Serdyukov against Mil and Kamov: who will win?
According to the materials of the Expert publication, the head of the Rostec aviation cluster Anatoly Serdyukov proceeded to the total optimization of “excess production capacities” at the enterprises controlled by the holding.
It’s debatable, but not without reason, if you look seriously. On the one hand, there seems to be no need to do all this, because there is already an add-on for the Kamov and Mil design bureau in the person of the Russian Helicopters holding, and then Rostec.
However, not everything is as simple as we would like. And just like that, to start shouting “Serdyukov resigned!” I would like to, but it’s worth considering everything carefully and in order.
So, Rostec decided to merge together two design bureaus - Mil and Kamov. In exchange, a certain National Center for Helicopter Engineering will be created. This is what was said in the article by Alexey Khazbiev, "The screws hit the living." However, in our opinion, not everything is as optimistic as it is tried to show in Rostec, far from it.
Once in the Soviet past, it was decided to create not one, but two bureaus - so that the engineers seemed to compete with each other. But the rivalry did not work out, and the designers simply divided the niches. Miles took up universal machines, and Kamov began working on highly specialized helicopters. Especially above helicopters for needs fleet.
The question arises: who can suffer the most from such optimization? In addition, many experts already claim that our armed forces and the fleet can only benefit from such optimization.
So far, we are witnessing the following: job cuts at helicopter plants and the unrest inevitably associated with this.
It all started with aviation Progress company named after N. I. Sazykin in the city of Arsenyev, Primorsky Territory, which is part of the Helicopters of Russia holding.
About 200 company employees received notice of dismissal from the beginning of next year. And then they formed the core of protest rallies.
But why did optimization begin with layoffs?
The problem is simple: people have nothing to pay. This is clearly not the fault of Progress employees, because they produce not butter, which you can trade after work. And there were simply huge problems with the sale of the plant's products.
The main reason for this decision is the complete lack of orders for the production of Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopters, no matter how wild it sounds.
The contract for the supply of 140 Alligators for the Russian Aerospace Forces has already been completed, and new requirements and interests have not been announced.
Initially, the Ministry of Defense intended to buy Ka-52 less than Mi-28, but even 5 to 1 was not in favor of Ka-52. The operation and maintenance of such a combined fleet is too expensive even in our country, with our capabilities and for our military.
And so it turned out that a new preliminary contract for the supply of more than hundreds of Ka-52 for the Russian Aerospace Forces hung in the air. And according to many sources, there will be no contract.
And the foreign market does not help. Ka-52 did not interest anyone. The only contract for the entire time for the construction of 42 ship Ka-52K helicopters for Egypt (yes, for the Mistrali sharpened under the Ka-52) was actually fulfilled, but no new buyers were found.
And such a situation could not but affect the manufacturer. According to trade unions, if in January of the 2018 of the year, “Progress” employed a little more than 7 of thousands of people, then in January of the 2019 of the year it was already about 6 of thousands of people. But this is still a lot for the plant, which produces less than 20 helicopters per year.
What in Europe or overseas?
Airbus Helicopters employs a total of 20 thousand people (half as many as in Russian Helicopters), but Europeans sell 360 helicopters for 6 billion euros annually. This is one and a half times more than our entire helicopter holding, in physical terms and three times more in money.
If you look across the ocean at Lockheed Martin Corp, which now owns the helicopter company Sikorsky Aircraft, it turns out that it sells cars a year for 7-7,5 billion dollars. And Sikorsky Aircraft works even less, about 15 thousand people.
Here, in fact, is the comparison ...
And no clearance in the darkest future. All calculations for the sale of Ka-60 and Ka-62 also did not materialize, they are repeating at forums with enviable regularity as a mantra that production will begin in 2020.
But it must be said that the launch of the Ka-62 has not been possible for ten years. There were no engines, the French tried to deliver, which we later lost due to sanctions ... Together with the Austrian gearboxes.
