The aggressor country of russia has decided to resuscitate the "kukuruzniks". This is said in a statement by the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine.
So, it is reported that the Siberian Aviation Research Institute has proposed to raise about 700 AN-2 aircraft from storage bases to close the catastrophic hole in the country's small aviation.
"There is no alternative: sanctions have cut off access to new equipment, both homegrown import substitution projects have failed, and without air traffic, about 60% of the Russian territory - the part that is not connected by roads or railways - is effectively cut off from the rest of the country," the intelligence notes.
According to the Foreign Intelligence Service, the AN-2, designed back in the 1940s, has been "pulling" small aircraft for decades, first in the USSR, then in russia. Over the years, more than 17,000 machines have been assembled in several countries, including Ukraine, Poland, and China. Most of them have long been written off and destroyed.
"Today, only 249 aircraft remain in active operation in Russia, and another 276 are registered with the DOSAAF. Since 2024, the Russian Federation has stopped writing off old machines and returned 16 units to the sky. The issue of passenger safety does not appear in these calculations," the intelligence officers add.
It is reported that in parallel, there was a series of failures with "modern" substitutes. According to the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Baikal aircraft, which was supposed to displace Ukrainian aircraft from the russian fleet, has been constantly postponing certification since 2023 - first to 2025, then to 2026, and now they are hinting at 2027. Technical and financial problems make it impossible to name a real date. The second project, the TVS-2MS, a deep modernization of the same AN-2, developed without public money and recognized as technically successful, has been closed in russia. The Mongolian company MUNKH AERO will operate these machines in their country, but with American engines.
The intelligence emphasizes that it is the engines that are becoming the main obstacle to the resuscitation of 700 mothballed aircraft.
"There are two options - and both are dead ends. American units are not available due to sanctions. The Russian TVD-10B exists on paper, and experts cautiously characterize the prospects for its serial production in the context of technical and financial depletion of the industry as "rather vague". It should be noted separately: the project initiators claim that the fuselages of old machines are worn out by only a third, but industry experts do not believe this figure," the Foreign Intelligence Service says.
The intelligence officers emphasize that if Baikal is postponed again and the engine problem is not resolved, residents of remote regions of the russian federation will have a very real prospect of "reaching civilization only by environmentally friendly horse-drawn transport."
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, according to the Foreign Intelligence Service, russia's water infrastructure is in a zone of irreversible degradation.
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