MOSCOW. Jan 25 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian aircraft industry has the potential to implement one of the top priorities of the Armaments Program approved by the Russian president, that is the development of a fifth generation multifunctional fighter, Andrei Kokoshin, former first deputy defense minister and current head of the State Duma committee for industry, construction and knowledge-intensive technologies, told Interfax-Military News Agency on Friday.
Kokoshin believes that Russian aircraft-building engineers are now capable of making the backlog for the development of a fifth-generation fighter as well as identifying some novel approaches to design and technologies of the new aircraft without copying those of the American GSF fighter.
With rates of economic growth in Russia mounting up to 7% and 8% like those in China, Russia will be able to build the aircraft without foreign assistance. If this is not the case, Russian aircraft-building companies will have to cooperate with foreign enterprises the way it is now being done in Europe that is, too, engaged in the development of a new fighter.
Large European nations are several times as rich as Russia is; yet even they opted for the development of a joint aircraft, the lawmaker said.
According to Kokoshin, Russia's potential partners in the development of the new aircraft are India, China and some other nations, including those of the Arab world. Possibility of participation of CIS countries is not to be ruled out altogether, either.
Kokoshin said that Ukraine and Belarus should take part in the project, too. He added that Russia had its last chance to become the world's third leader in aircraft building after the United States and Europe. The European Union is now desperate to save its aircraft industry, investing both in civil and military aircraft-building industries.
If the Russian aircraft-building industry fails to make a breakthrough in two or three years to follow, it will be forced out of the world market, one of the consequences being inability to provide Russia with aircraft assets. Kokoshin said that if this was the case, Russian pilots would have to employ obsolete aircraft.