The limited soundbytes coming from Ashok K. Baweja, Chairman of the Ministry of defence-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), notwithstanding (on September 29 when he walked into the ‘ambush alley’ laid out by scribes waiting to be briefed on the outcome of the 8th India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation, or IRIGC-MTC), the past 30 days

have produced considerable clarity as well as raised several queries on the Fifth-Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) project, which was originally known within India as the Medium Combat Aircraft or MCA and was being proposed by the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) as a follow-on to the ‘Tejas’ light combat aircraft (LCA), and will now be co-developed by HAL, its Russian military-industrial counterparts, and possibly Embraer of Brazil.

Under the new scheme of things now, India and possibly Brazil will ultimately contribute 90 per cent of the USD two billion required for completing the FGFA’s R&D phase. The single-seat airframe for the Russian Air Force, which was re-conceptualised late last year by doing away with the forward-swept wings, will be rolled out by late 2009, with its tandem-seat variant (which the IAF wants to induct into service) following two years later. Russia will fund the development of a more powerful version of the Su-30MKI’s existing AL-31FP turbofan (which will be uprated by 20 per cent, according to Baweja), which will provide non-afterburning supersonic cruise speeds, will have a 6,000-hour total technical service life, and will come equipped with three-dimensional thrust-vectoring nozzles (moving +/-15 degrees vertically and +/-8 degrees horizontally) as well as full authority digital electronic controls. The single-crystal turbine blades of the turbofan will be treated with a new-generation corrosion-protection coating developed by Urals-based PRAD, which will dramatically extend the service life of those AL-31FPs that are exposed to severe sand erosion. As for the distributed avionics suite of the FGFA, Russia has reportedly given HAL a free hand to define and design the open-architecture cockpit and mission avionics suites and an integrated self-defence suite. The quadruplex fly-by-light flight control system (yes, the IAF has insisted on it, while the Russian version of the FGFA will use fly-by-wire flight controls) will be jointly developed by the DRDO and Embraer, while potential suppliers of active phased-array radars include THALES of France, Israel Aerospace Industries, Phazotron JSC, Ericsson Microwave Systems, and EADS. Unit price of the tandem-seat variant of FGFA is currently estimated at USD 65 million.

Based on the above, several questions have now arisen that are begging for convincing answers. These include:

1. Will it be possible for HAL to have the cake and eat it as well in terms of monopolising the FGFA’s detailed re-design requirements (to modify the original single-seat design to a tandem-seat aircraft), especially since its ARDC facility already has its hands full with similar work on the MRTA, LCH, LOH and medium-lift utility helicopter?
   
   
2. In order to lessen its work burden when it comes to detailed airframe re-design, will it adopt a consortium approach in terms of enrolling the services of the private sector while it acts as the nodal R&D authority answerable to IAF HQ?
   
   
3. Who will be responsible for conducting high-speed and high-altitude wind tunnel tests of the HAL-redesigned FGFA? Will it done in India or in Russia?
   
   
4. Will HAL will be the sole intellectual property custodian for all military airworthiness certification data pertaining to the tandem-seat FGFA? Or will it be a joint HAL-Sukhoi OKB affair?