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It's well known that the last ten years or so have seen significant improvement in the US-India relationship, one manifestation of which has been a sweetheart nuclear deal. While India has been courting the United States, however, it has continued to play well with Russia. The India-Russia relationship has resulted, among other things, in India purchasing an aircraft carrier and leasing a nuclear submarine. David Axe has a story at Eurasiacritic about another Indo-Russian project, the PAK-FA fighter aircraft:
Rather than join the F-35 program, New Delhi last year inked a deal with Russia to co-develop PAK-FA. Russian firm Sukhoi is the lead design agency, with India providing heavy financial support and design advice. The agreement is part of a larger military-technical relationship involving 200 programs with a combined value of some $20 billion through 2010.The PAK-FA would be considerably cheaper than the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and there are rumors that its performance would be superior. If the program works out, it could be a major export competitor with the troubled F-35 program. Perhaps more important, the fact that India is willing to spend considerable treasure trying to get the fighter off the ground indicates that New DeLhi is still hedging bets regarding its developing relationship with the United States.
--Robert Farley
