Russia put the Su-57 back on the table in Delhi this week. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said before President Vladimir Putin’s arrival that selling the aircraft to India was on the agenda and that New Delhi wanted production technology as well as jets. That is a political statement, not a contract. There is no public Indian acceptance, no government-to-government price, no request for proposal and no signed purchase. What exists is a renewed sales pitch dressed as summit business, built on a HAL feasibility look last year and on Moscow’s claim that it will transfer more than France will give on a Rafale line.
The package described by Indian sources is layered. As reported in Indian media, a Russian team from the Sukhoi design bureau visited HAL Nashik, the Koraput AL-31FP engine works and the Kasaragod avionics factory and judged that HAL already holds about half to three-fifths of the plant needed to build the type. HAL told the defence ministry late in 2025 that a first Indian aircraft could roll in two to three years after a political go-ahead, subject to money for tooling and people. The Russian visit is more modest on flyaway numbers and more ambitious on industry. Russia has spoken of two aircraft off the shelf, with R-37 long-range missiles that interest the Air Force, then three to five squadrons built in India. Engine know-how is part of the sweetener and is described as conditional on India buying the fighter. Other outlets have recycled larger flyaway figures of 36 to 60 and talk of source codes. Those numbers remain Russian or secondary reporting. They are not an Indian tender.
The operational argument Russia wants India to accept is a bridge. The IAF is short of authorised squadrons. AMCA is not expected in service before the mid-2030s. The Su-57, Moscow says, can fill the fifth-generation gap, share a Sukhoi culture already at Nashik and feed engine and systems knowledge into the Indian programme. That is also the risk. A licensed Felon line would consume capital, hangar space, test pilots and political attention that AMCA needs. It would add a sanctions-exposed supply chain beside an American F414 path already under negotiation for the Indian fighter. Interoperability with Rafales, Super Sukhoi upgrades and future AMCA weapons would have to be designed, not assumed. In July, Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh said India had no plan to buy a new version of the Sukhois. Two months later the same aircraft is a talking point because Putin is in town. A talking point is not a selection. Until New Delhi names quantities, the exact depth of transfer, engine licences, software rights and how the type sits beside AMCA, the Su-57 in Delhi is still a pitch. The fighter decision India actually has to make is whether a Russian fifth-generation stopgap helps the Air Force or postpones the aircraft India says it wants to own.