Over the past several years, the Russian Ministry of Defense has "nightmares" the Russian manufacturers of weapons and military equipment, pointlessly and very vaguely accusing them of either the insufficient quality of the manufactured equipment, or the fact that the samples offered by the Ministry of Defense do not correspond to "modern" requirements, or they are " too "expensive. In fact, all the weapons and equipment offered by Russian manufacturers for their native Defense Ministry were created in strict accordance with the requirements and standards that the Defense Ministry imposes on such products, according to technical specifications issued by the Ministry of Defense, which are checked and confirmed during tests. The quality and prices are monitored by the institute of military acceptance - that is, direct representatives of the Ministry of Defense, sitting directly at the factories, checking the compliance of the manufactured products with the TU, monitoring the quality, having the right and the ability to check the level of costs and prices, indicating where and from whom to buy components. Without the signature of the military representative, not a single, even the smallest, change can be made to the design. Their signatures are also on financial documents - the military representatives "accept" or "do not accept" the expenses presented by the enterprises. So what are the claims against the industry after all this?
"Tiger-6A" with reinforced armor protection
Yes, in our opinion, the institution of military acceptance in a market economy is an anachronism, an atavism of the socialist system in the field of arms production and procurement. It is thanks to the preservation of this institution that the processes of modernization of equipment are now being held back, there are excesses in terms of the nomenclature and quality of assembly and equipment of equipment samples, the cost of products is overestimated. A couple of examples to understand the problem.
The sites "Tigers" and "Iveco-Ryssey" were close at REA-2011
Example one: a designer in a serial BTT model wants to replace a luminaire with an old-fashioned incandescent lamp with a modern, more economical and cheaper LED one. However, he cannot do this without the permission of the military representative, and the military representative, in turn, will not give such permission, because the new lamp has not been formally checked for compliance with the requirements of the Russian Ministry of Defense, has not been tested, has not been certified. But, let's say, a designer really wants to replace a lamp, sample of the 40-50s of the last century, with a modern energy-efficient product - in this case, through his management, he can contact the manufacturer of a new lamp and offer him to pass the appropriate certification. The luminaire manufacturer is delighted to have a new consumer. He is ready to properly certify his product, but then a legitimate question arises: "Who will pay for certification?"
"Lynx" - aka "Iveco" LMV
The fact is that the cost of certification costs XXXXXXX rubles, and it, of course, will affect the price. The luminaire manufacturer is ready to cover these costs, provided that at least XXXXXXX pieces are purchased from him annually. Accordingly, he offers the customer - the manufacturer of BTT three options. Option 1 - OK, I agree to be certified and supply you with lamps at the same initial price, but you must buy them from me annually in the amount of XXXXXXX pieces;
"Lynx" - rear view
Option 2 - I don't care how much you will buy from me, but pay the full cost of certification; Option 3 - I pass certification at my own expense, you buy exactly as much as you need to fulfill the production program, but the price will be market price and, accordingly, will include the costs of certification. The manufacturer of BTT automatically rejects the first two options - he does not have the means to pay for the certification of someone's products, and he, by and large, does not need this. Calculations begin: how many such lamps are needed annually, and what will be their price for option No. 3. In a product, 3 such lamps are needed, how many products the MO will order is known only to him. Perhaps, as in previous years, it will be 100 cars a year, but again it is not known how many years such purchases will last - maybe, as under the last contract, 3 years, maybe 10 years, or maybe they will not exist at all. What to do? Well, let's say 3pcs. x 100 items x 3 years = 900 lamps. Then the price, taking into account the certification, will be ХХр (initial cost) + ХХХХХХХ / 900, i.e. somewhere XX + XXXY - just "space"! Thus, a sensible thought is buried.
