Why are PROTONS falling? Danger of office plankton

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The fall of the Progress cargo spacecraft on December 1, 2016 (the second in recent times), the fall of the Proton is a natural result of the activities of “effective” managers in the Russian space industry.

Engines of the third stage developed by KBKhA, whose emergency operation led to these offensive falls, are manufactured at the Voronezh Mechanical Plant (VMZ), fire tests are carried out by JSC KBKhA (one per batch).

After the normal operation of hundreds of engines, more than a hundred trouble-free flights, these offensive falls suddenly began to occur. What led to these accidents? Similar accidents occur and have occurred due to violation of technological discipline in the manufacture of engines.

VMZ is part of the NPK im. Khrunichev, who is headed by businessman Kalinovsky (specialized education - financier), on whose order the plant was optimized - a massive reduction in employees in the first half of 2016, which did not lead to a significant increase in the salaries of key specialists (engineers and workers). The difference between the pay of the manager and ordinary workers only increased.

Social stratification, along with the loss of the former prestige of cosmonautics, began back in the dashing 90s, when the best achievements of the Soviet era were subjected to special ridicule and obstruction. Qualified specialists held out for a long time, but then they gradually began to leave (to retire, to other enterprises where they paid more), when, due to the loss of the former high level of social protection, real wages dropped significantly. Instead, unskilled personnel began to come. Technological discipline gradually declined. And when this fall reached a critical level, accidents began.

The recent downsizing only exacerbated the social stratification at the plant and accelerated the decline in labor and technological discipline.

In KBKhA, thanks to the efforts of the General Designer V. S. Rachuk, who headed the design bureau in the early 90s, it was possible to retain the team, maintain the enterprise at a sufficiently high level, and ensure the high-quality performance of the assigned tasks.

However, in July 2015, the head of the Roscosmos state corporation, I. Komarov, decided to create a single design bureau in the corporation for the development of rocket engines by merging KBKhA JSC and KB Energomash JSC on the basis of the latter. JSC KB Energomash was withdrawn from RSC Energia; in July 2015, a certain Arbuzov (an economist), a production worker who had never headed the development of new rocket engines, was appointed General Director of the KB in July 2015.

The general designer of the KBKhA V. S. Rachuk was fired in August 2015 for a far-fetched reason. A. V. Kamyshev, a financier who did not understand what a liquid-propellant engine was, appointed in October 2015 as the executive director of the KBKhA, did not find a place for Rachuka in the KBKhA, but he brought with him similar “specialists” to managerial positions and set them salaries many times higher than the salaries of their predecessors …

It should be noted that the average salary of 11 executives (average monthly salary ~ 100 thousand rubles) is 2.5 times higher than the average salary of chief specialists (management of the scientific and technical complex), which remained practically at the same level, and 3 times higher than the average salary leading specialists in the areas (for liquid-propellant engine units). Moreover, the salary of the deputy executive director for personnel (salary - 150 thousand rubles), the largest in the design bureau after executive director Kamyshev (contractual salary) is one and a half times higher than the salary of the chief designer, who is in fourth place among executives in terms of payment.

The salary of the head of the personnel department was previously 26 thousand rubles. Instead of a personnel department, consisting of several specialists, a whole department for work with personnel was created, consisting of three departments: a personnel recruitment department, a professional development department and a motivation department, in which employees do not know what to do, but receive a salary many times higher. than the main and even the main specialists of the design bureau. The official salary of heads of departments is on average 70 thousand rubles.

The average salary of office plankton (salary ~ 60 thousand rubles), which came with Kamyshev, is more than two times higher than the salary of the main specialists of the design bureau (salary - 26 thousand rubles). The salary of ordinary engineers and technicians and workers from 20 thousand rubles. and less.

Personal secretary Kamyshev appointed a salary of 70 thousand rubles. The other two are 30 thousand rubles each.

Instead of legal entities. a bureau consisting of three lawyers, a whole legal entity was created. management: as part of 4 departments, in the amount of 21 people. The salary of the head of the department is 75 thousand rubles, the heads of departments are 45,050 rubles each. Previously the head of the legal entity the bureau had a salary of 26 thousand rubles, two lawyers, 22 thousand rubles each.

That is, for Kamyshev, the development of new products is not a priority, which was confirmed by the massive reduction of KBKhA workers carried out in the first half of 2016.

