Our good friend Joe Katzman over at Defense Industry Daily reports that Russia and India are engaged in preliminary negotiations over the development of a next generation fighter. The article quotes India's Minister of State for Defence Production Shri Rao Inderjit Singh:
"The co-development of a Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft has been identified as an important area of cooperation between the Indian and Russian governments. Technical discussions to work out the details are in progress. Efforts are on for negotiations and finalization of the draft Inter-Governmental Agreement in this regard."
I'm reminded of my middle school days in the Netherlands (my dad was the Assistant Naval Attache at the embassy in The Hague) when I used to get into heated discussions with Rohan Paul, my friend from India, about whether the F-4 or the MiG-21 was the better fighter. Perhaps in the near future we'll be "discussing" whether the F-22 is superior to the MiG 1.44.
-- Ward
