In January 2025, the European Commission launched the ESOCA project (European System for Overdimensioned Cargo Air Transport) to identify heavy military airlift options for NATO countries in Europe.
After 18 months of work, the project team reportedly came up with only one realistic short-term solution: investing in the modernization of Ukraine's An-124-100 Ruslan aircraft. The goal would be to extend their service life. This is according to a report by French defense outlet Opex24.
Read more: How Ukraine's An-124 Ruslan Kept Boeing and Airbus Production Running When Conventional Logistics Fell Short
The publication notes that the €20 million ESOCA project was funded by a group of countries comprising Germany, France, Italy, Greece, Finland, Poland, and the Netherlands.
The project team used the funding to assess various options. In addition to recommending investment in the modernization of Ukraine's An-124-100 Ruslan aircraft to extend their service life, it proposed another possibility: investing in the development of a European counterpart to the U.S. C-17 strategic airlifter.
The participating EU countries are expected to decide which option to pursue during the Strategic Transport Days, scheduled to take place in Brussels on October 21–22, 2026.
Until now, Airbus's A300-600ST Beluga has also been considered as an alternative to Ukraine's Ruslans. However, attempts to use the aircraft to transport oversized military cargo remained experimental and were suspended in early 2025 due to the “lack of an economic model.”
Another theoretical option would be to rely on C-17 heavy military transport aircraft operated by the UK and U.S. partners. However, such an arrangement does not appear to offer a reliable long-term solution for European countries.
The broader issue is that Europe is looking at military airlift capabilities with a planning horizon extending into the 2040s. This is why potential investment in the An-124-100 Ruslan fleet is being considered as a way to extend the aircraft's service life.
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