Editing Antonov An-30 (section)

==Operational history==
[[File:Ukrainian an 30.jpg|thumb|right|Ukrainian An-30 [[Ukrainian Air Force]]]]
In addition to its principal use as a survey aircraft, it has also been used by Bulgaria,<ref name="dtra">{{cite book |last1=Clear |first1=Kirk W. |last2=Block |first2=Steven E. |url=https://www.dtra.mil/Portals/61/OpenSkies_book.pdf|title=The Treaty on Open Skies |location=Dulles, Virginia, USA |publisher=Defence Threat Reduction Agency Department of Defense|year=1999|pages=10, 62}}</ref> Czech Republic, Romania,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.forces.net/technology/aircraft/antonov-30-soviet-plane-still-proving-its-worth-today|title=Antonov AN-30: the Soviet-era plane still proving its worth|work=Forces News|date=20 July 2022}}</ref> Russia and Ukraine to carry out surveillance under the [[Treaty on Open Skies|Open Skies Treaty]].<ref name ='p823'>{{harvnb|Gordon| Komissarov | Komissarov |2003|pp=82–83}}</ref>

The An-30 has also been used as a [[weather control]] aircraft as the '''An-30M'''. Some have been fitted with frozen tanks of [[carbon dioxide]] to be ejected into the sky to form artificial [[rain]] [[cloud]]s. These An-30s have also been put to use to avoid crop-damaging [[hail]]storms and also to maintain good weather for, as examples, new airplane maiden flights, important parades like 1 May and the 850th anniversary of [[Moscow]] in September 1997.<ref name = "brasseys">{{harvnb|Taylor|1999|p=160}}</ref>

Between 1971 and 1980 a total of 115 aircraft were built and 23 were sold abroad to Afghanistan, Bulgaria, China, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Mongolia and Vietnam.

An-30s completely mapped Afghanistan in 1982, with [[List of Soviet aircraft losses in the Soviet war in Afghanistan|one shot down]] by a [[MANPADS]] during an aerial photography flight in the Kabul area south of the Panjshir Valley on 11 March 1985.
Cuban An-30s saw active service in Angola in 1987.

On 22 April 2014, a Ukrainian An-30 was hit by pro-Russian separatists' small-arms fire while on a surveillance mission over the town of Sloviansk in eastern Ukraine. The plane landed safely with minor damage.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27106630|title=Ukraine crisis: Biden says Russia must 'start acting' – BBC News|access-date=2018-06-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190104101132/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27106630|archive-date=2019-01-04|url-status=live|publisher=BBC News|date=2014-04-22}}</ref> On 6 June 2014, a Ukrainian An-30B was shot down near the city of [[Sloviansk|Slavyansk]] in eastern Ukraine, reportedly by a [[MANPADS]] fired by local separatists.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://tvzvezda.ru/news/vstrane_i_mire/content/201406061920-pjzk.htm|title=Самолет-разведчик сбили над Славянском ополченцы – Телеканал "Звезда"|date=6 June 2014 |access-date=2014-06-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140612015141/http://tvzvezda.ru/news/vstrane_i_mire/content/201406061920-pjzk.htm|archive-date=2014-06-12|url-status=live}}</ref>