It is fraught with an even greater lag in the creation of high-precision aviation weapons
When discussing ways to revive the domestic defense-industrial complex, it is constantly said that without every defense industry worker realizing the need for a technological breakthrough for Russia, full dedication in fulfilling the assigned tasks, the financial resources allocated to equip the army and navy with modern weapons can be spent ineffectively. To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to consider the range of problematic issues, taking into account the main driving force in any business - a person, his quality of life.
Main advantages
Since the beginning of the 90s of the XX century, for the leading countries of the world, the determining factor of military rivalry has become not only the quantity of this or that type of weapon. The first place was taken by qualitative characteristics, the growth of which is mainly due to the use of new technologies.
An analysis of hostilities in military conflicts of the last decade shows that the share of high-precision aviation weapons in the total amount of weapons used has sharply increased - from seven percent (the war in the Persian Gulf in 1991) to 70 (the war in Iraq in 2003, in Libya in 2011 -m), primarily guided aerial bombs. Let us bring the ratio of WTO units to the total number of bombs and missiles used in various operations: "Desert Storm" (Iraq, 1991) - 20500/256000, "Decisive Force" (Yugoslavia, 1999) - 8000/23000, "Enduring Freedom" (Afghanistan, 2001) - 12500/22000, "Freedom for Iraq" (Iraq, 2003) - 20000/29000.
Nowadays, in all economically developed states, paramount importance is attached to equipping existing and promising aircraft systems with high-precision weapons, in particular, UABs. This is primarily due to the fact that the concepts of using the armed forces have changed: the dominant role is assigned to combat aviation, delivering pinpoint and highly effective missile and bomb strikes.
Guided aerial bombs are being developed in the United States, Great Britain, France, Israel, China, Australia, South Africa, Iran, and Ukraine. The leaders here are undoubtedly the Americans, who also supply UABs to various countries around the world. The range of products created is represented by bombs with a caliber of 3-5 to 13,600 kilograms with various types of warheads and guidance systems. The application is provided in a wide range of speeds (up to M = 1 and higher) and heights (100-13,000 meters) for a range of up to 80-100 kilometers.
According to foreign experts, UABs have the following main advantages over conventional aerial bombs:
- increasing the accuracy of hitting the target four to ten times;
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reduction of ammunition consumption by 5–25 times, depending on the type of target;
- reduction in the number of sorties (by 2–20 times) and approaches to the target;
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a sharp decrease in the losses of carrier aircraft as a result of enemy air defense fire;
- reduction of financial costs for a combat operation by 2-30 times;
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the possibility of selectively hitting targets;
- reduction of the time required for this.
Directions for development and improvement
It is believed that the created weapon model embodies the latest achievements of science and technology, the latest technologies, and its technical appearance is determined by the existing technological order, which is characteristic of the fifth cycle (1980–2040) of scientific and technological progress according to the theory of economist N. K. Kondratyev … It was by the beginning of the 90s that the development of technologies for constructing guided aviation weapons on a modern element base was completed, and the latest weapons were tested in military conflicts of the last decade of the 20th - early 21st centuries.
The combat use of the UAB as part of the strike aviation weapon systems showed that these bombs initially had significant drawbacks in terms of ensuring all-weather and round-the-clock performance. The revolutionary changes of recent years in the technological order of the developed countries of the world have led to a revolution in military affairs. Space and complex information technologies have become widely used. The latter allowed specialists to designate the period 1992–2020 as the IV stage in the development of the UAB. This stage is characterized by an increase in the effectiveness of strike aircraft systems by equipping with guided aircraft weapons, including the UAB in a new technological design.
The integrated inertial-satellite guidance system (SN) made it possible to ensure round-the-clock and all-weather combat use of the WTO. Today, such an SN is almost a classic sign of high-precision weapons of various bases. However, to achieve a circular probable deviation of EKVO = 3 meters, at which at least 50 percent of the EKVO falls into the circle of radius EKVO, outlined around the target, a final guidance system is needed. Therefore, homing heads (GOS) - laser, television, thermal imaging and others - have been introduced in all developed and promising UABs. The seeker is often supplemented with a data link for additional detection, retargeting or control of the strike. For example, for the UAB SDB-2 with a caliber of 113 kilograms, Raytheon proposed an integrated three-mode seeker, which combines a millimeter-wave radar, a thermal imaging camera and a semi-active laser guidance system SAL.
