The development of a fifth generation fighter has become one of the main topics of cooperation between Russia and India. The joint creation of a new aircraft, which was discussed during the recent visit of Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov to India, raises many questions, and in particular, what kind of fifth generation fighter we are talking about, because the first prototype of the T50 aircraft, created in within the PAK FA project?
The fighter of the fifth generation, the further, the more confidently it becomes a kind of symbol of countries that have their own, independent aviation industry, capable of creating combat aircraft. Today in the world such aircraft are possessed only by the United States, which is armed with the F-22 and is undergoing tests of the F-35, and Russia, which is testing the T-50.
India, which is actively developing its aviation industry, is also striving to get its own aircraft of a similar class. At the same time, the development of such an aircraft from scratch today is objectively impossible for the Indian industry, and here the key factor for Delhi is cooperation with Russia, which, in turn, needs financial support to complete the development of its own fighter.
Even today, many experts call the T-50 an extremely promising platform, which can become the basis for an extensive family of combat aircraft, just as it was the previous development of Sukhoi, the T-10, which gave rise to the branchy tree of the Su-27 and its modifications.
This is the qualitative difference between the T-50 and the F-22 - the American fighter, which became the world's first serial fifth-generation combat aircraft, turned out to be too expensive to become popular, and the technical problems inevitable for the pioneer, coupled with political restrictions (export F -22 is prohibited by law) excluded the possibility of the development of this system.
The second American aircraft of the new generation, the F-35, which is currently undergoing tests, faces problems of a different kind: the United States tried to create a "cheap fighter" of the fifth generation that would have the same capabilities as the more expensive F-22, but with a stripped-down version - less ammunition, a slightly shorter range and flight speed, less radar capabilities, and so on.
In fact, it turned out to be very difficult to combine these requirements in one machine.
The cost of a promising fighter went off scale for $ 150 million, more than twice the initial estimate, and so far does not show any downward tendencies, and it has not yet been possible to achieve a number of F-22 capabilities, in particular non-afterburning supersonic speed, on the F-35.
The situation was aggravated by the fact that on the basis of the F-35, its creators tried to build three different machines - a "conventional" fighter for the Air Force, a carrier-based aircraft for the US Navy, and a short take-off and vertical landing aircraft for the Marine Corps and the Navy of the US allies. As a result, the implementation of the program is delayed, and the cost increases.
Against this background, the T-50 program, which was already being developed taking into account the well-known experience of creating the F-22 and with an eye on the F-35, looks more realistic. Russian designers did not harness "a horse and a quivering doe" into one cart and went along the already worked out path of creating a multi-purpose heavy machine, with a sufficient margin of safety.
The engines, on-board equipment and weapons being developed for the T-50 should ensure the success of the program even if one of the elements is "late": there is a duplicate option for each of the directions.
It is not surprising that it was the Russian aircraft that was chosen as the prototype for the Indian FGFA program - Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft. Now, when the T-50 is already flying and undergoing tests "without comment", India and Russia can sign an agreement on the development of an aircraft based on it, being confident in the success of the promising program.
