The High-Precision Complexes holding (part of the Rostec state corporation) was formed in 2009. Judging by the brand's popularity in Russia and abroad, the consolidation of the scientific and technical potential of specialized enterprises was successful. Not every integrated structure can boast of such results as "High-precision complexes". What is the secret of such a powerful leap? What are the prospects?
Any integrated structure, as you know, is strong primarily by subsidiaries and developed cooperation. JSC NPO High-Precision Complexes is no exception in this respect. It is extremely interesting to look at the work of enterprises in the region, which until recently was considered depressed. In particular, such as JSC TsKBA, JSC Tulatochmash, TsKIB SOO, PJSC TOZ, JSC Scheglovsky Val, JSC KBP.
Everything will change, but the skill will never
Viktor Sigitov, General Director of the Joint Stock Company Central Design Bureau of Apparatus Building (JSC TsKBA), has been at the enterprise for over 30 years. He started from the bottom. But in difficult times, in 1999, it was he who had to take on the burden of responsibility for the entire work collective.
TsKBA traces its history back to October 1969, when a Special Design Bureau (SKBTM) was formed on the premises of the Tula Precision Machine Building Plant (SKBTM) to manufacture completely new products for those times - training aids (simulators) for training operators and calculations of guided weapon systems of the Ground Forces …
Then the air defense systems "Igla", "Strela", anti-tank complexes "Konkurs", "Fagot", "Metis", "Malyutka" appeared. With the expectation of these developments, the enterprise was created, which since 1974 gained independence. In a short time, the team mastered the serial production and delivery of simulators to the troops for gunners of anti-tank, tank and anti-aircraft missile systems.
In parallel with the training theme, a new direction developed - the design of equipment for radio-electronic, radio engineering, television control systems. The main result of the enterprise's activities at that time was the creation of a radar control system for the all-weather multipurpose anti-tank complex "Chrysanthemum-S".
Largely thanks to Viktor Sigitov and the management of the enterprise in the difficult 90s, it not only survived, but also retained its scientific and technical potential, invested in the creation of unified computer simulators for the preparation of modern complexes of high-precision weapons. This made it possible from 1998 to 2006 to supply the Russian Armed Forces with 17 unified simulators based on modern computer technologies, in particular for the operators of the Metis, Konkurs, Kornet anti-tank systems and others.
Since 2004, the development of weapons systems for the Pantsir-S1 air defense missile system began here, in particular, the equipment for transmitting commands to the rocket and its input into the beam of the optical target tracking system, the manufacture of radio transmission and radio receiving systems, a monopulse feed of the antenna array, an electrical switching unit, a signal re-emission device with a Doppler frequency shift.
This made it possible to start serial production of components of the radar for deliveries to foreign customers and the Russian army. Foreign contracts also included classroom and mobile simulators for preparing calculations for the Pantsir-S1 air defense missile system, Krasnopol and Berezhok guided weapon systems. In 2010, the radar module (RLM) of the target detection station for the Pantsir-S1 air defense missile system was created and launched into series.
In 2011, the enterprise started producing simulators for equipping the country's first brigade combat training center. In the radar direction, a surveillance radar was designed and manufactured for security systems of especially important state facilities.
Today it produces simulators for the crews of infantry fighting vehicles and tanks: BMPT, BMP-2, BMP-3, BMD-2, BMD-4, T-72, T-80, T-90, artillery systems. D-44, 2S3, as well as for training simulators for specialists of artillery units of the TOS-1A heavy flamethrower system and others. Moreover, not primitive samples, which were seen in Soviet times, but high-performance computer systems with a highly realistic visualization system.
I walked through the shops and saw the enthusiasm with which people work. Perfect cleanliness, the realm of electronics, the latest machine tools, laser cutting of metal.
“We have delivered simulators to no less than 30 countries of the near and far abroad,” says Viktor Sigitov. - And today, wherever "Pantsir" goes, our equipment is ordered there. It was the export component that gave us in the past years the profit that allowed us to get on our feet and develop successfully. But in recent years, the state defense order has also grown, the volume of which is 80 percent."
