-manoeuvrability, highly integrated avionics suite, enhanced situational awareness, internal carriage of weapons and network centric warfare capabilities.
The aircraft would be called Perspective Multi-role Fighter (PMF). It draws upon the basic structural and system design of the Russian FGFA Technology Demonstrator with modifications to meet the Indian Air Force's specifications, which are much more stringent.
Besides design and development, the project covers production and joint marketing of the aircraft to third countries. The programme options include the design and development of a twin-seater variant and the integration of an advanced engine with higher thrust at a later stage.
The agreement is the first in a series of such contracts that will cover different stages of this programme.
The contract was signed by A. Isaykin, general director of Rosoboronexport and M. Pogosyan, general director RAC MiG & Sukhoi from the Russian side and HAL chairman Ashok Nayak, and N.C. Agarwal, Director (D&D), HAL from the Indian side here.
