Franco-Russian 5-gen fighter cooperation?

Step toward Cooperation

Joint Fifth Generation Fighter Project Proposed

The government chairman, Mikhail Kas’yanov, announced the other day that he had reached agreements with the French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffaren regarding a joint project for creation of the fifth generation fighter. However, he has been quiet about details of the project. On the base of whose technology in particular – Russian or French – will the new airplane be created and which firms will take part in its development – the prime minister characterized these details as “a question of the future.”

However, as has become known to a Nezavisimaya Gazeta correspondent from confidential sources, the Sukhoy firm will take part in the development of the fifth generation airplane. While many questions remain open, including the number of participants and whether this will be a bilateral project or the hook up of other European countries to it is possible.

At the recent salon at Le Bourget, specialists in fact confirmed that a series of protocols of intent were signed by the Sukhoy firm, including with the French aviation firm Dassault, the European EADS and the American Boeing. As of today, a joint working group has been created. A tender has been declared for the creation of definite systems and components for the new fighter. According to the basic position, Russian partners are supposed to be the primary suppliers of components and various systems for the fifth generation fighter. But the formation of an international cooperative is not impossible, via which goes international aircraft construction in the creation of future examples of aircraft equipment; the Eurofighter and the united forces of a number of European states and companies for the realization of the JSF, or F-35, program are examples of it. More than 10 countries have announced their participation.

The new fighter is being created for 20 years ahead, and taking into account the cycle for the creation of such an aircraft is 7 – 10 years, plus a life cycle of nearly 30 years.

What will the fifth generation fighter look like? Will it be similar to the American F-117 stealth ((NEVIDIMKA)), the F-35 or to the “Berkut,” an perhaps, to the MiG MFI? According to specialists, it is hardly work describing this fighter on the surface. It is important that the complex have high avionics performance – in range of detecting targets and passive modes of operation. And also a highly intelligent complex which is supposed to diagnose the operation of all the airplane’s systems, provide its life support, significantly decrease the workload and the time to prepare for a repeat sortie, but on the other hand – offer the airman concrete solutions, ease his work for the pilot so that he can make the most accurate decision in limited time. And, of course, there will be new capabilities for weapons use against aerial and ground targets at maximum range, without entrance into the enemy’s air defense zone. The airplane will be not only a combat unit, but an element of a unified information and control system which allows using it with the greatest effectiveness. With the experience of the development of another joint Russo-French project – the MiG-AT training airplane, one may propose that the airplane’s airframe is foreseen as a domestic development, and the airplanes complete outfitting is possible in two variants. For delivery to the Russian air force, the engine installation most likely of all will be domestic, and for delivery for export – correspondingly French. The same thing relates to the instruments and weapons.

Source: 04.07.03, Nezavisimoye Voennoye Obozrenie

and

Russia and France Building Fifth Generation Airplane

Russia and France are organizing work at the present time on the construction of a military fifth generation airplane, Russian Federation Prime Minister Mikhail Kas’yanov reported to journalists during a trip to St. Peterburg.

The night before, he held discussions in the city on the Neva with the had of France’s government, Jean-Pierre Raffaren. As Kas’yanov explained, in the fall of last year, an intergovernmental agreement on the protection of information was signed in the French city of Toulouse which allows enterprises developing the new airplane “to feel comfortable in the plane of an exchange of opinions and data for such secret information.”

“The fact that there is an agreement at the government level about such a project speaks about the level of trust between Russia and France,” the Russian Federation Government chairman emphasized. Answering a question by an RIA Novosti correspondent, on the basis of which model, the Russian or the French, will the airplane be built, Kas’yanov declared that “this a question of the future.”

Source: 29.06.03, RIA Novosti

Personally, I think this won’t come to anything. With the Rafale entering service, I can’t imagine why the French would want to assist Russia with the PAK FA.