According to Sigitov, the company currently employs 1,600 highly qualified specialists. “It all started with a mill,” the director recalls with a smile. “Once upon a time there was an old mill on the territory of the Maslovskaya industrial testing site, where we are.”
In 1999, the company went through a crisis, out of 2,500 employees, only 340 remained. And now young people are rushing here. They take on a competition from Tula University - 20-30 people annually. A fusion of maturity and youth is forged. There is no staff turnover, the average salary has increased to 45-47 thousand rubles.
CDBA are entrusted with the ROC, which opens up good prospects, including in the main radio engineering direction. Among the latest developments is a radar module with an active phased antenna array of the target detection station for "Pantsir". The new AFAR will allow, in particular, to double the target detection range of the Pantsir-SM air defense missile system, which is at the testing stage. According to the first deputy general director - chief designer of the RTS, Alexander Khomyakov, the station will detect small targets at a distance of up to 70 kilometers, and aircraft - up to 100 kilometers. A multifunctional radar station with a phased antenna array has also been developed at TsKBA for the Pantsir-SM air defense missile system. The product is complex, suffice it to say that there are about 40 thousand phase shifters in it. When using it, the firing range will increase to 40 kilometers.
Among other experimental developments of TsKBA is a sea-based detection station.
TsKBA for the first time manufactured an experimental batch of ground and air target detection radars for the Kornet-D1 ATGM (based on the Tiger vehicle). The identification system allows detecting air and ground targets at a distance of 15 kilometers.
One of the promising developments is the meteorological complex for probeless measurement of the wind profile, made by order of the missile forces and artillery. Until the end of 2016, it will be certified as a measuring instrument.
High competence enables the company to successfully solve current problems and work for the future. There is no burden of old concepts, which makes creative research easier. Instead of drawing boards, computer modeling and design. This speeds up bringing the idea to metal. The same locator for the Pantsir detection station was developed in just two years.
In general, the products of JSC "CKBA" meet the highest international standards.
In 1996 Russia was invited to the first Eurosatory exhibition in France.
“Your humble servant was part of the KBP delegation and sheikhs and foreign military specialists walked around our exposition,” recalls Viktor Sigitov. - For the first time there was shown a simulator for training operators "Kornet". The French became interested and offered cooperation with Thomson, but TsKBA signed an agreement with the RF Ministry of Defense for the creation of ATGM training facilities using computer technology. Since then, they have been practicing simulators for the Ground Forces for 20 years. They are also being created for the latest armored vehicles: "Armata", "Kurganets", "Boomerang".
Externally, the simulators look like ordinary iron boxes. But the main secret is inside. I was forbidden not only to enter, but also to take pictures. Just look, as they say, with one eye. It was possible to notice that the simulator has several displays in a row, as, apparently, in the Armata tank, the most modern means of communication, mechanization and automation, due to which a real combat situation is simulated. Moreover, the simulators are very reliable (they work 8-16 hours a day) and are easy to operate, which allows operators to train and shoot at moving targets within a week.
“The simulators are designed, manufactured, factory tested and await state tests,” Sigitov explained. "Once completed, they will be mass-produced."
Simulators for the Pantsir air defense missile system can simultaneously provide training for six combat vehicles at once. Radar, thermal imaging and video environments are being created for them. That is, full adaptation to reality. The central machine itself finds targets, distributes them between calculations. The crews of combat vehicles begin to defeat the assigned targets.
The huge hall (workshop) has a strict atmosphere: clean floors, white coats of employees, bright daylight, huge displays on the wall, where information is displayed, for example, about the target and the shot of a grenade launcher. It can be seen that the enterprise is on the rise, is carrying out a large number of R&D projects, young people have also reached out here, and old personnel who have not lost their qualifications are returning. All over it is felt that people are not serving their number, but working for the future. It is not for nothing that, apparently, in the shops of these enterprises the feeling that I was at a super-modern European enterprise somewhere in Lyon, and not in Tula, did not leave all the time.
The Central Design Bureau for Sporting and Hunting Weapons (TsKIB SOO is a branch of the Instrument-Making Design Bureau JSC) is also keenly aware of the pulse of the times and the challenges of the era. For the first time in the world, TsKIB SOO has proposed, developed and put into service a system of active protection of tanks - from hand grenade launchers to ATGMs. No army has such weapons.
