Rostec: a saw of the century or a percussion instrument?
What is happening today in our military-industrial environment, we have recently criticized rather than awarded with applause. But what is constant is referring to what is happening in the largest state corporation. Rostec, the former Russian Technologies.
More precisely, the state corporation to promote the development, production and export of high-tech industrial products "Rostec". More than 700 organizations united in 14 holdings. There is even close no comparison with what was in the USSR. There, 5 ministries, 2 committees and 2 main directorates were engaged in this (the production of military and not so equipment).
And this begs the question: why was such a whopper created?
The question is wrong.
The question is not "why", but "when." The whole point is precisely in this question.
And Rostec was created in 2007. Vladimir Putin, Denis Manturov and Sergey Chemezov created the corporation. And, if you go to the official website of Rostec, then in the paragraph dedicated to the creation of the corporation, you can read the following words:
"The decision to create a state corporation was based on the desire to support the country's industrial complex in a difficult period and to make domestic enterprises competitive."
Difficult period - 2007 ... How do you like this sign?
The language cannot be called a difficult period, when the budget simply swelled up from petrodollars and cracked at the welds. And if it does, then I'm sorry, but what is happening now? In terms of quotes and income? Steep dive?
And the time of creation of "Rostec" falls on this period. When money was not just a lot. Lots of.
How, then, can one assess the statements made by Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the mouthpiece of the government? What about an average household income of $ 2700 per month, inflation reduction to 3% per year, 100 square meters housing for a family of three? Remember? And I remember. And yes, "by 2020, the country will get off the oil needle."
By the way, this is not taken from the ceiling, these are the so-called forecasts from the "Concept of socio-economic development of Russia until 2020".
So, is it a "hard time" or are we going all over the country?
Time has shown everything. Today, in the same 2020. And the fact that the housing issue was resolved by a few, the size of the average salary remained there, around $ 500 in the country, the pension was postponed for 5 years, the coronavirus and the fight against it finally finished off medium and small entrepreneurs. Beauty.
So if we talk about "hard times", then this is definitely not 2007.
But it was in this year that Rostec was formed in accordance with Putin's decree, and it was this year that Federal Law No. 270-FZ “On the State Corporation for Assisting the Development, Production and Export of High-Tech Industrial Products Rostec” appeared.
And off we go.
The most unpleasant thing is that enterprises, and what is there, entire industries that were quite profitable for themselves before the appearance of Rostec, suddenly somehow immediately (or almost immediately) became subsidized. The clearest example is helicopter construction.
Of course, now there will be those who will say that if Russian Helicopters had not poured 50 million of sponsorship support from Alla Pugacheva for concerts, then there would have been no financial problems.
I agree. But it's not about giving money to Pugacheva. More precisely, not only in this. The point is a principled approach to all industries. The situation is not the best everywhere, not only with helicopters.
Since there is a choice, I would use it to talk about engines. With the engine building we have "complete order", that is, everything is very bad. This applies to both marine and aircraft engine building. Destroyers and frigates are waiting for "import substitution", which happened, judging by the joyful reports, only the engines did not appear from this at all.
And the Chinese diesels on "modern" strike ships look absolutely shameful. And they work in much the same way.
But we have already spoken about marine engines more than once, and here, apparently, it is simply impossible to do something meaningful. Diesel engines for large ships sank along with Ukraine, and starting from scratch their development and production ... Well, not that country a little.
In respect aviation engines are all in the spirit of the times. One could start with the engine for the Su-57, but they should finish. And to start, returning to the 90s of the last century, with the PS-90A engine, which was planned as an engine for the main liners of the 21st century - Il-96 and Tu-204.
The engine was not only at the world level, it surpassed many world analogues by a head, or even two. Yes, there were childhood illnesses, but who did not? All this is brought to mind all over the world.
However, the "effective managers" did not like the PS-90A. For two reasons, the first of which was the very fact of having an engine as such.
