The Indian Defense Ministry recently issued a statement on the planned production of a number of prototype copies of sophisticated Russian military equipment under license. These include helicopters, aircraft, missiles and warships, according to the Russian news network Zvezda.
In particular, the Indian Defense Acquisition Council, headed by the country's Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar gave the green light to the proposal to build a batch of Ka-226T light multirole helicopters in India.
The improved performance characteristics of the Ka-226T include eco-friendly features, efficiency, modern avionics and additional flight safety solutions.
As far as missiles are concerned, the focus will certainly be placed on producing the BrahMos, a short range ramjet supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft or land.
The world's fastest cruise missile in operation, the BrahMos travels at speeds of Mach 2.8 to 3.0. While the land-launched and ship-launched versions already in service, the air and submarine-launched missiles are currently in their testing phase.
A hypersonic version of the BrahMos-II missile capable of reaching a speed of Mach 7 is expected to be ready for testing by 2017.
Another area of military-technical cooperation between Russia and India pertains to a program for the joint development of fifth generation fighter aircraft, or FGFA.
According to Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar, the two countries have already injected about 230 million dollars into the FGFA project, which is based on the development of the T-50 aircraft.
The FGFA, which is expected to be armed with weapons of Indian origin, will fly at a speed of 2,300 kilometers per hour and will have a range of 3,800 kilometers.
On top of that, Moscow and New Delhi are continuing negotiations on the possible supply of three Project 11356 frigates to the Indian side, according to a spokesman for the Russian state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport.
A total of six such frigates have been delivered to India between 2003 and 2013. The first three ships are equipped with Russian Club-N cruise missile systems, while the other three frigates are armed with BrahMos cruise missiles.
Earlier this year, Russia proposed that the Project 11356 frigates with improved tactical and technical characteristics be built at Indian shipyards.
Meanwhile, Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj heaped praise on what she touted as a "considerable progress in bilateral relations."
"While previously our military-technical cooperation with Russia was based on a buyer-seller scheme, now this cooperation has changed. Russia has decided to produce weapons in India, as well as to produce them together with us, giving us the appropriate technology," Swaraj said.