A unique two-medium special assault rifle (ADS) was immediately created, which will be supplied under contracts to the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB, the Russian Guard, to other power structures, as well as for export. According to Aleksey Sorokin, director of the TsKIB SOO branch, serial production will begin in 2017. A large number of applications have already been received, including from abroad. The amphibious assault rifle is capable of firing both on land and under water. A unique modification is ready, which is not yet intended for widespread display.
It also produces the original PP-2000 and GSh-18 submachine guns - the lightest in the world. As a reserve officer, I especially liked him. It is very convenient to hold it in your hand, therefore, to aim. The weight of the pistol is only 490 grams. The magazine holds 18 rounds, including the special 7N31 armor-piercing round, which pierces a steel sheet eight millimeters thick at a distance of ten meters. By the way, the name was given to him by the first letters of the names of the developers Vasily Gryazev and Arkady Shipunov.
A grenade launcher with an original layout and a pump-action reloading scheme for the GM-94 is extremely popular, in demand among the troops. It enters the Armed Forces under the LPO-97 nomenclature and is intended mainly for combat in urban conditions, has a thermobaric shot.
There are many orders for the AGS easel grenade launcher, which weighs only 16 kilograms (for comparison: the best American easel grenade launcher weighs 47 kg). It is resistant to shooting, easy to operate. And with the use of the PAG-17 sight, the effective range of fire increases to 2100 meters. There are already modernized samples in which the characteristics are significantly exceeded, a new grenade has been made.
Work in TsKIB SOO and on a promising sniper complex (weapons, aiming, ammunition), which will include the OTs-03 sniper rifle. Its size is only 90 centimeters, which distinguishes the sample from the long-barreled SVD. Testing is scheduled to be completed next year.
They also produce the MTs 116R sporting rifle, which has become the best in serious international competitions in shooting at 800, 900, 1000 yards. It is in great demand, but so far there is no need to talk about an increase in production, since all capacities are loaded with the implementation of the state defense order. Although the expansion has already been dealt with here. As the head of the enterprise Alexei Sorokin said, within several years TsKIB SOO will start producing 8-15 thousand units of civilian products per year.
Such samples as a special revolver OTs-38, a two-medium machine gun ADS, and some others have no analogues in the world at all. In general, today there are about 40 promising developments in production: weapons, military weapons, civilian nomenclature.
Selection by "Competition"
Tula Arms Plant is the oldest enterprise in Russia. There are only a few like him all over the world. From the first days of its existence, the plant issued a full range of small arms and knives for the army, and became a reliable arsenal of the Fatherland.
Today, a large-scale modernization is underway here: new buildings are being built, the shooting complex is being reconstructed. Work continues to improve the IT infrastructure, a modern fault-tolerant data center has been put into operation. The first building of mechanical assembly production was put into operation, where modern jobs were created, which made it possible to attract talented youth. At the expense of the enterprise, personnel are trained in TulSU and MSTU "Stankin". While in Tula, he witnessed the grand opening of the Physics and Mathematics School named after the outstanding gunsmith Arkady Shipunov.
The main products of the enterprise are high-precision anti-tank missiles with a tandem warhead 9M113M, designed to destroy armored vehicles equipped with reactive armor; nine-millimeter small-sized assault rifles, having the size of a submachine gun, but significantly exceeding it in effective firing range and striking manpower, unarmored vehicles at a distance of up to 200 meters; nine-millimeter special AC submachine guns and special VSS sniper rifles with an aiming range of 400 meters, designed for silent, flameless firing.
“98 percent of the company's proceeds are our Konkurs anti-tank guided missiles and others. "Competition" is a fairly old product, but also the most popular. Its characteristics are still satisfied with many armies of the world, including the Russian one,”notes the general director of TOZ PJSC Ilya Kurilov. “There are practically no unattainable targets for this missile, there are only limitations associated with the design that was laid earlier - in terms of firing range and power.”
