One of the reasons that the "cold" war never became "hot" is the undoubted strength of the Soviet Army, which forced even the most violent heads in the West to think about the consequences of possible aggression. At the same time, they feared not only the size of a potential enemy - even Suvorov implemented the principle of "fighting with skill." And with him - that is, taking into account modern realities, with the quality of weapons - the Soviet Union was all right …
Ustinov staked on tactical and operational-tactical nuclear weapons
Of course, we must thank the generations of military specialists for this, who for decades have been forging the military might of the army. But still, one cannot fail to highlight the special role that Dmitry Fedorovich Ustinov played in this difficult and tense work, and long before he became Minister of Defense - and one of the best in this post. Curiously, he was not a military leader in the traditional sense of the word - he did not lead regiments into the attack, did not command large formations, but was engaged in coordinating the actions of the military-industrial complex. And, as it turned out, it was his management decisions that played a huge role.
However, Ustinov also managed to fight. He was born into a working class family who fled from hunger from his native Samara to Samarkand. There, at the age of 14, the future marshal became a fighter of a special purpose unit, a Komsomol member, fought with the Basmachi in the ranks of the 12th Turkestan regiment of the Red Army. But then there were enough skilled craftsmen to wave a saber and shoot a pistol - the young republic, located in a hostile ring, no less needed qualified military-technical specialists without the burden of the "old-regime" past, but there were not enough of them then. Like many of the best Komsomol members, he strove to become an engineer and Ustinov, who already in peacetime, in the 1920s, graduated from a vocational school, the mechanical faculty of the Polytechnic in Ivanovo-Voznesensk, the Bauman School and the Leningrad Military Mechanical Institute. The young specialist received excellent training, and it was useful to him more than once later.
He began his career as a "technocrat" from the Leningrad Artillery Scientific Research Naval Institute, became the head of the direction, proved himself well and in 1938 was appointed director of the Bolshevik plant (formerly Obukhovsky steel), which supplied the army with guns. There, 30-year-old Ustinov showed himself to be a tough, but competent leader, who was able not only to make effective decisions, but also to find new technological moves. His successes in the very first year were celebrated with the Order of Lenin, and at the beginning of 1941 he was appointed People's Commissar of Armaments and from that time began to play one of the leading roles in the fate of not only the army, but also industry. It is worth noting that in the most difficult years, Ustinov not only provided the troops with the necessary amount of equipment, but, as the outcome of the war showed, achieved more significant successes than his German "colleague" Albert Speer, who also at a young age began to lead the military industry. As you can see, the trust that Stalin had in the first "purely Soviet" generation of managers was not in vain …
In the post-war years, the development of the most advanced types of weapons is associated with the name of Ustinov, first of all, rocket weapons, the creation of which he supervised as a representative of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. Ustinov determined the most promising projects with a well-intentioned look of an engineer, made sure that they passed the test tests as soon as possible and entered the army. He was also behind the development of the first Soviet nuclear submarine, air defense systems S-75, S-125, S-200, S-300, and in the 1970s, thanks to his efforts, the navy became the most powerful in the history of the country.
The appointment of Ustinov to the post of minister in 1976 was perceived ambiguously both in the army, where they would like to see a combat general in this post, and in the West, where it was decided that the managerial engineer would not pose a particular danger. But it was under Ustinov that significant changes took place not only in the structure of the army, but also in military doctrine. The new minister decisively broke with the traditional approach, which was to create an armored "fist" and increase readiness for a fierce, but non-nuclear war in Central Europe and the Far East.
Ustinov, on the other hand, relied on tactical and operational-tactical nuclear weapons, and chose the European direction as a strategic one. It was with him that the R-12 (SS-4) and R-14 (SS-5) monoblock medium-range missiles were replaced by the latest development of the RSD-10 Pioneer (SS-20). In the early 1980s, operational-tactical complexes OTR-22 and OTR-23 "Oka" began to be deployed on the territory of Czechoslovakia and the GDR, which made it possible to "shoot through" the entire FRG, which, in the event of the outbreak of war, was the first to become a theater of military operations. Under the leadership of the minister, the Topol and Voyevoda intercontinental ballistic missiles were developed, the army received T-80 tanks with a gas turbine engine, BMP-2 and BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles, Su-27, MiG-29, Tu-160 aircraft, an airborne combat vehicle capable of landing with the crew, aircraft-carrying cruisers … Then a real panic began in the USA and NATO: they had to hastily change their plans and prepare not for an attack, but for a limited nuclear conflict in Europe, where they would be the defending side. Fortunately for the whole world, this never happened, but Ustinov spoiled a lot of nerves to his Western opponents.
Eight years, during which he headed the Ministry of Defense, were marked by the most active use in military affairs of all the achievements of the scientific and technological revolution. Then, in fact, weapons were created, which remain relevant to this day and serve as the basis for further development. The Soviet military-industrial complex, combining the most modern scientific and technological approaches, became the best monument to Marshal Ustinov, and it is not his fault that later much of what was created under his leadership was simply destroyed …