"Lynx" - "Iveco" LMV MEDEVAC
Example two is shorter and simpler. There is plant A, which produces tractors and BTT. And there, and there, a rubber hose for hydraulics with absolutely identical parameters is used in the design. There are three factories B, C, D, producing these hoses in huge quantities, competing with each other, and therefore forced to raise quality and lower prices, but these factories operate exclusively in the civilian sector and do not have military representations, which is also one of the factors. reducing costs, and there is plant E, which also produces the same hoses, but there is a military representative, since there are a minimum of orders for "military" hoses, their price is 5-10 times higher than
Body "Lynx" - "nurses" - MEDEVAC
for similar, and better quality, but "civil" hoses at factories B, C and D. Plant A buys hoses for its tractors at factories B, C and D at a tender, thus has a high-quality and cheap kit, but for of his BTT products, he is forced to purchase where the military representative specifies. And the military representative can only point to plant E, because only there the hoses pass military acceptance, and don't give a damn that it is 10 times more expensive there! Moreover, the military representative of plant A does not care, but the supplier of this plant is far from giving a fuck - for him this is a specific headache, because having received an invoice from plant E, he must endorse it in the economic security service, where the security officer still needs to prove that
And this is a clean, not yet "rumped" IVECO M40E15 WM
buying the same hoses, but at 10 times overpriced from factory E, you are not a thief. What is the difference in market conditions? The manufacturer must produce competitive products and be responsible for the quality: the intended resource has not been developed for the BTT sample, - penalties to the manufacturer. Our Defense Ministry is now trying to act with just such methods, but at the same time it does not refuse military acceptance either. Yes, it is now being mercilessly reduced, but for some reason they are in no hurry to radically abandon this restraining factor in the development of defense production in market conditions.
IVECO M40E15 WM Personnel carrier
The crown "trick" of the Russian Ministry of Defense lately is to demand from the samples of armored vehicles those qualities that the Ministry of Defense did not initially order - the product completely, 100% meets the requirements of the TOR issued by the Ministry of Defense, but the Ministry of Defense turns up our nose at the same time - we don’t necessary! It defies any logic at all!
Thus, the Russian Defense Ministry frightens the defense industry with the market, and itself twists its arms by far from market methods. "Give us the cost, we will check it, let you add 10-15, or maybe sometimes (I just want to add" if you behave well ") and all 20% profitability - this will be a fair price", - so they say now the managers of our Russian Defense Ministry, forgetting that the formula for calculating the price "cost + profitability" is the norm of the Soviet, not the market economy! The actions of our Defense Ministry in the purchase of weapons are very much reminiscent of the methods of work of the "lads" from the "dashing 90s", which, in fact, is not surprising, knowing who is at the head of this department.
IVECO M40E15 WM - and how is THIS better than the UAZ?
The case of the confrontation between the armored vehicles "Tiger" and "Iveco" - this is a concrete example of "elephant" behavior in the market of our Ministry of Defense.
I personally had a chance to observe the technical capabilities of both machines at the "REA-2011" exhibition. I would be glad to believe the assertions of the leadership of the Russian Defense Ministry about the alleged shortcomings of the Tiger and the same imaginary advantages of the Iveco, if I had not seen everything with my own eyes! During the training runs, "Iveco" got stuck on a strip imitating real off-road terrain with rocky boulders. There are many such places, and especially many where there is a great danger of the outbreak of hostilities - the mountainous regions of the Caucasus and Central Asia.
In the cockpit "Iveco" - "Lynx" is terribly cramped
"Tiger-M" with a domestic engine passed the entire route without any remarks. After that, already in the official program of the exhibition, "Iveco" avoided most of the obstacles that the "Tiger" had easily overcome before. I did not make exact calculations, but "by eye", he drove 2/3 of such obstacles. Moreover, the car was driven by a "branded" Italian crew, since somehow they had no reason to expose their car in a bad light. Dear reader, if you were not at that moment at the "RUSSIAN EXPO ARMS", then you have lost a lot - the people in the stands, thousands of people, just literally cackled with laughter, seeing how "Iveco" dashingly, at a good pace, with remarkable dynamics taxied obstacles! Those who were there and all this, as well as I saw, will not let me lie and will confirm my words.
