The problem of after-sales service of weapons and military equipment has not yet been resolved
With the appointment of Sergei Shoigu as Minister of Defense, the military department, which was burned by outsourcing in the system of servicing weapons and military equipment, decided to switch to the so-called full life cycle contracts, when developers and manufacturing enterprises accompany their products from the moment of their creation to disposal.
In the organization of the new system, the profile departments of the Ministry of Defense are also actively involved, such as the Main Automobile Armor, the Main Missile and Artillery, and the defense industry enterprises, as well as the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Information is the god of repair
“After-sales service occupies one of the most important places in the system of maintaining equipment in working order. When everyone started talking about full life cycle contracts, they first of all meant service in the troops,”said Konstantin Tarabrin, head of the Department of Conventional Arms, Ammunition and Special Chemistry Industry, at a scientific-practical conference held at the Proekt-Tekhnika corporation.
In fact, the representative of the Ministry of Industry and Trade voiced the main problem that does not allow for the time being to introduce an effective system of full life cycle contracts. This is what the military and industrialists are currently trying to solve: who and when should repair and service weapons and military equipment?
Despite the fact that the Ministry of Defense has formally refused the corresponding services of the Spetsremont holding, the subsidiaries of the infamous Oboronservis, the armament and equipment in the troops are still being repaired by commercial organizations that have concluded contracts with the military department. True, now private traders are gradually being replaced by specialized centers created in the structure of military-industrial enterprises in connection with the transition to full life cycle contracts.
"After the government decree, the Ministry of Defense opened a joint project with KamAZ, which, as planned, will help solve possible difficulties," said a representative of the military department. As the head of the GABTU, Lieutenant-General Alexander Shevchenko, admitted in one of his speeches, the joint project has grown from ten million rubles to five billion in several years. At the present time, when the military-industrial complex has actually transferred all the repair enterprises that previously belonged to the Ministry of Defense, the plant workers also have the opportunity to carry out medium repairs with the modernization of weapons and military equipment.
The representatives of the Ministry of Defense interviewed by the "Military-Industrial Courier", who are familiar with the situation, did not express any special complaints about the work of the defense industry units.
“The industry has much better specialists, especially in fuel, electrical and other complex systems. Alas, there is no such level in the troops yet and, unfortunately, it is not expected in the near future,”says the officer in charge of organizing technical support. According to the interlocutor, the Russian army has always had problems with the availability of the required number of trained repair specialists. But at least there were some people. “When, during the transition to a new look, the repair bodies were sharply reduced, almost all specialists were fired or they left on their own. But they did not stay idle - they went to commercial firms, which are now repairing military equipment. If earlier they were my subordinates, now they just make money. As the saying goes, it's just business, nothing personal, "- the interlocutor of the" MIC "assessed the situation.
True, if the military has no complaints about the quality of repairs, then the very organization of work, according to respondents, leaves much to be desired. The same KamAZ has a developed system of service centers in regions throughout the country, well-established logistics and experience in working with a large number of orders. But so far not all enterprises can boast of such opportunities.
The industry leadership is actively working on the creation of regional service centers, but the situation remains quite difficult. And if automotive and partly armored vehicles can be repaired on the spot, then complex communication systems, air defense systems, electronic warfare have to be sent to specialized factories.
Information systems are designed to facilitate the work of service centers and field crews, which, as expected, should actually monitor the state of arms and military equipment in real time and not only report on the progress and volume of work performed in production, but also plan them, as well as immediately order the necessary spare parts. …
In particular, Proekt-Tekhnika, back in the fall of last year, equipped its working group, which works in Venezuela under a contract with the national Ministry of Defense and is responsible for maintaining a number of weapons and military equipment in good working order, including Ural vehicles, not only a mobile repair center, but also an automated information system (AIS). According to the chairman of the board of the corporation Shavasp Kalashyan, such a decision made it possible to be aware of what works are being carried out and to participate in the process in real time.
AIS is based on a mobile information terminal containing the necessary documentation, in particular, spare parts catalogs, work performance calculations and the so-called machine passports, where employees enter information. The necessary spare parts are ordered through the same resource. All the data received is displayed on a special mobile device, one of which was transferred to the head of the logistics department of the armed forces of Venezuela, and you can online not only monitor the progress of work, but also track the equipment health and receive other information necessary at the moment.
Work on the creation of similar information systems is being carried out by several enterprises at once. But AIS "Proekt-Tekhniki" is still a leader in this direction.
With civilians in the train
It is not only the small number of regional service centers that hinders the establishment of a system of AME after-sales service.
“In peacetime and at the point of permanent deployment, the system may not be perfect, but it works. However, as soon as the exercises begin, everything goes to hell,”complains an officer in charge of technical support in one of the motorized rifle brigades.
And the point is not only in the imperfection of the legal framework, which in some places requires serious revision, the main thing is the lack of understanding where, as the head of the GABTU Alexander Shevchenko put it in one of his speeches, the watershed passes, which will determine when the military will repair the equipment, and when the factory specialists …
According to the leadership of the Ministry of Defense, the military should be responsible for the repair of weapons and military equipment from the moment they enter the range or participate in hostilities. But so far, according to regulatory documents, this area of responsibility still belongs to service centers and enterprises. And this is where the problems begin.
