Russia renews An-70 military transport plane funding to Ukraine

May 12, 2010, 15:41 GMT

Kiev - The Russian government has renewed long-stalled funding to Ukraine for eventual joint production of the An-70 military transport airplane, the Interfax news agency reported Wednesday.

Moscow since December has sent the Ukrainian company developing the aircraft 11 million dollars, after an effective five-year freeze, Interfax reported, citing an 'unnamed senior Ukrainian military official.'

The Kremlin will commit an additional 16 million dollars by the end of August to the programme, and 96 million dollars and hard orders for the aircraft by the end of 2012, according to the report.

Ukraine's state-owned Antonov aviation company in 1994 first tested a flying prototype of the An-70, a four-engine turboprop to be produced jointly for the Russian and Ukrainian air forces.

Russia was to purchase 160 An-70s, and Ukraine 60 aircraft, and the plane was to be marketed to developing world nations as well, according to news reports.

The order if completed would be the largest aircraft production programme in either country, since the break-up of the Soviet Union.

The plane would compete with the Airbus A400M, a military transport not yet off the drawing board.

The An-70 reportedly would cost between 50 and 70 million dollars a copy, roughly half the projected price of the Airbus.

Lack of Ukrainian state funds, and delays stemming from political disputes between Moscow and Kiev, had repeatedly prevented moving the aircraft to series production, and halted Russian investment in An-70.

Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine's new president, has named better relations with Russia a top priority for his administration.

Yanukovych and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in late April statements to media named aerospace and aircraft manufacturing as a sector where the two countries needed to cooperate more closely.