To create weapons based on new physical principles, it is necessary to change approaches to training specialists, financing development and much more.
On January 24, one of the brightest leaders of the Russian defense industry, Tactical Missile Armament Corporation JSC, turns 15 years old. In the difficult years for the country, KTRV declared itself as a leading developer and manufacturer of advanced precision weapon systems. Many of the weapons produced here remain unsurpassed and have no analogues in the world. What is the corporation phenomenon? What path did it go and where are its origins?
Talking about the ultra-modern weapons produced by KTRV, one cannot but recall its recent and distant past, which is inextricably linked with today's successes and achievements.
By presidential decree
As an integrated structure, the corporation was formed as a result of the implementation of the federal target program "Reforming and development of the military-industrial complex (2002-2006)". By presidential decree No. 84 of January 24, 2002, FSUE GNPTs Zvezda-Strela (Korolev of the Moscow Region) was then transformed into OJSC Tactical Missile Armament Corporation, and federal-owned shares of the Omsk plant Avtomatika were transferred to its authorized capital. (later became a part of OJSC TsKB Avtomatiki), UPKB Detal (Kamensk-Uralsky, Sverdlovsk region), MKB Iskra named after V. I. I. I. Kartukova (Moscow), "Krasny Gidropress" (Taganrog, Rostov region) and TMKB "Soyuz" (Lytkarino, Moscow region).
Boris Viktorovich Obnosov was approved as the General Director of KTRV OJSC, and the priority areas of activity were determined:
development, production, supply and modernization of guided missiles and tactical guided missile systems for the needs of the Ministry of Defense;
development, implementation, after-sales service and provision of licensed production of weapons and military equipment supplied for export;
effective use and development of research and production potential of subsidiaries.
As you know, in our time, a lot depends on the personality of the leader. Unfortunately, some of them are more busy building ingenious schemes, working, as they say, for their own pocket. In this regard, the KTRV team, we note this especially, was lucky with the general, who masterly led the union through a number of transformations, reforms, without losing the work collectives and scientific schools. But first things first.
Subsequent stages of the corporation's development were associated with new presidential decrees - dated May 9, 2004 No. 591 and dated July 20, 2007 No. 930. Moscow enterprises were included in the corporation (as subsidiaries) at the second stage: OJSC GosMKB Vympel named after … I. I. Toropov ", JSC" GNPP "Region", JSC "Design Bureau of Mechanical Engineering", JSC "Gorizont", as well as JSC "GosMKB" Raduga "them. A. Ya. Bereznyak "(Dubna, Moscow Region), JSC" Azov Optical and Mechanical Plant "(Azov, Rostov Region), JSC" Salut "(Samara), JSC" Smolensk Aviation Plant ". At the third stage, the structure of the corporation was expanded to include OJSC NITs ASK (Moscow), OJSC ANPP TEMP-AVIA (Arzamas of the Nizhny Novgorod region), OJSC GosNIIMash (Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod region), OJSC RKB Globus (Ryazan) and JSC Central Design Bureau for Automation (Omsk).
Thus, 19 enterprises entered the corporation together with the parent company, and the total number of employees exceeded 22 thousand.
Further expansion of the corporation took place in accordance with the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of October 27, 2012 No. 1443 and the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of March 31, 2015 No. 167 due to the inclusion of two integrated structures as subholdings: the military-industrial corporation NPO Mashinostroyenia (Reutov, Moscow Region) and its five subsidiaries, as well as the Marine Underwater Weapons - Gidropribor concern (St. Petersburg) and its five subsidiaries.
Soviet legacy
With the wave of a magic wand or even the highest order, such powerful associations with established competence do not appear. It is impossible to create a scientific school, a production base, a team of professionals from scratch in a short time. All this, as a rule, is born in agony, over the years, sometimes by trial and error, and most importantly - by the enthusiasm of people in love with their work. And such people devoted to production were found after the dashing 90s. It was they who turned out to be the bearers and successors of the glorious traditions that were laid here by their fathers and grandfathers, who stood at the origins of the parent enterprise.
