What if India and Russia had jointly developed MMRCA Fighter jets ?




It’s more or less confirmed now that Russia too has received Request for information through diplomatic channels regarding the supply of nearly 200 Single-engined fighter jets for Indian Air force to be made in India under transfer of technology agreement .
While American defence firm Lockheed Martin was first to respond with a proposal for supply of F-16s to India and their proposal is considered Hot favourite to bag the order, proposal from Swedish firm Saab on supply of Gripen E to India likely will be followed soon, it is assumed that Russians who do not have any single engined fighter jet under production right now will give it a pass .
India’s request for single engined fighter might anger Russia since Russians might not like an entry of American companies in the supply of combat fighter jets to Indian air force . IAF till now never operated American combat jets and historically always depended largely on Russian/Soviet-designed fighter jets for their operational requirements and from 60’s Migs and Sukhois have virtually dominated Indian skies .
Will Russia respond or give it a pass is still debatable but Russia did have options in the past and had offered two different proposals to replace ageing single-engined fighter jets like Mig-21/23/27s from air force fleet and the two proposals put forward by Russia if India had accepted them could have saved India few billions and could have also helped development of local defence industry.
Sukhoi S-54 concept
The first proposal was in response to India’s decision to float MMRCA tender in early 2000 which had required for 126 Multi-role Medium class fighter jets . Mig corporation initially had offered Mig-29SMT , Sukhoi bureau not to be left behind had offered development of single engined Sukhoi S-54 which was an advanced derivative of the Su-30s, with the same general arrangement featuring canard foreplanes.
S-54 had the same dimension of its nose cone which allowed it to carry same radar as found in bigger Su-30s but with nearly half the empty weight and only a single AL-31F engine to power it was a perfect scaled down variant of Su-30s having much of commonality with it . While Sukhoi bureau was preparing to offer S-54 to India under MMRCA tender , India chose to avoid sending RFI and RFP to Sukhoi bureau thus eliminating them indirectly .
Mig LFI 5th Generation Concept
Last year MiG’s CEO Sergei Korotkov confirmed to Russian media that Mig is developing a new lightweight fighter jet. the new concept is loosely based on Mikoyan Project 1.44. MiG OKB while testing MiG 1.44 had considered the development of lightweight fighter” designated the “MiG 4.12” . New Stealth fighter from Mig OKB might be same design with certain design improvements currently under development.
Mig OKB will take best out of Mikoyan Project 1.44 and current Mig-35 in the development of this new fighter and might uses new Klimov developed RD series engine or AL-31F/41 derivate engine to power the new aircraft. Interestingly long before Russian government had selected Sukhoi’s T-50 concept as Russia’s first Stealth fighter jet , Mig OKB had offered Stealthy MiG 4.12 to India to meet India’s 5th Generation requirement and not MMRCA requirement but Migs Concept was more of medium category 5th generation aircraft but India opted to stick with heavier Class Sukhoi’s T-50 concept .
Conclusion : Both are and were Paper planes and nowhere near production but both were interesting concepts .Both first offered nearly 15 years ago, any of this plane could have easily become reality now , only if our planners had anticipated so much delays in concluding Rafale deal . whether Russia’s offer to India at that time, was acceptable to India or was is it simply not practicable is altogether a different question .
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Article by PRASAD CHAWAN ,  cannot be republished Partially or Full without consent from Writer or idrw.org
What if India and Russia had jointly developed MMRCA Fighter jets ? What if India and Russia had jointly developed MMRCA Fighter jets ? Reviewed by Unknown on 11:48:00 Rating: 5

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