American experts associate the reduction in the time spent on recognizing and attacking targets up to one minute with a centralized networked control of combat operations.
The development of Russian guided aerial bombs (KAB) and UAB of various calibers generally corresponds to world trends for this class of weapons, which take into account new information technologies and the latest achievements of science and technology. And yet Russia lags behind the United States in the development of modern types of UAB by 8-10 years - in fact, a whole generation.
When designing a WTO, the main efforts today are aimed at increasing the efficiency of warheads, improving layout schemes, and using composite materials. This leads to the creation of simple and cheap models of guided aerial bombs for various applications for a wide range of targets at ranges of up to 10-30 kilometers, as well as complex and expensive products for performing particularly important tasks at ranges of 80-100 kilometers as part of strike aviation complexes around the clock and in heavy weather conditions.
The main directions of development of the UAB also include equipping with integrated guidance systems, including those that implement the inertial and radio navigation principle; increasing the selectivity of the impact of the damaging factors of weapons on the most vulnerable or important points of the target due to the improvement of combat units, as well as methods of combat use; radical enhancement of the noise immunity of onboard guidance and control systems, the reliability of detection, the reliability of recognition and classification of targets in a difficult jamming environment and severe weather conditions; ensuring the possibility of using the onboard equipment of means of destruction for solving reconnaissance tasks (additional reconnaissance) and assessing the situation or the damage caused; a significant increase in the secrecy of the use of means of destruction due to a decrease in the levels of their own unmasking signs; reducing the reaction time and, accordingly, the role of the factor of obsolescence of target designation data by reducing the preparation time for flight missions, increasing the speed and maneuverability of weapons, as well as ensuring the possibility of their retargeting after launch (salvo).
It should be noted that ensuring the possibility of using promising WTO in any meteorological, climatic and geographical conditions day and night, in a difficult jamming environment is considered abroad a necessary condition for development in this class of weapons. This is confirmed by the example of research and development in America on modernization and creation of new WTO models. The share of the use of WTO and reconnaissance and strike unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in combat operations is constantly growing, and UABs are their indispensable accessory. In these conditions, as well as in connection with the increase in the effectiveness of the object air defense in the development of foreign UABs, there has been a tendency towards a decrease in calibers - up to 100 kilograms or less. The tactical, technical and economic analysis shows the high efficiency of the use of the UAB according to the criterion of increasing the efficiency of solving combat missions and reducing financial costs.
A different level is needed
The leadership of our country demands that the defense industry and the Ministry of Defense determine promising directions for the development of weapons and military equipment until 2040 and equip the Russian Armed Forces with the latest weapons and military equipment by 2020. To accomplish these tasks, it is necessary to pay significant attention to scientific developments and pre-project planning.
In order to produce high-tech products, American and Japanese companies invest in R&D from 25 to 40 percent of the total costs spent on the creation of the final product.
The main directions of world and partly domestic research include the development of a unified strapdown inertial control system integrated with consumer navigation equipment (NAP) of the global radio navigation system; round-the-clock and all-weather end guidance systems; small-sized and anti-jamming communication lines; highly effective warheads and selective explosive devices; structures allowing to increase the range of use up to 80–100 kilometers at a drop height of up to 10,000 meters and allowing for intra-fuselage placement on promising carrier aircraft.
A perspective diagram of alternative options for using communication channels in the combat use of UAB is shown in the figure (a total of eight options: 1 - RK1-RK2, 2 - RK1-RK3, 3 - RK2, 4 - TKSN1, 5 - RK1-RK4-RK6, 6 - RK5 -RK6, 7 - RK1-TKSN2-TKSN3, 8 - TKSN4-TKSN3, where TKSN is the broadcast command guidance system, RK1 … RK6 are radio channels, RK-DFP is a radio channel with the station of the differential subsystem of the global satellite navigation system).
Nevertheless, research carried out in the Russian Federation is reduced to private technical solutions that increase the efficiency of existing weapons, but do not solve fundamentally topical issues. In particular, work is underway to expand the conditions for the combat use of the UAB by using a matrix IR radiation receiver in the seeker (this task was solved in the United States in the early 80s of the XX century when creating the GBU-15), to equip the KAB with a laser gyro-stabilized seeker (work is reduced to copying already known technology, which was introduced in the United States in the early 70s of the XX century), on the introduction of SN based on the "standard" (the work is at an early stage, while abroad this technology has long been mastered).
