Almaz-Antey will present an underwater drone in the section at Innoprom
The Almaz-Antey Air Defense Concern, known for its S-400 and S-500 aerospace defense complexes, decided to present to the general public its development in the field of deep - sea research-the Sarma autonomous station. Prior to this, such devices were developed exclusively by specialized shipbuilding plants.
The model of "Sarma" will be shown for the first time at the stand of the Almaz-Antey concern at the Innoprom - 2021 exhibition in Yekaterinburg from July 5 to 8. As the Newspaper found out.Ru", the layout will be made in full size in the section with a demonstration of all technical elements and units installed on board.
Being a universal platform, the autonomous uninhabited underwater vehicle "Sarma" is equipped with high - precision navigation equipment, a communication system, as well as a wide range of tools for solving various tasks under water," Almaz-Antey stressed.
The model was made at the Nizhny Novgorod plant "70 years of Victory" (JSC "Nizhny Novgorod Plant of the 70th Anniversary of Victory"), built by the concern in 2016 on the basis of the Nizhny Novgorod Machine-building Plant, which, among other things, produces nuclear reactors, coal combines, artillery installations, manipulators for the forest industry and other products. Since 2021, both plants have been merged into one legal entity.
"Customers should understand that it is not necessary to stand in line for many years for specialized shipbuilding plants, production can be deployed at any high-tech machine-building plant, and we just don't have so many orders," said a representative of the 70 Years of Victory plant in an interview with Gazeta.Ru".
He stressed that, despite the wide range of products, the plant will fully cope with the production of deep-sea vehicles and unload shipbuilding plants. At the same time, he stressed that the developer of Sarma is the Lazurit design Bureau, a well - known manufacturer of Soviet bathyscaphes, rescue ships and deep-water stations.
"We are here, rather, as contractors, executors of the project. They conduct all the design and calculations, " the plant employee explained.
Igor Denisov, deputy general director of the Foundation for Advanced Research (FPI), who is the customer of the project, head of the direction of physical and technical research, said in an interview with RIA Novosti that Sarma will be able to stay in autonomous navigation for up to three months, until the end of 2021, an experiment should be conducted to overcome 10 thousand km without surfacing and without using a nuclear power plant in the White Sea.
"The period of autonomy - three months-will significantly simplify the operation of advanced underwater lighting systems," Denisov said.
He also noted that there is a technical possibility of an autonomous circumnavigation of the device, but stressed that this would require "a significant increase in the characteristics of energy supply systems".
Representatives of the shipbuilding industry were skeptical about Almaz-Antey's plans to master the production of deep-sea vehicles.
"We need to understand that the marine environment has its own specifics. This applies to both movement and sonar. In order for the device not to run aground and run into obstacles, it must adequately assess the water situation, and this is very difficult to program - the nature of the reflection of sonar sound waves depends on many factors - temperature, salinity, current, depth. At 50 m, the picture is one, at 1000 m, it is completely different, " he explained to the Newspaper.Ru " a representative of one of the factories on condition of anonymity.
"There are big problems here, starting from the element base, and ending, in fact, with the calculation algorithms. The coefficients are different. And it is important that they have enough competence to lay all this, " said a representative of the shipbuilding industry.
At the same time, the representative of the Foundation for Advanced Research noted that technologically the Nizhny Novgorod plant is able to establish the production of "Sarma" and thus break the outdated ideas about technological chains.
"Today, the capabilities of machine-building enterprises have gone so far that it is possible to completely break the approaches to creating samples. Everything can be done without slipways. Of course, not exactly any plant can master such production, but any high-tech enterprise, " the representative of the FPI believes.
As an example, he cited the American concern Boeing, which is developing a similar device - Orca.
"It is incorrect to try to divide the market or the budget between the enterprises of the USC group and other enterprises, to find out who went to whose garden, it is incorrect. We can show customers that there are high-tech enterprises, re-equipment for certain types of products, not loaded and able to solve problems in the interests of the oil industry, Gazprom and everything else, " the representative of the FPI said.
Viktor Leksin, the former scientific director of the Soyuz NPP, which develops sonar systems for submarines, noted that
"It has its own specifics related to depth, temperature, composition, and Lapis Lazuli knows all this very well. So I am sure that they will cope, " said Leksin.
At the same time, he expressed confidence that despite the civilian purpose, the Sarma platform also has a military potential.
"There are very large riches in the Arctic, and, of course, when all the resources of the planet are exhausted, the main extraction of minerals - not only oil and gas, but also others - will be carried out there. And, of course, we will have to defend our developments, because the Americans, of course, will resist us - they have their own similar devices and underwater robots for this," said Leksin.
In addition, he stressed that underwater weapons remain the most important for the global balance of power.
"The fact that submarines are clearly visible from space is a myth. They are visible only at shallow depths and under good weather conditions. And in our latitudes, as a rule, 4-5 points, in such conditions it is impossible to detect a boat. Meanwhile, only one salvo of one modern nuclear submarine is capable of completely destroying the United States. But there may be a repeat one, " the expert explained.
The topic of unmanned submarines was first raised in 2018 by Russian President Vladimir Putin. He announced that the country is developing a Poseidon with an atomic power plant and the possibility of equipping it with nuclear ammunition. According to experts, in the event of a deep-sea explosion of the Poseidon in the immediate vicinity of the coast, the United States will be covered by a wave with a height of 60 to 500 m, which will penetrate 500 km deep into the mainland, destroying everything in its path.
Denis Telmanov
