AN-70 to (finally) start production?

www.defensenews.com...

MOSCOW - Russia and Ukraine have agreed to revive long-standing plans to produce the An-70 military transport plane, the head of the design bureau at Ukrainian aerospace company Antonov said Aug. 19.

"I am sure that we will manage this with Russia until its completion and this aircraft will be part of the Russian and Ukrainian air forces," Dmytro Kiva said at the Maks-2009 air show outside Moscow, news agencies reported

with the aircraft in serial production it would be a kick in the bollocks on the export market to the EADS A400M and for the C-130J

And your point? While they may no longer be our mortal enemy, they are another country in need of money from exports, as well as updated military equipment. So, I'd say that it is about time. While I'm not intimately familiar with a lot of their equipment, didn't they have an Il76 variant doing the work? That is a fairly dated design, out of production for quite a while. Airfranes and engines can only last so long, unless they are radial engines, but that's another story altogether,

I would imagine that the point would be that potential customers may be more attracted to the An 70 than to another turboprop transport its manufacturer daren't try to fly yet, or even to one that, as good as it is, is nearing 60 years old in its original design and is considerably smaller. Antonov may be on to a good thing here is they handle it right.

Actually the interesting part about this is WHO the partners are - Ukraine and Russia - these guys were virtually at war two years ago, as Ukraine was stealing gas in order to keep its people warm. The Ukrainians reached out to Europe and were simply rebuked, the global financial crisis has pushed eastern Europe in ruin, they relied entirely on foreign capital - this signifies a return to the Bear - and should scare the pants of Europe - I can see many other countries around the region following suit as the can see the weakness of the west and the rise of Russia with China -

reply to post by audas


Not sure Russia is "rising". Over reliance on oil and gas, weak industrial sector, corruption, falling population.

On topic. I like the An-70 and would have loved to have seen a collaborative effort with a significant western company - that would have shaken things up a bit. Take an An-70, put in some western kit to make it acceptable to the west and "bingo".

However, in reality that would never have happened with the West tied to the A400M and the Hercules and the difficult political situation there is in the Ukraine with Russia sobbing over its shrinking political sphere, and all that.

Russia is a fickle partner and has already pulled out of the project once, so who knows what they will do the next time they want to show how tough they are!

Regards

There is a similar type of collaboration currently being considered as France and Russia are looking at getting together on a 21st century revamp of th Mi26 Halo to meet a French heavy helo requirement. I hope it has legs and we see more of thr same

Wow if you compare the specs to the A400M its a killer. Im betting that they are smart enough to sell the first run at near break even prices to build the market.

They have done fairly well in the private market and im betting it cheaper than the A400M and has greater payload and range esp if you compare a 20 ton cargo. I also think that they have not altered the specs on the A400 to adjust for the lower power and greater weight.


I would not mind seeing a few in USAF colors myself. I always thought that the A400 would dovetail nicely into the USAF lift requirements but this would be better