Union of Russian gunsmiths states Russia's lag in the development and production of ammunition
5 June, the Union of Russian gunsmiths elected the executive director of the SRO Ruslan Pukhov, who is the director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, during the next annual gathering of members of the organization. 35 heads of leading enterprises of the national defense industry, members of the Union of Russian gunsmiths, took part in the event, and, accordingly, in the voting.
After his election as executive director of the union, Ruslan Pukhov made the following statement, from which it becomes clear that the Russian armory unfortunately, the industry is not in the best of times:
The lag in the industry, according to statements by other representatives of SROs, is mainly a lag in the development and mass production of innovative ammunition - those ammunition that can be called responsive to modern needs. These are the cartridges and charges of the new generation, which, at optimal costs, allow to solve the most complex tasks in their application.
The main task of the manufacturers of domestic ammunition today is to increase the level of competition. We are also talking about the fact that in a whole number of countries that have long used Soviet (Russian) weapons, today there is a process of reorientation towards the so-called NATO samples. This process is taking place not without lobbying for the interests of the weapons manufacturers of the NATO countries and the political elites of the West, who often export their weapons to foreign countries for their own personal business. And it is not only about the notorious victim of Vietnamese syndrome in the US Senate ...
The more extensive the sales markets for weapons and, accordingly, ammunition for the states that are members of the North Atlantic Alliance, the correspondingly less opportunities for Russian manufacturers. This sets the Russian defense industry companies ambitious task to create such ammunition, which even with the active lobbying position of Washington could enjoy significant demand on the world market. The question is universality? Not only ... Good old cartridges for the Kalashnikov assault rifle, which today is the most popular small arms in the world, despite all the sanctions and other restrictive measures of the main "democrats", of course, no one is going to discount, but without moving forward it is strange expect that in the future small arms of domestic production will continue to win victories in certain markets outside the country. In the end, the very possibility of overstepping foreign technological breakthrough in the creation of a new generation of ammunition provides some food for thought.
In this regard, the Union of Russian gunsmiths talk about the need to create a new strategy. Such a strategy is expressed, in particular, by the general director of the Kalashnikov concern and the first vice-premier of SRO Alexei Krivoruchko:
The market is indeed becoming highly competitive, while the competitiveness of Russia is striving to reduce or even eliminate all kinds of restrictive measures of our big “friends”. The last, if I may say so, the conquest of the “friends of Russia” is drawing Ukraine into the space of the North Atlantic alliance. No, not in the sense that NATO is ready to take Ukraine under its wing tomorrow, but the fact that for weapons manufacturers of NATO, Ukraine is becoming a fairly large market. And it does not matter that the weapons that were written off in the West are sold to Ukraine first of all. It is important that the Ukrainian production sphere itself, which came out of the Soviet subsoil, is detached from the production sphere of Russia, and the Ukrainian armed forces will be gradually transferred to the "standards" of NATO. At the same time, the Ukrainian authorities are not particularly concerned that the NATO “partners” are selling Kiev with funds received by Ukraine on credit from the same West, junk at very substantial prices. So, quite recently, several German armored personnel carriers, launched in Germany at the beginning of the 60s, arrived in Ukraine through Bulgaria. And the cost of each unit (without weapons) according to the documents amounted to 48 thousand euros! Anxiety about the fate of the country is generally not about the current government "Square".
Is the Russian production sector ready for innovative activity in the production of the same ammunition for which we, as stated by the SRO leadership, are lagging behind? The vice-president of machine builders of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Gutenev, said that last year the country managed to launch 11 enterprises that are engaged in the production of ammunition and special chemistry facilities. A number of these companies are working to create modern high-performance ammunition, the action of which is based on the use of special powder compositions and incendiary mixtures, as well as on the basis of innovative approaches to the system to improve accuracy. Now these enterprises, according to representatives of Rosteha, loaded with work and increase their competitiveness on the basis of domestic orders. For obvious reasons, if the work on the creation of ammunition of a new generation will be successful, then representatives of foreign countries will also be interested in products. But in no case can new projects be put on the brakes, otherwise we can really sleep through ...
So far, work in the field of creating, for example, “smart” ammunition is being carried out with the support of the Advanced Research Foundation. We are talking about the so-called “smart bullet”, the projects of which FPI began to collect in October last year. Whether the creation of a domestic “smart bullet” will become a more than worthy response to the development of DARPA, in the depths of which a prototype of homing Exacto small arms ammunition has been created, will be shown only by the presentation of what was born under the auspices of the FPI.
However, there are problems with such a presentation ... Since the announcement of the competition for the project of “smart” ammunition, the Advanced Research Foundation has not shared with the media information about the stage at which this project is being implemented. It is clear that this information at the stage of developing an ammunition is not at all for wide publicity, but, as they say, at least one, albeit streamlined, but would like to receive a positive comment from the FPI. After all, the days when the information vacuum was part of the country's defense system ...
