After India, Russia Offers Brazil Joint Development Of T-50 Fighter Aircraft

Russia plans to offer Brazil joint development of the fifth-generation combat aircraft, the Sukhoi T-50, according to Alexander Fomin, the head of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation. 

The proposal is reportedly in support of an unsolicited offer by Sukhoi whose  Su-35 fighter was taken off  Brazil’s shortlist for its  F-X2 tender for the purchase of 36 fighter jets worth $4 billion.

Russia is still hoping to sell the Su-35s or similar aircraft to Brazil outside the framework of that tender, sweetening the deal with the new proposal, according to Ria Novosti.

New Delhi and Moscow are currently already developing a derivative of the T-50 for the Indian Air Force. According to executives from India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), the two sides completed the preliminary design of the aircraft, tentatively dubbed FGFA, earlier this year and are now negotiating a detailed design contract.

The Indo-Russian deal to co-develop an FGFA with capabilities tailor-made for India is worth approximately $6 billion. In 2010, a Preliminary Design Contract was signed, which led to the FGFA's basic configuration and selection of its systems and equipment.

The T-50 is a fifth-generation multirole fighter aircraft featuring low-observable technology (stealth), super-maneuverability, supercruise capability (supersonic flight without use of afterburner), and an advanced avionics suite including an X-band active phased-array radar.

The aircraft will be a key component of Russia's future fighter fleet, the Russian MoD plans to purchase a first batch of 10 evaluation aircraft and then 60 production-standard aircraft after 2015. Air Force's Col. Andrei Bobrun, said the Novosibirsk aircraft factory (NAPO) plans to deliver ten more Sukoi Su-34 strike aircraft to the Russian Air Force in the near future.

The T-50 prototype is already testing the first-phase AL-41F1 engines, a turbofan engine with afterburner and thrust vector control. With this engine the aircraft is capable of supersonic speeds without afterburner effects.

Aviation Equipment, a Rostec holding, developed a unique aviation system for the T-50, including a new power supply system that is two times more powerful than any of its Russian peers.