India To Cut Down Stealth Fighter Order

India’s Air Chief Marshal N A K Browne has announced that the country will be cutting its order for the fifth-generation stealth fighter being developed jointly with Russia by a third. In 2011, the two countries signed an agreement to jointly build the aircraft. While Russia is testing prototypes of the T-50 aircraft (due to enter service with the Russian Air Force by 2017) and India's Hindustan Aeronatics Limited (HAL) is to build the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA), a derivative of the Sukhoi T-50. According to Browne, India will now order just 144 of the fighters -- down from an originally-intended batch of around 200, including 48 two-seaters. India now wants to take on a greater share of development and produce the aircraft’s software, guidance systems which means pushing back the production date for the Indian variant, which is likely to be ready by 2020. A total cost for the program has yet to be worked out, but could total around $30 billion including development costs, HAL sources told India Strategic. The two countries are in talks on the first research and development phase. After this agreement is signed, a first prototype will likely be delivered to India in 2014, followed by two more in 2017 and 2019. Series production aircraft “will only be ordered based on the final configuration and performance of the third prototype,” Browne said.