2,000,000 Russians, who work at military-industrial enterprises, celebrate their professional holiday today. Vladimir Putin wished them a happy Gunsmith Day. Today, the President held a military-industrial committee meeting.
The main task for the industry is to make Russian weapons more effective and less expensive, than their foreign competition. Any discoveries made in the process of manufacturing must be integrated into the civil industry. Aleksandr Balitsky reports on the issue.
The research center of JSC Concern VKO Almaz-Antey displays the entire evolution of Air and Space Defense systems. They have been manufactured by multiple Concern enterprises for 70 years. 2K11 Krug SAM system, multiple modifications of the S-300 system. Those that have been arming the Russian Army, among others.
Behind closed glass doors, gunsmiths are showing the Commander-in-Chief what they're working on right this moment. Obviously, all the developments are top secret. No cameras, since the technologies here aren't available to the competitors.
The only detail we have is that they showed Putin the model testing of advanced equipment models of the radar shield. It can shield any enemy's missiles. Basically, the S-400 Triumph system is doing a good job right now. Its key aggregates were engineered and manufactured in these workshops. To better portray its power and reliability, it's enough to say that even Turkey, a NATO country prefers S-400 to guard their borders. Until 2020, Russian State Arming Program plans to provide 56 of these battalions to the forces.
A more modernized 5th generation system, S-500 is coming. The President begins the military-industrial committee meeting by congratulating all Defense System employees. Today is their professional holiday. I want to thank all the scientists, manufacturers, engineers, and workers, who create reliable, high-quality arms and equipment. I want to thank them for their responsible, reliable attitude for their jobs. "Technological independence is our main task," Putin says.
The country's safety depends on it, so it shall not be at any risks, especially the political kind. One of the priority tasks for development labs, R&D Establishments, and Defense Enterprises is developing and manufacturing advanced arming equipment models, which will define the military power of the Russian Army.
This being said, it's important to provide technological independence from foreign accessories, when manufacturing these products. This is why an import phase-out program was adopted 3 years ago. The results are obvious.
In Rybinsk, they readjusted their from-scratch manufacturing process for heavy turbines. Just recently, they used to purchase them from Ukraine for aviation, including civil jets, and the fleet. Now they use their own. Nobody believed that in just 2.5 years we could set up the production of engines for all those ships, which, as our enemies thought, were forever docked.
That's not true. These engines are already being tested, they are manufactured, and we were able to escape the "dead end" set up by our opponents. Putin says it's important to adopt all these know-hows and technologies in the civil sector. By 2025, they must increase from 16% to 30%. But, to make sure these advanced ideas go from model samples to batch production, they need a single database for all advanced developments.
There are new managing approaches as well. The technical re-equipment also cuts down expenses. As far as our productivity rate, our enterprise is still behind our foreign competition. Thus, we must continue to lower the prime cost of production by integrating resource preserving technologies, as well optimizing facilities and purchasing.
Anyway, military growth rates are impressive. Almost 11%, mostly due to radio electronics. It also led to salary growth in the industry. It's not just about a vast Defense Procurement.
More and more young engineers are returning to work at factory workshops and development labs. Putin says it's important to support research centers, since they will allow integrating advanced technologies. The President believes that one such center can be a new modern defense technopolis. Aleksandr Balitsky, Aleksandra Terpugova, Anton Kasimovich, and Vladimir Egorov. Vesti.