It was here that "Iveco" - "Lynx" got stuck in a training race. He didn't bother here anymore, but "Tiger" goes quietly
This is how the "Tiger" passes this obstacle …
… and like this "Iveco" - "Lynx"
As for the "Tiger" … well, he too, I must say, on the track, not everything was smooth. Once, very slowly climbing some obstacle (now I will not say exactly which one, but in the form of a slide (and there are several of them on the track)), he almost got up at the top … something is missing - maybe torque, maybe inertia, maybe something else … The Tiger crew was not at a loss: pressed the clutch, released the brake - the car rolled back. Then they fired so hard that it seemed that the armored car did not notice the obstacle this time - it just flew over, jumped over it. The second time, jumping over an obstacle "a la" the foundation block, our "Tigrusha" painfully hit the concrete of the track with its front overhang: blow - boom! - the grinding of metal - dust in the form of concrete crumbs, in the stands there is an exclamation: "Uuuuuu!" But nothing… I went to the car on purpose - looked from below - no dents, no smudges - only the paint was ripped off! But as for the fact that "from below" at "Iveco", this clearly did not impress anyone - everything is kind of flimsy, sticking out here and there - fans of good four-wheel drive cars, of which there were quite a few at the exhibition, despite everything They shook their heads dejectedly and scratched their heads - no one could understand why the Russian Defense Ministry was so fond of this "tarantass"? The special forces soldiers, who, on duty, kept up the law and order at the exhibition complex, could not resist not to "check out" the novelties of the armored car industry, for this is exactly the equipment that was intended for their use. Their reaction:
- on "Iveco" - frankly spitting;
- on armored "KAMAZ" - treated them somehow evenly and consistently;
- to the armored "Urals" - admired;
- on "Tiger-M" and "Tiger-6a" - smacked their lips with enthusiasm.
In general, it was almost impossible to photograph "Tigers" in statics, so that there was only a car in the frame - no matter how many people asked to move away for 20 seconds and not get in the way, no one listened, everyone clung to these cars, as if they were honey smeared. I would like to note that the Iveks were standing nearby, and there was no such excitement around them.
I almost forgot: Iveco was struck by the extraordinary tightness: in fact, the driver and 3 more passengers can fit there - that's it! Moreover, how to be placed there in full combat gear, so that I jumped out, and everything was at hand, I won’t put my mind to it. In this respect, the "Tiger" is much more spacious and comfortable. S. Suvorov correctly says in his interview - to transport one and the same number of soldiers, twice as many "Iveks" are needed as "Tigers". And this, in addition to the cost of the machines themselves, is also the cost of operation, the same gasoline / diesel fuel, stupidly twice as much is needed! Now about the notorious prices - "Tiger" costs 3-5 million rubles, "Iveco" - from 12, 5 million rubles to 20 million rubles per car. Is it a lot or a little? For comparison, at the end of 2009, a new BTR-80 cost 10 million rubles, and an BTR-80 with a PTK -20 million rubles. At the same cost, forgive me, but the BTR-80, and even equipped with a software and hardware complex (in fact, BIUS), is a machine of a much higher level. Now about the protection class. Russia has its own armored ceramics, there are special armored titanium alloys, there is modern steel armor. "Tiger" with the 5th class of protection has been supplied to the Ministry of Internal Affairs for a long time, the "Tiger" with the same protection class as Iveco was also created and demonstrated at the same REA-2011 - what, don't they in the Russian Ministry of Defense know about this? Actually, the protection class is relevant only for bullet fire. Very widespread RPGs can only be held by tanks, and heavy infantry fighting vehicles, and armored personnel carriers. Mine explosions are generally ridiculous! Now militants of all stripes practice landmines of such power that armored personnel carriers are torn in half, and the tank is turned inside out. So is the "game worth the candle"? In general, what I cannot understand is that the Ministry of Defense has an armored personnel carrier, which survivability is higher than that of any tactical vehicle, they still have an armored vehicle, why, for what reasons do they still need this armored car? Fashion trends ??? "We all have - we also need" - so what? So, but not so …