Sounds strange, doesn't it?
Nevertheless, through the prayers of Mr. Mostovoy, the production of the engine was stopped and resumed in single copies for the special unit "Russia". So the only place where there are aircraft using this engine is "Russia". Il-96, Tu-204 and Tu-214 with PS-90A are still flying there. In other places - alas.
Meanwhile, the Vladivostok-Avia airline simply perfectly operated the Tu-204-300 on the Vladivostok-Moscow and Vladivostok-St. Petersburg routes WITHOUT LANDING.
But it is not in our country that this can happen with impunity. As a result, Aeroflot bought a controlling stake in the company and ... instantly Vladivostok-Avia began to incur losses. Tu-204s were sold to Koreans, and the company was closed. And Aeroflot began to use Airbus A300s on its Far Eastern flights.
Here lies the answer to the question, what prevented the PS-90A and the modifications that followed. Precisely by its existence. After all, neither Perm Motors, nor the Tupolev or Ilyushin Design Bureau will roll back as much as they pay for their used Boeing and Airbus planes. It is generally known as it were.
Therefore, neither the Tu-204 nor the Il-96 with Russian engines are needed. More precisely, they are needed, but not for those who do it. Because the factories are standing, and we fly on the western rags. The reality of the day, so to speak ...
In the military sphere, things are no better.
Someone, perhaps, will say that the Kuznetsov SNTK is not the best design bureau in the country? Not? Indeed, this is the coolest design bureau in the USSR and subsequently in the CIS to create engines with a capital letter. And if you call Nikolai Dmitrievich Kuznetsov as a designer, then always with the prefix "great".
And the turboprop engine NK-12 (its continuation NK-16) created within the walls of the OKB is the fastest and most powerful motor in the world. Until now, since 1954. Having matured from 12 to 000 horsepower, the Kuznetsov engine still carries the Tu-16.
Yes, this is not the quietest engine. Fact. But fast, strong and - very importantly - economical. And that the Tu-95 is one of the loudest planes in the world, so the "Bear" does not care about it from the height at which it flies.
On the basis of NK-12, the Kuznetsovites created a very interesting turboprop-fan (TVVD) engine NK-93. In 2007 (coincidence?), These motors were installed in the IL-76LL laboratory and received simply excellent results in terms of power, speed, efficiency and noise.
Yes, the NK-93, like all TVVDs, turned out to be of considerable size: the fan diameter was 2,9 m.However, it could and should have been used on the Il-76MD-90A, Il-96-400M, Tu-330 aircraft (if it went into series). The large size of the engine is not so critical, for comparison - the same "Boeing-777" flies with a 3,5-meter HPT, and nothing.
But no.
The designers of the Kuznetsov SNTK could not know, and it is not their business, that the NK-93 verdict had already been signed. Our "efficient" managers had already organized UEC, the United Engine Corporation, which was completely uninterested in the new finished engine.
It's impossible to master the budget on it, right?
People began to forget about the Il-76 and Il-96, it was somehow not even accepted to speak aloud about the developments of the Tupolev Design Bureau, but on everyone's lips and screens there was a "completely Russian", "not having ..." MS-21.
And the gallant managers quickly refused the NK-93, because for the MS-21 it seemed too large in size.
Of course, a big engine is a problem. And it can be solved either by increasing the length of the landing gear, or by transferring the engines to the tail section. Both ways are quite solvable, there would be a desire.
The desire was there. Master the budget. The revision for modern realities of the NK-93 required only 1,5 billion rubles. But no, they decided to put the engine in the archive, freeze it and spend 80 billion on the creation of PD-14.
Nobody says that the PD-14 Perm engine is bad. It's just more expensive (394 million rubles versus 293 for the NK-93), louder (turbojets make more noise than the high-pressure engine), more voracious (0,54 kg / kgf • h versus 0,49 for the NK-93), less environmentally friendly than the engine from Samara.