Further following in the wake of other people's developments is fraught with an even greater lag. It is necessary to reach another level: from the state of copying already known scientific and technical solutions to the search for fundamentally new and original ways.
New approaches
The process of developing new models of domestic guided aviation weapons proceeds in the following situation.
1. Over the past decade, there has been no significant renewal of the aviation WTO fleet.
2. The main structures were created in the conditions of the old technological base (more than 20 years ago) and are obsolete. Unfortunately, time was lost for the implementation of the groundwork, and if now all forces are thrown into mastering it, we will again get the technique of yesterday.
3. In fact, the requirements for promising models have changed, as the effectiveness of the means of combating the WTO has increased. Now it is necessary to provide a long range (at least 60 km), stealth, maneuverability, increased requirements for cost indicators.
4. Even with sufficient funding, it is difficult to ensure an adequate level of development. It is necessary to radically change the development process itself, to make it flexible and efficient. If an original technical solution is proposed, then its implementation, as usual, will "drown" at the stage of development. A new approach is required, a new outlook on the creation of modern weapons and military equipment.
5. It is necessary to monitor market demands, the current situation, and prioritize comparison with the best world achievements. This will make it possible to make such innovations in WTO models and methods of their application that meet modern requirements.
The existing organizational structures, the current organization of work need to be revised. To continue to master new technologies in the old system will unwittingly slow down scientific and technological progress. There should be flexible, mobile teams that lively perceive and promptly use everything new and advanced in their activities.
The transition to a new system of work must be carried out sequentially, gradually, displacing the old elements. An integrated approach is required in the system "customer - developer - manufacturer - operation"; improving the technology of interaction in the process of creating, manufacturing and servicing weapons and military equipment samples; introduction of computer-aided design technology, including 3D modeling; documentation, correspondence and transmission to the manufacturer of materials in electronic format; widespread use of network technologies within production facilities and between co-contractors.
About the training of specialists
For decades, the aviation WTO has formed into an independent type of weapon, which is rapidly developing on the basis of new high technologies, including information technologies. It is necessary to accumulate a set of knowledge from various fields of science and technology (synergetics), be able to work with information and creatively synthesize the knowledge gained in the developed object. This requires a completely different technological worldview. However, none of our specialized universities prepares graduates who will meet this requirement. The country is experiencing a change in the technological order and in the development of new weapons systems should not lose the achieved results.
The most important and fundamental point is the organization of the training of scientific and industrial personnel. The actual liquidation of the Zhukovsky Aircraft Aviation Institute, which was the core of aviation engineering in Russia, makes the problem of paramount importance. The stake should be placed on the still remaining human potential and the influx of new forces. In order to train young specialists in the development and production of aviation WTO, as well as robotic UAVs, it is proposed to organize in specialized universities, for example, in the Moscow Aviation Institute (TU) and the Bauman Moscow State Technical University, the department of "Precision Weapon Complexes". Graduates of these educational institutions would come to scientific organizations, factories, testing centers, the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Do not forget about the training of workers for production. After all, it is there that the conceived project materializes.
Attracting qualified specialists will require systematic, purposeful and comprehensive organizational and methodological work. The low level of wages, the regime of the enterprise are factors that scare young specialists away from the defense industry. They need to be given a vision of the future, interesting, exciting, creative work, material interest for a long period.
What needs to be done
1. To return to the established order in the defense industry complex for carrying out systematic targeted and search R&D for decades. The implementation of these works made it possible not only to determine the state and development trends of weapons and military equipment, but also to form the basic tactical and technical requirements (TTT) for promising weapons systems. Now it is no longer possible to follow the high-tech developments of the leading countries of the world, repeating and copying the best samples. It is necessary, understanding the tasks of the current day and the nearest forecast period, to come up with completely new technological solutions, taking into account a systematic approach.
Developers should receive clear and intelligible scientifically grounded tactical and technical assignments (TTZ) from state customers. These TTZ should clearly state: when and what samples to create and for what money. Thus, it is necessary to raise the system of military analysis and long-term planning to a new qualitative level. The customer should take it as a rule to consider that only that development is advanced, which has technical solutions at the level of inventions, that is, protected by patents.
Turning to history, which, as we know, teaches nothing, it is pertinent to recall that the head of the command of the ground forces (Chef der Heeresleitung) of Germany in 1920-1926 von Seeckt believed that one should not engage in the accumulation of stocks of rapidly aging weapons. Its purpose was to encourage research and development. When the time comes for a full-scale rearmament, he would like to have samples and prototypes that can be quickly launched into mass production.
