Director of the information and consulting company Defense Express, Sergey Zgurets, on his Facebook page told some details of the state defense order, in particular about the production of several An-148 aircraft in special versions.

Any additional information on the specialization of future aircraft, he did not provide. It is known that in September 2016 the president of the enterprise Alexander Kotsyuba on the air of channel 112. ua reported that "Antonov" will provide, on the order of the Ministry of Defense, the construction of three reactive An-148 new generation.

In the framework of the state order, then it was planned to build the headquarters, maritime patrol and sanitary version An-148.

Passenger An-148 at the factory airfield in Kiev Photo: Oleg Belyakov Later, in May 2017, there was information from the Defense Blog about the creation of the Antonov State Enterprise of a new aircraft for radar detection and control of the An-148DROV for the Ukrainian Air Force, the concept of which was previously is represented by the Ministry of Defense and the Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.

An-148DRLU is an aircraft of long-range radar detection and control. It is planned to install a two-way antenna array with electronic scanning, which will be located in a rectangular body located longitudinally above the fuselage.

The An-148DRLU radar station has a maximum range of more than 400 km and the range of detection of fighter size targets is 350 km when operating in a dense electronic warfare position and low altitude flight targets.

The system will also be able to track multiple aerial and marine over-the-horizon objectives and provide coverage of heights of up to 25 kilometers, with circular coverage and the ability to navigate.

What upgrades An-148 plans to order the Ministry of Defense is still unknown, according to the Main with reference to the Ukrainian military portal.