But I repeat, you can't master a lot from the budget on a ready-made Soviet-developed engine. And so the topic of NK-93 is closed.
You know, it reminds me of another incident from the past. We had such a very promising aircraft, the Yak-141.
A very nice plane. In April 1991, test pilot Andrey Sinitsyn set 12 world records on the Yak in terms of climb rate, maximum load and flight altitude with a load.
However, in the conditions of not the best state of the economy, the Yak-41 was shelved, and then sold to the Americans who were at a standstill with their F-35. As a result, the F-35 flies ...
Who will guarantee that the NK-93 will not sail in the West after a while? And I would not give such a guarantee. Much "unnecessary" goes there.
And we will work with PD-14. From the very beginning, like with the Superjet. And perhaps with the same degree of success.
It's not even worth talking about the MC-21 yet, because an aircraft that does not yet have a wing is not an aircraft at all. For those who do not know: the Achilles' heel for the MS-21 was the very composite wing, which the Americans abandoned. Too risky, you know, for passenger planes. Now we were denied composites, because the sanctions, and they have been trying to find their own mixture for two years in Voronezh, and so far the results are so-so.
As a result, maybe at the end of 2020 (I will emphasize in bold “maybe”) we will get an engine that is nothing, well, really, nothing better than the PS-90A and NK-93 developed in the USSR. But the type is completely "own".
And NK-93 will easily surface in a few years somewhere in the West or (even more likely) in the East.
And more about PD-14. More precisely, about its helicopter version, which is also in the plans. And let's smoothly move on to the conversation about helicopter engines.
Actually, PD-12, which is an alteration of PD-14 for the needs of helicopter pilots, is a very topical thing. We have a Mi-26 helicopter, a heavy and transport one. And there are no engines for it. More precisely, they seem to exist, but not for us, because these are Ukrainian D-136s. You don't have to go further. PD-12 is very necessary, but ...
But there are no engines for the Mi-26 yet.
Farther. Then we have VK-2500, aka TVZ-117.
TVZ-117 is a motor developed by the Klimov Design Bureau, but produced all its life in Zaporozhye, at Motor Sich. This is the heart for almost all Russian helicopters: Ka-50, Ka-52, Ka-27, Ka-28, Ka-32, Mi-8, Mi-24.
And here not everything is beautiful here.
Yes, in St. Petersburg it seems that they were able to localize the production of motors and establish the production of VK-2500. The only question is at what price and in what quantities.
In 2015, Rostec, through the mouth of CEO Sergei Chemezov, solemnly announced the complete import substitution of our main TV3-117 helicopter engines. Chemezov promised that by 2017, OEC-Klimov will produce 350 engines per year. However, as often happens with us, the words turned out to be words.
In 2014, Klimov assembled the first 10 engines entirely from Russian components. In 2015 - 30. In 2016 - 60. In 2017 - 100. In 2018 - 130. In 2019 - 200.
The Aerospace Forces alone (excluding naval aviation and civil aviation) have over a thousand helicopters. And they, helicopters, have two such engines. If we take into account the fact that engines are needed for replacement after the end of their service life, for the production of new helicopters, for overhauls, for the fulfillment of foreign contracts for the supply of helicopters and the same repairs ...
And in the best case - 100 car sets per year. Here you can also lose the foreign market. God bless him, as they say, but if your own aviation gets up ... It will be ugly.
And if you consider what they say, much of the Klimovsk engines is still Ukrainian ...
And then how to believe Chemezov about a bright future and "we will win all"?
And if you remember that the Ka-62, which is boasted at forums and exhibitions, flies on French engines ... By the way, the same applies to the Ka-226.
"Ansat", which is also from the same opera, modern, multipurpose and all that - on American motors. Yes, there are plans to replace American engines with domestic VK-800, but these are only plans, because VK-800V, which could replace imported engines on Ansat and Ka-226, was developed by OJSC Klimov “on an initiative basis and for company account ".
