MOSCOW, December 16. /TASS/. Russian Ilyushin Il-76 planes are ranked the world’s sixth most popular military transport aircraft, according to the World Air Forces 2022 directory of the FlightGlobal magazine obtained by TASS.

The findings show that over 200 Il-76 military transport planes were in service across the world. The Russian military transport planes accounted for 5% of the global military transport aircraft fleet. US C-130 Hercules planes topped the ranking with 872 aircraft (20% of the total) while US King Air planes ranked third (280 planes, 7%).

Since the Il-76 military transport plane developed by the Ilyushin Aircraft Company (part of the United Aircraft Corporation integrated into the state tech corporation Rostec) performed its debut flight, Russia has produced around 1,000 of them in 22 modifications. Il-76 military transport aircraft are operational in 24 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and North America.

The IL-76MD-90A is the latest modification of the Il-76 plane (it performed its debut flight in 2012). Russia is also producing the Il-78M-90A aerial refueling tanker based on this platform (it performed its debut flight in 2018). Both types can operate in any region of the world, including the Arctic and the Antarctic.

As of December 2021, 4,300 military transport planes were in operational service across the world, the report says.