Report: First Production Russian Stealth Fighter PAK-FA/T-50s to be Delivered This Year

The Russian Air Force is set to receive the first batch of Sukhoi T-50 PAK FA jet fighters this year amid its strained business relationship with co-developer India.

Compared with the aircraft's previous version, the variant has been fitted with a number of new features, according to the manufacturer.

Despite this, Russia will need to cope with the increasing criticism voiced by India, which is partnering with Moscow on developing the aircraft, amid concerns over delivery delays and technical shortfalls of the program.

Local analysts say that the bilateral cooperation on the program has produced a sense of disenchantment by India's military circles.

While the program has been "announced with a great deal of promise for the overall Indo-Russian defense cooperation," the fighter jet project "is currently confronted with a myriad of problems. With India already having paid US $295 million for the preliminary design and development costs, Russian unwillingness to share design information on the aircraft is not being received well in New Delhi," said Monika Chansoria, senior fellow at the Centre for Land Warfare Studies think tank in New Delhi.

The T-50 is to serve as the basis for developing the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft program, which will be supplied to the Indian Air Force. In 2007, Moscow and New Delhi signed an agreement to jointly develop the fighter jet, following which Russia's state-owned Rosoboronexport and Sukhoi, and India's state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, signed a preliminary design development deal. The total worth of design, research and development works has been estimated at more than $10 billion.

Meanwhile, the capabilities added to the new variant of the stealth fighter include a new avionics suite that integrates the electronic pilot functionality, and an advanced phased-array antenna radar, according to Russia's state-run United Aircraft Corp.

With the new features, United Aircraft says it is aiming to significantly decrease pilot load, and enable data exchange in real time, not only with ground-based control, but also within the flight group, according to information obtained by local news agency ITAR-TASS.

The fifth-generation fighter jets will be made at the plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, a subsidiary of the Russian group. The aircraft is to be enabled with a maximum speed of 1,516 mph.

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