An-124 CONDOR (ANTONOV) - Production Restart
Ukraine believed that Russia will not be able to revive the production of An-124 Ruslan aircraft, since only Antonov possesses all the technical knowledge and necessary information. In Russia, this task is considered difficult, but solvable.
Under cooperative contracts signed June 26, 2008, Aviant Kyiv State Aircraft Plant and “Motor Sich” JSC will supply to “Aviastar-SP” CJSC (Samara) parts of airframe and aircraft engines. By 2009 production of An-124 “Ruslan” was to start at Samara. According to the project coordinator, some $1.4 billion will be needed to resume serial production of upgraded An-124-100 airplanes: at the first stage (R&D and trial production) – $407 million, at the second (serial production) – $982 million.
The program of resumption of production of An-124-100 was included in the Strategy of Aircraft Industry Development of the Russian Federation till 2015. In that period, 40-50 airplanes were planned to be built – 3-5 a year. Readiness to buy 41 An-124-100 airplanes by 2025 was reported by “Volga-Dnepr” Group, “Polyot”, Antonov Airlines and a company from the United Arab Emirates.
The Russian Defense Ministry may purchase some 20 An-124 Ruslan (Condor) heavy-lift transport aircraft according to the 2011-2020 state arms procurement program, a senior official said on 19 July 2010. "We intend to buy about 20 such aircraft," said Deputy Defense Minister Vladimir Popovkin, who is in charge of arms procurement. "We plan to modernize two planes annually, and starting from 2015-2016, if the manufacturers are ready, we will start purchasing them," he added.
The Russian Air Force received three modernized Antonov An-124-100 super-heavy transport aircraft as part of an update program for its transport fleet, Air Force spokesman Col. Vladimir Drik said on 17 May 2012. "The air force has got three modernized Ruslan An-124-100s and four more are being updated at the Ulyanovsk Aviastar factory," he said. "We plan to modernize another ten or so An-124s to An-124-100M standard," Drik said, adding the service will also get "up to ten new-build An-124-300 transports with an increase in payload of up to 150 tons."
Russia's Military Transport Aviation (VTA) commander Lt. Gen. Viktor Kachalkin said 31 May 2012 that the VTA will take delivery of 25 Antonov An-124 super-heavy transport aircraft of various modifications by 2020.
Ukraine and Russia signed a joint production deal to modernize the An-124 heavy lift transport aircraft, with the final document to be signed in September, a Ukrainian government news bulletin said 30 August 2013. The technical details were agreed during the MAKS 2013 airshow just outside Moscow, and the two countries will ink the final deal at a high-profile bilateral meeting in September, the bulletin said. Ruslan planes that are nearing the end of their service life will be modernized and upgraded with new, Ukrainian-made, D-18T engines to be installed at Russia’s Ulyanovsk plant. The navigation system, landing gear and avionics will also be replaced, extending the An-124’s service life through 2025.
As is well known, protests in Kyiv began on November 21, 2013, following the Government of Ukraine’s announcement that it was suspending preparations to sign an association agreement with the European Union. On February 22, following three months of large protests and violent clashes, former President Yanukovych departed Kyiv. The Ukrainian Parliament established a new government on February 27. Groups that oppose the new government and support closer ties with Russia staged demonstrations in cities throughout eastern and southern Ukraine. Russian troops occupied several government buildings, including airports, and established roadblocks on the Crimean Peninsula. Under these circumstances, it would seem improbable that Ukraine and Russia would continue joint work on this project. The production start-up times were repeatedly postponed due to the fault of the Ukrainian side, including due to problems with the delivery of engines. In 2014 the project of cooperation was closed.
The Russian aircraft industry can modernize the world's largest AN-124 Ruslan transport aircraft and resume its production under a different brand. In turn, as noted in June 2018 by vice president of air transport PJSC "KLA", Director General of PJSC "IL" Alexey Rogozin, the resumption of production in a new guise - to solve the problem. This transport is the leader in the market of air transportation of large-sized and super-heavy cargoes and a large amount of military equipment. The combination of such flight characteristics as the volume of the cargo cabin, the range of flight, the possibility of loading without special equipment, allows transporting equipment with a mass of up to 120 tons for extremely long distances.
Ruslan PUKHOV, member of the Public Council under the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST), noted in a July 05, 2018 interview with the weekly Zvezda and the Army Standard magazine that "Everything can be restored, it is a matter of resources, time and organization. But is there a market for these machines? Initially, the An-124 was created for the military. The Ruslanov park remaining at the disposal of our aerospace forces seems to not only satisfy their needs, but is even redundant. It is much more important for the airborne forces to ensure stable maintenance of the Ruslan’s airworthiness and high fleet availability, as has already been done with the IL-76. The only interest in the restoration of the An-124 production is the Volga-Dnepr commercial company. But to restore for a lot of money piece production of an airplane for the sake of one commercial structure is nonsense. Moreover, Volga-Dnepr itself prefers to invest in leasing American Boeing cargoes and is considering moving the business to Germany.... If a firm has not been able to restore production of its IL-76 normally for ten years, what are the chances of success in rebuilding a more complex and alien An-124, for which there is no engine?"
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