The end of the 1960s was a period of great confrontation between the two superpowers, a period of a grueling arms race. The development of new types of weapons and military equipment is proceeding at a high rate. Microelectronics is developing especially rapidly, and on its basis - telecommunications and computer technology, which in turn has become a powerful platform for the development of information and control systems, weapons control systems.
In the development of such systems, the opponents of the USSR and the United States, possible at that time, were actively competing. The first automated control systems for troops and weapons at the end of the 50s of the last century were the American automated control systems for the Takfair artillery units, the Missile Monitor air defense units and the rear (TsS-3).
In the Soviet Union, the first in the early 60s of the last century were created an automated combat control system (ASBU) of the Strategic Missile Forces (OKB "Impulse", Leningrad), a missile attack warning system (SPRN, RTI of the USSR Academy of Sciences), a complex of automation equipment (KSA) Air Defense Forces "Almaz-2" (Research Institute "Voskhod", Moscow), ACS of the Air Force "Air-1M" (OKB-864 of the Minsk Electromechanical Plant, Minsk), ACS for missile systems (ASURK-1, KB Zagorsk electromechanical plant). The latter work was carried out under the leadership of the chief designer of the plant, Semenikhin V. S., who since 1963 became the director of NII-101 (NII of automatic equipment). In the future, the subjects of ASURK, ASU ZRV "Vector" and ASU of the Armed Forces of the USSR were transferred to this research institute.
In May 1964, by a decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR, the development of an automated command and control system by the troops of the front was set, and in 1965 NIIAA completed the creation of a draft design, and in fact, a program for creating such a system. Taking into account the employment of NIIAA with work on the creation of an ACS of the USSR Armed Forces (the "Center" system), a data exchange system (DDS) for this ACS, as well as the so-called "nuclear" or "presidential" suitcase (the "Cheget" system from the "Kazbek" ACS), work on the creation of an ACCU of the front "Maneuver" in the links front - combined arms (tank) army - combined arms (tank) division - motorized rifle (tank or artillery) regiment were transferred to Minsk to a separate design bureau of the Minsk Electromechanical Plant No. 864 (OKB-864).
On February 26, 1969, OKB-864 was transformed into a branch of the Scientific Research Institute of Automatic Equipment (FNIIAA), and from June 16, 1972 on the basis of this branch, the Scientific Research Institute of Automation Means (NIISA) was created, with whose name all work on ACCS of the front "Maneuver".
A professional military man, later a major general, a talented engineer Podrezov Yuri Dmitrievich (1924-2001) was appointed the director of the OKB, and then the FNIIAA and NIISA, the Chief Designer of the ACCS of the front "Maneuver" (since 1968).
ACCS of the front "Maneuver" was immediately created as a single integrated automated control system of a combined-arms (tank) formation (formation), including subsystems for controlling the combat arms of the ground forces, ACS of front-line aviation and military air defense, ACS of the rear, united by a single communication and data transmission system. It should be noted that the ACS of front-line aviation functionally was part of the ACS "Maneuver", but was developed as an independent ACS for a separate task and was called "Etalon".
The main problematic issues requiring their solution during the creation of the ACCU of the "Maneuver" front were:
the creation of a system in terms of its operational and tactical characteristics that is not inferior to the best foreign counterparts, and in some characteristics and surpasses them, in the conditions of a significant lag in the development of communication facilities, computer technology and general software in the USSR, the use of only domestic components and materials, power supplies and life support;
• the need for the system to operate in harsh climatic conditions (from -50 ° C to + 50 ° C), conditions of strong shock loads, intense habitability and movement characteristics in the tactical command echelon (division, regiment);
• the need to ensure the maximum unification of technical means, automated workstations (AWP) to ensure the proper survivability of the system and the deployment of its mass production in the defense industry of the USSR, and later in the countries participating in the Warsaw Pact;
• the need to ensure very strict probabilistic-temporal characteristics of information delivery and the time for collecting information as a whole for the command link, which should have reduced the combat command cycle by an order of magnitude or more in comparison with the existing manual system.
These and other problems and tasks were successfully solved in the ACCU of the Maneuver front. During this period, were developed, manufactured and passed all types of tests, many science-intensive, corresponding to the best foreign counterparts of that time, the basic hardware and software necessary for the creation of command-staff vehicles. For example, such as indicators of a circular view, drawing and graphic machines, devices for reading coordinates, electro-optical tablets, consoles for a set of formalized codograms, various keyboards and panels for displaying information, equipment for transmitting data of various time scales and remote information input, switching equipment and operational communications, operating system software, database management.
Structurally, the basic technological and software tools are combined in the automated command and control system of the "Maneuver" front into automated workplaces and installed in the tactical level - a division, a regiment (26 vehicles) in command and staff vehicles (KShM) and special vehicles (SM), and in the operational level - front and army (about 100 vehicles) into command vehicles (CMM). The MT-LBU self-propelled chassis was used as transport bases in the tactical link, the Osnova body based on the Rodinka chassis, Ural-375, KP-4 trailers
The use of a systematic approach in the field of building distributed computing systems made it possible to organize distributed data processing and storage of data arrays in distributed databases. The systematic approach - the foundation of the projects of the State Scientific and Production Association "Agat" - made it possible to make optimal and unique software and hardware solutions that ensured maximum adaptation to the changing needs of users, the compatibility of all components of the system and its subsystems, accounting for multi-parameter functional subsystems, high-quality information processing in ACCS under conditions strict limitations on the amount of memory and performance of computers with a positive result - the creation of an automated control system that is efficiently operable in any environment. This approach made it possible to make command and control of troops, weapons, reconnaissance and electronic warfare extremely reliable, tenacious and operational. This was done using computer technology, which was significantly inferior in its characteristics to foreign models. The high reliability of the system was ensured through the unification of the AWP hardware and the use of parallel algorithms (structural algorithmic redundancy) in information processing.
