Invisible weapons of the Russian army
"Krasuha-4" in anticipation of sending to the place of service in the army. Photos from www.rostec.ru
Next Tuesday 15 will be celebrating the Day of the Electronic Warfare Specialist for the eighth time in the Armed Forces for the eighth time. It was established by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated 31 of May 2006 of the year No. 549 “On the establishment of professional holidays and commemorative days in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”. Despite its youth, the holiday has a rich prehistory 110 long in years. 15 April 1904 for the first time in stories With the help of radio equipment, the Russian army violated the communications system between the Japanese ships, the fire spotters, which ultimately disrupted the plans of the Japanese armored cruisers Nissin and Kasuga to make an artillery raid on the forts and the internal raid of Port Arthur fortress.
In the history of the development of electronic warfare there were ups and downs. Today we are witnessing a new boom. Since the end of 2012, the country's top military-political leadership has been taking comprehensive measures to create new means of electronic warfare. And the results look impressive, especially against the background of previous decades of stagnation in this area. Today, the troops receive the latest means of electronic warfare, which manufacturers conventionally call the generation 3 +. In this technique, the analog method of computing is replaced by digital. The test grounds are being tested by the 4 generation, and in the OCRs - already the 4 + generation.
It is known that by 2020, weapons and military equipment in the troops should be updated by 70%. And in the electronic warfare units this will probably happen even earlier - by the end of 2017. These are the plans of one of Rostec’s enterprises, which is the only one in the country to produce Krasukha-4C wide-range high-power noise interference stations (1RL257 / RB-271A). As the head of the enterprise said in an interview with the NVO correspondent, “today the 15th year is closed by state order, now we are working on a state order for the 16th and 17th years.” Moreover, the production of new equipment in the total volume is 66%. And 34% - repair and modernization of the stations of powerful noise interference SPN-4 (1RL248-4), on-board radar, ground stations for receiving and transmitting information from spacecraft, preceding the "Krasukha". In 2014–2015, the Rostec enterprise will have to supply 18 Krasuha-4C stations (1RL257 / RB-271A) to the troops. They are designed to cover ground objects from airborne radar of strike aircraft aviation (therefore, the letter C is added to the title). However, the station can also be used to interfere with reconnaissance and reconnaissance-strike UAV radar stations.
HISTORY "KRASKHI"
“Krasukha-4” has a rather long and difficult history. The state contract for the development and creation of the station, the Directorate for Advanced Interspecific Research and Special Projects of the Russian Defense Ministry signed with the research institute almost 20 years ago - in July 1994, at the same time it issued a tactical and technical task. Customer development was the service of the EW Strategic Missile Forces. State tests were completed by the manufacturer only in 2009 year. By decision of the interdepartmental commission in February 2011, the ground-based multifunctional interference module 1RLN257 was authorized for mass production.
Under the contract concluded in May 2011, the delivery of the first five complexes to the troops was to begin in 2012. Not started.
The second state contract for the manufacture of complexes "Krasukha-4" was concluded on the basis of a closed auction in April 2012. But the contractors again failed, in addition, the previous management of the manufacturer was unable to organize production.
Such a picture, by the way, was typical in the defense industry. For disciplinary responsibility for 2012, 27 thousand officials were involved. This figure clearly showed the systemic nature of existing problems in the defense industry.
The measures taken were effective. At least, already in February - April of the year 2013, according to the previously concluded contract, the first four complexes “Krasukha-4” were sent to the Strategic Missile Forces. November 15 2013, the plant handed over to the troops the last two of the ten complexes, including those whose production was disrupted in the 2012 year. Thus, according to the official representative of the concern, which is part of the state corporation Rostec, GOZ-2013 was executed on 100% regarding deliveries to the Armed Forces of EW Krasuha-4 complexes. The company's revenue in 2013 amounted to more than 2 billion rubles.
To deliver in 2013, the company did not have enough working capital, therefore borrowed funds were attracted. Last year, payments amounted to 40 million rubles.
The third state contract is now being executed, concluded in March 2013. The cost of works under the contract is estimated at 2253,7 million rubles, that is, by 125,2 million for one complex "Krasukha-4". Under the execution of the state contract of the corporation until the end of 2016, credit support was opened for replenishing working capital with a return period until the end of 2017. Given these dates, it is not clear to the end whether stations will still be ordered in 2016 in excess of the 2014 units supplied in 2015 – 18. It is possible that in the 2016 – 2017 years, the manufacturing company will complete the acquisition of spare parts stations. Now the contracting enterprises have orders for components, based on the number of 18 stations. The number of ordered mast telescopic devices, satellite navigation system 14Ц853 "Breeze-KM", an automated leveling system and other components.
