Get ready for US-Russian joint military production
Wednesday, May 26, 2010 at 12:10AM 
Center of Economic Planning site story via Charles Ganske of Russia Blog.
Unbelievably to many, inevitable to me.
The United States is considering a Russian proposal on the joint production of An-124 Condor heavy-lift transport aircraft, a Russian deputy prime minister said.
The An-124 was designed by the Antonov Design Bureau in 1982, and was produced in Ukraine's Kiev and Russia's Ulyanovsk plants until 1995. Although there are no An-124s being built at present, Russia and Ukraine have reportedly agreed to resume production in the future.
"We have discussed a full-scale project, which includes the joint production of the plane, setting up a joint venture, shared rights, sales to Russian and American customers - both civilian and military - and the creation of a scheme for post-production servicing," Sergei Ivanov told reporters in Washington.
The An-124 is similar to the American Lockheed C-5 Galaxy, but has a 25% larger payload.
The aircraft has a maximum payload of 150 metric tons with a flight range of around 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles).
An-124s have been used extensively by several U.S. companies. Russian cargo company Volga-Dnepr has contracts with Boeing to ship outsize aircraft components to its Everett plant.
Why inevitable?
Simply the rising costs associated with big platforms. There ain't enough Leviathan work to go around that justifies great powers each producing their own major platforms--the old Norm Augustine bit. Russia itself is only producing 20 through 2020 for its own military, and the platform has a long and good history with US customers, including our own Pentagon on a leased basis (currently through 2016).
This proposal simply ups the cooperation to joint production.
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Reader Comments (7)
This really shouldn't be that big of a deal. From a practical standpoint, we've been contracting the 124s to move military equipment and aircraft for years. I was on one before it took off and it was impressive. The crew - well, lets say that they didn't have the same snap as a U.S. military aircrew, but the plane got the equipment where it needed to go.
I would think you would might see similar cooperation on a heavy lift helicopter as well.
Intriguing. Saw them in Afghanistan last year.
Read your blog from time to time even while deployed. Helps keep sight of the forest vice the trees.
And how much will it cost to make it milspec? How will spares work? Sounds like volunteering to stick one's head in a noose. First time Vlad the Impaler got peeved it's "whoops, no spares for you". Sounds like one of those things that appear brilliant at first and not so much so once thought out.
Jeff J: Why on the helicopter? The USMC is already working on the CH-53K.
This process may have started with USSR 'conveniently' getting specs to make an effective new tank design to match German tanks .... before FDR got political and public support to oppose Germany in WW II. It would not be until end of the European conflict that our WW II tanks were as good. In the future it may be in space technology that the two nations display such cooperation with dramatic results.
It was totally bound to happen and I say great. Anything that we can do to try and cut costs, I am totally game for. And then, throw on the fact that Alan Grayson (D-FL) has pushed forward that "The War is Making You Poor" Act and it is going to be important for the military to get things for cheaper.