President Poroshenko instructed to conduct an investigation on the information about the supply of rocket engines to the DPRK and report on the results within 3 days. He made a post in his Facebook (запрещена в РФ) after the Head of the State Space Agency of Ukraine named the culprit in the technology leak at a briefing in Kiev. With our observer, Tatyana Remezova, we will discuss who it turned out to be and whether it was worth to arrange a briefing for the sake of it.
Tatyana, so who was called the thief? Ernes, there was no sensation. Kiev always blames Russia for all its failures. And they did it again this time around. Such engines were produced in Ukraine until 2001. These engines were actively used in two projects, "Cyclone 2" and "Cyclone 3." These missiles were manufactured at Yuzhmash in the interests of the Russian Federation. Ukraine didn’t carry out any deliveries of the engines.
Russia, given its friendly relations with Korea, could have all the grounds to deliver rockets and engines there. That is, according to their version, Russia disassembled its "Cyclones" and, being generous, gave the DPRK the most valuable thing, the engine. It’s absurd. The version that sounds more like the truth was accidentally spoken by the CEO of Yuzhmash, the manufacturing plant of RD-250, Sergei Voit. He received a phone call from pranksters Vovan and Lexus under the guise of the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Alexander Turchinov.
Sergei Nikolayevich, I need to understand who is to blame? Because I need to tell the President. Who is the weakest link? We almost don’t work with anyone. We’ve just started doing small things with Korea. Yuzhnoye Design Bureau has been working with Korea for more than 14 years. With China for more than 20 years. What are they doing there? I don’t know. We don’t receive this information.
The Security Service of Ukraine and the Foreign Intelligence Service know about it, and, Yuzhnoye Design Bureau knows about it. To be honest, we don’t. They don’t because the above-mentioned Yuzhnoye Design Bureau was originally created in the mid-1950s as part of the Yuzhny Machine-Building Plant. But after the coup of 2014, when the cooperation on space with Russia was interrupted, the system collapsed, and the Design Bureau began to report directly to the Ukrainian government. Lack of orders and difficulties with money could force it to do anything.
Literally yesterday, the chief designer of the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau suggested that this notorious RD-250 could have been copied for the needs of the DPRK. Is this technically possible? Ernes, here it is, RD-250. Here it is, in front of you. It’s hardly possible to just copy the RD-250 as on a 3D printer.
First of all, people, then equipment, and blueprints are needed. You can copy a portrait, you understand, but an engine is a really high technological process. It requires not only technical documentation, which is fine-grained and detailed, but also stands, test firing, and, strictly speaking, specialists themselves, who mastered the movements in their hands, in the fingers, and know how to make this engine.
Therefore, there either was a leak of documentation or there was a direct sale. In general, the one who produces has all the keys. The investigation of Michael Elleman, the missile expert, which was continued by the New York Times, was just about this. And even the US State Department couldn’t say anything intelligible.
