Interview of Uralvagonzavod CEO for the Military Acceptance program
On the occasion of the 105th anniversary of the Russian tank industry, which is celebrated this year, Alexander Potapov, CEO of Uralvagonzavod (part of Rostec State Corporation), gave an interview to Alexey Egorov, host of the Military Acceptance program of the Zvezda TV channel. This is the first major interview with the head of the country's main tank concern since the beginning of the special military operation.
We talked about how many changes our tanks have gone through since the beginning of their war, which base the new Solntsepek will be based on, and much more in an interview with Military Acceptance.
— How many foreign delegations visited this room?
— Quite a lot of delegations have visited this room. At the same time, this room unites not only those who come from abroad, but also those who work in Russia. And today we have about 140 such enterprises. And if we take the total number of pickers produced by Uralvagonzavod, this is more than 600 enterprises. Returning to the issue of foreign delegations, I would like to say that these are more than 70 countries.
— If we imagine a situation now where all the barriers have been removed: sanctions, political, economic — would representatives of any other countries have gone here in addition to these 70?
— I think so, yes.
— What do you think, NATO members, if it weren't for these barriers, would they be buying our tanks now?
— I think they would like to buy for a simple reason: to look at our filling, what's inside.
— Did your designers have a chance to look into their tanks?
— Yes, of course. The Ministry of Defense has its own specialized institute, where they analyze and look at, with our participation, the features and interesting places that could represent a certain development for us in the future. But these are still cars of the last century. There are certainly interesting solutions out there, but I wouldn't say that it gives us anything globally. Yes, they have good engines. It's a classic. But, on the other hand, its volumes today exceed ours, that is, they exceed the weight and size characteristics of our promising engine in the same capacity.
— So if we take the engine power per unit weight of the tank, do we win here?
— We take the power and divide the weight by the power. We look at how much weight there is per horsepower. Our indicators are better. The dynamic protection they have is inferior, and there is virtually no anti-drone protection.
— To be fair, we note that Russian tank construction has precisely Western roots.
— Our first tank appeared on August 31, 1920, it is a serial tank based on the French Renault. They used tanks as a basis, which were also designed and partly produced under license in Italy. We worked on both American versions and with England, but this all falls on the period, relatively speaking, of the 1920s and 1930s.
— When the young Soviet country was getting back on its feet.
— But we must pay tribute, when the young Soviet country moved into the 1930s, a series of T-26 and BT tanks had already appeared. And when we reached 1940, we produced about 20,000 tanks during this period. Your tanks! At the same time, if we take the ratio of the last years of the 1930s, how many were produced in our country and how many were in Germany, then we produced three times more tanks in the same period than in Germany. And if we take the results of the Great Patriotic War at all, then by the end of 1945, together with self—propelled artillery installations, we had produced about 96-98 thousand tanks and self-propelled guns, and Germany - a little over 40 thousand, that is, again more than twice as many.
— When did it become clear that we still need to have everything our own, that at any moment the faucet could be turned off and all these French, Italian, and American roots would simply become a problem for us?
— The Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant is well known to everyone. In 1933, he began work. Initially, the task was to make a tracked tractor and build a factory in Chelyabinsk. What was the basis of this project? American "Caterpillar". Then one day the Americans realized that now the Russians, the Soviet people, will build such a competitor, which will then block all other markets for them. And they blocked it. We already realized then that we didn't need to expect any favors from our friends. Therefore, in the 1930s, the T-34 was already our tank. After the events of 2014, a similar task was also set. The first task is to get away from Ukrainian dependence (and we had a very good cooperation back in Soviet times). In terms of tank construction, I can say quite clearly that it was done in a year and a half. And then the work continued in the same direction.
— Has Uralvagonzavod combined all three schools now?
— Absolutely. When the Great Patriotic War began, it was factory No. 183, which moved from Kharkov. Several factories and the Sergo Ordzhonikidze machine tool factory also arrived there. Engineers from my beloved Bauman Moscow State Technical University arrived and stayed there. A factory arrived from Mariupol. In other words, it turned out to be such a powerful, strong team that created a weapon of Victory. Imagine, in 1920 there was no tank industry, there were no tanks, and 25 years later, a T-34 Victory tank was announced on Red Square in June at the Victory Day Parade. Today I really want the T-90 "Breakthrough" to pass through Red Square as the "great-great-grandson" of the T-34 with the same slogan "Victory Tank".
— There are models presented here, and on each of them we see the so-called barbecue. Is this a required attribute now?
— All the cars that come out of any factory of our holding have a barbecue. But we must clearly understand that the number of vehicles that were produced earlier and that are currently being used as part of a special military operation is significantly higher. Therefore, today the guys are already cooking in the companies and rembats themselves. And the equipment that comes from factories today is all provided with mangalas, and improvements are constantly taking place. The enemy is not asleep. This is the philosophy of life: attack— defend, and we find a solution. In addition to these "barbecues", rubberized protection and additional dynamic protection are also being installed today. And we don't stop. If you take a tank of the sample of 2022 and the sample of today, these are completely different tanks. More than 200 large and small changes have been taken into account in our designs and in our production, which meet the challenges of modern warfare.