After his election as executive director of the union, Ruslan Pukhov made the following statement, from which it becomes clear that the Russian armory unfortunately, the industry is not in the best of times:
The Union of Russian Gunsmiths has a serious development potential for active participation in resolving issues related to the development of the small arms industry and the formation of active state policy mechanisms to popularize Russian weapons. Given the inevitable budgetary maneuver, full-fledged financing of the industry is an absolute priority, and this must be conveyed to the top leadership and society of our country. Today, we are observing that there has been a technological lag in the ammunition industry, so we need to make every effort to overcome it and reach the level of the world's leading manufacturers.
The lag in the industry, according to statements by other representatives of SROs, is mainly a lag in the development and mass production of innovative ammunition - those ammunition that can be called responsive to modern needs. These are the cartridges and charges of the new generation, which, at optimal costs, allow to solve the most complex tasks in their application.
The main task of the manufacturers of domestic ammunition today is to increase the level of competition. We are also talking about the fact that in a whole number of countries that have long used Soviet (Russian) weapons, today there is a process of reorientation towards the so-called NATO samples. This process is taking place not without lobbying for the interests of the weapons manufacturers of the NATO countries and the political elites of the West, who often export their weapons to foreign countries for their own personal business. And it is not only about the notorious victim of Vietnamese syndrome in the US Senate ...
The more extensive the sales markets for weapons and, accordingly, ammunition for the states that are members of the North Atlantic Alliance, the correspondingly less opportunities for Russian manufacturers. This sets the Russian defense industry companies ambitious task to create such ammunition, which even with the active lobbying position of Washington could enjoy significant demand on the world market. The question is universality? Not only ... Good old cartridges for the Kalashnikov assault rifle, which today is the most popular small arms in the world, despite all the sanctions and other restrictive measures of the main "democrats", of course, no one is going to discount, but without moving forward it is strange expect that in the future small arms of domestic production will continue to win victories in certain markets outside the country. In the end, the very possibility of overstepping foreign technological breakthrough in the creation of a new generation of ammunition provides some food for thought.
In this regard, the Union of Russian gunsmiths talk about the need to create a new strategy. Such a strategy is expressed, in particular, by the general director of the Kalashnikov concern and the first vice-premier of SRO Alexei Krivoruchko:
The updated strategy should cover the whole range of activities of the Union organizations, including not only manufacturers of weapons and ammunition, but also sellers and end users of products, both in the military and civilian segment. Only an integrated approach will contribute to the formation of a “weapon culture” in society and the promotion of Russian weapons on a highly competitive global market.
The market is indeed becoming highly competitive, while the competitiveness of Russia is striving to reduce or even eliminate all kinds of restrictive measures of our big “friends”. The last, if I may say so, the conquest of the “friends of Russia” is drawing Ukraine into the space of the North Atlantic alliance. No, not in the sense that NATO is ready to take Ukraine under its wing tomorrow, but the fact that for weapons manufacturers of NATO, Ukraine is becoming a fairly large market. And it does not matter that the weapons that were written off in the West are sold to Ukraine first of all. It is important that the Ukrainian production sphere itself, which came out of the Soviet subsoil, is detached from the production sphere of Russia, and the Ukrainian armed forces will be gradually transferred to the "standards" of NATO. At the same time, the Ukrainian authorities are not particularly concerned that the NATO “partners” are selling Kiev with funds received by Ukraine on credit from the same West, junk at very substantial prices. So, quite recently, several German armored personnel carriers, launched in Germany at the beginning of the 60s, arrived in Ukraine through Bulgaria. And the cost of each unit (without weapons) according to the documents amounted to 48 thousand euros! Anxiety about the fate of the country is generally not about the current government "Square".
Is the Russian production sector ready for innovative activity in the production of the same ammunition for which we, as stated by the SRO leadership, are lagging behind? The vice-president of machine builders of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Gutenev, said that last year the country managed to launch 11 enterprises that are engaged in the production of ammunition and special chemistry facilities. A number of these companies are working to create modern high-performance ammunition, the action of which is based on the use of special powder compositions and incendiary mixtures, as well as on the basis of innovative approaches to the system to improve accuracy. Now these enterprises, according to representatives of Rosteha, loaded with work and increase their competitiveness on the basis of domestic orders. For obvious reasons, if the work on the creation of ammunition of a new generation will be successful, then representatives of foreign countries will also be interested in products. But in no case can new projects be put on the brakes, otherwise we can really sleep through ...
So far, work in the field of creating, for example, “smart” ammunition is being carried out with the support of the Advanced Research Foundation. We are talking about the so-called “smart bullet”, the projects of which FPI began to collect in October last year. Whether the creation of a domestic “smart bullet” will become a more than worthy response to the development of DARPA, in the depths of which a prototype of homing Exacto small arms ammunition has been created, will be shown only by the presentation of what was born under the auspices of the FPI.
Image on the nature of the use of the Exacto Smart Bullet
However, there are problems with such a presentation ... Since the announcement of the competition for the project of “smart” ammunition, the Advanced Research Foundation has not shared with the media information about the stage at which this project is being implemented. It is clear that this information at the stage of developing an ammunition is not at all for wide publicity, but, as they say, at least one, albeit streamlined, but would like to receive a positive comment from the FPI. After all, the days when the information vacuum was part of the country's defense system ...
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