Russian defense minister holds meeting on increasing capabilities of military transport aviation

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu held a meeting with United Aircraft Corporation, a Russian aerospace and defense corporation, on increasing the capabilities of military transport aviation.

The meeting was held in the city of Ulyanovsk, located on the Volga River 705 kilometers (438 miles) east of Moscow, where Shoygu also inspected the implementation of the state defense order, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

“Taking into account the special military operation (in Ukraine), the working capacity of military transport aviation has actually increased several times, we have exceeded the load of the military transport aviation in the tensest times of the Soviet Union by almost two times,” Shoygu said during the meeting.

The minister instructed to build more Il-76 military transport aircraft and double the construction of An-124 military transport planes.