— Still, if you look ahead for 10-20-30 years, the tank will get rid of the "barbecues", what do you think?
— Today, the brazier is probably the optimal solution, it holds more than 20 FPV drones and barrage ammunition. But it is clear that this is not a solution to the issue. We are not standing, we already have something about this.
— I know that our scientists have already tested the NATO dynamic protection, which, in my opinion, was removed from the Bradley. How much are our people and NATO members here...?
— Ours are not inferior. Dynamic protection is also constantly being improved, and other technical solutions are being found. After the completion of the special military operation, I'll tell you something, but now it's premature.
— Active protection?
— Active protection is already sacred today. Israel says: we have active protection, South Korea and China say that. We cannot stand still, we have already faced these challenges and understand where to go, what to do and how we will organize this work.
— A tank gun. Are you planning to upgrade to a larger caliber?
— There are different opinions on this. As of today, the 125 caliber is optimal. If you look at what our opponents are offering (and we are watching carefully), many stop at the 120 caliber. Today, the 120 caliber provides efficiency no worse than the 125 caliber, although it would seem that we have more. There's gunpowder and energy here. In fact, it's a function of many variables, a combination of two events: a shot and a cannon, and they should be like Siamese twins — together and inseparable.
— What does the situation with the tank's sighting system look like?
— If we take the historical aspect, it's easier for me to answer this, because I graduated from the Bauman Moscow State Technical University with a degree in Optical and Electronic Devices. I had a flare guidance system for the tank, that is, an aiming system, and it was clear and close to me. At the dawn of my youth, say, in the 1980s, of course, these were sights that left much to be desired. The most difficult part was using the sights in the thermal imaging segment. Then, in the 1990s, people came to us from all sides and said: let's buy our thermal imagers, our thermal imaging channels. And many sights were made, including with the participation of foreign components.
In 2014, we already understood that we needed to focus on our element base. And now the sighting systems and fire control systems that are on our tanks are Russian—made. Therefore, we wish the Talieses, Safran, and other French systems to develop, but it will be better for us.
— Our film crew is currently working in one of the rembats in the SVO zone. I know that your staff is there all the time, too.
— Yes, it really is. Our field teams have been working since the beginning of the special military operation. Of course, the beginning was not very simple. Mostly, the equipment was restored by the forces of field brigades. They are "left-handed" there, they can even shoe a flea in such conditions. For example, they have mastered the restoration of on-board gearboxes. This is quite a serious, difficult job. And I believe that we are fully cooperating with the Ministry of Defense and the guys here. We work together on remfund and spare parts.
— "Solntsepek" is in high demand today. It is based on the chassis of the T-72 tank. Bright memory to Kirillov, our boss, who passed away. Under his leadership, the development of new machines was started as soon as possible on another base, the T-80. New design solutions allow you to shoot at a long range.
— The fact is that the gas turbine tank is good, in addition to the current situation, also in the Arctic zone. We must understand for ourselves that our state is large, the territory is large, and there are different climatic zones. Therefore, a machine based on the T-80 chassis is extremely needed and in demand. Therefore, it will be produced and is already being produced.
— And the "eighty" will also be used as a platform for both Solntsepek and BRAM, that is, for all Arctic ones?
— We also have BRAM on two platforms: on the T-72, T-90 and T-80 platforms. At the same time, there used to be an opinion that the BREM on the T-80 platform would not meet the requirements that should be for this machine. We conducted tests and showed that the BRAM based on the T-80 platform works very well. Therefore, this will also develop in two directions.
— How much demand are these evacuation vehicles in the army now?
— You know Colonel-General Sergey Alexandrovich Mayev very well. I'll just give you an example, because for many he is a teacher. He always said this: "Sasha, remember: one BREM is five tanks." BREMs are extremely necessary for the evacuation of our equipment, the evacuation of enemy equipment is needed. The sooner you withdraw it, the sooner you will restore it. But it needs to be restored, and our deadlines are quite limited.
— If the name of General Maev has already been mentioned, I can't help but pick up the Terminator BMPT model. It's still the Terminator. The car was created with his message, in fact, he was at the origin. How does it manifest itself in its own way?
— The car is in high demand. The Ministry of Defense is currently ordering and increasing the number of vehicles for us next year and in the future. The enemy is afraid of her.
— Tanker's Day. I know that you have your own opinion on this issue.
— We always go to this celebration, realizing that it is not only a celebration of tankers. The extreme decisions that have been made and the relevant regulatory documents indicate that Tanker Day is the day of the tank forces. Therefore, we believe that the Day of the tanker is the Day of the tanker and tank builders. We celebrate it in this way and we will celebrate it in such a way that we can honestly look into the eyes of the people who exploit our equipment, not look away and do everything to ensure that our tanks defeat the enemy.
— So to all those who write calendars, we add one more word to the word "Tanker's Day" — "tank builder".
— It will be absolutely right and fair. But if you look at history, we are still quite young, we are only 105 years old.