The predecessor of the corporation turned out to be plant number 455 in Kostin near Moscow (now the city of Korolev) of the People's Commissariat of the Aviation Industry, created on June 3, 1942 by a decree of the State Defense Committee. He began to produce bracing straps and poured aircraft devices for combat aircraft, then cassette holders, and other products for the Tu-4 bomber. Since 1955, he mastered the serial production of air-to-air guided missiles (UR): RS-1U, RS-2U. In 1957, a design bureau was created here, which worked on improving this product. In 1966, the plant was renamed into Kaliningrad Machine-Building (KMZ), its design bureau was transformed into an OKB (later called "Zvezda"). Yu. Korolev was appointed chief designer. The first air-to-surface missile launcher X-66, developed by the OKB team, was put into service in 1968, and in 1970-1982 - UR Kh-23, Kh-25 and Kh-27. Work on the creation of modular missile systems of the X-25M type will be awarded the USSR State Prize. From 1976 to 2002, the enterprise will go through a number of reorganizations and renaming. It will be called either "Arrow", then "Star-Arrow".
In 1975, work will begin on the UR X-31 based on a ramjet engine with a solid propellant booster. In 1977, technical proposals for the Kh-35E anti-ship missile (ASM) will be developed. In 1981, for merits in the creation of air-to-surface missiles, the association will be awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.
All this is the Soviet past, without which the present day would have been impossible. Let us recall the difficult fate of the Uran-E shipborne missile system (KRK) with the Kh-35E anti-ship missile system. Developed under the guidance of chief designer V. Galushko, it successfully passed the first stage of flight tests back in 1987-1989. However, since 1992, the work has been practically suspended. The state had no money by that time. The enterprise, having mobilized all its resources, continued work on the development of the rocket. From 1992 to 1997, the second stage of flight design tests was carried out, but during this period only four missiles were launched, which was clearly not enough.
In the new market conditions, government purchases were actually curtailed. Many defense enterprises then, as you know, eked out a miserable existence. The plant's management did not rely only on the state defense order. It was then that the team began to actively work with foreign customers. Participation in the very first international exhibition with a demonstration of the rocket (it was nevertheless brought up to standard) and information on the Uran-E spacecraft immediately attracted the attention of foreign specialists. Representatives of the Indian Navy were the first to assess the prospects of the new combat complex. In 1994, a contract was signed for the supply of the Uran-E missile launcher to India. After that, the complex received recognition in its homeland.
Remembering that time, we can say that the association survived, despite difficult circumstances, because many developments in the 90s were suspended and entire working dynasties, the color of the defense industry, left the enterprises.
In order to give a new impetus to the life of the workshops, to unite the forces of disparate industries, it took the very presidential decrees that were mentioned above. Thanks to the foresight of the leadership, it was possible to preserve the main thing - the scientific school, the backbone of professionals. And the one who left began to return at the first signal. He drew a line under the period of 2002, when FSUE GNPTs Zvezda-Strela was transformed into OJSC Tactical Missile Armament Corporation.
A package of effective solutions
At present, the corporation is a single technological complex that supplies, in the interests of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and for export, a wide range of guided weapons for long-range, naval and front-line aircraft of the air-to-air and air-to-surface classes, aviation weapons to destroy submarines, as well as naval missiles of ship-to-ship and shore-to-ship classes and means of protection. KTRV has the right to carry out independent foreign trade activities for servicing and repairing export samples produced by its enterprises.
The proprietary models of the parent company have long been air-to-surface missiles: multipurpose modular Kh-25M type, high-speed anti-radar Kh-31P (Kh-31PK), anti-ship Kh-31A (target MA-31), anti-ship Kh-35E (3M- 24E).
KRK "Uran-E" remains a formidable weapon. It is designed to destroy missile, torpedo, artillery boats, surface ships with a displacement of up to five thousand tons and sea transports. It can be used in a wide range of combat and climatic conditions, while simultaneously firing at up to six surface targets. The possibility of salvo firing (up to 16 missiles) is capable of providing a fire breakthrough for the anti-missile defense of modern warships.
At the same time, its unified rocket 3M-24E is also used in the mobile coastal missile system "Bal-E", it can be part of aircraft carriers (aircraft and helicopters). The Bal-E complex is capable of simultaneously firing at up to 32 targets (in the standard version).