About 400 people were cut. Of these, 9 doctors and candidates of science were dismissed, leading specialists in the development of the main units and assemblies of liquid-propellant rocket engines, the equivalent of which will no longer be replaced. In addition, experienced middle-aged specialists (the future of the enterprise) began to leave for other enterprises, where they are paid much more and there is no substitute for them either.

It should be noted that the funds saved on the reduction went mainly to the maintenance of office plankton.

Skilled workers also began to leave, which led to a drop in technological discipline, especially in the test complex and in production (KBKhA JSC consists of scientific, technical and test complexes and a rocket engine plant).

It should be noted the highest qualifications of the KBKhA (and VSW) workers, who made a huge contribution to the creation of rocket and space technology, along with designers and engineers. Moreover, the high level of their skill, education, universalism and outlook was supported by a decent level of social protection. Skilled workers at VSW received, as a rule, from half to 2/3 of the director's salary, and at KBKhA - from a third to half of the salary of the Chief Designer (from 300-500 to 600 rubles). The workers enjoyed well-deserved respect and understood the importance of their work for the enterprise and the country. In addition, the highest qualifications of specialists were supported by a quality and reliability control system that ensures the strictest adherence to the technological process. Currently, workers and engineers and technicians receive dozens of times less managers. … The aforementioned reduction procedure often took place, with violations of labor laws, without taking into account the qualifications and merits of the dismissed workers, without any analysis of the consequences of the reduction, with violations of moral standards.

For example, both the doctor and the candidate of sciences - the head of the TNA department and the chief specialist in TNA (TNA - the heart of the liquid-propellant engine) were dismissed. In fact, the most important direction was decapitated - the development of the main rocket engine unit. In violation of labor laws and moral standards, one of the oldest veterans of KBKhA, chief specialist in components and non-metallic elements (KiNE) Skachilov Viktor Nikolaevich, Doctor of Science, Professor, Academician of the Academy of Cosmonautics named after V. I. K. E. Tsiolkovsky (the only one at the enterprise), a graduate of the Moscow Aviation Institute, at the enterprise since 1958, the largest specialist in the reliability and warranty periods of storage of KiNE. It should be noted that the warranty period for ICBMs and spacecraft launch vehicles is 10.5 years. Many combat ICBMs (Soviet-made) with LPRE developed by KBKhA have been in service for over 30 years. In each specific case, the decision to extend the warranty periods of the KINE engines was made by Viktor Nikolaevich. KiNE is the weakest link of liquid-propellant rocket engines, therefore, based on their guaranteed storage periods, the service life of liquid-propellant rocket engines and missiles as a whole is determined.

Under his leadership, studies were carried out to extend the service life of the engines of the combat missile systems "Satan", "Sineva", "Stiletto", etc. However, after the reduction, his functional duties were distributed among incompetent specialists.

Thank God, by the decision of the Sovetskiy District Court of Voronezh, Viktor Nikolaevich was reinstated and started to work.

But the "effective" administration of the KBKhA did not calm down and filed an appeal against the decision of the district court. On November 8, 2016, the collegium of the Voronezh Regional Court dismissed this complaint and upheld the decision of the Soviet District Court. However, the KBKhA administration has not calmed down and continues a discriminatory policy towards the veteran: it does not allow KB employees to meet with him, seek advice on work, does not give Viktor Nikolayevich any instructions, does not give documents for signing, does not give work and he is forced to do it himself find.

Who gave the right to these pests, idlers to destroy the unique scientific and technical school, to mock deserved people, to undermine the security and defense capability of the country? At the last Plenum of the Central Committee of the Trade Union of Space Industry Workers, the chairman of the trade union committee of one of the industry's enterprises asked a representative of Roscosmos present: "In which area of Chicago did you find this Kamyshev?"

In response to Skachilov's appeal to the head of Roscosmos, a letter was received dated 2016-13-09, which states that: one of the priority activities of the State Corporation Roscosmos is the reform of the Russian rocket engine building in order to improve the activities of design bureaus and maximize the use of the scientific and technical potential of existing design bureaus.

15.10. 2016 A. V. was appointed to the position of the executive director of KBKhA JSC. Kamyshev, who manages the JSC on the basis of a power of attorney issued by the general director of the managing organization - NPO Energomash im. Academician V. P. Glushko dated December 14, 2015 No. Yur-7630.

