India Not Alone In Wanting Russia's 5th-Generation Su-57 Jets - Senior Russian Lawmaker

The pool of countries interested in buying Russia's Su-57 fighter jets is not limited to India, Viktor Bondarev, the chairman of the Russian parliament's upper house Defense and Security Committee, said on Monday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th February, 2019) The pool of countries interested in buying Russia's Su-57 fighter jets is not limited to India, Viktor Bondarev, the chairman of the Russian parliament's upper house Defense and Security Committee, said on Monday.

In mid-February, Russian state corporation Rostec's director for international cooperation Viktor Kladov told Sputnik that India had shown great interest in the Su-57 jet.

"I would like to draw attention of those our pseudo-experts challenging the feasibility of serial production of the Su-57 to the fact that India is not alone in its attention to our fifth-generation fighter," Bondarev told reporters.

The interest of foreign buyers in the Su-57 confirms that the serial production of this modern multi-role fighter should start as soon as possible, he stressed.

"India has always had a balanced, careful approach to importing military equipment. The Su-57 was in demand by this country not by chance. No one could outperform the combat capabilities of this aircraft at this stage of industrial development," the senator said.

The fate of countries that tried to save money on their own national defense and security speaks for itself, Bondarev noted.

"And even if some of them managed to preserve their sovereignty, like Syria, it's difficult to even imagine what fantastic sums of money they have to spend now on rebuilding the country. Definitely much more than the money they would invest in equipping the army with the best armament," he said.

Farsighted states are keenly interested in military-technical cooperation with Russia, the parliamentarian added.

The Su-57 fifth-generation fighter jet, formerly known as Prospective Airborne Complex of Frontline Aviation (PAK FA), is a single-seat, twin-engine multirole "stealth" aircraft designed for air superiority and attack roles. It is equipped with an advanced avionics system and airborne active phased array radar as well as with a variety of high-precision weaponry. The jet carried out its maiden flight in 2010 and is still being tested by the military.