Russia claims the Indian-made variants of the Sukhoi Su-57 fighter jet will be a lot cheaper than the US-made F-35A stealth fighters.
While US President Donald Trump recently offered to sell the F-35 stealth fighter jet to India, the proposed sale has raised questions on whether the F-35 is truly worth its hefty price tag, with tech billionaire Elon Musk, a close aide of Trump, going as far as calling the 5th-gen warplane a piece of “scrap”.
However, India has another option with regards to acquiring a 5th-generation combat aircraft as Russia, New Delhi’s trusted defence partner and top weapons supplier, has offered an enticing deal on the Sukhoi Su-57 fighter jet, offering to sell the 5th-gen fighter to India as well as an assured transfer of technology, something which the US is unwilling to do.
According to a senior official of Rostec Corporation, Russia’s state-owned defense manufacturer, the Indian-made variants of the Su-57 fighter jets will be a lot cheaper than the US-made F-35A– the export variant of the American F-35 stealth fighter New Delhi is mulling to purchase.
Su-57 cheaper than F-35A?
Speaking to defense media outlet Indian Defence Research Wing (Idrw), the Rostec official said that the Russian 5th-gen Su-57 stealth fighters, which will be manufactured in India, will be cheaper than US Lockheed Martin F-35A, that costs a whopping $80 million (roughly Rs. 693636000).
While no official figures have been revealed about the potential cost of an Indian-built Su-57, the claim has fueled speculation whether Moscow’s offer of technology transfer would prove to be deal-breaker and push New Delhi towards acquiring the Russian combat fighter while turning down US’ offer to provide the F-35A aircraft.
Notably, the F-35A, notorious for their high flight costs, has seen a significant drop in this area in recent years, which has brought down its price to around $80 million per unit, thanks to mass production. However, the US-made fighter jet also carries additional costs such as continued training and weapons integration, which can push the total cost per jet to over $100 million.
In contrast, Rostec has assessed that a locally manufactured Su-57 could be priced well below $80 million, far cheaper than the F-35A, which also does not offer any transfer of technology, making the buyer nation dependent on the US for maintenance and upgrades.
Will Indian-made Sukhoi Su-57 fighter jet be cheaper?
Even though Rostec has not provided any figures and only a rough estimate, experts have deduced the potential cost of an co-built Su-57 from the production of other Russian fighter jets like the Sukhoi Su-30MKI.
In December last year, the Indian Air Force (IAF) purchased 12 Su-30MKI jets from HAL for Rs 13,500 crore (about $1.6 billion), which comes to about $133 million per unit. However, the per unit was high because of the small batch order, analysts say, adding that an Indian-made Su-57 could potentially cost around $75 million per unit if mass produced.
The estimated cost is also based on cheap labor and material prices in India, according to experts.
Analysts believe that this cost advantage could be crucial for India to replicate the success of the Su-30MKI jets, balancing critical components with local manufacturing. Additionally, Russia’s willingness to share Su-57 technology compared to US’ tightly controlled F-35 deal, would reduce the cost further.
Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump said his administration is paving the way to provide F-35 stealth fighter jets to India.
“Starting this year, we will be increasing military sales to India by many billions of dollars. We are also paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F35, Stealth fighters,” Trump said at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi after their bilateral talks in Washington DC.