In November 2016, the Prime Minister of Ukraine V. Groisman, during his visit to the state enterprise "Antonov", made a statement about the government's intention in early 2017 to start adopting and implementing a program for the revival of the Ukrainian aviation industry in the medium term. But, neither then, nor now, the government failed to please aircraft manufacturers with such a document.
The only thing that was done was the development of a draft strategy for the revival of the Ukrainian aircraft industry until 2020. From the outside, this looks like an outright mockery of an industry capable of not only developing and conducting tests, but also mass-producing special equipment and aircraft engines, aircraft units and on-board equipment, helicopters and airplanes, as well as carrying out repair work and modernization of aircraft and training highly qualified specialists. The saddest thing is that it is planned to allocate just scanty funds from the state budget to support the Ukrainian aircraft industry …
It should be noted that for the entire period of the existence of the Ukrainian aviation industry, not a single development program was proposed that would be implemented and financed from the state budget. The only exception is, perhaps, the secret state program "Adept", in which funding was distributed in equal parts between the Ukrainian and Russian sides. Therefore, before developing a development program, one should figure out who, after all, brought the industry to such a deplorable state. What reasons motivate officials when they have been talking for two decades about the need to amend the documentation to create comfortable working conditions for the aviation industry, but at the same time do nothing concrete? Why is there no funding for state programs, and officials remember about aircraft manufacturers only when there is a need to show a new "achievement" of the Ukrainian aviation industry, created at the expense of foreign customers or at the expense of the enterprises themselves?
First of all, it is necessary to take certain steps aimed at overcoming the degradation of the scientific and technical capabilities of the design direction, because the institute of general designers has practically been liquidated. Roughly the same can be observed in industrial science. Currently, promising aircraft technologies are being developed practically without state support, on the initiative and at the expense of research institutes. Therefore, it is not surprising that the lion's share of such technologies was developed back in the 80s of the last century.
If we talk about the global aircraft industry, then there have been processes that are associated with the use of information technologies in production cycles, from the design stage and documentation to the logistics of sales of finished products, for quite a long time and effectively.
In Ukraine, this is out of the question. Moreover, they did not even bother to take an inventory of intellectual property, that is, there are no electronic registers of such property. This greatly facilitates its illegal sale, which causes irreparable damage to the national economy. Only a total inventory of intellectual property should have been a priority in government strategy. However, the need to change the management structure in the aviation industry is obvious only in words …
Of course, it would be rather naive and even stupid to believe that the five-year period specified by the government in the industry development strategy will be enough to bring the domestic aviation industry out of the deep crisis. This is especially obvious if we take into account the level of corruption in the government. Nevertheless, there is still a chance to bring the Ukrainian aircraft industry out of the abyss.
First of all, in the opinion of specialists from this sphere, it is necessary to withdraw the enterprises of the aviation industry from the sphere of management of the state concern "Ukroboronprom", transferring them to the direct subordination of the Cabinet of Ministers. Thus, it will be possible to balance the personnel policy and overcome the crisis in the scientific and technical capabilities of the industry, as well as to return to jobs thousands of specialists who have long found more promising occupations.
The creation of a holding, as suggested in the strategy, is unlikely to be a sufficiently effective step, since most of the industry's enterprises are in a difficult financial and economic situation.
It is necessary to restructure debts with their further write-off, as well as the temporary abolition of mandatory taxation, which will allow to use free funds to modernize and restore the industry. In addition, it is necessary as soon as possible to develop a list of priority projects (including international ones), which will be implemented with active government support. These projects should cover not only the aviation industry, but also the chemical and radio-electronic industry, as well as metallurgy.
In the future, it is possible to consider the possibility of creating a special fund for the development of the aircraft industry. The state could become a very serious investor of profitable and promising projects in such a fund.
Of course, there are still many scenarios and tools that can help bring the Ukrainian aviation industry out of the crisis and stimulate it to function actively and effectively, but first you need to start taking at least those minimal steps that will push this process. Until then, the situation is unlikely to change dramatically. And there will be nothing surprising in what happened to the Antonov enterprise …
For a clearer understanding of what is happening, you should start a little from afar. Not so long ago, the general director of the state concern R. Romanov (it was in 2017) wrote a letter to A. Turchinov, in which he reported on the disruption of the tasks of restructuring, distribution of shares, renovation of the production, testing and scientific base of Ukroboronprom enterprises due to incompetent actions of certain government agencies.
