Aselsan and Antonov signed a memorandum of understanding in 2017 to cooperate on avionic systems and special mission equipment. In the first phase, the two companies aimed to provide avionics systems and special mission equipments for An-148/158/178 aircrafts which planned to be produced by Antonov.Nice! Any signs that turkey would want to use its experience on manufacturing any transport aircraft similar to the A400? I read about the possible cooperation with antonov.
The parties were not only limited to the western standardization of Antonov as the main purpose, but also continued their negotiations on comprehensive cooperation, especially the variants of An-178 and project An-188 aircraft, in line with the needs of the TAF. Several more related agreements were signed in the following years. But when the Russian invasion of Ukraine started, all these works seem to have been interrupted or, probably, frozen due to conditions for a while.
Also an another interrupted process is on the side of aerial refueling aircrafts in terms of TAF needs. (Although there has been some news about the A330 MRTT in recent years, this is another of the air force's most problematic issues, both political barriers and in terms of resource planning.) And, although a program has not been officially launched, another process was about the need for long-range and high-speed MPA aircraft. Therefore, cooperation with Antonov had very serious potential. Turkiye's possible support to Antonov projects was also important for Ukrainian aviation to get rid of Russian dependency on both the client and supply side and reach a structure that will have a global presence.
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