The letter also states that: “JSC KBKhA is carrying out organizational and staff activities related to the release of personnel. The administration of the enterprise, following the development program agreed with the management company, seeks to optimize costs (primarily overhead), realizing the need to increase wages …"

If the leadership of Roscosmos believes that any random person can lead the design bureau and improve the development of rocket engines, then why can't the cook (any) be able to run the country?

If what is happening in JSC KBKhA is called cost optimization, then what is the misuse of budget funds for the purpose of personal enrichment?

If what is happening is the maximum use of the scientific and technical potential of the existing design bureaus, then what is the destruction of the scientific and technical potential?

During the heyday of cosmonautics, the control scheme for the development of rocket and space technology, in particular rocket engines, looked like this: the Ministry of General Machine Building was at the head of the industry, in which experienced, highly qualified specialists worked. The engines were developed by specialized design bureaus, which had the status of scientific institutions: KB Energomash (first stage engines), KB Khimmash (second stage engines) and KBKhA (third stage engines) - three scientific and technical schools, each with its own unique specialization headed by outstanding designers, scientists, innovators, creators: V. P. Glushko, A. M. Isaev, S. A. Kosberg, A. D. Konopatov and others. The unique designs and technologies for the manufacture of liquid-propellant rocket engines created by them in the 60-80s of the last century cannot be replicated abroad at present. Therefore, the experience of veteran specialists in the field of rocket engines is worth its weight in gold. The appointment of Chief Designers took place at the level of the industrial department of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Military-Industrial Commission with the participation of the Ministry, which provided the necessary freedom of creativity and independence. Scientific and technical management was carried out by the head enterprises for the development of launch vehicles for spacecraft and ICBMs. Financing was carried out by the Ministry of State Orders directly without intermediaries. The production of serial engines was carried out at specialized factories headed by experienced directors. the appointment of which took place according to the above procedure. Financing of factories also went through the Ministry without intermediaries. Thus, overhead costs were minimized.

Now JSC KB Himmash im. A. M. Isaeva eks out a miserable existence as part of the NPK named after. Khrunichev.

The merger of KBKhA and KB Energomash under the leadership of the "effective" manager Arbuzov only led to the weakening of both scientific and technical schools: KBKhA was practically destroyed, in the former KBKhA Energomash almost the same thing is happening (according to available information).

To this it should be added that the head enterprise of Roscosmos RSC Energia (formerly the general designer was SP Korolev), headed by the “effective” manager Solntsev, is also in the stage of “optimization”.

Soon there will be no one to develop new promising products, and existing technologies may be lost forever. Reducing the number of scientific and technical workers in the context of geopolitical confrontation is a crime. In developed countries, the number of scientists is currently growing.

A senseless, mechanical amalgamation of design bureaus under the leadership of a stranger can only lead to the death of unique scientific and technical schools, the final loss of Russia's priority in the field of space research.

The natural result of the notorious "optimization" can only be the regular fall of "Progress", "Protons", the decline in the prestige of Russia, huge economic damage, the loss of the space constellation of communications satellites and aerospace communications, the transition to the number of backward countries.

The scoundrels led by I. Komarov have stood in the way of progress and threaten the security and defense of the country.

Further development of the rocket and space industry, and in particular engine building, is possible only by strengthening and developing existing scientific and technical schools and their interaction under the guidance of general and chief designers.

Scientific and technological progress is impossible without the leading role of creators and the maximum possible freedom of creativity with the maximum use of the experience of veterans. To reduce overhead costs and improve manageability, it is necessary to subordinate design bureaus and factories directly to Roskosmos, which needs to be strengthened by experienced specialists headed by a Korolev-level head.

Scientific and technical management should be carried out with the help of technical specifications for the development of new products on the basis of government orders and programs of scientific and technical research, administrative management - by appointing general and chief designers and government orders at the level of the Military-Industrial Commission. Prospective directions for the development of cosmonautics and rocket-space weapons systems should be determined by the Russian Academy of Sciences. So it was and it was effective.

Please consider this article as an open appeal to the Prosecutor General and the RF Government.

Executive Secretary

Central Black Earth Branch

Academy of Geopolitical Problems, A. L. Koroteev

former KBKhA employee