India-Russia Fifth Gen Fighter Project To Cost About $6 Billion: Defense Ministry Report

A plan of India and Russia to jointly develop four fifth generation jets has probably been stuck as  a report of a committee formed by defense ministry says that the program is costing higher than expected. 

The committee recently submitted a report on the programme to the ministry to look into the details of the programme between India and Russia. As per it, the cost of developing four prototype fighter jets would be around $6 billion, which is a very high, official in the Defence Ministry was quoted as saying by Times Now Wednesday.

India and Russia has signed an inter-governmental pact for the FGFA project in 2007. It is to be based on the Russian Sukhoi-57 or the PAK FA T-50 fighter jet.

India has earlier also told the Russian side that the project's cost was too high, and had also discussed buying the Su-57 fighters.

In December 2010, India had agreed to pay $295 million towards the preliminary design of the fighter, also referred to as 'Perspective Multi-role Fighter' (PMF). However, negotiations faced various hurdles in the subsequent years.

There were several disagreements between New Delhi and Moscow, including on work and cost share, aircraft technology, as well as the number of aircraft to be ordered.

After evaluating the first PAK FA T-50 prototype (the Russian prototype of the PMF), the Indian Air Force (IAF) wanted more than 40 changes addressing, among other things, perceived weaknesses in the plane's engine, stealth, and weapon-carrying capabilities.