India's state-run aircraft maker Hindustan Aeronautics Limited will supply components for the assembly of 300 Sukhoi Su-30MK multi-role fighters to a Russian aircraft manufacturer.
Under the deal signed in Moscow last month during Indian Defence Minister A K Antony's visit, HAL will supply large components to Russia's Irkut Corporation for assembling the airframes of Su-30MK fighters. The Russian firm is working on Indian, Malaysian and Algerian export orders.
"We had to cross several bureaucratic barriers over the years before this landmark deal could be finalised," President of United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) Alexei Fedorov told PTI.
The UAC official declined to divulge the value of the deal between HAL and the Russian firm.
He said the highly successful Indo-Russian cooperation in the Su-30MKI project laid the base for the inter-governmental agreement for the joint development of the fifth generation fighter aircraft
The Indo-Russian fifth generation fighter aircraft will make its maiden flight by 2012, a top Russian Air Force official had said recently.
India and Russia signed an inter-governmental agreement last month to jointly develop and produce the futuristic multi-role stealth fighter on the basis of Sukhoi Corporation's super secret PAK-FA project.
Fedorov did not rule out that with growing understanding of the importance of international cooperation in defence, Moscow could revive the Soviet-era regulations and could broaden its military cooperation with trusted partners like India for sourcing defence components for the Russian armed forces.
