Why India Pulls Out of Fighter Jet Program with Russia: Reasons Revealed

India's once-promising partnership with Russia to develop a cutting-edge fighter jet has officially fizzled out. The Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) program, which aimed to adapt Russia's Su-57 plane for India's needs, ended in 2018. Now, newly emerging details explain why India walked away from the ambitious deal.

It seems a mix of technical disagreements and spiraling costs led to the program's downfall. India reportedly wanted a version of the jet with two seats, much like its existing Su-30MKI fighters, but Russia may not have been willing to make these changes. Additionally, concerns lingered about whether Russia would share sensitive technology and design information with India.

The price tag proved to be another major sticking point. The initial $30 billion estimate seemed to assume that both India and Russia would purchase a large number of planes. However, India's unique requirements and its desire to be involved in the development process meant their per-plane cost could skyrocket to over $120 million each. This, along with India's other defense needs likely caused serious budget worries.

Furthermore, sources suggest that Russia's demand for a firm commitment to buy over 100 planes gave India pause. This would have severely limited India's flexibility to change the order later if its defense priorities or finances shifted.

India's exit from the FGFA program highlights the complex challenges of international defense partnerships. While the potential for collaboration was significant, the financial risks and technical barriers proved too great. India now seems focused on developing its own next-generation fighter jet, the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), in a bid to achieve greater control over its defense capabilities.

 

[Pink Panther]

no body knows when AMCA will happen, if India is all alone on this, we have already seen many Countries struggling with their 5th gen fighter programs including Aerospace behemoths, even MK1A production hasn’t started yet, IAF already wanted more changes, any delay in Tejas will trickle down the entire pipeline,, if India couldn’t make AMCA in another 15-20years, GOI has no other option other than either buying a foreign 5th gen fighter off the shelf or making a foreign 5th gen jet locally, so we can’t say it for sure that India might pursue in that direction or not, only time will tell,🤨.

 

[PARTHAJIT JANA]

Russia has been duping India for long years even before this if someone studies the procurement process in details, but we had no option other than Russia for various reasons. Only viable weapons Russia can offer today i think of ssn,or some bombers or some joint transport transport aircrafts with ip.

 

[sanket]

Nothing New in the article .

 

[Anant]

Russia has been duping India for long years even before this if someone studies the procurement process in details, but we had no option other than Russia for various reasons. Only viable weapons Russia can offer today i think of ssn,or some bombers or some joint transport transport aircrafts with ip.

They don't have SSNs to sell. Over half the Akula-class is in long-term modernisation, and the remaining boats are mostly either used for training duties or aging to a point any sales are impossible. What they can sell is SSN technology, but even that would be a hard-sell for any nation that isn't completely devoted to the idea of acquiring SSNs. As the Australians are starting to realise, SSNs are ridiculously expensive to build, operate, and maintain long-term.

 

[op gupta]

Bogus and Useless article, who needs russia at all for defence?

 

[Pad UwU]

Kakakakak so the reason why we are struggling of AMCA is we bickering with the Russian on how can we partially get their techs and we insist of participating in it's experiment to get some ideas 😺.... Then they insist our commitment order so we won't dupe them in the middle of development of FGFA.... We walkout because Russian didn't give on our twin seater request so we go soloing on our own 5gen aka AMCA....

That's the reason why we are now struggling if AMCA is on paper only proposal myth or just a delulu dream of HAL and the GoI to get some reaction to Russia 🙃🤔🧐

 

[Sir Capt]

Thank goodness India backed out for this deal. This would have been an utter failure with dependence on Russia and lack of quality parts. This would have been another Vikramaditya/Mig29M fiasco.

 

[Desi Guy]

no body knows when AMCA will happen, if India is all alone on this, we have already seen many Countries struggling with their 5th gen fighter programs including Aerospace behemoths, even MK1A production hasn’t started yet, IAF already wanted more changes, any delay in Tejas will trickle down the entire pipeline,, if India couldn’t make AMCA in another 15-20years, GOI has no other option other than either buying a foreign 5th gen fighter off the shelf or making a foreign 5th gen jet locally, so we can’t say it for sure that India might pursue in that direction or not, only time will tell,🤨.

AMCA is like a weather report, no body knows for sure.

 

[Pramkumar]

India should develop the ORCA based on su30MkI and AL31 engine

 

[Enforcer]

India should develop the ORCA based on su30MkI and AL31 engine

Bad engine- horrible service life and needs extensive repairs and maintenance all the time.

