It was reported India withdrew from the FGFA programme in 2018, but also hinted that the project could be resumed at a later date, when the Su-57 is fully operational in the Russian Air Force first.
[8] Following the success of the BrahMos project, Russia and India agreed in early 2007 to jointly study and develop a Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) programme.
In December 2010, a memorandum of understanding for preliminary design of the Indo-Russian fighter was reportedly signed between Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), and Russian companies Rosoboronexport and Sukhoi.
[12] By February 2009, as per Sukhoi General Director Mikhail Pogosyan, India will initially get the same PAK FA fighter of Russia and the only difference will be the software.
[21] Ashok Nayak, who spoke on the record as HAL's chairman before retiring, explained that the IAF have required 40–45 improvements made from the PAK-FA to meet Indian needs.
[21] The Russian and Indian air forces each planned to purchase about 250 FGFAs, at an estimated $100 million per fighter for an $25 billion total, in addition to the development costs.
[33] In May 2017, another announcement came out regarding a "milestone" pact to finalise the detailed design for the fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) and move ahead with the multibillion-dollar co-development project.
[35] An Indian committee has reportedly been set up to evaluate need for FGFA in light of the price increase and progress on the HAL AMCA project.
[4][41][42] India officials reported that they became increasingly disappointed with the project's progress after long years of negotiations, delays, and struggles with Russian contractors.
They asserted that they were not satisfied with the capabilities of the Su-57, the foundation for FGFA's development, among many things the degree of low observability allowed by the design being the biggest of issues.
[14] Speaking to Flight International, United Aircraft chief Mikhail Pogosyan said India is giving engineering inputs covering latest airframe design, Hi-Tech software development and other systems.
[47] By August 2014, the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) had completed the front end engineering design for the FGFA for which a contract had been signed with India's HAL in 2010.
[48] When complete, the FGFA would've been predominantly armed with weapons of Indian origin such as the Astra, a beyond-visual-range missile (BVR) developed by India.