Strategic Airlift Interim Solution (SALIS)
The Strategic Airlift Interim Solution (SALIS) was launched at the Prague NATO summit in November 2002 and contributes to bridging the European capability gap in strategic airlift until the commissioning of the European A400M military transport aircraft. The "Strategic Airlift Interim Solution" (SALIS) supplied logistics to a number of NATO countries through the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA). The SALIS program started in 2006, and involves Ukraine's Antonov Airlines and Russia's Volga-Dnepr Airlines, the world's largest operators of Antonov An-124 planes. SALIS used the huge Soviet-era Antonov 124-100 transport planes, which can deliver 120 tons of freight over 4,800 kilometers (3,000 miles).
The capability is coordinated on a day-to-day basis by the Strategic Airlift Coordination Cell, which is co-located with the Movement Coordination Centre Europe (MCCE) based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. NSPA manages the SALIS contract on behalf of the nations and provides support to the SALIS Support Partnership.
In June 2003, NATO defence ministers signed letters of intent on strategic air- and sealift. In January 2006, 15 countries tasked the NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency (now the NATO Support and Procurement Agency) to sign a contract with Ruslan SALIS GmbH, a joint venture between the Russian company Volga-Dnepr Airlines and the Ukrainian company (formerly) Antonov Design Bureau, based in Leipzig, Germany.
In March 2006, the 15 original signatories were joined by Sweden at a special ceremony in Leipzig to mark the entry into force of the multinational contract. This also marked the launch of the Strategic Airlift Interim Solution (SALIS) initiative in order to ensure strategic airlift for consortium nations until a long-term procurement solution could be found. The contract’s initial duration was for three years. Finland and Poland also joined the SALIS program. On 23 March 2006, the chartering of Ukrainian wide-body, long-range strategic transport aircraft became institutionalised through the Strategic Airlift Interim Solution (SALIS).
The contract with a private company provides for two Antonov An-124-100s permanently ready in Germany, with the option of chartering another four aircraft within nine days. The SALIS contract was re-competed in 2012, and Ruslan SALIS GmbH was awarded a new contract (2013/2014). The SALIS contract was renewed and then expired end December 2016.
Kiev intended to leave the trilateral Ukraine-Russia-NATO Strategic Airlift Interim Solution (SALIS) program on the use of An-124 transport planes in the Alliance's interests, the CEO of the Ukrainian aircraft maker Antonov Airlines, Oleksandr Gritsenko, said 07 September 2016. "We will participate [in the program] with the Russian company until December 31, and beginning January 1 we will carry out work to operate independently," Gritsenko told journalists.
Germany would be forced to continue handing lucrative contracts to Russian and Ukrainian firms to transport its military hardware, according to Bundestag MPs. A joint contract with the Russian firm Volga Dnepr and the Ukrainian firm Antonov Design Bureau was due to run out at the end of 2016, and will have to be renewed because Germany does not have its own large-scale military transport planes.
At the end of 2016, SALIS nations signed a memorandum of understanding which established the Strategic Airlift International Solution as a consortium with 10 countries. In December 2016, the NSPA placed two contracts with two companies based at Leipzig-Halle Airport (Antonov SALIS GmbH and Ruslan SALIS GmbH), assuring access to strategic airlift capability for outsized cargo based on agreed quota of flying hours per year. These contracts expired on 31 December 2018.
The contract, would also have to be split in two because Ukraine was engaged in a war with pro-Russian separatists in its eastern region. Under the new contracts - agreed with ten partners, including Germany, France, Poland and Norway - Antonov planes would be contracted to fly some 1,600 flight hours in 2017, of which 1,080 will be for the German military. This number will sink slightly in 2018, leaving the German state a total bill of 101 million euros ($107 million) over two years.
The rift between Russia and Ukraine caused a new problem: the Ukrainian company demanded a lot more money than the Russian counterpart, and according to some MPs on the Bundestag defense committee, the Defense Ministry cannot explain the discrepancy. While the Antonov Design Bureau was to bill the German taxpayer 37,509 euros ($39,872) per flight hour, Volga Dnepr only wanted 23,341 euros per flight hour.
It's not unusual for armies to turn to the civilian market for large-scale logistics when it does not require a military element, unless equipment needs to be transported into a war zone. In Germany's case, most military transports were to and from Afghanistan, where the Bundeswehr was involved in the ongoing war.
In December 2018, the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) signed a contract with Antonov Logistics Salis, a company based in Germany. In addition to the AN-124 aircraft, the current contract also provide cargo capacity on other large cargo aircraft, namely AN-225, AN-22 and IL-76 (ICAO Chapter IV), subject to availability. Under this contract, SALIS participating countries are provided with assured access to strategic airlift capability for outsized cargo based on agreed quota of flying hours per year. The current contract is in place until 2021 with options for extended agreements for another five years. It replaced the two previous SALIS contracts that ended in December 2018.
The SALIS contract provides assured access to two Antonov AN-124-100 aircraft on 72 hours’ notice, access to two more aircraft on six days’ notice and another AN-124-100 aircraft on nine days’ notice. The consortium countries have committed to using the aircraft for a minimum of 1,600 flight hours per year. In 2020, a total of 2,580 flight hours were provided through the SALIS contract. SALIS participating countries have used Antonov aircraft to transport equipment to and from Afghanistan, deliver aid to the victims of the October 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, and airlift African Union peacekeepers in and out of Darfur. SALIS is used by its participating nations almost on a daily basis in national, NATO and European Union operations. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, SALIS played a vital role in helping participating nations to transport urgent medical equipment to tackle the crisis.
Since January 2019, Antonov Logistics Salis was the sole contractor providing assured access to strategic airlift capabilities to the current nine participating nations. In September 2019, the new SALIS Base of Operations was inaugurated at the Antonov Logistics Salis facilities at the Leipzig-Halle airport, marking full operational capability of the new SALIS Base of Operations. The consortium consisted of nine NATO Allies: Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.
On 12 November 2021 Ukraine's Antonov Company signed a contract under the Strategic Airlift Interim Solution (SALIS) initiative, which gives NATO and EU countries the right to use the company's aircraft for emergency delivery of cargo in crisis situations for the next five years. The head of the company's commercial department, Andriy Blahovisny, said this during a press conference. "Under the five-year contract, Antonov must provide two An-124-100 aircraft on a permanent basis. They must be in stand-by mode at Germany's Leipzig Airport. Upon additional request, Antonov must provide three more planes," he said. He added that under the SALIS program, NATO and EU countries may also use aircraft Mriya, Antei, An-26, and An-74.
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