Russia and India to Speed up MTA Development

Russia and India are to start the join development of new transport aircraft for their air forces. The bilateral agreement on development of Multirole Transport Aircraft (MTA) was signed in 2007 while in December 2009 it was supplemented by a memorandum defining the partner-companies from both sides.
Under this memo Transport Aircraft Division of Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) has replaced Rosoboronexport, state arms trade agency, as the Russian co-founder of the Russian-Indian 50/50 joint venture that will run the MTA program. HAL will be the JV’s co-founder from the Indian side.
"This memorandum opens the direct way to the creation of the joint venture", said Konstantin Lantratov, head of UAC Corporate Communications. He explained that UAC – Transport Aircraft, based on Ilyushin design bureau, is actual designer of MTA, so its participation in the JV will facilitate the development of the aircraft. The JV is expected to be officially established in March. UAC representative mentioned that the Russian government has already allocated 2 billion rubles (about $665 million) to be invested in the JV charter capital.
MTA’s conceptual design will be approved as soon as the JV is set up, says Lantratov. The development is expected to be finished by 2015-2016, while the first prototype may take off in 2014. The Russian Air Force promised to buy up to 100 MTAs while the Indian backlog is 45 aircraft.
With a take-off weight of 55 tones, payload of 18.5 tones and a range of 2,500 km MTA should replace the Russian Air Force’s ageing fleet of Antonov An-12s that are expected to be withdrawn from service in 2012-2014. In the UAC’s product range it will take a niche between light Ilyushin Il-112 (payload 6 tones) and heavy Il-476, a modernized version of Il-76 with 60 tones payload.