In its ongoing efforts to gain air supremacy, India will have its first stealth fighter aircraft in four month's time, a senior Indian Defense Ministry official said Sunday.
"By this year end, India will acquire its first stealth fighter called Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft. The aircraft, which can attain a top speed of Mach 2 or twice the speed of sound without consumption of huge amounts of aviation fuel, is being developed by Sukhoi in Russia under a 3-billion-U.S.-dollar deal," the official said, on condition of anonymity.
He said that the stealth aircraft will be inducted into the Indian Air Force in a short time after the country gets them from Russia.
"It is to be equipped with high-end radars which can detect targets with maximum accuracy," he said, adding that many advanced technologies to be used in the stealth fighter have been adopted from the multi-role fighter aircraft Sukhoi 30 MKI.
The two-seater Sukhoi 30 MKI, IAF's prime air superiority fighter aircraft, has a maximum speed of 2,500 kilometers per hour, with one mid-air refueling. It can travel as far as 8,000 km, making it a suitable platform to deliver strategic weapons.
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