Not only "Lynxes" are found in the Altai Territory
“Before the collapse of the USSR, we were a leading defense enterprise,” recalls Vladimir Sarapov, a gunsmith with more than 40 years of experience, a veteran of the Altai instrument-making plant Rotor. - In the 90s, due to the lack of defense orders, workshops were closed, heating was turned off, workers were fired. Since 2000, the enterprise has begun to revive, acquire new connections."
The veteran's assessment is confirmed by official sources. At a meeting held last summer between the governor of the Altai Territory Alexander Karlin and Oleg Bochkarev, deputy chairman of the board of the Military-Industrial Commission, it was said that in the first half of 2015, regional defense industry enterprises demonstrated an enviable development dynamics - 110 percent in terms of the industrial production index.
Altai instrument-making plant "Rotor" was listed as the leading defense enterprise of the USSR since 1962 as a direct participant in the production of ballistic and then cruise missiles. In 1977, the enterprise carried out the first production of the Medveditsa-RTM navigation systems, which were used to equip second-generation multipurpose nuclear submarines. Rotor was the main contractor for the work on this topic. The year 1981 is remembered for the beginning of production of the Salyut system, which was used to equip strategic submarines and heavy nuclear missile cruisers Admiral Ushakov, Admiral Lazarev, Admiral Nakhimov, Peter the Great … Regarding the serial production of gyroscopic devices and navigation systems for the needs of the Soviet Navy, rotors were deservedly considered the first in the Soviet Union. But in the 90s, the enterprise experienced a severe crisis caused by the nullification of the state defense order. The unique enterprise, in order to survive, switched to the production of meat grinders.
The way out of the spin on the Rotor began in 2002, when Vladimir Konovalov became the general director. A professional and experienced organizer, he, together with a team of like-minded people, began to achieve economic sustainability and efficiency of the enterprise. "Rotor" managed to return to square one. Today the plant manufactures high-tech systems and individual devices, gyroscopic sensing elements for navigation systems of nuclear submarines and surface ships. The production of small-sized precision devices for promising multi-purpose navigation systems has been mastered. The plant performs maintenance and inter-trip repairs of previously released complexes and instruments installed on nuclear submarines and surface ships, including the heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser "Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Kuznetsov" and the TARKR "Peter the Great".
“We have been provided with defense orders until 2018,” says Irina Tsomaeva, Deputy Director General for Economics of JSC APZ Rotor. - Every year we master from 10 to 12 new developments of the Central Research Institute "Electropribor" from St. Petersburg and other domestic research institutes. The enterprise has an import substitution program - the production of components previously produced in Ukraine has been established."
Veteran "Rotor" Vladimir Sarapov, who came to the plant in 1973 after graduating from the Leningrad Electrotechnical Institute, worked both in the design bureau and as the head of the shop, and now heads the production and dispatch department, convincingly proves thatthat the enterprise is on the rise: “In 2000, military orders were only 25 percent with us. Now they have grown to 87 percent. To train the workers needed by the plant, they created their own training center. The salary of those who have just graduated from it is 28-30 thousand rubles. Unique specialists, experienced professionals earn from 60 to 117 thousand."
In the line of tires produced in Altai for
military and civil aviation around
40 models. Photo: airliners.net
BRM-3K "Rys" developed in Rubtsovsk
based on BMP-3. Photo: google.com
Maintenance and inter-trip
repair of navigation systems of heavy
nuclear missile cruiser
"Peter the Great" is underway
at the Rotor plant. Photo: topwar.ru
Altai Tire Plant, an enterprise with a half-century history, today is one of the largest in its industry, in the new century it is developing especially dynamically. In 2006, it won a tender for the supply of aircraft and automobile tires to the Ministry of Defense for the first time. The line of “footwear” for military and civil aircraft includes about 40 models.
In 2013, the equipment of the aircraft tire workshop purchased in Yaroslavl began to be installed at the AShK. Why was the unique equipment sold far away? The story is as simple as the market in which our "defense industry" has to work. YaShZ-Avia, which is part of a large tire holding, was initially separated as an independent production. However, it was not possible to survive in a narrow niche - the court declared the enterprise bankrupt. The plant equipment went under the hammer and was eventually taken to the Altai Tire Plant. Probably, the production conditions here turned out to be more suitable. In 2015, the production of tires at AShK increased, and not only for aviation, but also for ground military equipment. According to the military representative Vadim Baskirev, last year the enterprise fulfilled one hundred percent of the state defense order. Currently, the production is being modernized, and the output continues to grow.
