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http://key.aero/view_news.asp?ID=2768&t ... n=military
Troubled An-70 programme flounders
The Ukrainian Defence Ministry is to pull funding for the Antonov An-70 transport aircraft.
Gary Parsons - 18-Nov-2010
November 18: The Ukrainian newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta reports that the Ukrainian Defence Ministry is to pull funding for the Antonov An-70 transport aircraft project jointly underway with Russia.
Antonov claims the An-70 aircraft is one of a new generation of short take-off and landing tactical military medium transport aircraft, but it has been in development since 1984.
A crash of the prototype in 1995 and trouble with the new D-27 turboprop engines delayed its development for years;
in 2006 Russia pulled out of the project but returned in 2008 in a 50:50 partnership with Ukraine.
Now the Ukrainian government says it cannot afford to continue development and is also wanting to pull out of other joint programmes with Russia, such as a modernisation project for Mi-24 Hind helicopters.
The Ukrainian Air Force has just two An-70s on order while the Russian Air Force may take up to 40.
However, military chiefs in Russia consider the aircraft already outdated and may want to take a refurbished version of the An-124 Condor instead.
The intergovernmental Russia-Ukrainian committee is set to decide the An-70's fate in the near future.