In general, no one needs a civilian Ka abroad either, especially since there are concerns that the plant will be able to produce cars in general due to a lack of components.
It turns out that "Progress" is waiting for very difficult times. And people ...
In the meantime, Rostec’s top management has already moved on to a more complex task - combining Kamov Design Bureau and Design Bureau Mil in a single structure: the National Center for Helicopter Engineering (NCV).
This process should be completed by the end of the 2022 year. It is expected that as a result of the merger, the total area of the two enterprises will be reduced by at least 40%, and the area of buildings and structures by 20%. At the same time, approximately 5% of employees of both design bureaus will lose their jobs. But the layoffs will not affect engineers and designers, but exclusively support and management personnel.
Maybe. But let's see who will suffer in this situation more? The option is drawn that Kamov's design bureau will get stronger. It is to be expected because the Kamov helicopters are sold several times less than the Mil aircraft.
And if you fail to put into operation on time and (most importantly) sell the Ka-62 and Ka-226 models, then you may not have to wait for the 2022 of the year.
Why is OKB needed, albeit with vast experience, experience and staff, if nobody needs the machines that this team is developing?
There is logic.
And by the 2022 year this unification will take place. Under the auspices of JSC "National Center for Helicopter Engineering (NCV) named. M.L. Milya and N.I. Kamov ".
That is another add-on of parasites, the entire loading of which will consist in transferring paper to reports. Because above them will be the "Helicopters of Russia", and above - "Rostec".
Something similar can be observed when a monster was assembled from the Zhukovsky Academy, the Gagarin Academy, two schools of radio electronics (Voronezh and Tambovsky) and the Voronezh Aviation Engineering School: the Zhukovsky and Gagarin Academy.
But a terrible experiment on military academies is already a fact, but we'll see what happens to helicopters.
Both brands, according to Rostec, will remain independent, but “the teams of both design bureaus will join the NCV.” The creation of the NCV is designed to remove the administrative, legal, and economic barriers that so far hinder the collaboration of the two teams.
What kind of cooperation can there be between design bureaus working on helicopters that are fundamentally different in design - this is not entirely clear.
What can be the “obstacles to the exchange of technical solutions” that to eliminate them will have to recruit a whole crowd of “effective managers and administrators”?
The words from Rostec that the design bureaus will no longer compete, but will begin to compete with foreign manufacturers, sound illogical.
In general, all this looks like a kindergarten "Camomile".
One gets the impression that KB Mil and KB Kamov are staffed by demented, retarded people who create their own problems. They do not want to exchange technical solutions; they are competing with each other.
As I understand it, anti-submarine helicopters are trying to push through Mil Miller’s Design Bureau, while Kamov Design Bureau is driving universal trucks onto the market at an accelerated pace.
And we need to create another control center in the form of this NCV, which will monitor these unreasonable ones.
It is clear that everything is very badly launched, and Rostec and Russian Helicopters are simply not able to cope with the raging design bureaus.
Well, then immediately do the “Control Committee” for all of them. Is it a joke, to control so many controllers ...
In general, the next optimization of Serdyukov looks very so-so. As, however, and everything in his performance.
Do you know what I believe with pleasure? In the released area. On which it will be possible to build something more necessary than helicopter plants. For example, residential complexes or shopping centers.
On the other hand, when these plants were created, it was about the Soviet Army and about the armies of satellites from the ATS. Today, such a need for helicopters, perhaps, may not be, although personally I doubt it.
In general, the idea of unification is not new. The association was first discussed in the 2012 year. At that time, Russian Helicopters made a number of overwhelming statements on the theme that “over the past 20 years, both design bureaus have lost a significant part of their employees - and the trend is that in the short term, neither Design Bureau nor Design Bureau can independently to realize a large project. ”
It is clear that if you feed managers, not engineers, arrange useless exhibitions and unfasten 50 millions for gerontology miracles concerts, instead of paying workers normally, both engineers and workers will run away trivially.