But for the Konkurs ATGM, supplies of a modernized missile with a tandem warhead and a protruding mechanism, capable of overcoming the dynamic protection of modern tanks, have already begun. The range of destruction increased to four kilometers (the American FGM-148 Javelin has two kilometers). Office over a wired communication line. Armor penetration - 800 millimeters. This is the thickness of the armor of almost all modern tanks, including the Abrams, Merkava and others.
To expand the line, the plant put into production the main units of a new product that fires at a much greater distance, has a different power, physical principles of control. In particular, in accordance with the current and prospective contracts with JSC KBP, in 2016, the first serial batches of units and parts of the 9M133M-2 Kornet-M product were manufactured, Kurilov explains: and ten kilometers. The products are sold both to the state customer and through the military-technical cooperation."
Two more new products were put into production in 2015 - an upgraded special rifle and a modernized special assault rifle. Now there is a good demand for them, including through the state defense order. They are so good (I shot, I confirm) and, alas, are secret that they are not supplied to foreign customers. But there is already their modernization. Under the Ratnik program, a new product was produced, which was put into service. Its characteristics are improved relative to previous samples.
Recently, the Tula Arms Plant has purchased more than 100 modern CNC machines, on which the products are manufactured. It is not surprising that over the past five to six years, the company's revenue has grown 11 times and is about ten billion rubles. The plant operates social programs, a new sports complex has been built, and a football and hockey team has been created. Thus, the problems that the plant experienced in the 1990s - early 2000s are over. TOZ today is one of the ten best enterprises in the country, many of the weapons produced here have no analogues.
And the plans of the management are connected with new orders and the final re-equipment of the plant.
15 years and all life
And yet, most of all, the production and workshops of the subsidiary enterprise of JSC KBP, JSC Shcheglovsky Val, amazes the imagination. Not only because it is one of the most modern and computerized enterprises, which is exactly 15 years old these days. But also because several years ago I already managed to visit here, when the leader and legendary designer, developer of automatic small arms for aircraft, sea and land, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Hero of Socialist Labor Arkady Georgievich Shipunov was alive.
I saw then how much soul and love he puts into his brainchild, with what reverence and respect the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian government communicates with him. Perhaps, thanks to Shipunov's foresight, his efficiency and perspicacity, the enterprise was able to survive in the 90s and grow to its full height. But this took the last 15 years and the whole life of Shipunov.
JSC Shcheglovsky Val was initially focused exclusively on KBP products. Today it is a steadily developing enterprise, equipped with modern high-precision equipment and staffed with highly qualified personnel, headed by General Director Vladimir Popov. This is a new modern production site of the KBP, where work is being carried out on the serial production of heavy military equipment, primarily such products as the Pantsir-S1 air defense missile system (since 2006), the BMP-2M Berezhok infantry fighting vehicle, a fighting compartment for the BMD "Bakhcha-U". The first contracts for Pantsir in 2006 were with a foreign customer. Our Ministry of Defense has tested this unique machine under more severe conditions and in 2009, supplies to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation began.
“When we first entered here, there were dilapidated workshops of a combine plant,” recalls Popov.- Complete devastation reigned, there were not even floors, and in their place, dirty pits filled with machine oil …"
A group of initiative employees rushed into the battle to create an assembly shop at the direction of Arkady Georgievich Shipunov. In the shortest possible time - in three years, a shop appeared, in which they first began to assemble BMD-4.
As in other enterprises of the Tula defense industry complex, there is a parallel modernization of equipment, in particular the Pantsir-S1 air defense missile system, the Bakhcha-U and Berezhok combat modules. The tests of the prototypes confirmed the correctness of the adopted circuitry and design solutions, the achievement of high characteristics of weapons and military equipment. Thus, the BMP-2 increased its combat effectiveness seven to ten times.
In the early years of its existence, Shcheglovsky Val JSC carried out work in two directions. A large-scale reconstruction of the production base was carried out to create a closed production and technological cycle, mainly for the manufacture of products "Bakhcha-U", "Pantsir-S1", "Berezhok". And the development of new units for the production of KBP products. The machining workshop was reconstructed, new modern equipment was launched.
