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Antonov Design Bureau Weapon Systems

Antonov Design Bureau is Ukraine's long-running aircraft design and production enterprise, known for transport, cargo, and special-purpose aircraft. In this catalog it supplies the industrial context for the An-2 lineage and Antonov's broader AN family.

1 weapon systems

Antonov was founded on May 31, 1946, under aircraft designer Oleg Antonov. The company's own history pages describe it as a full-cycle aircraft enterprise covering research, design, testing, certification, serial production, and after-sale maintenance.

For this catalog, Antonov provides the builder context for the An-2 family and for the wider AN transport-aircraft line that includes the An-124 Ruslan and AN-225 Mriya. The profile keeps those aircraft tied to the company that designed and produced them rather than treating the airframes as isolated catalog cards.

aircraft designtransport aircraftcargo aircraftspecial-purpose aircraftaircraft productionflight testing

Notable Systems

An-2 family

Antonov's history page calls the An-2 the first aircraft of the design bureau and documents its serial production and many derivatives.

Sources: AN-2 history

An-124 Ruslan

The O.K. Antonov biography page describes the AN-124 as the world's largest production military transport airplane developed under Antonov's guidance.

Sources: O.K. Antonov biography

AN-225 Mriya

Antonov company news pages describe the AN-225 as part of the company's airlift subdivision and show it handling outsized humanitarian and cargo missions.

Sources: AN-225 cargo mission

Builder History

  1. Antonov bureau founded

    Antonov's company history says the enterprise was founded on May 31, 1946, under Oleg Antonov.

    Sources: Company information

  2. Design bureau moved to Kyiv

    The O.K. Antonov biography says Antonov and his design bureau team moved to Kyiv in 1952 and re-established the office and production facility there.

    Sources: O.K. Antonov biography

  3. AN-124 Ruslan milestone

    Antonov's biography identifies the AN-124 Ruslan as the last aircraft developed under Oleg Antonov's guidance and dates it to 1982.

    Sources: O.K. Antonov biography

Website links
Company informationO.K. Antonov biographyAN-2 history

Antonov's English-language branding varies across current and historical sources, so this profile normalizes Antonov Design Bureau, Antonov Company, and O.K. Antonov Design Bureau under one builder facet. The profile intentionally avoids harder-to-source corporate structure claims beyond the state-owned-enterprise context documented on Antonov's own pages.

Builder Sources

  • Company informationPublisher: Antonov | Note: Supports the company's founding on May 31, 1946, its full-cycle aircraft work, and the design-bureau, production, testing, and maintenance structure. | Accessed: 2026-06-21
  • O.K. Antonov biographyPublisher: Antonov | Note: Supports the 1952 move to Kyiv, the Antonov design-bureau lineage, and the AN-124 milestone in the company's history. | Accessed: 2026-06-21
  • AN-2 historyPublisher: Antonov | Note: Supports the An-2 family as the first Antonov design-bureau aircraft and the company's serial-production background for that family. | Accessed: 2026-06-21
  • AN-225 cargo missionPublisher: Antonov | Note: Supports the AN-225 as part of Antonov Airlines' airlift subdivision and its outsized humanitarian cargo mission context. | Accessed: 2026-06-21
  • Wikimedia Commons ANTONOV logoPublisher: Wikimedia Commons | Note: Supports the builder image and its provenance; Commons marks the logo as a public-domain text logo derived from Antonov's own SVG mark. | Accessed: 2026-06-21

Category

Aircraft & UAVs

Crewed aircraft, drones, and loitering munitions.

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An-2 unmanned decoy / converted UCAV, Converted unmanned decoy aircraft / improvised UCAV, Aircraft & UAVsNagorno-Karabakh ConflictAn-2 unmanned decoy / converted UCAVConverted unmanned decoy aircraft / improvised UCAVBuilt in: Soviet Union / Ukraine (base airframe); Azerbaijan (conversion)The An-2 unmanned decoy / converted UCAV was an improvised Azerbaijani adaptation of the Soviet Antonov An-2 utility biplane. In the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, Azerbaijani forces used converted An-2s as expendable unmanned aircraft to enter Armenian air-defense engagement zones, draw fire, and help reveal targets for other UAVs and loitering munitions, with some reporting that crashed examples carried explosive payloads.