At the beginning of April 2014, the next two stations "Krasukha-4" were ready to be sent to the troops from the manufacturing plant. Under the contract, the deadline for their delivery is scheduled for May, but the plant, as was the case last year, exceeded the plan and made the stations ahead of schedule. The Ministry of Defense planned to send in May new stations in Primorye, but now there will be a need for them, perhaps in the Crimea. The final decision on the location of the new stations remains with the Ministry of Defense.
SINS OF CONTRACTORS
It cannot be said that since last year, the manufacturer of Krasuha-4 stations has no problems. They are, although not as much as before. But they are essential and are still related to the reliability of components.
For example, the UHNUMX microwave products based on traveling-wave tubes for 52219 stations were ordered three times more - 18 units worth more than 36 million rubles. And all because the supplier of these same lamps - JSC NPP Almaz still can not ensure the corresponding quality of its products. In “Krasuha-100”, the products of “Almaz” are the most vulnerable part in the statistics of failures in work. The representative of the enterprise in Saratov’s Almaz told the NVO correspondent with a hint of irony: “The most important thing that we like is that they do their work. Each time it's getting better and better. But they pay their sins with our money. ”
In general, the materials and technologies that we have, affect the reliability of the station. But what is interesting is that “if today we take statistics on failures, our sophisticated radio-electronic equipment fails less often than the leveling system, the power station that is located there. Our sophisticated radio-electronic technology has better failure statistics than KamAZ, ”says the director of the plant manufacturer.
The “hyperboloid of engineer Garin” ceases to be fiction.
The work of the stations "Krasukha-4" as part of the EW unit was used in the course of a sudden comprehensive check of the combat readiness of the troops and forces of the Western and Central military districts, the commands of the Aerospace Defense, the Airborne Forces, the Long-Range and Military Transport Aviation, which was held with 26 February to 3 March, when the units and military units located in Murmansk, Kaliningrad, Samara, Leningrad, Pskov, Kursk, Voronezh, Lipetsk and other regions were withdrawn from the points of permanent dislocation and ready to ship to any region of the country. Therefore, I could not help asking the representative of the plant how the product of his enterprise showed in the training battle.
“How can I tell you ...,” he hesitated. And in the end he got off with a joke: “Today we are making the Zhuk-ME radar for the MiG-29 and the Lance radar for the MiG-21-93, which is exported to India. Here are the Indians saying: the glider is wonderful, the station is modernized. The American F-16 multipurpose fighter is flying ... when it works. "
The new contracts for "Krasuhu-4" provide warranty service for five years. Although it is not entirely clear to manufacturers why a five-year warranty is installed, after all, all components from contractors, except for those that the factory workers themselves do, have a maximum two-year warranty.
US DEPENDENCE
Another problem is import substitution in electronics, which was recently mentioned by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin in Novosibirsk at a meeting on the implementation of the state defense order. The occasion was served by the events in Ukraine and the sanctions of the West.
“We are threatened with all kinds of horror stories and sanctions of the country with which we have various kinds of relationships and contracts,” said the deputy chairman of the government. “Therefore, we must act, relying on our own strength, and to deviate as much as possible from this, in my opinion, extremely pernicious industrial assembly policy, according to which we fell into a terrible dependence.”
According to Rogozin, it is necessary to initially rely on our own development and our own production of everything that is necessary for our defense industry and the equipment of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, ITAR-TASS reports. In particular, bilateral military cooperation on the part of Canada, Great Britain, the United States, Germany and other countries has been suspended. The United States froze military ties with Russia. Limited sale of military and dual-use products.
At the factory, where they make "Krasuhu-4", they also closely follow media reports about sanctions against Russia. In particular, the state concern "Ukroboronprom" announced the termination of deliveries weapons and military equipment to Russia. As part of the concern is the Novotel Khmelnytsky enterprise, which supplies components for Krasuhi-4. “These were not serious deliveries,” says the director of the Russian plant: “But there is one thing. In addition to the production of “Krasukha-4”, we also have a number of products that are less significant for the enterprise, but nonetheless important. We produce components for on-board radars for the MiG-29. Exactly the same products are manufactured by the Novator plant in the city of Khmelnitsky. We traveled to Ryazan, where the final assembly is made, signed protocols and are now working on the transfer of design documentation to withdraw these volumes here, to Russia. I think that in Khmelnitsky they made even more volume than we did - millions on 200. ”
The Russian plant will benefit from such sanctions. But let's not look at everything through rose-colored glasses. Today, the company uses materials in which the share of foreign is more than 30%. “Among them is the basis for the boards. On domestic materials it is impossible to achieve the required performance. We buy transistors and resistors from second suppliers, ”says the CEO.
