Will the Bundeswehr buy the An-70?
Recently, I met an American officer in Bavaria (as is well known, Soviet troops left united Germany, while the Americans stayed). We exchanged a few friendly phrases, and the American was surprised at my surname, which did not sound “quite” German to him. “Where do you come from?” he asked. Being well aware of the geographic ignorance not only of the Germans, but of some their NATO partners as well, I said modestly : “Ukraine”. I was about to explain where this large country lies, if one sets off there from Arkansas by horse. But the American raised his hands and exclaimed with joy: “Oh, I know, that’s where they produce the best tanks in the world!”
Honestly speaking, had he said “best combines in the world” or at least “best sausage in the world,” I would have been happier. OK, let it be tanks then. And in the second half of March I read in Stern, a respected German magazine, about the Ukrainian An-70 airplane (which, of course, was called Russian) and I thought: maybe we also produce the best in the world military transport aircraft? The following is a summary of the article by Matthias Schepp published in Stern. The word “Russian” (except for “the Russian President”) should automatically be replaced by “Ukrainian.”
The Unloved Super-Bird
The Bundeswehr wants to buy a Russian transport airplane, European industry protests.
A pile of engines are rusting near the runway, and stucco is flaking from the assembly shops. According to German safety rules, the famous Antonov plant in Kyiv would probably have to be shut down. However, An-70, the newest military transport airplane in the world, is built here.
The Ukrainian-Russian transport airplane was on the agenda of the first Russian-German-French summit in Ekaterinburg. Yeltsin wants to persuade Helmut Kohl and Jacque Chirac to construct a European aircraft based on the Antonov plane. Eight West European countries have an urgent need to replace their Transall and Hercules planes, numbering about 300. The Bundeswehr alone intends to buy 70 transport aircraft beginning in 2008.
Yeltsin’s proposal caused a fierce backstage battle. Chancellor Kohl and Defense Minister Rue favor the An. The German Air Force, which have to carry out flights in critical regions beyond the boundaries of NATO, also expressed their support for such cooperation with Eastern Europe. “But the Chancellor became rather weak to stick to his guns when dealing with the military-industrial complex,” one Defense Ministry general complained. The Future Large Aircraft (FLA) and Daimler Benz Aerospace (DASA), as well as other West European aircraft concerns aggressively advocate their own projects. Their arguments are the following: the first Antonov plane crashed in 1995, the engines will not sustain long operations, and dependence on spare parts from Eastern Europe is too risky. SDPN defensive expert Manfred Opel called this “raging lobbying”: the industry will make profits at the expense of taxpayers.
After fifteen years of development, accompanied by numerous arguments concerning who will produce what components, the FLA still exists only on paper. Producing a prototype and putting it into serial production would cost billions. An Antonov prototype has been flying for 11 months, and its serial production is scheduled for 1999.
Should NATO countries join, this would be the first great West-East project since the Cold War. “In the celebration speeches [the politicians] often make reference to the integration of Russia and Ukraine into Europe. Now words should be followed by actions” said Marshal Evgeny Shaposhnikov, Advisor to President Yeltsin on Air Force and Rocket Construction, to Stern.
It should be added that the Kyiv-made iron bird is better and costs less than the FLA. FLA cost is currently estimated at DM 110 million, the Antonov DM 90 million. FLA flight range is 3700 km. and Antonov’s is twice as far. FLA can take 32 tons of cargo aboard, Antonov 47. Moreover, four coupled propellers, each 14,000 hp, provide a faster takeoff than any other plane of similar class. An-70 requires only 600 meters of runway. Even the small Transall needs 1000 meters.
While the Europeans cannot get moving, their American rivals rub their hands with satisfaction. The British broke up the Pan-European League and ordered 25 new Hercules in the USA.
Leipzig
Photo:
The Future Large Airplane is what Western Europe has dubbed the project competing with Kyiv designers on the aviation market. But our plane is already airborne, and theirs, despite its resonant name, remains on paper