But a new rocket, the Kh-35UE, has already appeared, which will also be produced in an aviation version. Its combat capabilities have been significantly expanded due to a new guidance system, including satellite, the range of use has been increased (twice), a new anti-jamming active-passive homing head has been introduced, and other characteristics have been improved. The modern "digital board" allows the implementation of flexible target guidance and attack programs.
In addition to tactical anti-ship complexes, which include Uran-E and Bal-E, KTRV offers ship and coastal complexes of operational-tactical class based on the Yakhont supersonic cruise missile (3M-55E) developed by the NPO Mashinostroyenia military-industrial complex … The Bastion PBRK, created on the basis of this missile, is capable of providing coastal cover within a radius of 600 kilometers and hitting enemy surface ships of any class at a distance of up to 300 kilometers under fire and electronic countermeasures.
Another shipborne missile system, Moskit-E, developed by the Raduga State Design Bureau, has now been further developed in the form of a Mosquito-MVE modification with the 3M-80MVE anti-ship missile system. It has an increased firing range due to the introduction of an additional combined missile flight profile. Supersonic speed (up to 2900 km / h) in combination with extremely low (10–20 m) flight altitude in the final section and anti-aircraft maneuver provides a high probability of penetrating missile defense of warships.
Aviation anti-ship missiles Kh-59MK of increased range with an active radar homing head, developed by GosMKB "Raduga", is designed to defeat a wide range of radar-contrast surface targets at any time of the day, both in simple and difficult weather conditions.
A number of corporation enterprises specialize in the creation of weapons for the Navy. The TE-2 universal electric remote-controlled homing torpedo, developed by the Marine Underwater Weapons - Gidropribor Concern, is designed to destroy modern submarines (submarines) in any area of the World Ocean, in all ranges of depths and speeds of their progress, large-tonnage NK and enemy ships, and also stationary surface targets. It is used both from submarines and from surface ships in autonomous and remote-controlled modes. MDM-2 and MDM-3 sea bottom mines are capable of striking small displacement ships of all types, surface and submarine submarines, as well as landing craft. Their design allows for programming for a wide range of targets.
Naval defensive armament, in particular, is represented by the small-sized anti-submarine complex "Packet-E / NK" (developed by the State Scientific and Production Enterprise "Region"), which is intended for anti-submarine defense and anti-torpedo protection through the use of means of destruction of enemy submarines in the near zone of the ship, as well as anti-torpedo …
GNPP "Region" also produces a unique weapon system based on the high-speed submarine missile "Shkval-E", which uses the supercavitation mode, due to which it is capable of accelerating on the march up to 100 meters per second. The complex can be deployed on both surface ships and submarines, as well as stationary installations.
A significant place in the corporation's products is occupied by passive jamming complexes (manufactured by the Mechanical Engineering Design Bureau), including optical-electronic and radar jamming shells. Modern complexes such as PK-10 and KT-308 provide protection for surface ships and boats of all classes from precision weapons with radar, optoelectronic and combined guidance systems. In terms of combat effectiveness, volume and quality of tasks being solved, they are not inferior to the best world analogues.
Promising developments
The corporation is entrusted with the task of equipping the fifth generation fighter with a complex of aviation weapons of the new generation. At the same time, a wide range of air-to-surface and air-to-air ASPs in export versions is being prepared for foreign customers.
In the air-to-surface class, it is worth noting:
modular multipurpose UR type Kh-38ME;
the Gadfly-ME missile system with the Kh-59M2E missile launcher, which can be used around the clock and with limited visibility;
UR Kh-59MK2, designed to destroy ground targets that do not have radar, infrared and optical contrast to the surrounding background;
anti-radar UR Kh-31PD and Kh-58UShKE equipped with new wide-range radar seeker;
high-speed anti-ship missiles Kh-31AD with increased range;
unified anti-ship missile system Kh-35UE of increased range and noise immunity;
Anti-ship missiles Kh-59MK, capable of striking surface targets in the open sea and near the coastline;
corrected aircraft bombs of the latest development of caliber 250, 500 and 1500 kilograms with new guidance systems (television-correlation, laser, satellite) and warheads of various types (concrete-piercing, penetrating, volume-detonating). Some of them have been successfully tested by our Aerospace Forces in Syria when striking militants and strongholds of the "Islamic State" banned in Russia.
