Russia reportedly already working on 6th generation fighter aircraft technologies

According to Russian media RIA Novosti, Russia has already started development of a 6th generation fighter made of composite materials, said CEO of Advanced Research Foundation, Andrei Grigoriev, at the 2014 Open Innovations Forum (Oct. 14-16, Moscow, Russia). The Advanced Research Foundation was established in 2012 with the mission to support scientific research in order to strengthen Russian defense capabilities.

"Our mission is to lay the foundation for the creation of a 6th generation fighter. Several projects are under consideration. They focus primarily on materials and engines. An interesting project to create unique performance engines in cooperation with the consulting firm Lioulka is under consideration," said Grigoriev.

Russia is currently conducting tests on its 5th generation fighter, the PAK FA (or T-50) made by Sukhoi (Moscow, Russia), a part of United Aircraft Corporation (UAC, Moscow, Russia). Deliveries to armed forces will start in 2016. Combining the functions of an attack aircraft and classic fighter, the T-50 is equipped with fundamentally new avionics integrating the function of "electronic steering" and a state-of-the-art active antenna radar.

Experts told RIA Novosti earlier that the leading EU countries would not develop fifth-generation fighters; they will move straight to the sixth-generation UAVs.