The project of Ukraine-Russian military transport An-70 aircraft has finally moved off dead center, Kommersant-Ukraine reports.
The joint testing of Ukraine-Russian military transport An-70 aircraft will take place this year, Russian Minister of Defense, Anatoly Serdukov, said last Wednesday following the results of meeting with Ukrainian Minister of Defense, Dmitry Salamatin. "The serialization of military transport An-70 aircraft continues. The joint testing is scheduled for 2012", — the minister told journalists at the briefing in Moscow.
The vice-president of Antonov state enterprise, Alexander Keeva, said that the work on An-70 project has become active during last months. A delegation formed by representatives of Russian and Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, headed by Commander-in-Chief of the Russian air forces, General-Colonel Alexander Zelin, has visited Antonov. According to Keeva, all the problems hindering the progress of the project have been solved during the meeting. "We can start the aircraft’s serial production after the joint testing and making changes in its type design", — Alexander Keeva explained.
The production in Ukraine will be carried out by Antonov plant in Kiev. The Russian party has not chosen the enterprise for assembly of An-70 yet.
We remind you that An-70’s development has been started in Soviet Union more than 20 years ago. After the collapse of Soviet Union Russia has entered into commitment regarding financing of this project (72%), and the rest 28% have been provided by Ukraine. Over $5 billion have been spent on the project’s implementation. However, the Russian government has abandoned the project in July 2006. Russia and Ukraine have restarted work on the project in August 2009 and agreed on creation of joint serial production of An-70 and transport An-70T with D-27 engines made by Motor Sich. It was assumed that Russia will provide 2,4 billion rubles ($80,9 million) and Ukraine — 480 million hryvnas ($59,7 million) for this project during 2-3 years. However, Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has cut off the project’s funding in late 2010, because it has not been among the ministry’s top-priority projects. Ukraine did not finance the project in 2011, but Russia has purchased the first An-70 aircraft, which is being constructed by Antonov. The contract has been signed in order to provide funds for construction of another transport aircraft.
Alexander Keeva said that this year Ukraine has funds for the project. The Ministry of Defense stated that 347 million hryvnas will be allocated from the state budget for An-70 project. "The funds for the aircraft will be provided but we need more in order to modernize the aircraft and keep up with the rivals", — Keeva explained. The required scope of finance has not been specified.
