Bilateral defence summit irons out differences, speeding up important projects between Russia and India

08:52 GMT, October 1, 2008 At the sidelines of a meeting of the Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission for Military and Technical Cooperation in New Delhi Sivathanu Pillai, CEO of the Indo-Russian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace told to the Russian News Agency RIA Novosti that they decided to set up a working group on the development of a new BrahMos-2 missile.

"The new hypersonic missile will have a top speed of over Mach 5, which would make it impossible to intercept," he added. Back in February Pillai once already announced that a BrahMos-2 project with a five-year development time is about to get started. This project is adequately funded and supported by both governments. BrahMos-2 will set new standards and could replace its supersonic predecessor BrahMos which reaches speeds up to Mach 2.8 with its sea- and land-based versions.

According to the Russian News Agency, Pillai announced that his company recently finished the development of an airborne version of the BrahMos missile for which the Indian Air Force’s SU-30 MKI Flanker-H multi role fighter will be used as a trial platform.


Indo-Russian Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA)

Beyond that, another major Indo-Russian cooperation was released: "We would be co-developing the FGFA with Russian company Sukhoi," Ashok Baweja Chairman of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) announced after representatives of both countries decided to sign an agreement by December in order to accelerate their plans to jointly develop the aircraft.

Baweja told reporters that the FGFA would have higher stealth features as well as embedded weapon systems with seamless communication between the aircraft and its base. Furthermore the FGFA would have better multiple target detecting capabilities than Su-30 MKIs and a 10 to 20 per cent stronger engine, Indian news agency PTI cites the HAL chairman.


Bilateral defence-cooperation extended

On the political side Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and his Indian counterpart A.K. Antony decided to extend its traditionally tight defence ties for another ten years, ironing out their latest differences.

Relations between both countries have been stressed in the last months because Russia was delaying some important arms deliveries due to its discomfort about India's growing defence ties with the United States and Europe. Experts adduce the upcoming bidding for India's $10 billion fighter jet contract as an instance. Russian officials agreed to speed up pending projects, including the delivery of T-90 battle tanks, Sukhoi 30MKI fighters, stealth frigates and missile destroyers.

India is accountable for some 40 per cent of Russia’s arms exports.