Commentator Ruben Johnson of the American outlet 19FortyFive believes that India may eventually receive a «completely different» version of Russia’s fifth-generation Su-57 fighter. He notes that Moscow and New Delhi are currently in talks on how this project could be taken forward.

According to his assessment, three options are on the table. The first scenario is a limited purchase of ready-made aircraft directly from Russia. The second is licensed production of the Su-57 with only minor modifications. The third, more ambitious path involves a joint program to develop a deeply modernized version of the fighter, under which India would secure guaranteed access to key technical data — but at a much higher cost.

Johnson argues that, in the end, the Indian version could differ significantly from the Russian baseline and end up costing roughly twice as much. He suggests that the Su-57E would effectively become a localized project built around Indian components and Indian-led upgrades to the original design.

The author recalls that the fourth-generation Su-30MKI, which is currently produced under license in India, costs about twice as much as the Russian Su-30SM. On this basis, he concludes that the Su-57 for New Delhi is also likely to be around twice as expensive as the same aircraft for Moscow.