Has it been definitely confirmed UAE is funding it? Or Saudi?
Hard to say... the rumour was always that it was the UAE but also the rumour was that it was with MiG.
For all we know it might have started with MiG but the plane the UAE wanted would be different from the plane the Russian military wanted, so the prototype MiG showed of their light single engined fighter looked a lot like a LIFT, which might be exactly what the VKS want... they have a solid air defence network... they might just want a cheap simple light numbers plane that can carry an airborne AESA radar around the plane and ground based radars and SAM sites can supplement their fire power/situational awareness of their air space.
The twin engined carrier plane is likely what their twin engined land based alternative would look like too but it might be bigger and heavier and not as cheap to operate as the MiG-35 is, so they might want a smaller lighter cheaper 5th gen light fighter and go with a drone support model like the one shown for land and sea based support.
That single engined MiG might have wing tip and 10 under wing pylons for carrying light weapons like 250kg guided bombs or the normal load of AAMs for use when stealth is no longer a priority and it needs to be a bomb truck.
And UAE may want further customers to reduce costs.
That is true but it also might be them trying to get into the aerospace industry to build planes and therefore countries also building their own aircraft would be competition... did they have Indian pilots in the advert?
All I have seen is that Russia intends it to be for export, African countries, Vietnam, India, Argentina, Algeria. may find customers in ex Soviet countries.
If it is cheap enough countries like Turkey might consider it, ... if it is as cheap as they suggest a lot of countries currently operating F-16s might jump at the chance to buy it... Venezuela and Turkey and even Pakistan.... but if Pakistan buys it will India still want it?
Politics is complex is it not?
I wonder if this will end up like the mig-29k. Other countries pay for R&D and Russia ends up using a few years later lol.
If it proves to work as advertised they might buy some, but I think the focus of design from the actual customer might not suit the Russian military and vice versa...
This looks like a very good aircraft.
Does one country funding/partially funding it really mean they have the kibosh on who gets to buy it?
Yes. You will not see China or Pakistan being able to buy any Brahmos missiles any time soon because although it is essentially a modified Yakhont Russian missile, the result is part Indian and they get a say as to who can or cannot buy it.
It would be the same here... but obviously it really depends who is funding it.
Imagine if it is Israel...
They have tried the F-35 and realised that super expensive stealth is not affordable, but cheap simple stealth is much much more valuable... would the US let them take parts from the F-22 and build a new F-11? (F-22 with only one engine)... no way.
Should be interesting... it seems to tick all the boxes and extra boxes for the Russian military because it uses already developed parts but it will need new internal bits... they could keep the cockpit, but new software and displays...
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