VORONEZH, July 28 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's United Aircraft-Making Corporation (UAC) announced on Tuesday plans to invest 5 billion rubles ($162 mln) in the modernization of aircraft maker VASO, which produces the new An-148 medium-haul plane.

"We have a special program through which the UAC will invest 5 billion rubles in re-equipping VASO over the next five years," UAC President Alexei Fyodorov said.

He said the corporation had already invested 1 billion rubles in the modernization of the plant, based in the Russian city of Voronezh.

The company said earlier that five An-148 passenger aircraft would be built in 2009, 18 in 2010, 36 in 2011, and that 50 planes would be made annually from 2013 onwards.

In its basic modification, the An-148 is designed to carry 70-90 passengers up to 5,000 kilometers. It costs an estimated $20 million to produce, which is cheaper than Sukhoi's highly publicized SuperJet-100 (around $28 million).