No longer designated 'FGFA', the 'joint' India-Russia fifth generation aircraft is showcased here at Le Bourget with its combined designation 'Perspective Multirole Fighter'.
The Russians love word soup as much as we i India do for defence projects. That aside, it won't be nomenclature saving this programme from the heavy headwind of Indian skepticism.
Defence Minister Arun Jaitley is in Moscow today to chair the 17th meeting of the Inter-Govt Commission on military tech cooperation. The onus remains on Russia to assure India a real piece of the work to pony up what could be in excess of $25 billion for the whole deal.
Headwind on the deal is multi-tiered: India's skepticism and dissatisfaction stems, as we've reported before, from fears that the project is simply a vehicle to pump Indian money to finish a Russian project, with nearly zero Indian technical input, and nothing to write home about as far as workshare is concerned. India's committee to reassess the programme has submitted its report to the government. The recommendations are simple: a deal of value to India, but no deal without the best possible modalities (input, workshare, economics), and India had better have a pull-out plan that doesn't hurt in the event that everything crashes and burns. The deal isn't 'lost', as some reports declare a touch dramatically, but it's certainly in very shaky air.
Expect an update by day's end today after the Defence Minister's meeting, but we don't expect major headway yet. The ball still really is in Russia's court.