DARPA in Russian is not DARPA at all. Instead of a breakthrough technology agency, another bureaucratic structure is being created.
The State Duma of the Russian Federation passed in the first reading the draft law “On the Advanced Research Fund” (DRF), which was presented to the deputies by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin. Back in 2010, then-President Dmitry Medvedev said that the country "lacks an effective structure that would deal with the order of so-called breakthrough research and development in the interests of defense and security, including advanced research," similar to the US agency DARPA. It was at the on-site meeting of the modernization commission in Kolomna. After the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov most definitely told reporters: “We’re not going to create any organ similar to that of the American DARPA. But it is necessary to distribute flows, including budget ones, to finance basic science, so-called exploratory research, and such an assignment (and I offered it today, speaking at the commission) as president. ” As the water looked!
MANY MEMBERS
The Defense Advanced Research Progects Agency (DARPA) Agency for Advanced Defense Projects appeared after the launch of the first Soviet artificial satellite of the Earth to catch up and overtake the USSR in the field of astronautics. And then she took up the strategic planning of America’s future, primarily in defense.
DARPA predicts technological development and is looking for promising breakthrough innovations. And the very same orders them - sets tasks for science. And most of these dual-purpose technologies. For half a century, the agency has proved its high efficiency. We can say that the current America, computerized and high-tech, created thanks to DARPA.
What is the secret of sustainability and efficiency of this system, which has not lost its qualities in almost 55 years in a changed world? The creators of the agency were well aware that the only power that could prevent the creators of unprecedented technology was the officials. Therefore, at a time when America was in despair was ready for anything, just to overtake the Soviet Union, they were able to lay in the principle of DARPA existence a powerful defense against bureaucratization. For the agency, there are no approvals, permits, licensing, meetings and everything else that is the strength and raison d'etre of any bureaucratic system. Nothing holds down the creativity of employees.
The DARPA itself is hidden in the secondary structure of the Pentagon. Therefore, no government official can interfere in his activities. At the same time, the agency is also protected from interference by the generals of the Ministry of Defense. No lobbyists - even the ministers, though academics, can not intervene and influence the fantastic decisions of ordinary DARPA managers.
In contrast to the overseas DARPA, the Domestic Fund for Advanced Studies looks like a supplement to a powerful bureaucratic structure. And the law on FPI is mainly devoted to a detailed description of these bureaucratic superstructures, the device and principles of the foundation’s work are not spelled out. They will be prescribed later and approved by venerable officials who preside over the foundation. Naturally, create, as we have established, under him.
Article 10 of the Law on the FPI states: “The fund’s management bodies are the board of trustees of the foundation, the board of directors and the general director of the foundation. The body controlling the financial and economic activities is the audit committee of the fund. A permanent advisory body is created in the foundation - the scientific and technical council of the foundation. ”
In the American DARPA, the entire directorate, including technical workers, numbers 21 people. With a total staff of about 240 people. The highest governing body of FPI is the Board of Trustees of 15 people - seven are appointed by the president, and seven more by the government plus the general director. There is also the chairman of the board of trustees, appointed by the president. The president can terminate all their powers at any time. All trustees, except the general director, do not work on a permanent basis. Deciphering it is simple: they will appoint officials from the old magazine to lead the science of tomorrow. Which and so besides the main work sit on two dozen commissions, committees and supervisory boards. Naturally, they do not delve into scientific affairs, because they do not understand anything about it, but rely on assistants, assistants and advisers who have their own interests and sincere friends from the financial and industrial spheres.
And these people will be concerned not with breakthrough technologies, but with the reaction of their employer. The president said: “genetic and tectonic weapon, And billions gasp in delusional projects. But the necessary “smart” weapons are easily driven under the bench.
MONEY IS RIGHT
The Board meets once every three months. At the same time, only half of the members are needed for a decision. That is, seven officials appointed by the president, and the appointed general director. In addition, at any time they can all be replaced by more loyal. It turns out that strategic decisions defining the future of the country for years ahead, on which its security and place among world powers depend, will not be made on the basis of scientifically calculated future scenarios, but, as has always been in Russia, “what the sovereign will do”. Was it worth making a garden, a fund to create?
Of course, it was worth it! After all, this is not just a bureaucratic structure, but another especially protected channel of solid budget financing. According to the law, FPI is not subject to the provisions of a number of paragraphs of Article 32 of the Federal Law of January 12 1996 No. 7-ФЗ “On Non-Profit Organizations” regulating the procedure for exercising control over the activities of non-profit organizations. And also the provisions of the Federal Law dated 21 July 2005 of the year No. 94-ФЗ “On placing orders for goods, works and services for state and municipal needs” do not apply. And the provisions of the Federal Law of October 26 2002 127-ФЗ “On Insolvency (Bankruptcy)” as well.
On the one hand, it is correct that FPI can order secret research to the most suitable partner without any tenders and purchase any good without tender. On the other hand, the possibilities for abuse are colossal. In DARPA, by the way, competitions are practiced. A theme is announced, for example, a platform capable of automatically carrying cargo over long distances. Participants submit projects, receive funding from DARPA, and a year later, on the range in the Nevada desert, prototype races on 500 miles are organized. Winners receive funding for further development with tight deadlines.
