Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered his country’s newest fighter jet to India for sale and joint production, potentially filling a capabilities gap long sought by New Delhi. Speaking to reporters at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum last week, the Russian president said, “We are ready to supply India with this aircraft, to keep developing it. We don’t have any issues or limitations,” Defense News reported.
Years of Defense Cooperation
Su-57 Felon Fighter from Russia. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Su-57 Felon Fighter. Image Credit: X Screenshot.
Today’s defense partnership between India and Russia stretches back to the Soviet era and includes arms sales to New Delhi, but has also included joint development and production of platforms and weapon systems typically rooted in Russian technologies.
Perhaps some of the best-known examples of this partnership include the BrahMos missile program, the Su-30MKI fighter production in India, and the T-90 main battle tanks manufactured under a license agreement with Russia. Cooperation between the two countries also includes the sustainment and upgrade of other Russian-origin platforms operated by India, including the country’s fleet of MiG-29 and Kamov-31 helicopters.
Though the Moscow-New Delhi relationship began purely as a weapons-sales venture in which India purchased significant quantities of Russian kit, it has evolved into one that includes joint research, with development and production pursued on seemingly equal footing.
In 2025, TASS, the Russian state-owned news agency, lauded the two countries’ successful and ongoing cooperation “despite all the difficulties of the current international political situation.” The bulletin from TASS added that Russia completed the construction and delivery of two Project 11356 vessels, both frigates, while the Indian side is producing Su-30MKI fighter planes, jet evinces, and T-90S main battle tanks under license.
India: A Capabilities Gap?
Securing access to a fifth-generation fighter is of particular importance to India. The country does not operate any stealth aircraft, having previously declined an offer from Washington to join the F-35 program, citing security restrictions related to the American fighter and a lack of domestic manufacturing opportunities.
Though the Indian Air Force does fly the Rafale, a French fighter, it is a fourth-generation platform that lacks the radar-mitigation features of newer stealth planes.
Securing access to a stealth fighter has taken on new urgency following last year’s skirmishes between India and Pakistan. During that brief conflict, India lost several Western-supplied fighters to Pakistani J-10 fighters firing PL-15 long-range air-to-air missiles, both domestic Chinese designs.
Su-75 Checkmate and Su-57. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
In light of deepening defense and military cooperation between Islamabad and Beijing — as well as China’s increasingly capable aerospace industry, which can manufacture stealth fighters at a large scale that may rival their American counterparts in terms of capabilities — the pressure for a fifth-generation stealth fighter for the Indian Air Force is acute.
Russian Military Sales Success in North Africa
It is unclear if Moscow’s military sales pitch will be successful.
But New Delhi would not be the first country to count Russia’s Su-57 as one of its own. Late last year, Algeria became that fighter’s first international customer when speculation about the Su-57’s status abroad was clarified thanks to a video snapped in Algeria from a local farmer’s field. Russian media reported that Algiers’ deal with Moscow covered 14 Su-57s for $2 billion.
But what appears clearer is that at least a couple of preliminary steps on the Russian side have been taken. “We are awaiting the Russian quotation about the investment,” then-chairman of India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, D.K. Sunil, explained to reporters. “Then we will approach the air force that these are the kind of numbers required to produce these aircraft,” he said.
Home-Grown Alternative?
Though India does have its own fifth-generation aircraft notionally in development, that program is regarded as an early-stage, fledgling effort.
If the currently projected timelines are met, the jet will not enter service until the middle of the next decade, leaving a potential opening for a foreign fifth-generation fighter to fill a crucial capabilities gap.
Indian Modernization
While Russian platforms have been the cornerstone of the Indian Air Force’s capabilities for around sixty years, New Delhi has sought to diversify its rolodex of defense suppliers.
It had perhaps been hoped that France’s Dassault could meet the Indian Air Force’s needs with its fourth-generation Rafale multirole fighter, but the loss of several of those fighters against Pakistan underscored the need for a generational, not incremental, jump in aviation capabilities.
About the Author: Caleb Larson
Caleb Larson is an American multiformat journalist based in Berlin, Germany. His work covers the intersection of conflict and society, focusing on American foreign policy and European security. He has reported from Germany, Russia, and the United States. Most recently, he covered the war in Ukraine, reporting extensively on the war’s shifting battle lines in the Donbas and writing about its civilian and humanitarian toll. Previously, he worked as a Defense Reporter for POLITICO Europe. You can follow his latest work on X.
