Russian Air Force interest remains high (370 words)

Published: 1/16/2001

The Il-76MF, being the military version of the stretched and re-engined Il-76TF, is continuing its development. Radiy Popkovsky, the aircraft designer, said joint testing would be carried out with the Ministry of Defence over the next twelve months, with a programme completion date of December 2001/the first quarter of next year. Ilyushin does currently operate an Il-76MT with it's own airline Ilavia. Produced in Tashkent, the aircraft has absorbed $22m of Ilyushin's development funds, with 10 aircraft in current production. Their intention is to promote the aircraft as capable of meeting the Russian Air Force's demand for 100 replacement cargo aircraft for its ageing fleet of Il-76s by 2015. Although no decision has been made about putting the aircraft into serial production, it looks increasingly likely that the proven family tree of the Il-76MF- with a unit price of $25 to $35m - may be the favoured choice of the Russian Air Force. Sources within Ilyushin, eager not to make the adoption of the Il-76MF a competition with the An-70, claim that the two aircraft are in different classes, and therefore, do not compete. This, however, may be mere semantics when the MoD decides to spend their rubles and is confronted by the large cost advantage of the Il-76 upgrades. The current Russian involvement in the Russo/Ukraine An-70 programme is reported to be less than happy. The Ukrainians have reported that the Russian partner in the aircraft's production, Aviakor, is slowing its progress because the company's owners, the industrial holding company, SiBal, are reluctant to commit resources to its development. There have been recent reports that Aviastar, with a number of associated companies (including cargo carrier, Volga Dnepr), has been lobbying the government to allow them take over the Russian portion of the programme. Whether Aviastar's eyes are on the military market is another matter, since the main opportunity for the An-70 is increasingly seen as the civil market (with the An-70T); this should be attractive to foreign operators, both as an aircraft to buy and to lease. The Il-76TF is seen, by some, as having just as attractive a potential in the civil market, with its improved payload, economy, noise and range, which would prove a particular draw for existing Il-76 operators.

Article ID: 2294