A nice night shot of Maximus flagship An-124-100 loading three Patria AMV's (Armoured Modular Vehicle) en-route to Abu Dhabi.
Maximus An-124-100 Photo courtesy of Janne Laukkonen
There's an interesting take on Russian/Ukrainian cooperation in an article today on the Flight Global site where the implications for further investment in the Russian Air Force is considered including strategic airlift assets such as the An-124 following the experiences of the recent sabre rattling over Georgia.
While the tale in the civil field reported from time to time on this site is about the efforts to restart An-124 production at Ulyanovsk in Russia which is strongly promoted by Volga Dnepr, the military argument is that the political divergence between Moscow and Kiev would count out such cooperation.
It is interesting to see an argument around the efficiencies of volume production and cooperation that often permeates the European/UK/American arms industry being repeated as the countries of the former Soviet Union continue to try to find a political equilibrium.
The French Ministry of Defence recently reported on the initial operational capability of their deployment to Kapisa in Afghanistan.
French logistics convoy en-route to Kapisa
Interestingly, some 50 flights by Antonov An-124 and C5 aircraft were required to bring about the French deployment before continuing by road in country.
You can read the full story here:
Volga-Dnepr was today reported by the Moscow Times to have borrowed $150 million to repay existing debt.
Volga-Dnepr said that the four-year loan was arranged by VTB Bank Europe, with UniCredit SpA, Banque Societe Generale Vostok and Anglo Romanian Bank providing some of the financing,
Part of the debt being refinanced is an $80 million bridge loan raised in July 2007, it said. No information was provided on the pricing of the new loan.
VIH S-61 helicopters
Canadian company, VIH Helicopters, has won a six-month contract to provide helicopters in Angola in the run-up to the national elections to be held on September 5th. These will be the first elections in the country for 16 years.
VIH will be providing six of the total of thirty helicopters being contracted to fly international observers around the country and, unusually, will also be used as mobile polling stations to service offshore oil platforms and remote areas.
VIH is providing two Sikorsky S-61s, two Sikorsky S-92s, a Bell 212 and a Eurocopter EC135. They will be transported by Antonov An-124 with three or four being loaded into one aircraft depending on the combinations chosen.
VIH Astar
Although more costly than surface transport, chartering the Antonov An-124 to carry high value assets such as helicopters between contracts in different parts of the world is commonplace as it dramatically reduces both the time they are out of service and the amount of engineering breakdown and preparation required.
