Journalists of Defense Express drew attention to the post of Joint Operations Command of Australia on how An-124-100 aircraft Antonov Airlines deliver Australian military aid to Ukraine.

In the photo you can see the process of loading Australian armored vehicles Bushmaster PMV and 155mm M777 howitzers on Ukrainian giant planes. And though Mriya will no longer join this noble mission, its younger sisters will cope with the work.

Apparently the photo of the weapons transfer was published with some delay, these M777 and Bushmaster are already helping to destroy the ruscists.

And although our Ruslan is slightly inferior to Scaled Composites Stratolaunch in carrying capacity, it is still the largest production cargo aircraft in the world capable of carrying 150 tons of cargo over a distance of 3200 km. With a payload of 40 tons, the aircraft will cover 11,900 km. An-124-100M is a modified An-124 Ruslan, manufactured since 1990. The version of An-124-100M-150 has increased capacity from 120 to 150 tons and has been produced since 2008 by modifying the basic An-124.

Production of the An-124 was halted in 2004. A total of 55 aircraft were produced, with only 17 aircraft in Kyiv and others at the Aviastar-SP plant in Ulyanovsk, Russia. To date, there are 46 aircraft of this class. 26 aircraft in the Russian Air Force (12 in service, 14 in storage). Volga-Dnepr Airlines has 12, but Antonov State Enterprise is trying to arrest these planes. Another 7 vehicles are part of the Antonov Airlines fleet and the last plane belongs to Maximus Air Cargo from the United Arab Emirates.

The shortage of An-124 in the market has caused some difficulties with preparing for this year’s space missions. The volume of the freight market for the An-124 is estimated at 82 vehicles.