Why China Wants to Put the Gargantuan Antonov An-225 Mriya Back Into Production via The War Zone!

via The War Zone.

The world’s largest cargo airplanes, all Cold War relics, continue to be in great demand around the globe. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, outsized air cargo charter went from an oddity to a burgeoning cottage industry. The global war on terror, and especially Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, further accelerated its growth, along with an increasingly globalized marketplace that relies on just-in-time manufacturing concepts. So, unless you're the US Air Force, when a 747 freighter can’t carry it, a chartered An-124 Condor usually does—and sometimes, the world’s largest aircraft, the An-225 Mriya (“Dream”) steps in to do the heaviest of lifting.

Story here. 

Tyler does the job of explaining things well and I highly recommend you read his story.

I do want to add something though.

We've watched China build FREAKING ISLANDS in the middle of the ocean.  We've seen them build cities just for giggles (no one lives there).  Having seen all that how hard will it be to add length to a runway so they can use these STRATEGIC AIRLIFTERS (not tactical...STRATEGIC) to lift gear to the hub so that smaller jets can deliver it to different areas in their war zone?

Don't make the common mistake of believing that our way of war is the way that our enemies will operate.  Don't believe that our capabilities and what we consider reasonable is how the enemy will operate.

Building a super long runway might seem idiotic to us but for them?  It might be the normal course of things.

So while Tyler is probably right I still think there might be a direct military application for this purchase.  I can't forget that they built freaking islands...so how hard are long runways???