Kazakhstan, Astana, Nov. 26/ Trend D. Mukhtarov /
The Kazakh military aircraft fleet has been replenished, the country's Defence Ministry press service reported.
'The Kazakh Air Force military transport aircraft fleet has been replenished by an Antonov family - AN-72cargo jet. The aircraft has been repaired and reequipped at the 325 Aircraft Repair Plant in the city of Taganrog, Russia and was delivered to one of the Kazakh army air bases on Monday', the statement said.
According to the agency, the An-72 was designed specifically for tactical tasks using a shorter runway due to the original alignment of the wing engines. Installing the engine at the front eliminates the ingress of foreign matter into the engines which allows landing on unpaved runways.
AN-72 is capable of carrying up to seven tons of cargo, wheeled self-propelled and non-self-propelled vehicles and up to 68 soldiers or 57 paratroopers in full uniform in a seated compartment.