Barnaultransmash counts its history from the Great Patriotic War, when from Stalingrad, literally under enemy fire, equipment of giant enterprises was removed from the destination Barnaul. Until the end of the war, Transmash had produced ten thousand engines for the thirty-fours, which made up a quarter of all tank engines manufactured in a hard time by Soviet factories.
Today the production volumes are not the same. And the crisis is testing its strength. The plant does not hide the fact that in order to fulfill defense orders, it was necessary to optimize production facilities. Barnaultransmash freed up 16,500 square meters of space, reduced heat and electricity consumption. All this allowed the plant to compensate for the increased costs for the main materials for the production of engines - aluminum and copper, as well as to keep prices for finished products, to save jobs and the level of income of employees. In 2013–2014, the enterprise increased its output by 50 million rubles. In 2015 - another 150 million. The main products of the plant are marine and industrial diesel engines.
By the way, transmash engines installed on tractors took part in the parade dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory.
The Barnaul Cartridge Plant dates back to the middle of the 19th century. Founded in St. Petersburg during the reign of Alexander II, the company became one of the first cartridge production facilities in Russia. In the First World War, the entire Russian army was supplied with its products. In Civic, when the threat of occupation of Petrograd arose, the plant was evacuated to Podolsk. With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, production was relocated to Barnaul. Cartridge factories from Moscow and Lugansk also went there. In fact, the production of all cartridges necessary for small arms was organized at the new enterprise. November 24, 1941, when the first batch of ammunition produced in the Altai land went to the front, was considered the birthday of OJSC “BPZ”. Throughout the war, the Barnaul plant supplied the front with cartridges of calibers 7, 62, 12, 7 and 14, 5 mm (with an armor-piercing incendiary bullet), as well as for the TT pistol. Every second cartridge made during the Great Patriotic War was Altai.
Over the 70 years that have passed since Victory Day, the plant, driven at different times, like any enterprise, by the need for development and survival, in addition to military products, has mastered the production of "peaceful" products - hunting cartridges.
In 2013, with the support of the regional administration, BPZ began to implement the investment project “Retrofitting and modernization of tool production”. In 2014, three new types of cartridges were mastered and introduced, two of which, according to knowledgeable people, have no analogues. Work continued on technical re-equipment and modernization, the number of employees increased. More than 25 new types of equipment have been purchased, installed and included in the production process only recently.
In 2015, the design development and delivery for production of a 7.62-mm rifle sniper cartridge with an armor-piercing bullet BS received the Altai Territory award in the field of science and technology in the nomination "R&D, culminated in the use of new technologies, equipment, devices, equipment, materials and substances, as well as the practical implementation of inventions, solutions in the field of management and finance."
The BPZ dealer club includes not only Russian companies, but also firms from near and far abroad.
Rubtsovskiy branch - NPK Uralvagonzavod was created as an enterprise for the production of tracked vehicles. The design assignment was approved on the eve of 1960 by the capital construction department of the regional economic council. In 1967, the Rubtsovsk Machine-Building Plant began to master parts and assemblies for the BMP-1. In 1973, the first command combat reconnaissance vehicles (BRM-1K) were manufactured by the workers of the RMZ on the basis of the Kurganmashzavod. In 1980, the serial production of the BMP-1KSh command and staff vehicle began. For the creation of the third generation commander's BRM, work on which was completed in 1993, the team was awarded the prize of the government of the Russian Federation. The plant managed to maintain this specialization, moreover, already in the 2000s, foreign orders appeared for parts and assemblies necessary for the modernization of the BMP-1.
On August 27, 2007, a presidential decree was signed on the creation of the research and production corporation Uralvagonzavod, which, among other enterprises, included OAO Rubtsovskiy Machine-Building Plant. Today, the BRM-3K "Lynx" commander's combat vehicle is manufactured here, designed to conduct military reconnaissance at any time of the year or day in conditions of limited visibility. The industrial potential of the enterprise, the focus on the production of special purpose tracked vehicles has been preserved, as well as the research base, the staff of one of the largest enterprises in Rubtsovsk.
A brief summary of the state of affairs in the industry at the request of the "VPK" correspondent was summed up by the regional administration. She is satisfied with the work of the Altai enterprises that carry out defense orders, and expects to strengthen the positive trends in 2016.
