Representatives of Ukraine and Russia continue to actively prepare the constituent documents, which are necessary for the creation of a joint production of An-124 Ruslan transport aircraft.
On August 21 of this year, a meeting of the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers was held, at which the deputies approved the Order on the creation of a delegation to participate in joint negotiations on the preparation of a joint draft agreement between the governments of Ukraine and Russia on state support and the implementation of serial production of An-124 aircraft. This document provides not only for the creation of a delegation, but also determines its composition, establishes the powers of the chairman, and also approves the basic conditions for the participation of the delegation in the negotiations.
According to the order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the Minister of Industrial Policy of Ukraine Mikhail Korolenko was appointed the head of the delegation. The delegation also has representatives from the Ministry of Industrial Policy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the State Agency for the Management of Corporate Rights and Property, the Ministry of Justice, the Antonov State Enterprise, Motor Sich JSC and the Cabinet of Ministers.
It is planned that the signing of all the documents necessary for cooperation will take place in September-October this year within the framework of a meeting of the committee on economic cooperation of the interstate Ukrainian-Russian commission. The meeting is to be chaired by two prime ministers - Dmitry Medvedev and Mykola Azarov.
Let us remind you that the agreement to hold the meeting was reached back in July 2013 as part of the meeting of the two prime ministers in Sochi. According to First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Yuriy Boyko, this agreement is one of the most important results of negotiations at the level of the two countries. Moreover, the politician is confident that the joint serial production of a unique, in its characteristics, largest transport aircraft that has no analogues in the world in terms of maximum carrying capacity, will give the necessary powerful impetus for the development of Ukrainian-Russian cooperation in the aviation industry.
However, despite the rather optimistic forecasts of the Ukrainian side, the Russians are disposed somewhat differently. Thus, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said in one of his interviews that Russia could start serial production of the An-124 Ruslan aircraft without the participation of the Ukrainian side. The fact is that Ukraine is not very willing to negotiate about the possibility of the Russians carrying out the modernization of individual Ruslan units. At the moment, it has not been possible to move the discussion in this direction from a dead center. Russia, according to the politician, does not intend to persuade Ukraine or wait too long, but simply localizes production in Russia.
In addition, Rogozin noted, there is already a negative experience of joint cooperation with Ukraine: a vivid example of this is the joint production of the promising An-70 transport aircraft, the project of which was launched in 2012. Rogozin called it virtual, since some of the technical characteristics that were indicated in the documents, and for which the Ukrainian side was responsible, were present only on paper. The conversation is, first of all, about the possibility of taking off from the ground, from a short runway, as well as about the unique airflow of the wing.
In addition, earlier (in April of this year), the general designer of the state enterprise "Antonov" Kiva announced that the tests of the An-70 were stopped, since the Russian Ministry of Defense, being the main customer, did not take part in them.
The An-124 Ruslan aircraft is a heavy transport aircraft developed by the Antonov Design Bureau. The first flight of the aircraft took place in Kiev on December 24, 1982. The aircraft entered service with the Soviet army in January 1987. The total number of cars built is 56 units.
At the end of February 2006, within the framework of the program for the modernization and resumption of serial production of An-124-100 transport aircraft at the Aviastar enterprise in Ulyanovsk, it was decided to open a branch of the Antonov aviation scientific and technical complex, but two months later, a project to resume serial production was found unpromising.
It should also be noted that a new attempt to resume the joint serial production of the An-124 Ruslan was made in 2009. Dmitry Medvedev, who was then president of Russia, played a significant role in this. It was he who issued an order to the government to include 20 Ruslan aircraft in the state armament program. Almost at the same time, a statement was made about the resumption of joint production of these aircraft by Ukraine and Russia.
The question of creating a joint venture for the production of aircraft has also been raised several times. So, at first, the Russian side intended to buy from Ukraine 51 percent of the shares of the state enterprise "Antonov", which would allow almost full control over the intellectual property of the KB. However, then the parties did not manage to agree. The Russians made the next attempt in May 2011. Then a group of leaders of the United Aircraft Corporation arrived in Ukraine, which also aimed to buy out the rights to intellectual property. Finally, in 2012, within the framework of a meeting of the interstate commission, it was possible to agree in negotiations on joint production in two joint projects - An-124 and An-70. The result of the commission's work was the decision to build 150 An-70 and 50 Ruslan aircraft by 2030.
Obviously, serial production is more profitable for the Russian side, since the Ukrainian military needs very few aircraft. However, it is not known whether the parties will be able to successfully implement the project, or again the Ukrainian-Russian cooperation in the field of aircraft construction will come to a dead end. There is a great risk that the representatives of the parties, pursuing certain political motives, will regain some leads to stop cooperation. Or maybe common sense will win this time …