The air-to-air class offers:
UR short-range and short-range maneuverable air combat RVV-MD with a new dual-band infrared seeker, designed to arm fighters, attack aircraft, combat helicopters;
Medium-range missile launcher RVV-SD with a range of up to 110 kilometers at any time of the day, at all angles, in conditions of electronic warfare, including with multichannel shelling according to the “fire-and-forget” principle;
UR RVV-BD with a range of up to 200 kilometers (for targets at altitudes from 15 m to 25 km).
Of course, without extensive and reliable cooperation, all this would be impracticable. Let us name at least a few teams engaged in the production of unique products.
GosMKB "Vympel" is the leading enterprise in Russia for the creation of air-to-air missile systems. The whole world knows the R-73E (R-73EL) short-range maneuvering missiles, the R-27 and RVV-AE medium-range missiles, and the R-33E long-range missiles.
GosMKB "Raduga" for 65 years of its activity has developed and delivered to customers more than 50 missile weapon systems. In the field of high-precision aviation weapons (WTO), this is an "air-to-surface" missile launcher for front-line, naval, and long-range aircraft. The enterprise was the first in the world to develop such a type of weapon as anti-ship missiles. The Moskit-E strike anti-ship complex was highly appreciated by domestic and foreign experts. GNPP "Region" specializes in the development and production of guided aerial bombs and naval weapons systems.
Thus, it is thanks to cooperation that many of the most important tasks are carried out, which is also confirmed by Boris Obnosov, General Director of KTRV: “We have gone through several stages in the development and expansion of the corporation. We started in 2002-2003 with only six enterprises, and today our integrated structure already consists of more than 30 stably operating industries, including the NPO Mashinostroyenia MIC, which joined as subholdings in 2013, and the Marine Underwater Weapons Concern - Hydropribor . The total headcount of the integrated structure exceeded 50 thousand.
Innovation and credit
When the corporation was formed, the country's leadership set the goal of mobilizing resources for the creation of highly effective guided missiles and air, land and sea-based weapons systems, and strengthening Russia's position in the world arms market. Today we can confidently say that the goal has been achieved.
Despite the fact that the range of KTRV products is quite extensive, it is united with each other by a certain technological logic. All products - aviation and marine - in terms of their aerodynamic and hydrodynamic forms, manufacturing principles, and the required machine tool park completely fit into the production schemes, which allows for a sufficiently flexible use of the existing capacities and design potential.
About a quarter of the production is exported. Now its annual volume is about 600 million dollars, while during the formation of the corporation it was on average about 300 million. In the short term, exports are expected to grow to $ 900 million or more per year. Together with the FSMTC of Russia, the state intermediary JSC Rosoboronexport and independently, the corporation is fruitfully working on further promoting its products to the world market, searching for and conquering new niches in it. But task number 1 was, is and remains the state defense order, in the implementation of which the requirements and "standards" are much higher. It is clear that sometimes problems arise. They are caused mainly by the insufficient production capacity of the supplier enterprises, their unpreparedness to supply purchased components in the required volumes and on time.
“The problem is complicated by the uneven loading of production capacities by SDO tasks in terms of volumes and terms, which negatively affects the relationship between the prime contractors and contractors,” Boris Obnosov shared his observations. "In addition, the limits of budgetary allocations, planned by GPV-2020, are forcing to attract loans with rather high interest rates."
However, this is the scourge of our entire defense industry. Such loans, or rather the lack of reasonable rates on them, is a ubiquitous phenomenon. There is something to work on for the financial block of the government. Today the corporation devotes significant resources to the modernization of production, reconstruction of factory premises, the introduction of innovative technologies and processes. Therefore, cheap loans would not hurt.
According to GPV-2020, an almost complete update of guided weapons is being prepared. This work is carried out on the basis of the requirements of ensuring the country's security and taking into account the world trends in the development of weapons of warfare. New, significantly improved versions of anti-ship, anti-radar and multipurpose missiles are being created. About a dozen of such products have been tested. In the next three years, tests of another 10-12 samples are to be completed, including for the PAK FA.
