News Story: Russia Pitches MiG-35 to India as FGFA Project Falters

MiG-35 (Image: Wiki Commons)

by Neelam Mathews

As the contest to supply a new fighter aircraft to the Indian Air Force (IAF) heats up, the MiG-35 has emerged as a viable candidate. India is supposedly seeking about 220 single-engine fighters to replace 11 squadrons of MiG-21/27s that entered service in the 1990s.

Rosoboronexport is believed to have offered a licensed production deal for the twin-engine MiG-35 that would compensate for the IAF’s reluctance to proceed with the Indo-Russian Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) project.

At the MAKS 2017 airshow in July, Ilya Tarasenko, director general of Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG, said: “We are actively working with the IAF in order to win the tender.” Russia has committed to a 40-year maintenance and upgrade contract to preclude the support issues that have arisen in the past with Russian aircraft in service with the IAF. Meanwhile, also at MAKS, Sergei Chemezov, CEO of the Rostec State Corporation, told reporters that a decision on the design and development of the FGFA would be made in the “nearest future.” He did not provide a timeline for the project, a version of Russia’s Sukhoi T-50, which has been under discussion between the two countries for the past decade.

According to an Indian defense official, “The MiG-35 is 25 percent cheaper [than rival candidates for the IAF requirement]; has an AESA radar; has commonality with the fleet; and being in the light to medium category enables it to land in the same airfields that the [indigenous] Light Combat Aircraft does. If the FGFA does not go through, Russia will have to be compensated, and this is the only contract left at the moment.” 

Read the full story at AINonline

News Story: Russia’s fifth-gen fighter blitz

MiG-29 (Image: Wiki Commons)

By: Matthew Bodner

MOSCOW — Russia is moving aggressively on another traditional patron of U.S. arms exports: the United Arab Emirates. Rather than cheap small arms and land-based platforms, Russian companies appear to have identified a market opportunity: relatively cost-effective alternatives to Western fifth-generation fighters.  

The head of Russia’s largest defense conglomerate Rostec, Sergey Chemezov, told reporters at the IDEX show in Abu Dabi this week that Rostec would partner with the UAE Defense Ministry to develop a light fifth-generation fighter jet based on the MiG-29. Development is slated to begin in 2018, and production should launch seven to eight years after that. 

“It takes quite a long period of time to develop,” Chemezov told Defense News in an exclusive interview. “We anticipate local production here in [UAE], for the needs of [UAE].” 

The announcement comes as Russia is engaging in a region-wide diplomatic and economic press to rebuild old alliances and forge new ones. And after 18 months of aerial operations in Syria, countries that have strong appetites for fighter jets are taking closer looks at what Russia has to offer.  

The deal with UAE likely took some in the industry by surprise, says Dr. Theodore Karasik, senior advisor at the Washington-based Gulf State Analytics. Several Western firms have seen high-profile fourth-gen fighter deals with UAE fall through in recent years, but efforts to hash out an agreement have continued. 

Under the agreement, Russia is set to provide UAE with fifth-generation fighter technology, produced locally in partnership with UAE defense firms. “This in itself is completely different than any previous aerospace deals between UAE and the West,” Karasik says. “Whether it will work is another question.”  

Read the full story at DefenseNews

News Story: China may receive 10 Russian Su-35 jets in 2017

by Ryan Maass

China may receive its second batch of 10 Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets by the end of 2017, according to Russian state media reports.

The Kremlin and Beijing signed off on the procurement of 24 jets in November 2015, and China received four of the planes in 2016. China expects delivery of the remaining 10 jets in 2018.

"The first four vehicles were supplied in late last year and the second batch of 10 jets will be delivered to the customer this year," the TASS news agency reports, quoting an unnamed source.

