At a press conference held at the Al Muthana Air Base in Baghdad on Friday, a spokesman for the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, Major General Mohammad al-Askari said that “Iraq received the first aircraft of the Ukrainian-made military transport aircraft, which is dedicated for transportation and other military tasks.”

 

The military added that «the aircraft that will be multi-purpose and is one out of six contracted by the Iraqi government with its counterpart in Ukraine in August 2009».

He explained that “the coming days will witness the arrival of two more in this deal”, pointing out that “the process of assuming all aircraft will end in the middle of next year”.

“The total cost for the purchase of these aircraft is $99 million”, al-Askari added.

 

Source: QNA; Photo: AirTeamImages.com

For more information, check Al-Defaiya Issue # 6/2011