Why Russian military electronics needs Stalinist methods

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-10 19:46

One of the main reasons for our current failure in the field of the state program for the rearmament of the Russian army with modern types of weapons and military equipment is the lack of production of modern electronic components in Russia. It's no secret that not only Kalashnikov assault rifles and artillery pieces are at war in modern warfare, but military electronics are also at war.

In Soviet times, one hundred percent of military equipment and weapons were produced exclusively on electronic components of domestic production and I, as an aviation engineer, then in the 80s, could not imagine that in the newest radar of the MiG-29 RLPK-29 aircraft I would find an American or Chinese microcircuit. Yes, in electronics we have always lagged behind the West by 5-10 years, but gradually, from year to year, this gap was narrowing. Often this lag was compensated for in the USSR by the best software, our programmers were able to achieve the elimination of the hardware gap due to high-quality software code

I will never forget how in the mid-1980s I was shown these miracles of the Soviet engineering genius at the world famous "Phazotron", the developer of the radar for the MiG-29 aircraft

But that was in the USSR …

Then Gaidar and Chubais came and explained to us that we did not need this engineering genius. We do not need thousands of factories capable of producing any of 100 percent of the world's industrial products. After all, we have oil and gas, and we can use the money from their sale to buy any industrial product we need

And then began what could not be called anything other than a crime falling under the article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “High treason”. Thousands and thousands of industrial enterprises were deliberately bankrupt and closed, millions of workers and engineers were laid off, who out of hopelessness went to sell Chinese consumer goods in the markets or sit as security guards in various offices and offices. Many of them simply drank themselves. As a result, we lost both production and qualified personnel

But the "damned nineties" are over. Putin came. It would seem that the era of de-industrialization of Russia should have ended. But surprisingly, despite the fat years of "oil abundance", the implementation of the Gaidar-Chubais doctrine on deindustrialization continued, and on a scale that surpassed even the Yeltsin years.… The matter reached the point of absurdity.

For example, during the development of the strategic missile "Bulava" it became clear that the production of elementary digital-to-analog converters developed in the 70s had been destroyed in Russia. But such production of these very simple microcircuits survived on the ruins of the former production association "Alpha" in Riga. But by this time Latvia was already a member of NATO and everything on its territory was controlled by the structures of this bloc, including production. And so, in spite of these circumstances, Russian officials agreed with Latvian officials on the supply of microcircuits necessary for the production of Bulava missiles.

Let me remind you that there is such concept as "hardware bookmarks". Those. it is quite possible to make some changes in the topology (simply speaking, in the electrical circuit) of the electronic component, allowing, for example, to “turn off” it remotely from the satellite or “turn it off” after a certain time interval or the number of working cycles. And despite these circumstances, the chips of the former software "Alpha" began to be used in the production of strategic missiles "Bulava". But the most interesting thing is how these microcircuits were delivered from Latvia to Russia, it is necessary to shoot TV series about this.

Since the agreement was not officially concluded, from time to time a special courier went from Moscow to Riga, which in Riga got a suitcase with microcircuitsand went back. A special “customs corridor” was created on the Latvian-Russian border and Latvian customs officers let the courier through without inspection. On the Russian side of the border, they were already waiting for him and also ensured the passage of customs without inspection. I once had a chance to talk with one of these "couriers", and he told me a lot of interesting and sometimes even funny about these trips.

I, as a State Duma deputy, then made several deputy inquiries to the then Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov about this, but received only replies: "This cannot be, because it can never be!" But the Ministry of Industry of Russia, in response to my deputy's request, nevertheless admitted that microcircuits are indeed supplied from Latvia. And when at the "Government Hour" in the State Duma I asked S. Ivanov a question, having read his answer and the answer of the Ministry of Industry, why is he lying that there are no supplies of microcircuits from NATO countries to Russia, the chairman of the meeting Chairman of the State Duma B. Gryzlov turned off my microphone.