I hope there is no need to explain what this means?
The same is true with regard to the VK-650V, which is promisingly developed specifically for the Ka-226. No engines will be expected soon. Simply because the VK-800 and VK-650 are Soviet developments originally from the 80s of the last century. Back in the 800s, VK-90 was proposed for the Mi-54 project, which was closed in 2011.
As for the VK-650, even last year, the general designer of the UEC, Yuri Shmotin, said that "work on the creation of the VK-650 was initiated." That is, just a few years - and the engine project will probably be largely implemented.
Sounds ...
By the way, the same Shmotin spoke about the start of work on a new engine for the Superjet, since it finally dawned on the UEC that the French would not sell more engine components. And not because sanctions and harm. Because the engine is unprofitable, which is used only in one model, which is not produced in the largest series. Well, the sanctions are also involved.
But since the SaM146 is the fruit of joint cooperation with the French (hello, Mistrals!), It is clear that there will be no engines.
By the way, on the same website of the UEC you can see news on work on the PD-35 engine. Increased PD-14 for some obscure "promising wide-body aircraft." What kind of planes are these is completely incomprehensible.
It is only clear that the declared diameter of the PD-35 is 3100 mm. And here a complete misunderstanding begins. NK-93, ready and practically debugged, having passed flight tests in a flying laboratory, did not find application, since it was very large. Diameter 2900 mm. And the small and compact PD-35 with a diameter of 3100 mm is in great demand, since time and money will be spent on its development.
It's strange. There is a ready-made engine, the performance characteristics of which can be further improved by means of modern composite materials, although they are already better than those of PD-14, but no, Rostec is going its own way. And NK-93 is put aside, and resources, time, money will be spent on another engine.
One gets the impression that at Rostec, the main task is to imitate the process and use budget funds, and not work for results.
700 enterprises. Tens of thousands of employees. Thousands of effective managers and leaders. This is one side. But there is also a second one. This is no result. These are docked ships. No motors. These are planes and helicopters waiting in the wings.
It is worth briefly speaking here about the engine for the Su-57, with which the plane should become a real one, and not a paper fighter of the fifth generation. But ... Work is underway, but the results are somewhere not close.
I would not like to do this, but I cannot but cite as an example the defense industry of Ukraine, which has been “destroyed and buried” more than once. And there, oddly enough, there are motors. In significantly worse conditions, Motor Sich JSC has created a new modification of TV3-117 with an electric launch generally accepted in the world instead of the APU and a significantly increased resource. TV3-117VMA-SBM1V 4E. Long, but like that.
The neighbors can also boast of a new AI-450M engine for the modernized Mi-2. Is it funny? Not. Both motors are in high demand. In China. It's probably not so funny now. Motor Sich lives only due to the fact that helicopters should fly in China. So far it turns out.
By the way, our "miracle engine" TV7-117V, on which the Mi-38 will fly, is just an alteration into the TV7-117S helicopter engine, on which the Il-1990 flew back in 114 ... Considering the recent incident with an emergency landing in Gzhel it is due to the fault of one of the engines, there, too, not everything is smooth and smooth. And there were a lot of victorious reports ...
More and more, the idea is taking root in my head that a corporation that has absorbed the resources of five ministries is actually not so much aiming at the development and production of new technology as simply spending money.
After all, the longer the project goes on, the longer you can request funding, the more budget funds you can use. Developing, modifying, finishing.
But in fact "Armata" is not needed. The T-72 will cope with the tasks facing the MBT. Su-57? But there is the Su-35, which is no worse, but cheaper. IL-96? But there is a used Boeing or Airbus, for which they will also pay extra ...
But it is necessary to create. To finish off the old Soviet developments, because there is simply nowhere to take new ones, and at the same time master the budget.
If this cannot be called the term "well settled", then I do not know at all how it can be called.
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