When designing ACCS, it turned out that ACCS communication systems should be built on completely new principles that had no analogues in the past, and for data exchange systems of this scale and complexity, the basic foundations of building data transmission equipment were only being developed. The implementation of highly survivable adaptive networks and communication systems could be tested to the extent required only at the Maneuver automated control system. The creation of a mobile ACCS required a solution to the main communication problem - the exchange of data between the CP and the CP. The volumes of transmitted information increased significantly, the time of its delivery decreased, and the requirements for error-free data transmission at that time 1x10-6 were fantastic. It was required to create a new class of equipment that meets all the requirements for data transmission, operating in harsh operating conditions (from -50 ° С to + 50 ° С), on the go, incl. and in armored vehicles.
The need to create data transmission equipment of three significantly different types has emerged:
• for the transmission of operational and tactical information (OTI);
• for transmission of real-time data (RMV);
• for remote input of reconnaissance data (RD).
The task of creating an APD for transferring the OTI was entrusted to the Penza Scientific Research Electrotechnical Institute (PNIEI) and successfully solved it by developing first the T-244 "Basalt" equipment complex (1972), and then the T-235 "Redut" equipment complex (1985 G.). These unique complexes made it possible to build extensive data exchange networks and had no analogues in the world in terms of their characteristics. The development of an ADF for transmitting information to the RMV was divided into two directions. The APD for the air defense system of the country was developed by the Leningrad Production Association "Krasnaya Zarya" with the scientific support of the Moscow Research Institute of Instrument Automation (AI-010 equipment).
NIISA was identified as the lead developer of the APD RMV for mobile control points, which created and implemented a whole generation of equipment in the products "Polyana", "Ranzhir", PORI and other objects interfaced with KShM (ShM): C23 (1976), AI-011 (1976), S23M (1982), "Irtysh" (1985).
The development of remote input equipment was also entrusted to NIISA, and for the radiation and chemical reconnaissance units, first the Berezka equipment (1976), and then the Sturgeon complex (1986) was created.
The tactical link of the ACCS "Maneuver" is equipped with its own built-in mobile communication system, which provides all the necessary internal and external communications of the command post - from tone to digital. The classified equipment of the guaranteed resistance class was used. The organization of the telecode exchange system and the data transmission equipment ensured the transmission of data in any conditions of combat operations (active and passive interference, protection against ionizing radiation, deliberate counteraction, etc.). The control of the entire communications system was carried out from the command post of the chief of communications and provided the opportunity for the necessary changes in the architecture of the HF and VHF communications networks to meet the requirements of the combat situation.
One of the most serious scientific and technical problems of creating a tactical control link for the ACCS of the Maneuver front in the early 80s of the last century was the solution of the problem of suppressing industrial interference and ensuring electromagnetic compatibility during joint normal operation of 4 to 7 radio stations and receivers located in one armored base on a caterpillar track, with bringing the entire complex of automation equipment to the specified tactical and technical characteristics, primarily in terms of radio communication range and normal functioning of automation equipment. This task was successfully solved by a group of specialists from the institute
When creating an automated control system for the tactical level of control, the methodology of end-to-end design was first developed and applied to create large integrated systems, from the formal presentation of the subject area in the form of a mathematical model to its implementation in technical, linguistic, informational and software support.
The information system language (INS) developed by the specialists of the UE "NIISA", which is a set of syntactic rules common to the "Maneuver" ACCS, provided information compatibility when transferring data between subsystems.
More than 500 organizations and enterprises of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact countries participated in the cooperation on the creation of the ACCS of the Maneuver front, which established industrial production of complexes and tactical echelon systems, as well as complexes and systems of missile forces and artillery.
The general customers of the ACCS "Maneuver": the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces, and then the Chief of the Signal Corps of the USSR Armed Forces, were involved in military-scientific support of projects and tests of the system and its elements: the Military Academy of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces, the Military Academy armored forces to them. R. Ya. Malinovsky, Military Academy. M. V. Frunze, Military Academy. F. E. Dzerzhinsky, Military academies of communications, chemical protection, artillery academy, engineering academy and others. In addition, the central research institutes of the branches of the armed forces and combat arms, specially created for scientific research and testing in the interests of improving the Armed Forces, were involved, for which the components of the Maneuver automated control system were created.
In November 1981, the state tests of the ACCS "Maneuver" were completed and the act of the State Commission with positive results was submitted for approval. By the decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR in December 1982, the tactical link of the ACCS of the front "Maneuver" was adopted by the Soviet Army. NIISA was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and the most distinguished industrial workers and military specialists (about 600 people) were awarded orders and medals of the USSR.
In 1988, the creation of an improved version of the tactical link of the ACCS of the front "Maneuver" was completed and in the period 1989-1991. individual prototypes of the improved tactical and operational complexes of the ACCS of the "Maneuver" front were delivered to a number of districts (BVO, Moscow Military District, Far Eastern Military District), to the Military Academy of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces, the Military Academy. M. V. Frunze, headquarters of the 5th combined arms army.
On the basis of the main technical solutions of the ACCS of the Maneuver front, two major projects were implemented - the creation of an integrated ACS for the Air Force and Air Defense of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany and a field ACCS of the Warsaw Pact member states. The experience of systems design, gained during the creation of the "Maneuver" ACCS, is invaluable.
