An-70 military-transport aircraft must complete 40 more flights in order to complete its joint flight testing, president of Motor Sich, Vyacheslav Boguslaev, told Interfax-Ukraine.

"We postponed the making of a final decision on An-70 aircraft until February 2014. We must perform 40 more flights in order to complete the testing", - V. Boguslaev said after a meeting held in Bauman Moscow State Technical University.

It was reported earlier that Russia and Ukraine should come to agreement on completion of joint flight testing of An-70 aircraft by February 2014.

"The parties agreed that the coordinated decision on completion of An-70’s flight testing by February 1st 2014 will be put on record in the network of the 100th meeting of the committee. Following the results of flight testing a decision on launching the aircraft’s serial production will be taken", - a member of Ukrainian delegation told the journalists during meeting of the Committee for economic cooperation of Russian-Ukrainian interstate commission held in Kaluga.

According to Antonov State Enterprise, An-70 has been upgraded and completed its preliminary testing in August 2013. It is ready to start the final stage of joint official testing, which includes 82 flights.

It was reported earlier that acquisition of An-70 aircraft is stipulated in the State Arms Program for the period until 2020. Russia’s State Defense Procurement will include 60 An-70s. According to the Ministry of Defense of Russian Federation (MoD) the serial production of An-70 will be launched in 2014. The aircraft will be manufactured by Kazan Aviation Production Association named after S.P. Gorbunov (KAPO). The assembly will be carried out in cooperation with Ukrainian enterprises (they will be manufacturing wings, empennage and engines for the airliner). KAPO and Antonov State Enterprise have approved the cooperation plan for serial production of the vehicle and the transfer of necessary documentation has already been started.

An-70 outmatches the existing analogues, including European А400М (the purchase value and operating costs of An-70 are two times lower as compared to A400M). Its maximum payload is 47 tons (37 tons for A400M), the volume of cargo compartment is 425 cubic meters (340 cubic meters for A400M). The price of А400М is €145 million (An-70’s price is about $67 million).