The developments of "Bakhcha", "Berezhok", "Bereg" made it possible to increase the combat efficiency to the level of the best modern world models and even surpass them. The modules are based on a unified automated fire control system, as well as:
the Kornet and Arkan anti-tank missile family;
a family of 30 mm automatic cannons 2A42 and 2A72;
100-mm gun-launcher 2A70 with ammunition for guided missiles "Arkan" and unguided rounds "Cherry";
30-mm automatic grenade launcher with ammunition for GPD-30 grenades.
All this will be supplied to the Russian army, Oleg Sitnikov, chief designer of the enterprise, confirmed.
The brightest diamond in the crown of the armament produced at the Shcheglovsky Val JSC is the Pantsir-S1 air defense missile system. Today the car is known all over the world, it even took part in the Sochi Olympics. But not everyone knows that the ZRPK was born literally in agony. There were problems with the creation of a location channel, and an attempt to cooperate with specialized companies was unsuccessful. Shipunov decided to make the locator himself, although the KBP did not have the competence. And yet, in two years, the locator turned out.
The uniqueness of the "Pantsir" lies precisely in the deployment on the basis of each combat vehicle of the most modern radar-optical means of detecting and tracking targets and two effective types of anti-aircraft weapons - missile and cannon. This provides a continuous target engagement zone at a range of up to 20 kilometers and an altitude of up to 15 thousand meters. The combat capabilities of the Pantsir-S1 air defense missile system make it possible to effectively combat any types of manned and unmanned aerial attack vehicles, including airborne high-precision weapons in various climatic and electronic environments day and night. It can work equally well both in the Middle East at temperatures up to plus 50 degrees, and in the Arctic.
All processes of combat work are automated, and the crew is left with only the tasks of observation and control. Computing means of a combat vehicle select the most dangerous targets for shelling and automatically determine the use of missile or cannon weapons. Each vehicle fires up to four targets simultaneously and can operate both autonomously and as part of a battery, including on the move. This allows it to be used to cover columns of military equipment during marches. There is not a single machine in the world that would work with such precision on the go.
Its uniqueness lies in the fact that it is assembled from modules, it is completely autonomous, starting from topographic location to the destruction of the target. Shipunov created a fully digital machine. The level of self-diagnostics reaches 80–90 percent, and the crew can use the menu to determine the state of any system. In combat positions, it is fully integrated with such systems as the S-300, S-400 air defense systems, all exchange protocols are implemented. It can also fight unmanned aerial vehicles with a small reflective surface. No wonder the Olympic Games in Sochi were entrusted to guard the "Pantsir". And at the Victory Parade in Moscow, there were six samples of KBP and Shcheglovsky Val equipment: Kornet ATGM on the Tiger chassis, Pantsir-S1 air defense missile system, Bakhcha BMD, Kurganets, Armata combat squads, "Boomerang". None of the Russian design bureaus can boast of such a set.
“KBP know-how is the manufacture of target tracking radars and missiles for the Pantsir-S1 air defense missile system,” says Popov. “There is no radar with such dimensions and performance characteristics in the world”.
In 2018, there will be a new "Carapace" tracked for the Ground Forces. In the same year, they will begin to produce the already modernized Pantsir-SM air defense missile systems on a new platform from KamAZ. “In two years, I think, we will come to the production of a fundamentally new pilot batch of ZRPK,” Popov lifts the veil of secrecy. "This will be a means of a fundamentally new class." With a range of one and a half times, or even two times more. And with the expansion of the class of targets to be hit.
… Speaking at the solemn meeting dedicated to the 15th anniversary of Shcheglovsky Val JSC, Director General of NPO High-Precision Complexes JSC Alexander Denisov said that 15 years is a young age for the enterprise, but a lot has been done over the years. Today it is the most modern site for the serial assembly of the WTO, and the contribution made by Shcheglovsky Val to the equipment of the Russian Armed Forces can hardly be overestimated. There are no enterprises in the country that would have been repeatedly visited by the country's president, prime minister, defense minister, chief of the General Staff so many times.
Changes for the better indicate that a qualitative change has come for the country's defense industry as a whole. The defense shield of Russia was, is and remains not subject to the corrosion of time, as well as the glorious military traditions of the Tula gunsmiths.