Read the full story at SpaceDaily

News Story: JF-17 Still an Option in Egypt-Pakistan Defense Cooperation Drive

By Usman Ansari

ISLAMABAD — Despite having opted for French and Russian fighter aircraft earlier this year, Egypt has reportedly expressed an interest in the Sino-Pakistan JF-17 Thunder. This has come as a surprise to analysts who had considered the possibility of Egypt acquiring the JF-17 to be lost.

The interest comes as part of a wider push to increase defense industry cooperation between the two countries, according to a Dec. 4 news release by the Pakistani government's Press Information Department. It outlined how the Egyptian ambassador to Islamabad, Sherif Shaheen, met Pakistan's Minister for Defence Production Tanveer Hussain to discuss improving bilateral defense cooperation.

A cadet exchange program is already in place, but both sides were "looking at collaboration in defense industry as the core of relations between Pakistan and Egypt," according to the news release.

As a matter of policy, officials in Pakistan do not discuss potential defense deals until they are signed.

However, author, analyst and former Pakistani Air Force pilot Kaiser Tufail says there are two main reasons the JF-17 appeals to developing nations.

Read the full story at DefenseNews

Editorial: Confirmed - India’s 'Mother of All Defense Deals' Is Dead

By Franz-Stefan Gady

New Delhi will, however, issue a new Request for Proposal (RFP) for the purchase of 90 fighter jets very soon.

It is official now: The Indian government has cancelled its $12 billion program to purchase 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA), according to Defense News.

“The RFP issued earlier for procurement of 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) has been withdrawn. In this multi-vendor procurement case, the Rafale aircraft met all the performance characteristics stipulated in the Request for Proposal (RFP) during the evaluation conducted by Indian Air Force,” a July 30 press release circulated by the Indian Ministry of Defense stated.

The statement provided no additional reasons for the program’s cancellation, although the announcement comes as no surprise to observers. Pricing differences as well as the inability to come to a mutually satisfactory arrangement over the question of technological transfers, as well doubts over India’s ability to build the plane locally, were the likely main causes for the withdrawal of the RFP.

As I reported back in June (See: “India to Buy Only 36 Rafale Jets”), the price tag for $20 billion MMRCA project went up 2.7 times from the original cost proposal, according to Indian press reports.

Read the full story at The Diplomat

Editorial: Lessons for India - How the 'Mother of All Defense Deals' Crashed and Burned

By Rohan Joshi

…and what India needs to do to avoid flubs of the sort in the future.

India’s decision to procure 36 Dassault Rafale combat jets is an attempt to stop short-term hemorrhaging, but is not a substitute for the urgent need to address both the erosion of the Indian Air Force’s (IAF’s) force strength or gaps in higher defense management that continue to plague the Indian armed forces.

On India’s decision to opt for a government-to-government deal during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to France, Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar indicated that India’s Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) project, which had taken 14 years from the projection of requirements to vendor selection, was effectively dead. The $10 billion MMRCA project for 126 combat aircraft was conceived by the IAF in 2001 with an aim to augment its force strength, which is at an all-time low of 29 squadron as a result of defense procurement inefficiencies, obsolescence and crashes.

It then took the Ministry of Defense six years after IAF conceived a requirement to then issue Requests for Proposal (RFPs) for the MiG-35, JAS-39, Eurofighter Typhoon, F-16, F/A-18 and Rafale. The terms of the initial RFP stipulated the purchase of 18 aircraft in “fly away” condition, while requiring the remaining 108 aircraft to be manufactured in India under a Transfer of Technology Agreement with the vendor, which would also be required to meet its offset obligations in India, per MoD’s Defense Procurement Procedure (DPP).

Read the full story at The Diplomat

News Story: Could Su-35S Deal Edge Out Rafale in India?

Sukhoi Su-35 Flanker Fighter

By Awad Mustafa

New Delhi Won't Comment on 5th-Gen Fighter Contract with Russia

ABU DHABI — Moscow and New Delhi have agreed to perform design work in India on what Russia claims would be a "fifth generation" version of the Su-35, an agreement that may lead to an Indian variant of the fighter jet, the Russian Military Complex chief said.

