The Russian government wants to merge warplane makers MiG and Irkut into a single company, a top industry official was quoted as saying on Friday.
It was the first time the government had voiced its intention since appointing Irkut's president to head MiG late last month in a move experts said would lead to the merger.
"MiG and Irkut would form an ideal structure, and that's what we want," Boris Alyoshin, head of the Federal Industry Agency, was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.
"That's what we're actively discussing in the government at the moment. Those companies should be together."
A merger between the two would be complicated because MiG is state-owned, while Irkut is a private listed company.
The government wants to merge Russia's biggest plane makers to make them more competitive against global rivals and put an end to squabbles that have held back the industry's recovery from a post-Soviet slump.
Other companies the government wants to unite are Sukhoi, Russia's biggest arms exporter and an Irkut shareholder, as well as Ilyushin and Tupolev construction bureaux.
Irkut, which has a licence to make Sukhoi jet fighters, has an order book worth about $4.5 billion.
MiG, whose order book is about $1.4 billion, is gearing up for a $1.5 billion contract with Algeria to supply up to 50 MiG-29 fighters.
Irkut sales were $700 million in 2003, while Sukhoi, Russia's biggest combat jets maker, had 2003 sales of $1.5 billion.