Recently, there has been a flow of information about the use of electronic warfare (EW) against the enemy in military exercises. So, during the recent surprise check of the Northern Fleet, the newest Murmansk-BN complex with a range of up to five thousand kilometers was deployed there. According to the head of the fleet's electronic warfare center, captain of the second rank Dmitry Popov, quoted by TASS, the new complexes arrived at the center at the end of last year and have already been mastered by the personnel of the units. They were used in the exercises for the first time. There is a lot of news about the complexes "Moscow-1", "Khibiny", "Krasukha-4" and others. Against this background, information flashed imperceptibly that the Ministry of Defense plans to create an electronic warfare research company in 2015.
Past the building
The decision to recruit scientific companies from graduates of higher professional education institutions in the Russian Armed Forces was made at the highest level. This task for the Ministry of Defense was determined by the Decree of April 17, 2013 by President Vladimir Putin. The intentions were very ambitious - the main function of the new companies should be research work in the interests of the country's defense. To supervise the formation and further activities of this company (initially it was about the creation of one company) was entrusted to the Deputy Minister of Defense, Colonel-General O. N. Ostapenko.
The experience of non-combatant units from conscripts has already been in the Armed Forces. First of all, these are sports companies. They were in all military districts and even in large formations. They were formed from conscripts who had a sports category not lower than the first. However, these units were only called companies. Very soon they expanded into battalions, as they absorbed teams of various types - from athletics to orienteering. Accordingly, the tasks for these units were not set to run ahead of the attacking chain, but to defend the honor of a military unit or district at all-army competitions. Research work, such as testing physical activity for conscripts, was not done in the companies either.
I don't remember any scientific work in the troops. Such examples took place in another department, which is now called the system of execution of punishments. This was back in the mournful times of the Gulag, when in various closed laboratories, colloquially called "sharashki", thousands of prisoners carried out "research work in the interests of the country's defense." The people there were prepared, serious. And the tasks were carried out accordingly - they solved the issues of aircraft construction, the production of engines for rocket technology, the development of artillery systems, etc.
The main reformer of the Russian Armed Forces, A. Serdyukov, closed the sports companies back in 2008. Scientific - he was not going to create.
The formation of new non-combatant units in the troops almost coincided in time with the development of amendments to the law on civil service. There, significant changes were made. In accordance with the new requirements, only people who had served in the Armed Forces, or those who could not be drafted for medical reasons, could now apply for official positions. Evil tongues tied these two events together and erupted in a flurry of criticism.
Perhaps, over time, such a tendency will manifest itself. But when the new divisions were first formed, the approach turned out to be serious. In the revived by the fall of 2013, sports companies no longer called for first-class athletes, of whom there are a dime a dozen in every city, but the winners of the Universiade, the junior European and world championships, candidates and members of the Russian national teams in Olympic sports recommended by the Ministry of Sports. New units were stationed in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Samara and Rostov-on-Don, the staffing was determined at 400 athletes. Among the recruits, for example, I remember the two-time champion of Russia in figure skating, Master of Sports of international class Maxim Kovtun who flashed on television in a soldier's uniform on television screens, International Master of Sports Kirill Prokopyev. It was a level! However, the companies themselves are not a compulsory conscription, but a voluntary recruitment, which was especially clearly manifested in the formation of scientific companies. The competition there, as in a decent university, now reaches six people per seat.
The new face of the Russian army
There is reason to be skeptical about the scientific contribution of the new non-combatant companies. First, in the new century, breakthrough achievements are not made on the knee. At a minimum, good laboratory equipment is required. Secondly, a year of military service does not greatly exceed the time required to write a high-quality thesis, and it seems to be not enough for serious research. Finally, military science is on the rise today, and graduates of even the most successful universities still have to fight to take their rightful place in it.
It seems that all this was thoroughly taken into account. The first scientific company was formed from graduates of the Moscow State Technical University. N. E. Bauman, Moscow Aviation Institute and connected to the development work on the basis of the Krasnogorsk plant. S. A. Zverev (OJSC KMZ), part of the state corporation "Rostec". Within a month after being drafted, yesterday's students underwent general military training. Then they began serving in the subdivisions of the scientific and technical center of JSC KMZ. More precisely, work on the creation of "unified small-size equipment of high spatial resolution for a network of small spacecraft."
Details of studies involving the first scientific mouths are not in a hurry to disclose. But there are already reports of achievements. It is noted, in particular, that during the year of research work, the operators of scientific companies (as these military personnel are called today) filed more than 20 applications for the grant of patents for inventions, made 44 rationalization proposals, and published more than 90 scientific articles. I would like to note, by the way, that a relatively small team is often hidden behind the loud name "company". In the first draft, for example, there were only 35 volunteers. Later, their number increased to sixty. So the guys did a good job on the shock report.
This was confirmed at last year's exhibition in Alabino "Innovation Day of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation." There, the development of military personnel of the scientific company of the Aerospace Defense Forces was highly appreciated by the expert community. The corporals AI Voevodsky and DG Medvedev were even awarded medals "For achievements in the development of innovative technologies."
The number of scientific mouths is growing rapidly. The Ministry of Defense felt that the declared initiative had a prospect, and created research units in the training center under the General Staff, in the military training and scientific center of the Ground Forces, in the training and scientific center of the Air Force, in the military training and scientific center of the Navy in St. Petersburg. The field of activity of the scientific mouth is expanding. In the fall of last year, they were also formed in the military academy of communications (St. Petersburg), in the branch of the same academy (g. Krasnodar) and at the Military Medical Academy (St. Petersburg).
It is difficult to assess the usefulness of the activities of training companies. Apparently, it suits the military, since this potential is growing at such a rate. Recently, the Ministry of Defense has a new idea - to create humanitarian companies, where they would solve the tasks of combating cyber threats, falsifications of Russian history, work with archival materials and information - in social networks. Now they are planning a scientific company for electronic warfare. Its base will be the Interspecies Center for the Training and Combat Use of Electronic Warfare Troops in Tambov. The new company will be the ninth in a row among such units. And all this - in less than two years that have passed since the issuance of the decree by the President of Russia on the formation of the first scientific company in the Ministry of Defense.
I think the Armed Forces would have coped with their tasks without research units. After all, Cavtorang D. Popov and his subordinates were able to master the newest complex "Murmansk-BN" in a short time and successfully use it during the exercises of the Northern Fleet. However, scientific companies allow expanding the capabilities of the army, pouring living intellectual blood into it. After all, half of the operators of the scientific companies of the first draft have already been certified and continue to serve in officer positions. Many remained to work in research organizations and military educational institutions of the Ministry of Defense. Scientific companies for university graduates have become social lifts that have opened up life prospects.
… The face of the Russian army is changing. The country saw self-confident, professionally trained and efficient “polite people”. I hope that soon not only the Ministry of Defense, but also the public will see and appreciate the contribution of the new generation of the military, whom the ordinary public loves to call "nerds" …