But if the Russian electronics industry cannot manufacture transistors and resistors, then what can we say about the production of more complex microelectronic parts. One of the boards uses an integrated microcircuit of programmable logic of a famous American company. From Silicon Valley, it is sent to a certain Russian limited liability company registered in the Urals Federal District. Having passed a rather complicated path, during which all codes, including the so-called hidden “bookmarks,” are erased, the chip goes to the factory produced by “Krasuhi-4”. In the process of this journey the price of a small microcircuit increases several times. But the main thing is not even in price, but in dependence of our defense capacity on the USA and the absence of a reliable guarantee that the configuration of the artificially grown crystal in the microchip is not a hidden “tab”, with which you can block the entire chip.
“Import substitution is a passing task,” said the official representative of the concern, which has links to the 80 sites of the enterprises of the concern, of which 22 are research and production associations, including 13 research institutes. The federal ministries, departments, state corporations have even more NGOs and scientific research institutes. And the whole scientific mountain can not reproduce a single integrated circuit? Unbelievable, but it is a fact! Maybe in all departments they also think that import substitution is a passing task? Then the reminder of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin in Novosibirsk is most welcome.
COMPLEX PROTECTION
Today, Rostec enterprises supply the troops in addition to "Krasukha-4" a whole line of new electronic warfare stations. “Krasuha-2” (1RLX269 / RB-261А) - designed for electronic suppression of airborne radars of the AWACS long-range radar detection and control system. “Mercury-BM” is a multifunctional ground station for jamming radio fuses of artillery shells and mines with various types of modulation of the probing signal and Hokai radar and radio communications. The Moscow-1 complex (1Л267) includes several stations. An electronic reconnaissance station (1Л265) is intended for searching, detecting, direction finding, measuring parameters and tracking air sources of radio emission. The automated command post of ground-based electronic suppression control facilities (1Л266) provides for the determination of coordinates and route tracking of airborne radio emission sources, automated planning of combat tasks for the use of EW-C battalion facilities. In addition, the R & D “Divnomorye-U” is being conducted in order to create a station for suppressing aerospace-based radio electronic equipment.
Speaking of space. The director of the company, where they make "Krasuhu-4", spoke about a curious case with adjusting the frequency detection and reproduction system (SCOT). This equipment is a rough definition of direction, at the factory it is called "chamomile." In the passive location mode, it scans the surrounding space in a radius of 360 degrees. The aircraft detects at a distance greater than 200 km. “We have guys set up the system, and we were told that we are interfering with the work of the satellite,” said the head of the company. In other words, the equipment is made with a large stock of tactical application possibilities. It is possible that the troops will write more than one Ph.D. thesis on the combat use of the "Krasuha-4" and other electronic warfare stations.
Various research institutes and NGOs also contribute to the development of these weapons. Scientific and technical thought is aimed at creating powerful Rab systems. For example, if the predecessor of the “Krasukha-4” SPN-4 station operates simultaneously on 6 – 8 targets, then the “Krasukha-4” - only one at a time, but the range of its interference has been increased almost three times. Deployment time to 10 minutes has also been reduced.
However, it is not yet time to write off the SPN-4, because so far no one has invented anything better in the world. Moreover, this station has a modernization potential. Moreover, development work was carried out, as a result of which its power was increased. Not accidentally, since 2014, the volume of repair and modernization works with SPN-4 has increased markedly and is comparable with the release of new stations.
Unfortunately, the old contracts do not provide for the allocation of funds for factory support and maintenance of the full cycle of old stations, and the troops do not have repair shops. Factory workers themselves have to go to the troops, diagnose, bring equipment that requires factory repair, and send it back to the troops. In 2014, there will be a spare parts kit for those products that continue to work. And they are, to put it mildly, elderly. The oldest cars are 91 of the year of release. They had the service, but not the current repair-restoration.
In general, only two enterprises are engaged in the Rab theme in Russia. It is noteworthy that the ground-based EW equipment no one else in the world, except Russia, does anymore. “Americans a priori do not, because they are fighting on foreign territory. Israelis are going to do, ”says the director of one of the plants. That is, it is a weapon of defense, not for attack. The invisible rays must reliably cover the deployment areas and the starting positions of the Topol and Yars mobile missile systems, strategic nuclear submarine bases, defense plants, nuclear power plants and other critical facilities. Today, EW units are becoming increasingly important for the defense of the country's military infrastructure. They are becoming an important component in the strategic deterrence system and cast doubt on the possible results of the implementation of the American concept of lightning-fast global strike.
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