Antonov, a subsidiary of Ukraine's state-owned Ukroboronprom, revealed to C4Defence that its multipurpose AN-132D military transport aircraft is to carry out its first flight on 31 March. The flight ceremony will be attended by Ukrainian and Saudi Arabian high-ranking officials. 

The AN-132D is designed for transporting cargo over short- and medium-range routes, and is capable of carrying a maximum payload of 9.2 tons. The work on this project was implemented in May 2015 with an agreement with Taqnia Aeronautics, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The most important part of this project is that during the production of the aircraft, no Russian-made parts were used, at all. 

Previously, Ukroboronprom general director Roman Romanov said AN-132D would perform its first flight in spring 2017, which indicates an on-schedule process.