India, Russia plan joint production of fighter aircraft

M&C
New Delhi - India and Russia have agreed to begin joint production of a multi-role transport plane and a similar agreement on fifth generation fighter aircraft was likely soon, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said at a joint press conference with his Indian counterpart AK Anthony in New Delhi Wednesday.

The deal on the multi-role transport plane is likely to be signed during the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to India on Friday, defence sources said.

Ivanov, who began the day by laying a wreath at the memorial to the forgotten soldier in the heart of the Indian capital, held wide-ranging talks with Anthony on Indo-Russian defence cooperation.

He is also scheduled to meet India's national security advisor MK Narayanan, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

India, which has the world's third largest armed force with about 1.3 million serving personnel, is currently in the process of upgrading its long-neglected defence capabilities.

There are plans to buy advanced fighter jets, submarines, surveillance equipment and other armaments.

Defence ties between Russia and India date back to the Soviet era and about 70 per cent of India's military hardware is of Soviet or Russian make.

The high-level Russian visits by Ivanov and Putin, who is to be acompanied by a large business delegation, are being seen as attempts to secure Moscow's position as India's primary military equipment supplier, especially in the context of the latter's increasing closeness to the United States.

An agreement on joint production of MiG-29 aircraft engines by India's state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited is expected to be among the defence deals to be signed during Putin's visit. The Russian-designed MiG-29 forms the bulk of India's fighter fleet.

India is keen to move away from its buyer-seller relationship with Russia on defence hardware and move into more efforts at joint production like that of the Brahmos cruise missile, the Indian prime minister was quoted as saying.

'We need to work on further strengthening the linkages between Indian requirements and the Russian defence industry in the longer term,' Singh said in an interview to a Russian daily on the eve of Putin's visit, PTI news agency reported.

'Defence cooperation has provided a vital element of trust and stability and a solid foundation to our bilateral ties,' he said, adding that India had played a role in easing a difficult situation for Russia's defence industry after the collapse of the Soviet Union, with orders worth billions of dollars.

Ivanov, who is also Russia's deputy prime minister, said in the southern Indian city of Bangalore Tuesday that Russia would submit its new MiG-35 in a tender for 126 light fighter aircraft for the Indian air force, PTI news agency reported.

The air force plans to float the tender soon in an attempt to upgrade its ageing fleet of fighters, comprising largely of Russian-made MiG 29s and British Jaguars. The MiG-35 is an advanced version of the MiG-29.

Bids for the aircraft are also expected from Lockheed Martin and Boeing companies of the United States, Dassault of France, Gripen-SAAB of Sweden and the Eurofighter consortium, sources said.