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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Ukrainian and Russian presidents to support An-70 by letter

26 October, 1999 - 00:00

The Ukrainian and Russian presidents intend once again to request their French and German counterparts to provide political support for the An-70 project on the European market, while the defense ministers of Ukraine and Russia have been given a similar assignment, said General Director of the Antonov Aircraft Research and Development Complex Petro Balabuyev in Kyiv at the opening of the Aviasvit — XXI Century (Aviation World, Twenty-First Century) international trade show, held for the first time in this nation's history.

The An-70 is participating in the international bidding announced by European countries to retool their air forces with more advanced technology. At the moment, the winner is still uncertain. In Europe itself, there is no consensus on whether to rely on an An-70, brought into conformity with European standards or make a purely European plane without using the services of the rather unpredictable Ukrainian-Russian tandem. The key nations, which will determine the future of this project as major clients, are Germany, which is quite loyal to the An-70, and France.

Just before the opening of the Kyiv exhibition, which was supposed to present the global prospects and capacities of the Ukrainian aircraft industry, Aviation Week and Space Technology reported that the French industry intends to initiate a program for a purely European military transport aircraft as soon as next year without waiting for the decision of Germany, which, according to the French, supports the An-70- based project for purely political reasons.

Petro Balabuyev's reaction to this statement was that such a situation only confirms Europe's split in two camps over our An- 70, and in fact the final decision as to whether this plane is to appear on Europe's military airfields will be made by the politicians. And Ukraine, in Mr. Balabuyev's words, must implement “a whole gamut of offensive actions” to make this decision positive. In addition to the appeal to the presidents and defense ministers, Kyiv also intends to demonstrate the An-70 performance to members of the German Bundestag.

Future prospects for the An- 70 on the Ukrainian-Russian market are also far from simple. Ukraine's and Russia's defense ministries are now specifying how many airplanes they will order. While the military is mulling it over, the Antonov Complex is completing the An- 70 using its own resources. Russia has not paid off its old debts, and the Ukrainian government cannot provide the financial support required to the An-70 project. Petro Balabuyev even grumbled at NBU Governor Viktor Yushchenko, charging that the National Security and Defense Council had instructed the National Bank to develop an option for financing the project. The national bankers' response was that this is not their business. Petro Balabuyev said that for completing the An-70 the developers would like to receive a loan at 10% to 12% interest, while the rates currently offered by credit banks are 57% to 85%.

FROM THE DAY'S FILES

A program to create the An-70 new transport aircraft based on the Russian-Ukrainian An-70 and designed to replace outmoded Western carriers of the American S-130 type is estimated at EUR 850 million. The making of a similar plane in Europe will require at least EUR 6.5 billion. Replacing the air fleet of three countries would require 304 planes: 164 for the Russian Federation, 75 for Germany, and 65 for Ukraine. And to replace the whole European transport fleet would take another 288 An-70s. The decision about the serial production of An-70 for Western air forces will be made in 2000 by the governments of Germany and other NATO member countries.

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