Royal Saudi Arabian Air Force wants to buy 30 Ukrainian An-178 military transport aircraft.
The State Enterprise “Antonov” and the company Taqnia Aeronautics, a member of the state structure of the Saudi Company for Development and Investment Taqnia, December 17 signed a memorandum for the supply of 30 multi-purpose military transport aircraft An-178 for the needs of the Royal Air Force in Saudi Arabia.
The Antonov An-178 is a short-range medium-airlift military transport aircraft designed by the Ukrainian Antonov company and based on the Antonov An-158 (An-148-200). It was announced on 5 February 2010, rolled out on 16 April 2015 and the first flight was on 7 May 2015.
The An-178 is proposed to replace outdated aircraft like the Antonov An-12, Antonov An-26 and Antonov An-32. The aircraft will have avionics suite similar to the An-148, and will use Progress D-436-148FMengines
Earlier Ukraine’s Antonov aviation consortium signed an agreement for the joint design of a new aircraft and the construction of a series-production plant in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Antonov officials describe the aircraft as based on the An-132 twin-turboprop. It is designed to replace several previous-generation models: the An-32, of which more than 360 different variants have been built; the An-26, of which more than 1,400 models have been manufactured; the Aeritalia G-222, of which 46 types are in service; and the 120 CASA C-235s that are in operation in different regions of the world.