Military Watch Magazine: India Continuing Advanced Stage Negotiations to Produce Russian Su-57 Stealth Fighters Locally

Su-57 Prototype at Aero India 2025

The Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC) on May 30 confirmed that consultations remain underway for the production of Su-57 fifth generation fighter aircraft in India, following multiple reports that these talks have already reached advanced stages, Military Watch Magazine reports.

"Russia is proposing to establish production of Su-57E aircraft in India. Consultations with partners are currently underway," the FSMTC reported, adding that India currently produces under license Su-30MKI fighters, T-90S tanks, AK-203 assault rifles, AK-630 artillery guns and a wide range of ammunition types. The Su-57 is the sole operational fighter type of its generation developed outside China and the United States and first entered service in the Russian Aerospace Forces in 2020. It has been intensively combat tested in the Ukrainain theatre in a wide range of roles including for precision strikes, air-to-air combat, and air defence suppression.

The statement by the FSMTC was made shortly after a new variant of the Su-57, the Su-57D, made its first flight on May 19, with the aircraft assessed to have been developed in large part to meet Indian Air Force requirements. It also follows a statement by the Chairman and Managing Director of the state-run firm Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Dr. D.K. Sunil regarding the state of talks. “We have had one estimation of the capacity of our Plants for the Russian equipment. A committee of Russians has also studied and said that roughly 50% of the facilities can be used for producing this aircraft, but some new investments will be required,” he observed. “We are awaiting the Russian quotation about the investment. Then we will approach the Air Force that these are the kind of numbers required to produce these aircraft and these are the timelines,” he added.

The Indian Defence Ministry in January 2026 confirmed that talks for the license production of the Su-57 had reached an advanced technical stage, after the Russian Defence Ministry was in June 2025 reported to have made an unprecedented offer to provide full access to the aircraft’s source code as part of a license production deal. After the Russian defence export conglomerate Rosoboronexport in mid-April announced that multiple countries had placed orders for the Su-57, it was speculated that the Indian Defence Ministry may have placed orders for ‘off the shelf’ fighters from Russia as a stopgap until license production could commence. Beyond a license production deal, Director of the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation Dmitry Shugayev in December 2025 alluded to the possibility of  a fully joint program to develop a new Su-57 variant being pursued, providing India with ownership of key technologies. Indian sources have commented highly favourably on the possibility of a deeply customised Su-57 variant being jointly developed under such a program with co-ownership of technologies.

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