TEHRAN, Sept. 4--Iran-140 aircraft, produced jointly with Ukraine, is reportedly ready to join the national aviation fleet.
The plane has managed to obtain the Civil Aviation Organization's certificate and its maintenance center has been established at the Iran Plane Manufacturing Industries Company (Hasa).
According to Fars news agency, Hasa has received all certificates required for putting Iran-140 into operation.
Iran-140 is a new dualuse aircraft. The platform will be used as both a military cargo aircraft and passenger plane.
The first flight of the twin-propeller Iran-140 began from the central Iranian city of Isfahan and landed in Abadan, near the Iraqi border,in 2002, to mark Iran's success in repelling an Iraqi invasion during the 1980-88 war.
Iran, which signed a 1993 contract for manufacturing 43 planes, intends to build 12 Iran-140 planes by 2005 at an estimated cost of nine million dollars per unit.
An-140, which is locally named Iran-140, in its naval role can be used for maritime patrol and other related military purposes, including early warning, command and control and target designation. To take advantage of this capability, Iranian navy has expressed its willingness to operate An-140 in offensive and patrol roles, equipping it with a 360-degrees surface search radar. Other equipment options will include a range of Infra-red/Ultraviolet line scanner (IR/UVLS), forward looking airborne radar (FLAR), side looking airborne radar (SLAR), laser Fluorescent sensor (LFS), microwave radiometer (MWR), forward looking Infra-red (FLIR), magnetic anomaly detector (MAD), electronic support measures/radar warning receiver (ESM/RWR), sonobuoy launcher, anti-surface weapons and a video camera with data annotation.
© Iran Daily 2004