So the combination, perhaps, will make it possible to compensate for the personnel losses of both design bureaus. Maybe.
Although, if you look carefully, it would be better for Rostec to first deal with the United Engine Corporation. No matter which industry you stick in, there are no engines everywhere. It seems that in our yard is not 2019, but 1919. Or 1929. Or 1939. It does not matter. It is important that, as then, with the engines of the problem, that at sea, that in the air.
And this despite the creation of this same UEC, which also had to optimize, reduce, increase, bring, and so on.
But there are still no engines.
It is very difficult to say how successful the next reorganization from Serdyukov will be. So far, all associations have not brought much success. Let's see what happens with helicopters. They will take out the screws "Ka" and "Mi" another additional superstructure or break off during heating.
A necessary addition.
Neither the French nor the Austrian manufacturer refused to participate in the Ka-62 project. Sanctions do not apply to this project, since the helicopter is exclusively civilian. Serial production of the Ka-62 will indeed begin in the near future; in 2020, the transfer of the first batch of 4 vehicles is planned. An agreement was reached on their leader exploitation in the interests of Primorye - the corresponding agreement was signed at the WEF-2019 by the Director General of Russian Helicopters Andrei Boginsky and the Governor of Primorsky Territory Oleg Kozhemyako.
It is expected that as a result of the merger, the total area of the two enterprises will be reduced by at least 40%, and the area of buildings and structures by 20%. In fact, this reduction in space occurred back in 2015, when Kamov JSC moved to the production site in Tomilino.
The program for the creation of the National Helicopter Center assumes the preservation and development of two design bureaus and their teams, which will continue to work on creating a new generation of Mi and Ka helicopters. At the same time, unification into a single company will allow us to abandon the procurement procedures and the complex process of transferring intellectual property when exchanging technical solutions of the two design bureaus, applicable both to Mi helicopters and to Ka helicopters. In addition, the creation of a single test base will eliminate the possibility of conducting the same type of strength, aerodynamic and other tests.
It’s debatable, but not without reason, if you look seriously. On the one hand, there seems to be no need to do all this, because there is already an add-on for the Kamov and Mil design bureau in the person of the Russian Helicopters holding, and then Rostec.
However, not everything is as simple as we would like. And just like that, to start shouting “Serdyukov resigned!” I would like to, but it’s worth considering everything carefully and in order.
So, Rostec decided to merge together two design bureaus - Mil and Kamov. In exchange, a certain National Center for Helicopter Engineering will be created. This is what was said in the article by Alexey Khazbiev, "The screws hit the living." However, in our opinion, not everything is as optimistic as it is tried to show in Rostec, far from it.
Once in the Soviet past, it was decided to create not one, but two bureaus - so that the engineers seemed to compete with each other. But the rivalry did not work out, and the designers simply divided the niches. Miles took up universal machines, and Kamov began working on highly specialized helicopters. Especially above helicopters for needs fleet.
The question arises: who can suffer the most from such optimization? In addition, many experts already claim that our armed forces and the fleet can only benefit from such optimization.
So far, we are witnessing the following: job cuts at helicopter plants and the unrest inevitably associated with this.
It all started with aviation Progress company named after N. I. Sazykin in the city of Arsenyev, Primorsky Territory, which is part of the Helicopters of Russia holding.
About 200 company employees received notice of dismissal from the beginning of next year. And then they formed the core of protest rallies.
But why did optimization begin with layoffs?
The problem is simple: people have nothing to pay. This is clearly not the fault of Progress employees, because they produce not butter, which you can trade after work. And there were simply huge problems with the sale of the plant's products.
The main reason for this decision is the complete lack of orders for the production of Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopters, no matter how wild it sounds.
The contract for the supply of 140 Alligators for the Russian Aerospace Forces has already been completed, and new requirements and interests have not been announced.
