Since Wednesday, the situation regarding the conclusion of contracts between the Ministry of Defense and the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) began to become clear. Under the close scrutiny of Prime Minister Putin in Severodvinsk, long-awaited agreements were signed between buyers and suppliers worth about 280 billion rubles. This can be considered a major advance after the too protracted mutual rejection of the terms of the two sides.
The President and the Prime Minister have long spoken about the fact that contract breakdowns could seriously affect Russia's defense capability in the near future. It is difficult to disagree with this. If we talk about the Russian submarine fleet, today the combat missions are still performed by obsolete 2nd generation submarines. It is planned that joint efforts of Sevmash, Malakhit and Rubin Central Design Bureau and thanks to the federal funding program will build Project 885 submarines - Yasen and the ultramodern submarine Borey (Project 955 A). It must be said that the Borey project cruiser, named after the great commander Alexander Nevsky, has already been launched at the Severodvinsk plant. This most important event for the Russian fleet took place at the end of last year. However, so far "Alexander Nevsky" has not passed all the required tests, so the plans for its full-fledged commissioning have undergone some changes. In addition to Alexander Nevsky, the submarine Yuri Dolgoruky will be completed next year.
It is planned that the Borey Project 955 submarines will carry out combat service in the Pacific Fleet. A crew has already arrived from Kamchatka to the Arkhangelsk Region, which will take the submarine in order to carry out the necessary measures for its "run-in" and subsequently to carry out a trip to the Pacific submarine base. "Run-in" can take from a year to one and a half, and until all the technical parameters of the ship are recognized as meeting the requirements, it will be assigned to the Severodvinsk port.
The described agreements are one of the segments of a large-scale program for the rearmament of the country's Navy. It is planned that over the next eight years (until 2020), about 4.7 trillion rubles will be spent from the budget for the modernization of the fleet. This means that the enterprises involved in the development and construction of new ships will be fully loaded.
Putin said in Severodvinsk that the current plans are designed specifically for the maximum workload of Russian shipbuilding companies. In addition, the Prime Minister attributed to the success the fact that already now it has almost completely been possible to abandon the order of components from the CIS countries. This can be considered a serious step in the development of the industry, because if the dependence on foreign states in terms of building warships is direct, then this can put Russia in a disadvantageous situation. After all, we have already passed such a concept as “partner blackmail” both in connection with Ukraine and in connection with Belarus, and this applies not only to gas blackmail.
For a long time, the question of concluding contracts for the construction of new ships was in limbo. This was mainly due to price issues. For example, the Ministry of Defense and USC could not agree in any way on what should be an acceptable level of profitability. After the intervention of the top officials of the state in the situation, the Ministry of Defense decided to agree to "pay" 35% of the profitability to industrialists at once.
However, this kind of concessions will be made if the industry spends the money received on the modernization of its own production. The formula looks promising enough, therefore, the ice of distrust of the parties to each other, at least externally, began to melt a little. And the modernization of the equipment of industrial enterprises in this context plays a particularly significant role, since it is impossible to build modern military equipment on machines that are more than thirty years old.
Let's not forget that it is planned to build not only submarines, but also ultra-modern icebreakers, tankers, and other sea and river vessels. Additional shipyards are being set up in the Far East to support the pace of shipbuilding. They are designed for partnership with companies from Singapore and South Korea.
In all likelihood, the Prime Minister decided so actively to take up "help" in resolving the issue between the USC and the Ministry of Defense, remembering that elections are on the way. Let's hope that this is not just another PR move, but a well-thought-out policy designed for the long term. Whatever it was, but control over all agreements between partners, most likely, will have to be carried out by the future government, headed by Dmitry Medvedev. And here it is necessary to recall the words from the recent report of the chief military prosecutor Fridinsky that about 20% of the allocated funds are going to the left from the state defense order. There is something to work on …
