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2 India, Russia still brothers in
arms By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - Defense cooperation between
India and Russia, which had run into trouble in
recent months following differences over cost
escalation of armament systems, is back on track.
The two countries have signed a multi-billion
dollar agreement for the joint development of
futuristic stealth fighter aircraft, following a
high-level visit by an Indian delegation to
Russia.
The agreement, which was signed at
the seventh meeting of the Indo-Russian
inter-governmental commission on
military-technical
co-operation in Moscow,
provides for joint development of the
fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA), the
Sukhoi T-50 PAK-FA. The Sukhoi T-50 PAK-FA is
known for its super-maneuverability, supersonic
cruising ability, long-range strike and
high-endurance air defense capabilities. It is
described as a rival to the US F-35 Lighting-II
Joint Strike Fighter.
The deal on joint
production comes almost five years after the
Russians first proposed it.
India and
Russia will have equal financial and technological
stakes in the US$10 billion project. "We will
share the funding, engineering and intellectual
property in a 50-50 proportion," Sukhoi
director-general Mikhail Pogosyan said. The Indian
version of the FGFA would be different from the
Russian version because of specific Indian
requirements, he said.
According to a
report in Times of India, the Indian Air Force
(IAF) is looking to the FGFA to fulfill its future
requirements "across the entire spectrum of
warfare from low-intensity conflicts and
conventional wars to nuclear-weapon delivering
capabilities". The report quotes an IAF officer as
saying that the IAF wants the FGFA to be capable
of "a high degree of network centricity". It
should not only be able to share the tactical
picture but also be GIMS (global information
management system) enabled. In addition to
possessing a high degree of firepower through
precision-guided munitions, the FGFA should be
equipped with multi-spectral optical, infrared,
laser and radar sensors, the IAF officer said.
The deal on joint development of defense
hardware is not the first time that India and
Russia have entered such an agreement. The two
countries are engaged, for instance, in joint
production of the BrahMos (named after a
combination of names of two rivers - India's
Brahmaputra and Russia's Moskva) supersonic cruise
missile. This cooperation has been fruitful and
has resulted in BrahMos Aerospace - the joint
venture between India's Defense Research and
Development Organization and Russia's Federal
State Unitary Enterprise NPO Mashinostroyenia that
is developing the Brahmos missile - now looking to
export its missiles as well.
The FGFA
agreement will give India's defense ties with
Russia "a new quality", India's Defense Minister
Arackaparambil Kurian Antony said following the
signing of the deal.
Defense cooperation
between India and Russia (and Soviet Union
earlier) goes back several decades. Except for a
few years after the collapse of the Soviet Union
when Delhi's relations with Moscow cooled, India's
equation with Moscow has been close. India sees
Moscow as a reliable friend. Indian officials
often recall Russia's support to India's
development priorities, and its willingness to
engage in rupee-ruble trade with a foreign
exchange strapped India and sell it weapons on
"friendly terms".
While trade and economic
cooperation have been significant, it is the close
defense engagement that has defined the
relationship. It is to Moscow that India turned
for its defense purchases during the Cold War
years and it is Moscow that continues to be
India's number one supplier of military hardware
to date, Delhi's warming relations with the United
States in recent years notwithstanding. About 70%
of India's military hardware is of Soviet or
Russian make.
India's fighter fleet has
been dominated for decades by the Russian MiGs.
That is now changing with the Indians turning to
the Sukhoi aircraft in the mid-1990s. The first
contract for Sukhois was signed in 1996. It
provided for the purchase of eight Su-30K and 40
Su-30 MKI. The second contract was for purchase of
10 Su-30 K, the third for licensed production of
140 Su-30 MKI and the fourth in March this year
for purchase of 40 Su-30 MKI. The FGFA joint
production agreement is the most recent.
The FGFA agreement is being celebrated as
yet another triumph and symbolic of the deep
defense engagement between India and Russia. But
even as this engagement is being celebrated, a
perceptible chill has crept into the relationship.
Reflecting this chill is the fact that
neither Defense Minister Antony nor Foreign
Minister Pranab Mukherjee met Russian Prime
Minister Vladimir Putin during their visit to
Moscow. It is customary for senior Indian
ministers visiting Moscow to do so. Mukherjee had
met Putin in Moscow in 2005 when he was defense
minister, as did Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha,
who were ministers in the BJP-led NDA government.
And to add salt to the injury, Mukherjee was
stopped and frisked at the Moscow airport.
The Russians have been watching India's
growing proximity to the US with concern. Besides,
the bilateral defense engagement has
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