India to buy three A-50 early warning and control aircraft aircraft from Russia

India  is reported to be planning to buy three airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) A-50 aircraft from Russia.

"India is mulling possible delivery of another three AEW&C aircraft, talks are on now," a source in the Russian governmental military and industrial commission said on Friday without specifying a timeline planned for a deal.

AEW&C A-50 aircraft are used to detect and track air targets and surface vessels, warn automated systems of command posts and to control airplanes in sighting.

In 2003, India ordered for three such aircraft and the contract was fulfilled in 2010.

The delivery of AEW&C aircraft is planned "in the same configuration" as under the agreement in 2003, he said.

Meanwhile, Russia's United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) has completed the front-end engineering design of the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) for India's Air Force, UAC president Mikhail Pogosyan said on Friday.

The UAC is preparing the contract on the aircraft's full-scale development for signing, he told Arms-Tass.

"We have completed the front end engineering design stage," he said. "The work on the preparation of the contract on the FGFA full-scale development is now in progress," he added.

The FGFA development and production is a major project of Russian-Indian military-technical cooperation.

The two sides signed the corresponding agreement in Moscow in October 2007. In December 2010, Russia's Rosoboronexport arms exporter, Sukhoi company and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited signed a contract on the aircraft's front end engineering design development.

Since January 2012, a group of Indian specialists has been working in Russia, and Russia's specialists in India. The two sides have established the required information exchange.

FGFA is developed on the basis of the Russian PAK FA fifth-generation fighter project. However, it will differ from the prototype to meet Indian Air Force's specific requirements.