Why is India cautious about Russian fighter jets?
Accordingly india and russia have been defense partners for a long time. In which russia has many military equipment including MiG and Sukhoi fighter planes. At the same time, now russia has offered the fifth generation Su-57e stealth fighter to India. For this, russia has also offered to include many upgrades like hypersonic weapons, advanced stealth fighters and new avionics with this fighter jet. Not only this, russia has also allegedly asked india to reduce the price of the aircraft and accept the payment of the deal in indian rupees. However, india has not yet given any response to this offer of Russia. Despite Russia's efforts, india remains cautious.
Perhaps it is worth noting that india has its own concerns about Russia's fifth generation aircraft. india is particularly cautious about technology transfer, reliability of the new engine and the potential impact of this acquisition on India's own fifth-generation fighter aircraft program AMCA. Currently, india does not have any fifth-generation aircraft available. At the same time, india recognizes the need for cutting-edge technology to maintain its superiority in view of the rapidly growing air power of pakistan and China. In addition, most of the existing fleet in the IAF is getting old, which india needs more capable new aircraft to replace. Therefore, India's AMCA program is being seen as a long-term solution. While interim measures are needed to address current security deficiencies.
Moreover russia claims to have increased stealth capability with a newly designed airframe in its Su-57e. However, there remains a message about its radar cross-section compared to other fifth-generation aircraft. This Russian fighter aircraft is equipped with advanced avionics with AESA radar and electronic warfare system. Apart from this, the supercruise capability and thrust vectoring of the Su-57e have been promised to be increased.