Thereafter, the model saw extensive use in major military and humanitarian airlifts for the Soviet Union, and is still in service with the Russian Aerospace Forces.

In the late 1950s, the Soviet Union required a large military transport aircraft to supplement the Antonov An-8 and An-12s then entering service.

[2] In the early 1960s, the Antonov bureau produced a wooden mock up at its Kyiv, Ukraine, workshops of what was designated the Model 100.

It has the capability to takeoff from austere, unpaved, and short airstrips, allowing airborne troops to perform air-landing operations.

[citation needed] The An-22 has the general appearance of an enlarged version of the earlier Antonov An-12 except that it is fitted with a twin tail.

[clarification needed] Prototypes, such as the one first featured at the 1965 Paris Air Show had fully glazed noses that lacked the nose-mounted radar of production models.

[2] A civil airliner version with a lengthened fuselage capable of seating 724 passengers on upper and lower decks was studied but was not built.

[3] Several other An-22 variants were projected and constructed by Antonov but never entered serial production, notably a nuclear-powered aircraft and a ballistic missile platform.

The 12th Mginsk Red Banner Military Transport Aviation Division (based at Migalovo) was one of the units which had its three regiments entirely equipped with the An-22s.

In 1986 the aircraft of the 8th Military Air Transport Aviation Regiment from Migalovo were used to deliver materials for the Chernobyl disaster relief operation.

Approximately 45 An-22s remained in service by the mid-1990s, mostly with the Russian Air Force, but these are slowly being replaced by the bigger turbofan-powered Antonov An-124.

[8] A single An-22 (registration number UR-09307) is in service with Antonov Airlines as of September 26, 2020 but was potentially damaged in 2022 during Russia's military action in Ukraine.