The US Air Force may order Lockheed Martin to upgrade the American Ruslan, a C-5A Galaxy military transport aircraft. This previously voiced idea again became relevant in the context of the start of serial work on the remotorization program of a more modern modification - C-5B. The result of all these plans and programs may be the appearance on the market of oversized cargo transportation of a couple of dozen analogues of the An-124 from the United States.
Aviation Week reports on such plans in connection with the rollout of the first serial upgraded C-5M Super Galaxy. “Good idea, although we are in a very tight financial position,” commented the head of the Aerospace Systems Command, Lt. Gen. Tom Owen.
"If the Ministry of Defense has the money, they will consider this possibility in the coming years," the general said at the ceremony of handing over to the Air Force the first serial C-5M, upgraded under the RERP program. The program includes more than 70 changes, including the installation of more economical and powerful engines.
Lockheed Martin proposes to upgrade the entire Galaxy fleet under this program. According to the company, modifications A and B can be improved equally.
Thus, the Air Force will be able to benefit from a unified fleet of aircraft of the same type, whose service life the manufacturer promises to extend until at least 2040.
The company itself expects that if its proposal is accepted and the Air Force finds money for modernization, this will allow it to keep the conveyor load and avoid price revisions by suppliers.
The latter option applies primarily to General Electric, whose CF6-80C engines are installed on modernized transport vehicles, increasing thrust by 22%, payload by 27%, and flight range by 20%.
According to the already signed contract worth 6 billion dollars, the Air Force must modernize 52 aircraft, including 2 C-5C (special cargo modification, exists in duplicate) and one C-5A. If the Air Force decides to modernize not only the C-5B fleet, then the C-5A, the number of which is 59, will also be included in the program.
The most interesting thing is that 22 of this number are planned to be withdrawn from the Air Force as unnecessary in 2011-2012. They can be transferred to the reserve or to foreign partners for use in coalition operations. More accurate information is expected to appear in the next six months or a year.
According to some reports, Lockheed is already in informal negotiations with American and foreign carriers about the prospects for using the C-5A put into reserve.
If interested, Lockheed offers two options for aircraft modernization: replacement of avionics (including equipment for the "glass" cockpit) worth $ 4.5 million, or complete modernization, including, in addition to avionics, replacement of wings with a reinforced version and remotorization, worth 82 USD million
Lockheed's Maryette plant is expected to be capable of upgrading 11 C-5Bs a year for the Air Force and two more for an outside operator, if available.
All these rather rapid evolutions are taking place against the backdrop of Russia's plans to modernize its An-124 Ruslan or even restore their production. It is known that the United States has not yet allowed the use of Galaxy for commercial transportation, so the proposals of Volga-Dnepr, Polet, Antonov Airlines, Libyan Air Cargo, Maximus Air Cargo were out of competition in the oversized market. cargo transportation.
In the event that the United States throws 22 Galaxy into this market in the coming years, one can expect fierce competition on it. In this case, the modernization and production of the An-124 in Russia will make economic sense only with a grandiose government order.
And this is already a subject for consideration in the context of Russia's global geopolitical ambitions and the priorities of its foreign and defense policy. Simply put, she will have to decide why she needs such a “long arm” and how much it will cost.