2. To focus on the nodal, key areas of development with the provision of their priority financing and to exclude duplication in the development in the future. Eliminate the justification for the need to load specific defense enterprises. It is necessary to make an inventory of production facilities and determine their functions. All enterprises saved for the defense industry must be supplied with orders.
3. The role of the main enterprise - the prime contractor - is important for the creation of advanced world-level models of the aviation WTO. This enterprise must have a scientific, experimental, production and testing base. It should form the main technical appearance of the WTO samples, as well as their main components. The enterprise should be equipped with advanced laboratories for testing at the stage of laboratory or prototypes of guidance and control systems, aerodynamic assemblies, and power supply. Specialized factories can be connected at the stages of final development and serial production. As practice shows, the lion's share of financial costs goes to related organizations and enterprises. They begin to dictate their requirements, sometimes not in favor of the common cause.
4. In the near future, it is necessary to pay attention to the development of UAB onboard equipment unified with air-to-surface missiles, including guidance and control systems, power supplies, automatic recognition tools, and informational contactless interface with the carrier. To provide an emphasis on the necessary aerodynamic qualities, maneuverability and stealth, creation of small-sized communication channels, work in the network-centric combat control system.
5. Not having such financial resources for carrying out theoretical and experimental work, as the leading countries, for example, the USA, Great Britain, France, it is necessary to focus on pre-project studies. Even at the stage of thematic planning, to formulate the main directions for the development of promising models of the aviation WTO. Strengthen the scientific and theoretical justification of the proposed projects on the basis of previously considered alternative options. At present, negligible attention is paid to this. The creation of simple and accessible methodological developments for the selection of the best (rational, preferable) types of weapons could save the state significant financial resources and at the same time help to choose unique projects for implementation. The combination of modern mathematical tools and information technology allows you to create effective decision support systems (DSS). Such automated DSSs in the field of military technologies have already been partially developed and tested. In particular, the information and analytical system "Evaluation and Choice", developed with the participation of JSC "Region". To rely only on the intuition and experience of the chief designer or the opinion of the customer's representative, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation in the age of information technology will be wrong.
6. Significantly increase the level of remuneration for AME developers (three to four times). At the same time, provide well-thought-out measures and conditions of a complex nature that require special discussion. In each sector of the defense industry, it is necessary to create working groups of representatives of leading enterprises, which would formulate a list of priority measures. The Military-Industrial Commission under the Government of the Russian Federation (MIC), with the participation of representatives of legislative bodies, military and civil educational institutions, to develop systemic proposals and measures to raise the defense industry complex. A point resolution of the arising difficulties will not allow solving this issue as a whole.
7. Finalize the standards related to the product development process. The existing standards for the development of samples of aviation WTO were formed at a time when there were no computer technologies. For each industry, including for each type of weapons and military equipment, a clearly regulated procedure for creating a product must be defined. This will significantly reduce time, financial and labor resources. We must not rely on the fact that market relations will put everything in place, but develop standards for enterprises according to the specifics of their field of activity. It is required to develop a plan for the radical re-equipment of enterprises with new modern technologies for the design and production of high-tech weapons.
8. Significantly improve the efficiency of product design. For this it is necessary to take advantage of the invaluable experience that has long been formed in the West in the field of automobile and aircraft construction. After all, it is there that highly competitive samples are created that work in market conditions.
9. At present, the existing structure for the scientific substantiation of TTT for modern and promising models of aviation WTO does not meet the requirements for the formation of high-tech weapons. The existing school for training scientific personnel in the field of creation, production and operation of weapons was destroyed. Weapons should not be created in isolation, but as a complex. Foreign experience is well known when a company or a corporation is developing not only a carrier aircraft, but also weapons for it. Thus, according to one conceived idea, a project is created, and then a real aviation armament complex is implemented.
10. Consolidate efforts, unite the remaining scientific and production forces in the interests of solving the problems of the defense industry complex.
Let us turn to the memoirs of Gustav Krupp, a famous German industrialist: “If Germany is ever to be resurrected, even if she can throw off the chains of Versailles, then in this case the company needs to prepare. The equipment was destroyed, the machines were destroyed, but one thing remained - the people in the design bureaus and in the workshops, who, in successful cooperation, brought the production of weapons to the last perfection. Their skills must be conserved as well as their vast resources of knowledge and experience. I had to defend the Krupp company as a plant for the production of weapons for the distant future, in spite of any obstacles."