The situation around the Antonov enterprise started back in 2014. A. Yatsenyuk, who was then prime minister, held several meetings in order to understand where the financial flows from the activities of the state-owned enterprise in the international market go. At the same time, there was an attempt to establish control over the corporate rights of "Antonov", but nothing came of it, since the entire team came out to defend their leader D. Kiva. The second attempt was also unsuccessful, since O. Gladkovsky initiated the transfer of the state-owned enterprise under the control of Ukroboronprom. Then Yatsenyuk himself was asked to resign …
And yet somehow it turned out that the state enterprise "Antonov" is not run by the state at all. And the management of the state concern did not report on those intermediary companies that currently receive a significant share of revenues from air travel under the NATO program.
There is nothing difficult to find out that the founders of the company "Antonov Salis GmbH", which has leased seven aircraft of the state-owned enterprise, indicated P. Meischeider (a citizen of Germany), and the company itself is associated with this company only by the names of V. Movchan and A. Gritsenko, who combine positions in Ukrainian and German companies. There are two more names in the registration documentation of the German company: A. Manziy and V. Pashko. Theoretically, it is not difficult to establish who actually manages the state property and receives huge profits from the use of the company's aircraft. There would be a desire …
And somehow it seems completely unconvincing in this regard, the dismissal of D. Kiva, who was charged with the lack of transparency in the corporate assets management scheme and the lack of revenues from international transportation.
However, for some reason, the head of the NSDC was not informed about the British company either. This is DreamLifts LTD. It is worth noting that the UK has long become a kind of base for money laundering for the Ukrainian military-industrial complex. The Antonov enterprise signed a contract with this company for the modernization and maintenance of An aircraft. The British company is registered in London at the place of mass company registration. But there is one small "but": this company is mentioned in the investigations of journalists concerning Panamanian offshore companies. A lot of money laundering operations are associated with the registration address, obtained in a not entirely legal way. And the same address is mentioned in operations related to the illegal supply of weapons to the Middle East and Africa.
Representatives of the Ukroboronprom state concern, representing Ukraine in Dubai at the International Motor Show, announced that they had an American investor registered in the state of Delaware and ready to invest $ 150 million in the Antonov enterprise. Meanwhile, for many years it has already been in an extremely deplorable financial condition. And it is quite obvious that Ukroboronprom could not have been ignorant of him. In the spring of 2015, the NSDC apparatus sent a letter to the state concern, in which the structure of the debts of the Antonov State Enterprise was spelled out in detail. Some contracts have government guarantees. Moreover, there is even a decision of the London International Arbitration Court on certain obligations.
It should be said that this letter contains quite constructive proposals regarding the possibilities of improving the situation. Unfortunately, none of them have been implemented. Probably, the management of the state concern preferred to negotiate with an unknown American partner for two and a half years instead of taking any concrete and effective steps.
It should be noted that after the public signing of the so-called contract on investing $ 150 million in a Kharkiv state-owned enterprise, the site of an American investor changed dramatically within one week (and this arouses considerable interest and enough questions) - millions of passengers transported, thousands of purchased aircraft, a solid percentage growth of passenger and cargo traffic around the world.
It can be assumed that the management of the state concern, according to the old, but not good tradition, by the end of the year to show the results of its violent activity, failed to convey to its new American partner the main essence of the task - to find and give orders for the production of An-140 aircraft to the Antonov enterprise for sale. and An-74, as well as provide their repair and maintenance by training personnel. The problem lies in the fact that the Ukrainian side has provided guarantees that the funds received will not be used to eliminate debts.
If we talk about the management structure of Ukroboronprom, then we can recall how state officials of the highest level assured the public that superprofessionals work in the management of the state concern. In practice, it turned out that they need serious external support and advice from more qualified specialists, and they are even ready to pay millions of hryvnias from the state budget for this.
Thus, in the end, the Antonov enterprise not only lost control over cash flows from international air transportation, but, accordingly, a significant part of the income that went to the development of the state-owned enterprise and the payment of salaries. A promising market for the provision of support services for the use of An aircraft has been transferred to an American company with a very suspicious reputation, so you can probably forget about profits. The management of Ukroboronprom cannot independently ensure the search for promising customers for their enterprises, not to mention the implementation of measures aimed at their financial recovery. It is quite obvious that the state concern does not intend to create a network of international bases to support the operation of An aircraft, and, in fact, there is no one to do this, because, as it turned out, the state concern does not have qualified auditors and managers …
One gets the impression that the government is not reanimating the Ukrainian aircraft industry, but its complete destruction. Probably few people will be able to remember when the authorities financed applied or fundamental research in the field of aircraft construction, the development of new technologies or materials. Maybe we should start?..
