During the operational meeting of the government of Ulyanovsk Region held on December 24^th 2012 the vice-premier, Alexander Pinkov, reported that the production of new version of An-124 “Ruslan” aircraft may be launched in 2016 by Aviastar-SP (Ulyanovsk), Kommersant-Samara reports.

According to the vice-premier, the corresponding government decree will be elaborated by April 1^st 2013. It is assumed that 60 aircraft will be ordered, including 20 jets intended for the Ministry of Defense. 

As explained by Pinkov, this information was announced by the interagency working group for development of military-transport aviation in the network of the meeting of military-industrial commission. He also noted that the governmental decree will stipulate the financing of research and development work by the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Industry and Trade. However,hedidnotspecifytheamountoffinancing. 

«We need to continue negotiations with Antonov State Enterprise and convince them, because we cannot stave off this work anymore. If we don’t start the project we may lose this aircraft forever, because the service life of all the An-124s ends in 2030. Neither Russia nor Ukraine will benefit from losing these jets», — Alexander Pinkov said. According to him, it is necessary to complete the upgrading of civil and military An-124s in 2013-2014 before launching the production of the jet’s new version.

We remind you that An-124 aircraft was developed by Kiev-based Antonov design bureau. The jet performed its first flight on December 24^th 1982. Most of Ruslan’s characteristics are still unmatched. It is the largest serial aircraft in the world with the highest weight-lift ability (120 tons). The serial production of An-124s was ceased in 1994. The necessity of resuming its production was initiated by Volga-Dnepr (the largest operator of An-124s) about 10 years ago. There were a lot of statements from representatives of the federal government regarding resuming the aircraft’s production; however, no decisions have been made. According to the estimates of Ernst & Young (made in 2008), the preproduction will require about 4 billion rubles in order to manufacture 40 An-124s. Thepriceofeachjetwillbeabout$150-160 million.