Several years passed and finally the Kremlin realized that such a situation was unacceptable. And the famous sounded the slogan "Give import substitution!" But, unfortunately, the slogan seems to remain a slogan.

By this time, up to 80 percent of the electronic components used in the production of Russian military equipment and weapons were produced abroad. Since the United States and its allies, perfectly realizing the danger of supplies to Russia, of electronic components, especially of the "space" (space) and "military" (military) class, banned this, our intelligence has created special networks for the illegal purchase of such microcircuits in the United States and smuggling them to Russia. In 2012, one of these networks in the United States was opened by the American special services and 11 people were arrested, most of whom were Russian citizens. Some of them were sentenced to long prison terms of 10 years or more.

Considering all this, in Russia they really began to engage in import substitution in the field of electronics. And in spite of all my negative attitude towards much of what is happening in Russia today, I admit that, as it may not seem surprising to someone, a lot of money has been invested in the revival of the Russian electronics industry in recent years. And then it turned out that the horse was not fed.

Today, when the state is investing large budget money in electronics, the system of kickbacks, bribes and fraud that has developed in our country over the past three decades does not allow it to be revived. Along with the emergence of truly competitive samples of Russian electronic components, many Russian-made electronic products just suck

In recent years, I have had the opportunity to repeatedly meet with people from this industry, and I get the impression that it will not be possible to achieve changes for the better in domestic electronics without harsh repressive measures. Maybe I'm overly dramatizing the situation, but I get the impression that today many "effective managers" working in this industry, the main task is not to revive the Russian electronics industry, but the main thing is to earn money. And make money in any way.

For the first time in three decades, a lot of money has gone into Russian electronics, and it means there is an opportunity to "master" them. This is similar to how the budget money was “used” for the construction of the Zenit stadium in St. Petersburg. Today, the state has introduced strict requirements for import substitution in military equipment - it is prohibited to use imported electronic components in the presence of domestic analogues, i.e. a tough policy of protectionism … This is what our "effective managers" use. A foreign microcircuit is taken, on its basis a domestic analogue is developed, which is put into production and offered to manufacturers of military equipment. Thus, these producers can no longer use imports. It would seem that this is great, the import substitution policy is in action! But at the same time, it turns out that when developing a domestic analogue, they took a Chinese microcircuit, threw out many functional capabilities from it, due to the impossibility of providing them during manufacture, and given the state of domestic factory equipment, the quality of this analogue turns out to be lower than the plinth, and in addition, such an import-substituted product is offered by the price is 2-3, or even five times higher than that of the Chinese counterpart. Well, a manufacturer of military products is forced to take this "import-substituted product" and try to mold advanced military equipment on its basis. And with longing to remember the times when such a Chinese-made microcircuit with excellent parameters and reliability could be bought for almost nothing.

Yes, on the other hand, you can and partly understand the manufacturers of electronic components. In Russia, there is practically no need for domestic microcircuits for the production of domestic civilian products. When did you last see a domestic TV set on the shelves of our stores, let alone a computer or a mobile phone? But in the West and in China, electronic components for military use make up no more than five percent of the total production of such components. 95 percent of essentially the same microcircuits go to civilian purposes, in mobile phones, computers and televisions.

The greater the volume of production, the lower its price. It is due to such a distribution that Intel and other Western companies increase their revenues every year. There it is civilian consumers pay for the production of expensive military chips.

It's not like that with us. There is practically no civil sector for the use of domestic microcircuits and is not expected in the near future. And that means that the experience of Intel cannot be applied to us.

Can only "sharashka" of the Stalinist type and mass executions save us? After all, then especially during the war years in the USSR, the cost of military equipment decreased every year, and the output of these products grew at an unprecedented rate. As a result, by 1944 we surpassed Germany in the production of military products, for which all of Europe worked.

And one telegram from Stalin was enough for the aircraft plant in Kuibyshev to triple the production of Il-2 attack aircraft in a week.