Initially, the Ministry of Defense intended to buy Ka-52 less than Mi-28, but even 5 to 1 was not in favor of Ka-52. The operation and maintenance of such a combined fleet is too expensive even in our country, with our capabilities and for our military.
And so it turned out that a new preliminary contract for the supply of more than hundreds of Ka-52 for the Russian Aerospace Forces hung in the air. And according to many sources, there will be no contract.
And the foreign market does not help. Ka-52 did not interest anyone. The only contract for the entire time for the construction of 42 ship Ka-52K helicopters for Egypt (yes, for the Mistrali sharpened under the Ka-52) was actually fulfilled, but no new buyers were found.
And such a situation could not but affect the manufacturer. According to trade unions, if in January of the 2018 of the year, “Progress” employed a little more than 7 of thousands of people, then in January of the 2019 of the year it was already about 6 of thousands of people. But this is still a lot for the plant, which produces less than 20 helicopters per year.
What in Europe or overseas?
Airbus Helicopters employs a total of 20 thousand people (half as many as in Russian Helicopters), but Europeans sell 360 helicopters for 6 billion euros annually. This is one and a half times more than our entire helicopter holding, in physical terms and three times more in money.
If you look across the ocean at Lockheed Martin Corp, which now owns the helicopter company Sikorsky Aircraft, it turns out that it sells cars a year for 7-7,5 billion dollars. And Sikorsky Aircraft works even less, about 15 thousand people.
Here, in fact, is the comparison ...
And no clearance in the darkest future. All calculations for the sale of Ka-60 and Ka-62 also did not materialize, they are repeating at forums with enviable regularity as a mantra that production will begin in 2020.
But it must be said that the launch of the Ka-62 has not been possible for ten years. There were no engines, the French tried to deliver, which we later lost due to sanctions ... Together with the Austrian gearboxes.
In general, no one needs a civilian Ka abroad either, especially since there are concerns that the plant will be able to produce cars in general due to a lack of components.
It turns out that "Progress" is waiting for very difficult times. And people ...
In the meantime, Rostec’s top management has already moved on to a more complex task - combining Kamov Design Bureau and Design Bureau Mil in a single structure: the National Center for Helicopter Engineering (NCV).
This process should be completed by the end of the 2022 year. It is expected that as a result of the merger, the total area of the two enterprises will be reduced by at least 40%, and the area of buildings and structures by 20%. At the same time, approximately 5% of employees of both design bureaus will lose their jobs. But the layoffs will not affect engineers and designers, but exclusively support and management personnel.
Maybe. But let's see who will suffer in this situation more? The option is drawn that Kamov's design bureau will get stronger. It is to be expected because the Kamov helicopters are sold several times less than the Mil aircraft.
And if you fail to put into operation on time and (most importantly) sell the Ka-62 and Ka-226 models, then you may not have to wait for the 2022 of the year.
Why is OKB needed, albeit with vast experience, experience and staff, if nobody needs the machines that this team is developing?
There is logic.
And by the 2022 year this unification will take place. Under the auspices of JSC "National Center for Helicopter Engineering (NCV) named. M.L. Milya and N.I. Kamov ".
That is another add-on of parasites, the entire loading of which will consist in transferring paper to reports. Because above them will be the "Helicopters of Russia", and above - "Rostec".
Something similar can be observed when a monster was assembled from the Zhukovsky Academy, the Gagarin Academy, two schools of radio electronics (Voronezh and Tambovsky) and the Voronezh Aviation Engineering School: the Zhukovsky and Gagarin Academy.
But a terrible experiment on military academies is already a fact, but we'll see what happens to helicopters.
Both brands, according to Rostec, will remain independent, but “the teams of both design bureaus will join the NCV.” The creation of the NCV is designed to remove the administrative, legal, and economic barriers that so far hinder the collaboration of the two teams.
What kind of cooperation can there be between design bureaus working on helicopters that are fundamentally different in design - this is not entirely clear.
