Indias future fighter makes public debut

The fifth generation fighter aircraft made its anticipated first debut at the Moscow Air Show.

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The Russian fifth generation fighter aircraft Wednesday made its much anticipated first public appearance before a packed house at the Moscow Air Show,watched by senior IAF officers and engineers of the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) who have started work on an Indian version of the plane.

Putting up an impressive performance,the T-50 fighter (also known as the PAK FA) carried out a 15-minute demonstration flight,performing manoeuvres to show off its agility before a crowd that included aviation experts from across the world,keen to catch the first glimpse of a non-American fifth generation fighter aircraft.

While the fighter did not perform to its extreme limits due to restriction put up by the designers to limit stress to 5 G as the aircraft is under development,the short flight was described as impressive by observers on the ground. Both flying prototypes of the fighter conducted a fly past while one stayed on to pull off a series of manoeuvres.

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The first flight,observed by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin,generated a lot of interest from the Indian delegation at the air show that includes HAL chief Ashok Nayak and top officers from the Air Force.

The public unveiling of the T-50 fighter,which undertook its first flight in January 2010,marks an important milestone for India which has decided that a customised version of the aircraft,to be jointly developed by HAL,will be the future mainstay combat aircraft of the Air Force.

Work on the Indian version of the FGFA,which will have two pilots unlike the Russian fighter,has already begun. The stealth aircraft,which has been designed to match the capabilities of other fifth generation fighters like the F 22,F 35 as well as the recently announced Chinese J 20,is expected to be inducted by 2018 and India will order 250-300 fighters.

The Defence Ministry,which is expected to spend $ 30 billion on the new fighters,has described the deal to jointly design and developed the FGFA with Russia as the biggest defence programme ever in the history of India.

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The formal contract for preliminary design of the fighter was signed in December last year that included the development of a next generation fighter with features like advanced stealth,ultra manoeuvrability and high technology avionics. India has described the specifications spelled out by the IAF as much more stringent that the Russian version of the fighter.

The Indian variant has been named the Perspective Multi-role Fighter (PMF) by the Defence Ministry and is likely to have a more advanced engine for higher thrust. The spin off benefits for the Indian aeronautics industry will be significant as the joint development programme includes complete technology transfer.

(The correspondent is attending the Moscow Air Show on the invitation of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation.)