Technical aspects, design perfection and even its cost have nothing to do with it. It is necessary to understand that the adoption of the "Iveco" is not a whim of the Ministry of Defense. This is the order of the commander. But only a big commander can give the order to “close our eyes” to the shortcomings and not take into account any arguments and arguments of the opponents. And we have only one commander with such power and authority - the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, who concurrently still works as the President of "All Russia". And now he has "friends" - a friend of Nicolas and a friend of Silvio. They live and work in Europe, which is in a severe economic crisis. Well, how can you not help your friends? This is not Patzan style! Moreover, you can also pantanize beautifully in front of the "beggar" Europeans - look, like, what we are "cool" - we are buying your shit, it was so good for you … All this is called "Great State Policy". Only here the same Europe, well, for example, in the person of Great Britain, professes somewhat different principles of the Great State Policy, namely: "England has no friends, but interests." Russia, on the other hand, has put its national interests on the altar of a very dubious "friendship." I advise everyone to think about this fact, especially in connection with the upcoming elections.
Who is behind "Iveco"
However, politics is politics, and in the Ministry of Defense, too, do not sit "suckers". It was not for nothing that at first the Minister did business and avoided taxes, then, having learned to leave, he was ordered to collect taxes. He quickly turned around in his new place, reforming the RF Ministry of Defense into a business structure with very effective management. Anything expensive - you just have to look at OJSC Concern "Oboronservis", which exists under the "roof" of the Moscow Region. More recently, the Defense Minister himself was on its board of directors. Now, obeying the instructions of his high superiors, he has left this governing body, but the essence has not changed because of that - at the helm of Oboronservis there were and still were proven loyal and reliable personnel in the person of the Deputy Minister for his previous work. Of course, all from the glorious town of St. Petersburg. Why am I talking about Oboronservis? Besides, the Ministry of Defense has clearly played out the situation with Iveco - none other than Oboronservis will be engaged in its production in the Russian Federation. Well, of course, not on its own - you can't force the managers of this organization with screwdrivers - there are masters of a different profile. Simply created a joint venture, wholly and completely controlled by "Oboronservis". But as far as finance is concerned, yes, everything will go, do not doubt, through this respected organization. Where to? Well, of course, everything will leave Russia, where to go. How is this possible, you ask, after all, "Oboronservice" is like a state corporation? And it is possible that even though it is state-owned and the form of ownership in the form of an open joint-stock company, it gives full right to people on the board of directors to direct financial flows as they please and without any control. Why do you think all kinds of FSUEs or State Enterprises suddenly became so popular in the "defense industry"? That's right! It is extremely difficult to take profit from them. In addition, it is much easier to privatize a joint stock company - to sell it to whomever it needs to. Once again, where does "Tiger" and "Iveco" have to do with it? Everything is very simple! Buying Tiger, the Moscow Region must transfer money to the Military-Industrial Company, to the GAZ Group, and these are completely "strangers' uncles" But when acquiring Iveco, Moscow Region buys it as if from itself. Oboronservis will honestly give part of the money to its “friends” in Europe, and the second part will be transferred to the accounts of the right people in offshore areas., to connect with the money received by Oboronservis for the repair of BTT for Venezuela, etc., etc. And then, one fine moment, with this money, Oboronservice will be bought from the state as absolutely "unnecessary", "non-core" MO asset. "Iveco", "Iveco" … Can you imagine what amounts are going through "Oboronservis" under the program for the construction of housing for the Armed Forces, through the purchase of food, fuel, etc., etc.? I am writing all this, and somehow it becomes scary … somehow it is not customary in Russia to value, protect and respect "freedom of speech."