What can be the “obstacles to the exchange of technical solutions” that to eliminate them will have to recruit a whole crowd of “effective managers and administrators”?
The words from Rostec that the design bureaus will no longer compete, but will begin to compete with foreign manufacturers, sound illogical.
In general, all this looks like a kindergarten "Camomile".
One gets the impression that KB Mil and KB Kamov are staffed by demented, retarded people who create their own problems. They do not want to exchange technical solutions; they are competing with each other.
As I understand it, anti-submarine helicopters are trying to push through Mil Miller’s Design Bureau, while Kamov Design Bureau is driving universal trucks onto the market at an accelerated pace.
And we need to create another control center in the form of this NCV, which will monitor these unreasonable ones.
It is clear that everything is very badly launched, and Rostec and Russian Helicopters are simply not able to cope with the raging design bureaus.
Well, then immediately do the “Control Committee” for all of them. Is it a joke, to control so many controllers ...
In general, the next optimization of Serdyukov looks very so-so. As, however, and everything in his performance.
Do you know what I believe with pleasure? In the released area. On which it will be possible to build something more necessary than helicopter plants. For example, residential complexes or shopping centers.
On the other hand, when these plants were created, it was about the Soviet Army and about the armies of satellites from the ATS. Today, such a need for helicopters, perhaps, may not be, although personally I doubt it.
In general, the idea of unification is not new. The association was first discussed in the 2012 year. At that time, Russian Helicopters made a number of overwhelming statements on the theme that “over the past 20 years, both design bureaus have lost a significant part of their employees - and the trend is that in the short term, neither Design Bureau nor Design Bureau can independently to realize a large project. ”
It is clear that if you feed managers, not engineers, arrange useless exhibitions and unfasten 50 millions for gerontology miracles concerts, instead of paying workers normally, both engineers and workers will run away trivially.
So the combination, perhaps, will make it possible to compensate for the personnel losses of both design bureaus. Maybe.
Although, if you look carefully, it would be better for Rostec to first deal with the United Engine Corporation. No matter which industry you stick in, there are no engines everywhere. It seems that in our yard is not 2019, but 1919. Or 1929. Or 1939. It does not matter. It is important that, as then, with the engines of the problem, that at sea, that in the air.
And this despite the creation of this same UEC, which also had to optimize, reduce, increase, bring, and so on.
But there are still no engines.
It is very difficult to say how successful the next reorganization from Serdyukov will be. So far, all associations have not brought much success. Let's see what happens with helicopters. They will take out the screws "Ka" and "Mi" another additional superstructure or break off during heating.
A necessary addition.
The press service of the state corporation "Rostec" reported upon publication of the following:
Neither the French nor the Austrian manufacturer refused to participate in the Ka-62 project. Sanctions do not apply to this project, since the helicopter is exclusively civilian. Serial production of the Ka-62 will indeed begin in the near future; in 2020, the transfer of the first batch of 4 vehicles is planned. An agreement was reached on their leader exploitation in the interests of Primorye - the corresponding agreement was signed at the WEF-2019 by the Director General of Russian Helicopters Andrei Boginsky and the Governor of Primorsky Territory Oleg Kozhemyako.
It is expected that as a result of the merger, the total area of the two enterprises will be reduced by at least 40%, and the area of buildings and structures by 20%. In fact, this reduction in space occurred back in 2015, when Kamov JSC moved to the production site in Tomilino.
The program for the creation of the National Helicopter Center assumes the preservation and development of two design bureaus and their teams, which will continue to work on creating a new generation of Mi and Ka helicopters. At the same time, unification into a single company will allow us to abandon the procurement procedures and the complex process of transferring intellectual property when exchanging technical solutions of the two design bureaus, applicable both to Mi helicopters and to Ka helicopters. In addition, the creation of a single test base will eliminate the possibility of conducting the same type of strength, aerodynamic and other tests.
Information