We believe that it is necessary to create centers for the development of high-tech weapons (by weapon class or even by type) on the basis of a specialized enterprise, specialized departments of military and civil educational institutions and laboratories of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in which there are still highly qualified specialists and scientists. The existing organization of work, even within corporations, is very bureaucratic, does not take into account new economic conditions, does not meet modern requirements for efficiency, and in many respects constrains the actions of the developer.
The defense industry complex should be attended by people who are prepared, who want not only to make good money, but also enthusiastic, inventive, thinking outside the box. Only then can the expected effect be obtained. It is necessary in every possible way, including materially, to motivate workers to improve their professional level and acquire scientific knowledge, to stimulate this process. In essence, just as in the power structures and other spheres of the national economy, we come to the conclusion that a renewal and re-certification of personnel is necessary. Employees holding leading scientific and technical positions must be competitively selected. Really the best, highly professional workers, specialists in their field, generators of ideas should get up to the positions of managers.
Now an atmosphere has been created that resembles the late 40s - early 50s of the XX century. At that time, specialists were trained in topical areas - in the field of radar, rocketry. To intensify the process, it is necessary to create specialized academies or courses for mastering high technologies (including information technologies), modern methods of development, selection and creation of high-tech weapons and military equipment.
11. To preserve the Soviet scientific and technical groundwork. Despite the rapid development of technologies and the increase in TTT to the created samples, we can confidently say that in the USSR, at every enterprise, such a reserve was created. Its analysis (with the participation of the same employees of the enterprise who participated in the previous work) would make it possible to form advanced technical solutions that meet the challenges of today and future requirements. Otherwise, many valuable proposals may simply be forgotten, as there is a change of generations of specialists in the absence of continuity.
12. Provide an additional payment to wages for mastering this or that software tool, for combining professions. Instead of a drawing board, the employee now has an automated workstation (AWP). The developer, designer, designer must do exclusively their own business. For the AWP to be effectively used, it must have proper software, and the employee must not be distracted by setting up the AWP. This should be done by specially trained specialists. It is necessary to encourage creative growth, the acquisition of theoretical and practical knowledge, the desire to be interested in novelties in their field. The state should take a number of measures to increase the prestige of scientific and engineering work, and the protection of intellectual property. It is necessary to return a reasonable ratio of the number of engineers and technicians, managers and executors.
13. To increase the efficiency of ongoing research and development due to the long-forgotten principle of the scientific organization of labor. For example, create an AWP both for the preparation of documentation and for everyday correspondence. Practice shows that a significant proportion of the time (up to 40 percent) of leading specialists is spent on the current workflow, coordination and approval by the management. This process should be simplified. The specialist must deal directly with his business in accordance with his functional responsibilities. It would seem that these are minor questions and few people raise them, but our whole life consists of such trifles, they actually determine the state of affairs.
In the structure of enterprises there should be a person, a department, whose task would include the formation of proposals for increasing labor efficiency, saving resources. For the most prepared, motivated people, complex training is required as future leading specialists or chief designers. To do this, they must work in the main divisions for six months, for a year at all stages of the creation (life cycle) of a model of weapons and military equipment.
14. Each defense industry enterprise should have a strong scientific subdivision, whose task would include the analysis and formation of new scientific directions and a promising technical appearance of weapons and military equipment.
In most cases, at present, enterprises have formal staff structures that do not at all meet the tasks formulated by the chairman of the military-industrial complex under the government of the Russian Federation D. O. time we will gather strength and capabilities that would allow us to catch up with high-tech countries at incredible speeds. This does not need to be done. We need something else, much more complicated … It is necessary to calculate the course of conducting an armed struggle with the prospect of up to 30 years, to determine this point, to reach it. To understand what we need, that is, to prepare weapons not for tomorrow or even the day after tomorrow, but for a historic week ahead …"
It is necessary to understand that the tasks set by the government of the Russian Federation can be solved not only with the provision of the measures mentioned, They are necessary, but insufficient. It is necessary to understand that everything is determined by people, their knowledge, experience, conviction. It is necessary to create such an atmosphere at all enterprises of the military-industrial complex, in the industry as a whole, so that every specialist, every worker is proud of the fact that he is participating in a common large and noble cause of ensuring the defense capability of the Russian Federation.
