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The aircraft was first conceived by Ilyushin in 1967 to meet a requirement for a freighter able to carry a payload of 40 tons (88,000 lb) over a range of 5,000 km (2,700 nautical miles (3,100 statute miles;) in less than six hours, able to operate from short and unprepared airstrips, and capable of coping with the worst weather conditions likely to be experienced in Siberia and the Soviet Union's Arctic regions. The basic layout of the plane was similar to the US-built Lockheed C-141 Starlifter, but the new design had a larger cargo hold area and more powerful engines to achieve the desired performance. It first flew on March 25, 1971, and is still in production in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Between 1979 and 1991, the Soviet Air Force Il-76s did 14,700 flights into Afghanistan, transporting 786,200 servicemen, and 315,800 tons of freight. The Il-76 carried 89% of Soviet troops and 74% of the freight that was airlifted. Building on that experience, the bulk of the Canadian Forces equipment into Afghanistan is flown in using civilian Il-76
The Il-76 is also in use as an airborne tanker, otherwise known as a refueller (Il-78), and a waterbomber. Its airframe was used as a base for the Beriev A-50 'Mainstay' AWACS aircraft.
Foreign operators of Il-76 has adopted the airframe as the base their own AWACS and other modifications, and these included:
KJ-2000
Domestic Chinese AWACS conversion of Il-76 after the setback of the A-50I.
The current KJ-2000 AWACS in Chinese service is equipped with a domestic Active Electronically Scanned Array active phased array radar system similar to the Swedish Ericsson's Erieye radar. The radar is designed by the Research Institute of Electronic Technology (also more commonly known as the 14th Institute) at Nanjing, and it utilizes the experience gained from the 14th Institute's earlier indigenously developed Type H/LJG-346 SAPARS (Shipborne Active Phased Array Radar System) that was completed in 1998 (the same Type H/LJG-346 SAPARS was also the predecessor of the active phased array radar system onboard PLAN Lanzhou class destroyer). Chinese claim that the domestic radar is superior to the Israeli radar and it can track more targets at greater range. The radar is arranged in the same way as that of A-50I.
CFTE Engine Testbed
China Flight Test Establishment (CFTE) currently operates a flying testbed converted from a Russian-made Il-76MD jet transport aircraft to serve as a flying testbed for future engine development programmes. The first engine to be tested on the aircraft is the WS-10A "Taihang" turbofan, currently being developed as the powerplant for China's indigenous J-10 and J-11 fighter aircraft. The #76456 Il-76MD, acquired by the AVIC 1 from Russia in the 1990s, is currently based at CFTE's flight test facility at Yanliang, Shaanxi Province.
Adnan I
Iraqi development (with French assistance) with fibreglass-reinforced plastic radome over the antenna of the Thomson-CSF Tiger G surveillance radar with a maximum detection range of 189 nm (or 217.5 miles). None operational after the Gulf War.
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