Published PAK FA Drawings Do not Represent the Facts

Drawings of the future tactical aviation aircraft complex (PAK FA) or the future fifth generation fighter which is being created by the Sukhoy OKB, being published, in particular, on the Internet, do not represent the facts, an informed source in the defense industrial complex has reported to an AviaPort.RU correspondent.

As the source thinks, it will be possible to publish the real PAK FA configuration only after they adopt the airplane into the inventory or, in the best case, after the fighters first flight, which is planned for 2009. In which connection, most likely, a drawing of the airplane, close to the original, will appear first of all in foreign publications the discovery of the fighter at an airfield in the period of the first tests will be fixed by American reconnaissance satellites, the source assumes.

Answering a question about access of Indian upper management to PAK FA information during discussions held previously relative to the possibility of Indias participation in joint work with Russia, the source said that, most likely, they have acquainted the Indian side with basic data on the PAK FA program. Incidentally, a drawing of the PAK FA also has been published in one of the Indian magazines, and it also does not represent the real appearance of the future Russian fighter, he concluded.

In the sources opinion, information on the PAK FA was handed over to the Indian side during the negotiations based on legally validated documents about observation by the Indian side of the requirements for full and strict confidentiality. The Indian side fully is carrying out the obligations they incurred regarding confidentiality. At the beginning of this year it was announced that a joint intergovernmental agreement, which through the present time has been at the formulations and coordination stage, will be signed regarding Russia and Indias joint operations on the PAK FA program, the source believes.

Source: 20.04.07, AviaPort.RU, Correspondent: Dmitriy Kozlov