 

[Pink Panther]

India should develop the ORCA based on su30MkI and AL31 engine

Why not RD-33MK engine, HAL makes this engine in India

 

[Enforcer]

There are more reasons than just single seat vs dual seat version. MAIN reason is actually engine. Russians wanted to use a regular modified engine (later upgrade to new engine) and Indians wanted a completely new design from the start of production. New engine fiasco is still undergoing in Russia where they are really trying to finish the new design. Russian equipment is made to be cheap and mass produced and often lacks performance and quality.

Also, second reason- su57 does not really have any major stealth features or one can say competitive to western stealth features about it. It has good jammers and sensors to avoid air to air missiles in certain scenarios but it’s not like f35 which can fly undetected over enemy skies.

If they are charging as much or more than f35, then the deal is a joke.

F 16s are coming very soon to Ukraine, we will get to see some juicy combat so hold on. I have my bets on f 16 winning overall.

 

[CCPSmasher]

Bogus and Useless article, who needs russia at all for defence?

Exactly. At this point who the fck in their right mind would for Russian arms and platforms!

 

[desigandu]

Atmanirbharta is the only long term option...the sooner we launch, build and operate our own platforms the better...Initially we may be slow, behind and struggle but we will eventually get it and develop our own ecosystem, as we aspire to become a superpower.

 

[charminar_waale_ismail_bhai]

Kakakakak so the reason why we are struggling of AMCA is we bickering with the Russian on how can we partially get their techs and we insist of participating in it's experiment to get some ideas 😺.... Then they insist our commitment order so we won't dupe them in the middle of development of FGFA.... We walkout because Russian didn't give on our twin seater request so we go soloing on our own 5gen aka AMCA....

That's the reason why we are now struggling if AMCA is on paper only proposal myth or just a delulu dream of HAL and the GoI to get some reaction to Russia 🙃🤔🧐

Exactly.

And, HAL has as much chance of delivering a 5th Gen aircraft as Rowl Baba has of delivering an election win in the general election for the Congress(I).

 

[beencensured]

no body knows when AMCA will happen, if India is all alone on this, we have already seen many Countries struggling with their 5th gen fighter programs including Aerospace behemoths, even MK1A production hasn’t started yet, IAF already wanted more changes, any delay in Tejas will trickle down the entire pipeline,, if India couldn’t make AMCA in another 15-20years, GOI has no other option other than either buying a foreign 5th gen fighter off the shelf or making a foreign 5th gen jet locally, so we can’t say it for sure that India might pursue in that direction or not, only time will tell,🤨.

Within two-three years they will build and fly a prototype, and that is with no doubt. Testing will take more time.

 

[beencensured]

Why not RD-33MK engine, HAL makes this engine in India

Kaveri is much better.

 

[beencensured]

Kakakakak so the reason why we are struggling of AMCA is we bickering with the Russian on how can we partially get their techs and we insist of participating in it's experiment to get some ideas 😺.... Then they insist our commitment order so we won't dupe them in the middle of development of FGFA.... We walkout because Russian didn't give on our twin seater request so we go soloing on our own 5gen aka AMCA....

That's the reason why we are now struggling if AMCA is on paper only proposal myth or just a delulu dream of HAL and the GoI to get some reaction to Russia 🙃🤔🧐

We went with AMCA as we decided that Russia had less knowledge of stealth then we do. The Tejas rcs was lower then su-57 and so it totally did not meet our needs. Pad uwU live in fantasy world and does not understand different between experimenting and theory. India works on theory, others do experiment. GOI is conjuse(cheap) and does not allow experiments, and so why a prototype is full fledge 5th generational and not experiment aircraft. Again, in theory there is proof.

 

[beencensured]

There are more reasons than just single seat vs dual seat version. MAIN reason is actually engine. Russians wanted to use a regular modified engine (later upgrade to new engine) and Indians wanted a completely new design from the start of production. New engine fiasco is still undergoing in Russia where they are really trying to finish the new design. Russian equipment is made to be cheap and mass produced and often lacks performance and quality.

Also, second reason- su57 does not really have any major stealth features or one can say competitive to western stealth features about it. It has good jammers and sensors to avoid air to air missiles in certain scenarios but it’s not like f35 which can fly undetected over enemy skies.

If they are charging as much or more than f35, then the deal is a joke.

F 16s are coming very soon to Ukraine, we will get to see some juicy combat so hold on. I have my bets on f 16 winning overall.

f-16 is junk. Neither is modern nor has stealth. Nobody in world will buy f-16 if it comes to Ukraine. It was rejected by India for good reason.