What is a medium transport now?

[Vincenzo]

As title, i'm reading the military balance 2021 focusing on the transport aircraft and i noted that the category medium transport go, around, from C-27 to C-130
but strangely comparable old soviet era plane are counted as light, like Tu-134, An-72/74, and more strangely also the C-295 the main challenger of C-27
some has idea why?

 

[Vincenzo]

i put my own reply, it's a medium transport/freighter airplane that with from 15,000 pounds to 60,000 pounds cargo capability
so military medium freighter are:
C-130
C-27
C-160
C-1 (japanese)
Y-8
Y-9
An-12
An-8
An-72&74
C-295
KC-390
Tu-134
DHC-5
ATR-72
UP-3A*

*i've not find load data for this variant of the Orion but is a large airplane so i suppose has not trouble to load the 15k lbs need for qualify

p.s. i've posted this w/o reading again the my fist post so actually this is not a reply a the question i've posted at time
2nd p.s. i've deleted the EMB-170 from the list, there is a alone EMB-170, in the colombian air force, and after a few search i don't find a word that this is a freight airplane so i think the MB2021 classified this wrong and actually it's a pax plane

 

[GreenKnight121]

Well, here is a comparison between the C-295, AN-72, and the C-27J - using the cargo compartment interior dimensions and payload weight:

C-27J: Length 8.6 m X width 3.33 m X height 2.25 m; Payload: 11,500 kg

An-72: Length 10.5 m X width 2.15 m X height 2.2 m; Payload: 10,000 kg

CN-295: Length 12.7 m X width 2.7 m X height 1.9 m; Payload: 9,250 kg

Note that the C-27J has a wider and taller cargo compartment, which allows larger pallets and equipment to be carried, even though the length is less.

This is important, because an old truism for cargo aircraft is that with most payloads they run out of volume before they hit max payload weight.

The greater payload is still a factor for those occasional dense loads like generators, etc.