By RIA Novosti
Moscow : Russia and India may sign an agreement this month or the next on the joint development of a multi-role transport aircraft (MTA), a Russian aircraft manufacturer said Wednesday.
“During recent talks in India, we reached a preliminary understanding that an intergovernmental agreement on the development of a new Russian-Indian medium military transport aircraft would be signed either in August, during the MAKS-2007 air show near Moscow, or in September,” an Irkut Corporation spokesman said.
The MTA medium transport aircraft project envisions development of a transport plane with a 20-ton cargo capacity servicing with the Russian and Indian Air Force.
The Russian participants in the project include the Ilyushin design bureau and the Irkut Corporation [RTS:IRKT], which is part of Russia’s United Aircraft Building Corporation (UABC), created in 2006 and which manufactures variants of the famed Su-30MK for India, Algeria and Malaysia.
India is represented in the project by the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.
Both countries are expected to procure at least 100 MTA planes each, with Russia facing the need to replace its outdated fleet of An-12, An-26 and An-32 transport planes.
The MTA aircraft is expected to make a maiden flight in 2012, with the first deliveries targeted for 2014.