In Russia, a decade and a half, a monopoly industry has been formed, where competition is excluded. To this end, all enterprises are driven into holdings and joint industry corporations. This is called defense reform. Now the same terrible reform begins in some areas of the defense industry. For a monopolist to finish and hand over the development - cut off the branch on which he sits. After all financing will end, there will be only a penny architectural supervision. Therefore, the design will last forever. And you can forget about breakthrough ideas forever. In the inert system they are not needed by anyone. Much more important is the stability of financing.
The control over the financial and economic activities of the fund will be carried out by the audit committee. The provision on it has yet to be approved by the board of trustees. He will appoint the chairman and members. That is, officials will appoint other officials, and, if necessary, will have the right to early terminate their powers and appoint others. Since the provision on the commission has not yet been adopted, it is not known whether it will supervise it constantly or only once a year to review documents.
And unlike the American DARPA, our FPI has the legal right to "carry out income-generating activities." True, "only to the extent that it serves to achieve the goal for which it was created, and corresponds to this goal." It is said quite flowery that allows you to engage in any commerce, investing, gambling and the like. But at the same time, "the fund's profit, obtained as a result of its activities, is directed exclusively to the achievement of this goal."
To achieve this goal, FPI "is entitled to join associations and unions based on decisions of the board of trustees of the foundation." Probably, only in Russia, in order to get breakthrough technologies, an organization needs to join some League of Industrialists or the Public Front.
FANTAZERS HERE NOT A PLACE
Recall that “the purpose of the foundation’s activity is to promote breakthrough high-risk research and development in the interests of the state’s defense and security, including the modernization of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the development and creation of innovative technologies and the production of high-tech military, special and dual-use products”.
Confused by the expression "to promote the implementation of ... research and development." The specific result is not provided, only assistance. Translated into the language of native aspens - "distribution of money." Since the money is distributed for high-risk projects, it is easy to predict a complete failure. Money will be spent, the result is zero, reporting is attached, everyone is happy. DARPA has a clear focus on an achievable result even in the most risky projects. Project duration is three to five years. If the results are weak, the development is at a standstill, the prospects are not visible - funding stops. So it was, for example, with the project "air laser". For several years now, Boeing has been drawing this project at its own expense, trying to get funding, but DARPA is inexorable.
Who is involved in the selection of projects? At DARPA, these are handled by managers. They are exactly a third of the staff of the agency. The average age is 37–40 years. University education and degrees have from 20 to 50%. The number is not constant, because there is a staff turnover. The manager's salary is $130 per year. Among them are not only engineers, but also biologists, philologists, and even self-taught computer scientists. The best managers are science fiction writers and fantasy lovers. It is they who are at the origins of the implementation of ideas that were considered insane: robots-soldiers, stealth aircraft, self-aiming ammunition and the like. Managers are quite independent, they themselves find ideas and manage further development. And if people are driven by enthusiasm, they can move mountains.
Periodically, DARPA gathers conferences to discuss another set of fantastic ideas. Fiction lovers, screenwriters, writers, journalists, young scientists of various specialties, and teachers are invited again. Preliminary contests of ideas, fantastic stories on a given topic, draft designs can be held. In January, 2011, a seminar was held, where the physics of interstellar travel was discussed. This is an integral part of the work on a joint project of DARPA and NASA to launch a manned spacecraft into deep space in 2111 in a year - in 100 years! We are talking about the development of technologies of the XXII century now. Can anyone here even look at 50 years ahead?
The Law on FPI has determined who in Russia “organizes the search, selection of projects and the formation of a list of projects, and also with the involvement of experts and expert organizations prepares the conclusions of the scientific and technical council of the foundation for selected projects”. This is the science and technology council of the foundation. The conclusion of the scientific and technical council of FPI "should contain a conclusion about its compliance with any direction of research in the field of breakthrough high-risk research and development included in the program of the fund’s activity for a three-year period, the project’s implementation period and the approximate amount of funds necessary for its implementation."
Apparently, it should be understood as follows: the board has compiled a three-year list of research directions, the scientific and technical council has found suitable projects and performers. Then the authorities approved. The usual bureaucratic procedure. There is no place for fantastic ideas of the next century. But there is always a place for lobbying, personal and corporate interests.
Now they like to say that in the Soviet Union there was a Military-Industrial Committee under the government - the same is DARPA, only in a Soviet way. Nothing like this. The military industrial complex consisted mainly of ministers and commanders, as in the current military-industrial commission. When the committee also had a council and executive structures, the total number of all these structural formations reached 1000 people. Mainly, they all together were engaged in planning large projects, cooperation, procurement, etc. But there was no talk about breakthrough technologies. The rules of the "monkey effect" - copying Western projects, which guaranteed the eternal lag. The “Buran”, a supersonic Tu-160 bomber, existing in the number of 15 units, and many other things became a symmetrical answer to no one.
A catastrophe for the country was the decision of the military industrial complex in December 1969 of the year on the reorientation of domestic computers to the architecture of the American IBM / 360. Relying on the commercial and illegal acquisition of the finished product turned into a disastrous lag from a potential adversary. The Soviet Union fell behind a whole generation of information technology, was left without an electronic component base and lost the cold war in the sphere of strike weapons and space.
The Advanced Research Foundation being created is anti-DARPA. The structure, initially blinkered, is bound hand and foot by a crowd of leading officials who will make decisions to the best of their incompetence. FPI will occupy a worthy place in the same row with Rosnano, the Russian Venture Company, Skolkovo Innograd and its ilk. They were also created for breakthrough technologies. But if where a breakthrough happened, it's only in the budget. Sadly, one should not be surprised if in a few years the FPI will be deciphered as the “investment investment fund”.
Information