United Aircraft Corporation To Build The Ilyushin Il-112W Light Transport

The Russian government plans to enter into a contract worth about $241 million (US) with that country's United Aircraft Corporation to develop a new light transport aircraft that will replace the An-26 (pictured in file photo).

The new airplane will be the Ilyushin I-112w, according to a report from Defense News. Ilyushin, a subsidiary of the UAC, will do the development work, according to the report. Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said the contract will be formalized next year, according to the news agency Interfax.

Borisov did not say how many of the transport planes would eventually be ordered, but he did say deliveries are expected to begin in 2017. That contract won't be awarded until after the initial design work is completed. In a news release earlier this year, Ilyushin said that it expects to build some 62 of the airplanes at the Voronezh aircraft plant.

The Russian military considers the Antonov An-26, which was developed in the 1960s, to be outdated.

FMI: www.uacrussia.ru/en