The announcement makes India the first country to sign a contract, however preliminary, for the S version of the Su-35.

"We have been negotiating and have signed the intention protocol for the Su-35," Rostec CEO Sergey Chemezov said during the IDEX show in Abu Dhabi last month. "Now we are working on designing ideas for this contract and on creating a manufacturing platform for the aircraft of the fifth generation."

Rostec is Russia's state-run corporation that oversees export of high-tech products.

Chemezov said the jet would be developed to meet the Indian Air Force's requirements. He did not say how many of the jets India might plan to buy.

Read the full story at DefenseNews

Editorial: Is the JF-17 Really a Tough Sell for China and Pakistan?

By Ankit Panda

An Egyptian contract for the JF-17 may have just slipped out of reach for China and Pakistan.

The JF-17 Thunder (also known as the FC-1 Xiaolong) is a lightweight, single-engine, multi-role combat aircraft developed jointly by Pakistan Aeronautical Complex and China’s Chengdu Aircraft Corporation. With a relatively low unit cost of $15-25 million, price is the primary selling point for this capable and versatile jet which Flashpoints‘ Robert Farley has described as conceptually a “modern MiG-21.” Despite the seemingly positive bang-for-buck proposition, the JF-17 has had a hard time finding committed buyers. Indeed, part of the reason that defense procurement programs the world over have shirked the jet is prestige, but additionally, the jet remains largely unproven. While a few states have expressed interest, Pakistan and China received some bad news this week with the news that Egypt — a major regional military — will likely instead go with France’s Rafale and Mirage 2000-series of jets.

As reported by Defense News, Egypt will likely acquire the Mirage fighters (specifically the 2000-9s and refurbished 2000-5s) off the United Arab Emirates, and is also currently in the process of negotiating a contract for 20 Rafale fighters. Egypt has additionally shown interest in the MiG-35. All of these options carry a significantly higher per-unit cost compared to the JF-17. The Rafale starts at around $90 million per unit, a considerably larger sum than the JF-17′s modest asking price. While these jets certainly offer advanced capabilities over the JF-17 to make up for their higher price tags (particularly in the areas of avionics and maneuverability), the JF-17 being passed over will undoubtedly frustrate both China and Pakistan. 

Read the full story at The Diplomat

News Story: JF-17 Presses On After News of Egypt's Plan

By Usman Ansari

ISLAMABAD — News that Egypt may acquire the UAE's Mirage fighters is likely to scupper Pakistan's hopes of selling the JF-17, especially since Cairo is also reportedly negotiating for 20 Rafale fighters, and shown interest in the MiG-35. However, brisk development of the JF-17 continues alongside sales efforts.

Kaiser Tufail, former Pakistani air commodore, said the UAE's offer of an undisclosed number of Dassault-built Mirage 2000-9s to Egypt means the JF-17 may be out of contention in Cairo.

"If [Egypt] purchases Mirage 2000-9s as well as some more of the older refurbished 2000-5s, it would certainly not need the JF-17, which is less capable than the French fighter," he said.

Read the full story at DefenseNews

News Story: Russia ready to negotiate with India on MiG-35 fighters

MiG-35D Fulcrum-F (Wiki Info - Image: Wiki Commons)

New Delhi: Russia is keen that India buys its MiG-35 fighter aircraft, a top Russian official said. 

The Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG (RAC MiG) has proposed to India to consider the possibility of concluding a contract on the supply of the MiG-35 multipurpose fighter jet, RAC MiG Director General Sergei Korotkov told Itar-Tass in an interview. 

"Despite the fact that we lost the tender for the supply of 126 multipurpose fighters to the Indian Air Force, the RAC MiG fulfilled all the requirements set the tender committee," Korotkov said. "The aircraft has demonstrated good results, sometimes even exceeding expectations." 

According to him, the corporation hopes that "India will consider the possibility of concluding a contract on the supply of the MiG-35 fighters." 

Read the full story at ZeeNews