Now the share of the state defense order is more than 70 percent of the total output. The enterprises of the corporation carry out tasks under 85 government contracts for the supply of serial products and repairs, servicing of weapons, military and special equipment. KTRV provides almost 100 percent of the deliveries of aviation weapons for the Russian army and over 70 percent for the naval. In the world market, the integrated structure accounts for about 10 percent of the production of aircraft weapons and more than 15 percent of the naval.
A significant part of the projects is being implemented in accordance with the Corporation's Innovative Development Program until 2020. A set of measures is envisaged for the formation of a scientific and technical reserve and the development of innovative potential, the advance creation and implementation of promising technologies, new solutions, the restructuring of the design, production and testing bases. More than 100 investment projects worth over 60 billion rubles are being implemented under the Federal Target Program for the Development of the Defense Industry Complex.
To achieve the set targets and development indicators, extensive interaction with the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as the leading research centers of the defense industry: GosNIIAS, VNIIAM, TsAGI, TsIAM, NIISU is envisaged. Without this, for example, it would have been impossible to master such an important and extremely complex area of "defense" as hypersound.
Development indicator
The state target program for the development of hypersonic technologies was developed and approved by the Ministry of Defense in 2015. In KTRV, the topic began to be dealt with long before that, using the Soviet backlog. According to Boris Obnosov, a powerful research and production cooperation has been formed for the implementation of the federal target program, capable of finding breakthrough solutions. The key goal is to keep the bar of deterrence against massive aggression against Russia at a high level in the foreseeable future by means of the advanced development of hypersonic systems that devalue the potential of a potential adversary in the field of territorial missile defense and a global disarming strike.
It is clear that similar programs are being implemented abroad, in particular in the USA, China, France, India. At one of the last international aerospace shows in Zhukovsky, I was able to ask the general director of the corporation a question about how far they have advanced in this area. Boris Obnosov then tactfully avoided a direct answer, saying only that such a weapon would not appear on the fly, it was necessary to unite the efforts of cooperation, years of work.
Now, assessing the state of work, Boris Viktorovich made his answer a little more concrete: “We can say that we are moving in parallel with our competitors and partners, and in some areas we are even ahead. The work is being carried out actively, we expect that the first full-scale model of a hypersonic rocket capable of a long flight in the atmosphere at a speed of Mach five or six or even more may appear by 2020”.
In this area, there are enough problems of a design, technological, and financial nature. This is not a cheap program, but it has the future for the development of not only weapons, but also the most promising civilian technologies. For those who are the first to master them, the ways of transition to a qualitatively new level in many areas of the development of science and technology will open.
Ensuring long-term hypersonic flight is a challenge for domestic engine builders. Difficult tasks have to be solved in terms of the filling of such an aircraft. Much is associated with high temperatures, therefore, a different element base is needed. And of course you need the right fuel.
The solution of all these tasks requires an integrated approach and serious cooperation, as Obnosov spoke about at MAKS. But in addition, the constant attention of the country's leadership is necessary, because the appearance of fundamentally new technological solutions that are important both for defense and for the economy as a whole, undoubtedly, entails an adjustment of state policy. For example, in import substitution.
Even the most proactive, enterprising leader is still dependent on many factors in solving this problem. This is the limited range of domestic analogues suitable for replacing imported element base, raw materials and materials, and the lack of a mechanism for budgetary financing of enterprises implementing replacement measures, and a long time for registration of R&D results, and a significant excess of the cost of our components over foreign ones.
Boris Obnosov believes that for the successful implementation of import substitution plans, it is necessary to provide a safety stock of components for a period of three to five years. It is necessary to decide the question of how they can be created. One of the possible solutions is to include their cost in the order of the Ministry of Defense.
Another option is to include the task in the FTP. The use of domestic elements in a product should be laid down at the initial stage of work on its creation, in staged research.
It is also necessary to revise some provisions of FZ-44. It states that any ROC must be completed by a certain date and for a sum of money that cannot be exceeded. But no OCD in the world can be carried out under such harsh conditions, unless, of course, the result is a positive effect, and not wasted funds.
