In an unexpected turn, the government of India is reportedly reconsidering the acquisition of Sukhoi Su-57 stealth fighters following a new proposal presented by Russia. The renewed offer comes as New Delhi reassesses the capabilities and needs of the Indian Air Force after Operation Sindoor, and after having withdrawn in 2018 from the fifth-generation fighter program it had promoted jointly with Moscow.
In 2007, New Delhi and Moscow began evaluating partnership possibilities for the development of a fifth-generation fighter, with preliminary agreements reached whereby local company Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) would team up with the Sukhoi Design Bureau (Sukhoi), now part of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), for the program. After several analyses, the Indian government, acting on the Air Force’s recommendation, decided to abandon the project in 2018 due to various factors, including high costs, performance issues with the future aircraft, stealth limitations, lack of technology transfer, and doubts about how committed Russia truly was to joint development of the aircraft with a foreign partner.
Later, in 2023, Russia renewed its push by presenting India with the export version of the Su-57 fighter, designated “Su-57E,” which reportedly already had its first undisclosed international customer—presumably Algeria. Although neither the African country nor Moscow have issued an official announcement confirming the deal, Russian officials hinted months ago that this new operator could receive its first fifth-generation aircraft during the current year.
Operation Sindoor 2025: A shift in plans for the Air Force?
In parallel, analyses suggest that Operation Sindoor 2025 exposed the limitations of the Indian Air Force (IAF) in carrying out long-range strikes and, more critically, its lack of specialized aircraft capable of operating in contested environments. It was also noted that, given Pakistan’s limited strategic depth, the country can cover its airspace with a wide range of surveillance platforms, ground-based air defense, as well as early warning and fighter aircraft—many provided by China—equipped with new air-to-air missiles such as the PL-15E, significantly increasing the challenges for the IAF.
This situation is reportedly pushing the IAF to reconsider the incorporation of stealth aircraft from abroad, such as the Su-57—not primarily for its fifth-generation stealth attributes, but for its ability to meet immediate operational needs. Furthermore, the platform is said to have the capability to deploy long-range weaponry, both air-to-air and air-to-surface. Sources highlight that some of the most attractive features of the Russian stealth fighter include its ability to employ R-37M air-to-air missiles with a range exceeding 300 kilometers, as well as the potential future integration of hypersonic weaponry, according to Russian officials.
Against this backdrop, considering the regional context, the limitations of the current combat aircraft fleet, and the need to field a next-generation aircraft, India has begun to question the lack of long-range strike capabilities of its current fighter fleet, which relies on modern Rafales and Su-30MKIs, but also older SEPECAT Jaguars.
Su-57 as a temporary solution
So far, information from local sources stresses that the ongoing negotiations and evaluations are aimed at providing a temporary “stop-gap” solution until the entry into service—expected in the next decade—of the locally developed stealth fighter from the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) Program. In parallel, India has been promoting a wide range of partnerships with third-country firms to advance various aspects of its future sixth-generation fighter.
It is worth mentioning that if the proposal were approved, state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) would partner with the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) to manufacture the Su-57E in India. Finally, sources underline that these plans remain at preliminary and feasibility study stages, and do not interfere with the MRFA program aimed at acquiring up to 114 new Rafale fighters from France.
Images for illustrative purposes only.
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