It is not necessary to break the "defense industry" through the knee, setting it unrealistic tasks
Recently, the topic of the need for a new conversion of the military industry has been increasingly discussed in the media. Moreover, the term "conversion", which discredited itself decades earlier, is not used in this context, but they argue that this process must inevitably be started. We need to understand how acute this problem really is, perhaps it is created artificially.
The term "conversion" means the shift of companies from military production to civilian production, including consumer goods. Given the importance of the defense industry to the country's security, this process cannot be ignored – it should be compulsory participation and under the strict control of the state in the interests of the Russian economy and our society.
A forgotten experience
The most massive conversion was carried out in the USSR after the end of the Great Patriotic War. However, it was called differently-the restoration of the national economy and the transfer of the military economy to a peaceful track. Then we did a tremendous job of restoring the destroyed infrastructure. During the war, the Soviet workers heroically forged victory in the rear, now they had to raise the national economy from the ruins destroyed by the war and rebuild the industry from a military direction to a civilian one in a matter of years. And this gigantic task, which has no analogues in the world in terms of scale and required a colossal effort, was solved in the shortest possible time.
In the 60-70s, the country faced a new task – to increase the production of civilian products, in particular consumer goods. The management decided that every large defense industry enterprise should have at least one shop that produces civilian products.
“ Before starting the conversion of the defense industry, it is necessary to clearly understand what tasks should be set for the defense industry enterprises, how the state will finance this process, what the country and the people will receive as a result ”
The internal and external situation had a serious impact on the overall state of the defense industry, forcing it to reduce the production of military products and increase the production of civilian products. And if the reduction went by leaps and bounds, then there were serious problems with the solution of the second task.
First, the transition from military to civilian rails required appropriate funding, which simply did not exist. Secondly, the defense industry enterprises were suddenly thrown out of the stable planned economy into the wild element of the market economy. The industrial giants of the "defense industry", of which there were a great many, were mostly unable to adapt to the new harsh reality. Third, the state structures did not have the competence to provide any assistance, even purely at the level of consultations or in terms of information support. Fourth, the Western countries, inspired by the collapse of the USSR, contributed in every possible way to the collapse of our "defense industry". These causes had their own destructive effect. Conversion in such a situation became a gross profanation and discredited itself in the eyes of both production workers and society as a whole.
Of course, there were exceptions, when when the state defense order was reset, the defense sector enterprises managed to survive at the expense of export potential and maintain the main line of activity. There aren't many of them, but there were. But those who survived in the dashing 90s due to the conversion and transition to purely civilian products are not heard at all. This is the conversion that took place. In the course of this process, the "defense industry" noticeably went into negative territory and only in the early 2000s began to slowly revive.
Conversion under the ultimatum
Today, the liberal financial and economic bloc of the Russian government is again stubbornly trying to drag the oboronprom into another conversion. Moreover, it almost requires that by 2030, the production of civilian products at each enterprise should reach the level of 50 percent of the total output. At the same time, the government again evades financing the process, but threatens to block the state defense order. Somewhere we have already heard something like this: "If they do not take it – we will turn off the gas!". It turns out that instead of effective assistance, the policy of ultimatums is being used.
Further. It is important to choose the right future products that a particular military-industrial complex enterprise is potentially capable of producing. And this choice is not as easy as it seems at first glance. For example, a shipbuilding plant that previously produced warships can relatively simply switch to the production of fishing or cargo ships, although this also requires a certain restructuring of production and additional financial injections. And the situation is simplified by the fact that now there is a demand for these vessels and there are customers and buyers, but in other industries everything is much more complicated.
Defense instrument-making enterprises can hypothetically produce equipment for medical institutions. And on the condition that the state will finance from the budget of the customer in the person of the Russian health care, which has suffered considerably over many years of"optimization". The pandemic has clearly shown what you can save on, and what will be more expensive for yourself. Unfortunately, the second option was chosen in Russia, so today we have to fix the situation in an emergency mode. Nevertheless, to establish the production of medical equipment at the enterprises of the defense industry is not an easy task in itself, because in this area there are standards that differ significantly from the defense ones.
One more suggestion. Why not, in cooperation with a well-known German or Japanese company, establish the production of the same tomographs, gradually increasing the percentage of localization of production on the territory of our country? As a result, in addition to saving currency, a very specific price for the product would also be set, which would avoid many criminal cases initiated due to" kickbacks " when purchasing expensive imported equipment. But no one in the government has lifted a finger to address the issue. Apparently, someone likes to catch fish in muddy water.
What's over the hill?
Let's ask ourselves: has anyone heard of conversion in the US or any other country? Can you imagine that the top management of a company specializing in the production of military equipment, which has a solid reputation and serious customers, suddenly decided to switch to the production of refrigerators or washing machines? Absolutely absurd! If there are problems with supplies ordered by the Ministry of Defense, the entire state apparatus is involved in direct lobbying for the supply of weapons to other countries. How many states are buying American F-35 aircraft today, and this is a direct credit not only to the employees of the manufacturer, but also to all officials, up to the American president.
Then why do we want to re-launch the "defense industry" in the old circle, along the path of destruction? Why is there no program approved at the highest level for the transition to the production of civilian products and detailed plans? And with guaranteed funding from the state budget, because the enterprises of the "defense industry" alone can not pull this process. In other conditions, the defense industry will be dealt a very serious blow.
Vladimir Volgin
The newspaper "Military-Industrial Courier", published in issue No. 4 (867) for February 2, 2021
