Rossiiskaya Gazeta: “Prime Minister Discusses Russian Army Communications Lag”
Vladimir Putin recalls the experience of the South Ossetia conflict.
Vladimir Putin has visited the Sozvezdiye concern in Voronezh. The name conceals a far from ordinary institution formerly called the Military Radio Communications Research Institute.
The enterprise has not become any less secret since the demise of the Soviet Union. In 2000 the President issued a decree ordering the plant to start work on an integrated tactical control system.
The defence industry enterprise is involved in international developments. Its products were in action during the August 2008 war in the Caucasus. American soldiers in South Ossetia used Harris tactical control stations which were superior to the Russian analogues on some counts, including the size of the operational data transmission unit. "We got it in the neck after the events in South Ossetia," the plant's First Deputy Director General, Vassily Borisov, admitted.
"They'll report it at once," Borisov's assistant warned pointing to the crowd of journalists.
"Let them write, we often get it in the neck," replied Borisov who was the plant's manager before he reached retirement age.
Borisov himself believes one of the plant's main problems is that it has no series production and produces one-off items.
At present 80% of its output is bought by the state, 15% is exported and 5% goes into the civilian sector. "But we don't produce consumer goods. We could never outdo China, we can only try to overtake them professionally," Borisov said. About exports he said: "We do not even show our new hardware to foreigners. This is our national heritage. We tell them to keep away. If they want to, let them buy stuff that is 15 years old."
Putin took a close look at the samples shown to him before chairing a meeting, the fifth and penultimate devoted to the defence industry complex, according to government sources. This time the Prime Minister focused on the progress of work to create modern control, reconnaissance and communications systems. "Military analysts rightly call them one of the key factors of a modern army's combat ability. The experience of recent local conflicts has proved it," the Prime Minister said.
Putin believes that the look of the Russian Armed Forces, a topic that has attracted a surfeit of comments, is determined, among other things, by reliable and stable communications. Wide use of radio electronics, the Prime Minister said, enables you to be one jump ahead of the enemy and to hold the initiative. At present most of the Russian army's equipment dates back to the 1960s and ‘70s, whereas, according to Borisov, it should be renewed every ten years.
The list of problems does not end there: the general designer for development of an automated tactical command and control system has not yet been appointed, a single organisation to coordinate scientific and technical policy has not been created and no targeted state programme exists.
Pierre Sidibe
