Russia’s Rostec to Invest $834 Million in MC-21 Airliner Project

Russia’s Rostec state corporation which recently took over United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) plans to invest 55 billion rubles ($834 Million) in the MC-21 airliner project.

The inclusion of UAC into Rostec is expected to increase the revenues of its aviation cluster to 1 trillion rubles ($15 billion) said Director of Rostec’s aviation cluster, Anatoliy Serdyukov.

This will mean that the entire aircraft production chain can be combined into one, which will strengthen production cooperation between aircraft manufacturers and parts suppliers.

Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, signed a decree on the transfer of a 92.31% stake in UAC to Rostec on October 24. According to the decree, the process of merging the aircraft corporation with Rostec will take 18 months.

 “The share of the aviation cluster in the State Corporation’s overall revenue will be approximately 50% — around 1 trillion rubles. This means that the aircraft manufacturing unit will become the most powerful one in the State Corporation, and Rostec will be at the same level with the world’s leading aircraft manufacturers,” Anatoliy Serdyukov was quoted in a Rostec statement.

The total revenue of Rostec’s aviation cluster in 2016 was 534.7 billion rubles; for UAC it was 417 billion rubles. In line with the development strategy of the aviation cluster, it is planned to increase this indicator by an average of 14% per year in ruble terms until 2025. The new structure with a larger turnover will be more attractive to investors.

Rostec’s other priority projects will include the creation of MS-21 medium-range aircraft—it is expected that about 55 billion rubles will be invested in this by 2025.

Sources told defenseworld.net that UAC’s merger into Rostec will enable it to raise funds for the MC-21 project which is sitting on orders for some 50 aircraft from Russian airlinr Aeroflot alone. While the aircraft is in prototype testing stage, it will take  2-3 years more for it reach the serial production stage when huge funds would be required.

The merger would also streamline production faciliities with the plant in Irkut being dedicated to the MC-21 and military aircraft such as Su-30 likely to be moved to some other location.