To send employees who have to carry out the repair of weapons and military equipment during the exercise, firms are forced to find travel allowances. Until recently, they were not provided for by the concluded contracts and were actually taken from the working capital of the organization itself. Often, not only the banal desire to save money, but also the actual lack of the necessary funds forced the management of the companies not to send employees to the landfills.
“This problem is especially acute if the military units assigned to the service center leave the point of permanent deployment for long distances. You don't just have to send people. They must have equipment, spare parts and other property. To transport all this, you need to order road, rail, and sometimes air transportation. Okay, if you just worked - and go home. And what if like in 2014, when the troops were on the border with Ukraine for several months? The employees had to be fed, constantly sent spare parts. Our pricing system does not allow us to calculate in advance how much should be included in the contract for these needs,”says an industry representative.
Another acute problem faced by service centers is the inability to carry out a full-fledged storage of spare parts, components and assemblies, since the governing documents strictly indicate that the military acceptance authorities give the go-ahead for the work performed only if the replaced assemblies and assemblies are of the current year of manufacture. Last year's are no longer allowed. Therefore, service centers cannot create full-fledged long-term stocks.
According to the "Military-Industrial Courier", during the recent exercises associated with a surprise check, several military units had a particularly acute problem with the lack of spare parts in their service centers. The commanders and personnel were forced to wait for the arrival of the ordered components and assemblies from the factory.
It is clear that the current situation does not suit either the military or the industry. But the production workers do not plan to give up military repairs yet.
In particular, it is planned to make such changes to the existing documents that would allow, if necessary, to transfer military units, as well as individual units departing on a business trip or for exercises from one regional service center to another. “It's like having a personal car. There are manufacturer's dealerships. For example, you left your region for another. You can also contact the service center there and have your car repaired,”explains Konstantin Tarabrin.
But what if there is a war? In this case, the Ministry of Industry and Trade proposes to deploy so-called mobile repair (service) centers, which will include representatives of different enterprises. According to the plan, through the use of specialized vehicles, mobile containers and quick-deploying tents, such centers will be able not only to carry out any repairs, including medium, but also to be quite mobile.
But we must not forget that immediately after the resignation of Anatoly Serdyukov from the post of defense minister, the military department made very serious efforts to restore the repair organs. In particular, the Ministry of Defense entered into a three-year contact with the already mentioned Project-Technics corporation for several billion rubles for the supply of the latest MTO-UB "flyers", REM-KL repair and recovery vehicles and other products. On the basis of the BAZ "Voshchina" chassis, repair and evacuation means and special vehicles for the repair of the latest anti-aircraft missile systems, in particular the S-400, have already been developed and are being tested.
“In fact, the proposed mobile centers, not only in combat conditions, but also during exercises, replace the existing repair units of the brigade-army link. Yes, relatively recently, our units and divisions did not have modern repair equipment. But now it is actively supplied to the troops. Then what is the point of duplicating functions ?! It is clear that the plant workers want to earn and earn good money. For example, what status will a service center employee have in a war zone? He is not a military man, which means he cannot be a "combatant". Okay, if he is repairing cars in the rear, but suppose he went to the battlefield to evacuate a damaged tank? Then how to be? " - the representative of the Ministry of Defense expresses his bewilderment. According to the interlocutor, in matters of military repair there should be a clear division of areas of responsibility between the military and industry. Otherwise, everything will turn into a senseless waste of public money.
True, not all respondents agree that a tough division is needed. Modern technology is so complex that in the process of training and operation, the participation of representatives of both the developer and manufacturers is nevertheless necessary.
“In a war, a unit commander is responsible for completing a combat mission and for combat readiness. For example, in preparation for the offensive, the tank's side gearbox broke down, the labor intensity of the work was about 150 hours. So what? The crew of the tank will declare that service services are responsible for this, and will not go into battle? Tankers and military remodelers must carry out the entire scope of work prescribed in the manual for the operation of weapons and military equipment. And if it is said that the crew must be able to carry out TO-1 and TO-2, then there are no options. The task of the mobile centers is to provide assistance to the military, primarily when carrying out technically complex work. For example, a battalion is on a march - the center must be ready to provide the necessary means of evacuation and repairs,”explains an industry representative.
According to the "VPK", the Ministry of Defense has opened research work on the introduction of an after-sales service system for weapons and military equipment, designed for one or two years. It is expected that following the results of research, in which the industry is also involved, new standards will be developed, the necessary changes will be made to the legislative base and combat documents, which will finally solve the problem.
Colleagues' experience
What is the situation with the after-sales service of weapons and military equipment in other Russian power structures?
According to a representative of the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, his department not only did not test outsourcing, but did not even carry out economic calculations. “Outsourcing was neither needed nor interesting to us. Therefore, in the internal troops and preserved repair bodies. And there is no problem when we go out to teach. We are completely self-sufficient, which is confirmed by the experience of fighting the bandit underground in the North Caucasus."
Moreover, the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs have been fruitfully cooperating with industry for a long time in the development of modern repair and evacuation means. So, for the special motorized military units (SMU) operating in the city, together with the Project-Technics corporation, on the basis of the GAZ-3308 truck, an MTO-1 machine was developed, which is capable not only of evacuating out-of-service SMVC vehicles, but also of repairing. According to representatives of the internal troops, if necessary, MTO-1 can be used together with special equipment of the rescue units of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
