Six aircraft majors - Lockheed Martin and Boeing from the US, Russia's MiG, France's Dassault, Sweden's Saab and the EADS consortium of British, German, Spanish and Italian companies - are in contention for the $10 billion contract.

Russia will fly in two MiG-35 aircraft to India later this month for the test flights that have begun of the six contenders in the fray. A series of trials with live firing will be conducted for an IAF delegation at a testing ground in Russia late this year.

Russia has also said it is ready to transfer all key technology to HAL and provide assistance for the production of the aircraft in India if the MiG-35 wins the tender.

--RIA Novosti

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