In a word, when solving the problem of import substitution, one should remember the main goal - to make the final product cheaper both in the domestic and foreign markets without compromising quality.
From place of residence to place in the ranking
And yet the main thing in any enterprise is not iron, no matter how perfect it may be, but people. KTRV does not forget about this immutable truth. Therefore, significant resources are allocated to activities for the development of human resources and social programs.
The personnel policy of the corporation is aimed at ensuring competitiveness in the struggle for qualified specialists. Priority areas are optimization of the number and age composition of workers, increasing their educational level, pursuing a targeted strategy for rejuvenating labor collectives, improving the wage system, and housing construction.
In recent years, the age limit for qualified personnel in the defense industry has been steadily growing. Their aging and leaving the military-industrial complex have led to the fact that the personnel problem has acquired a state scale. But the corporation managed to form a coherent system of training specialists, thanks to which young people under the age of 35 make up a significant part - more than 30 percent of the company's employees.
To train qualified engineering personnel, KTRV on a contractual basis cooperates with the leading specialized universities of the country - MAI, Bauman Moscow State Technical University, MATI, Stankin Moscow State Technical University, Moscow State University of Instrument Engineering and Informatics, as well as with many well-known regional educational institutions. Applicants enter basic technical universities in the target area, undergo training in demanded specialties. More than 1600 students undergo industrial, technological, design and pre-diploma practice in the corporation annually. The enterprises have established and operate basic departments of universities, including the Moscow Aviation Institute and the Bauman Moscow State Technical University.
The program for the construction of housing for employees on preferential terms is being successfully implemented. In 2015, in Korolev, Moscow Region, the construction of four residential multi-storey buildings was completed, in which the corporation employees were provided with living space at a cost that was two times lower than the market value. Another project is next in line. Construction will be carried out on land allocated from the main industrial site of the enterprise.
A similar approach is carried out by many heads of the corporation's city-forming enterprises: in the Moscow region of Reutov and Khimki, in Dubna, Ryazan, Taganrog, Perm, and Orenburg. In total, according to the programs operating in the corporation, over 850 employees have become new settlers over the past five years. In the next two to three years, about 3,300 employees will be able to purchase apartments.
Thus, the corporation's social policy is oriented towards the new generation with a careful attitude towards veterans, the revival of the best traditions of organizing a healthy lifestyle and interesting leisure. The youth council is actively working, regular sports competitions, tourist rallies are held.
A well-thought-out social policy has a beneficial effect on the quality of products, the attitude of staff to work. If over the past two decades, the production of new models by all enterprises of the company was counted in units, then in the coming years, dozens of new systems of high-precision aviation and naval weapons will begin to come out of the corporation's workshops. By the end of 2016, KTRV has every reason to again be among the leading enterprises in the industry. Back in 2009, the corporation was awarded the first Golden Idea prize in the nomination For Contribution to the Development of Military Products. And two years earlier, Boris Obnosov was awarded the title of laureate of the national prize "Golden Idea" in the nomination "For personal contribution, initiative and diligence in solving problems of military-technical cooperation." According to the rating of Top-1000 Russian managers, he was included in the top five top managers of Russia in the Mechanical Engineering nomination.
In the world table of ranks, Tactical Missile Armament Corporation JSC takes 37th place (Top-100 of the world's largest manufacturers of military products according to the authoritative Defense News). According to the calculations of American analysts, KTRV ended 2015 with an indicator of proceeds from the sale of products of $ 2.39 billion, having increased by 11.2 percent compared to 2014. And in ruble terms, the proceeds increased by 36.2 percent, exceeding 160 billion rubles.
But it's not even about the awards or the top lines of the ratings. In its current composition, KTRV JSC, we can safely say, is a corporation of winners. It has accumulated a unique scientific, technical and production potential of enterprises, which makes it possible to successfully solve all the tasks of creating modern and advanced models and systems of guided missile weapons of various classes both in the interests of Russia and for expanding military-technical cooperation with foreign countries. Both the corporation's products and its unique experience are a matter of national pride.
