MOSCOW. April 25 (Interfax-AVN) - The An-148TD medium military air transport, developed by the Kyiv-based Antonov aircraft research and technical corporation, has been offered to India, Vyacheslav Boguslayev, director general of the Motor Sich JSO, told Interfax-Military News Agency on Thursday.
"India has been offered the An-148TD as the medium military air transport, which under Indian requirements is to have a range of 2,500 km with a maximum load," Boguslayev said.
According to him, the An-148 transport version is based on the An-148-100 regional airliner.
Bogulsayev noted that the An-148TD had a larger fuselage and a lifting capacity of 20 tonnes.
According to him, the An-148TD is expected to be powered by D-436 engines with an increased thrust of 8.3 tonnes, unlike D-436s with a thrust of 7.5 tonnes mounted on Tu-334s, Be-200s, and An-148s.
Boguslayev doubted if the Russian-Indian MTA military transport, based on the Russian Il-214, would be developed in the near future. Besides, according to him, Russia will not benefit too much if the MTA is assembled in India.
"An aircraft is the product of the state, carrying out its final assembly. For instance, the Il-114, developed by the Russian Ilyushin Company, is assembled in Tashkent, thus, it is an Uzbek product. At the same time the An-140, developed by the Kyiv-based Antonov Design Bureau, but assembled in Samara, is a Russian aircraft, at least because its service records are stamped by the Russian military acceptance committee," Boguslayev said.