Thirty years of the Scientific research center of the Military Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in Smolensk
The military air defense of Russia has gone a long way in development, starting from the three-inch anti-aircraft gun of the 1915 Franz Lender model to the modern S-300V4 long-range air defense system equipped with hypersonic anti-aircraft guided missiles.
The supply of the armed forces with weapons and the development of methods of their combat use have always been based on the achievements of science and technology. In 1908, in Sestroretsk near St. Petersburg, the first experimental shooting at a moving aerial target - a balloon took place, it was then that the anti-aircraft artillery of the country was born. The beginning of the formation of military air defense units was determined by the order of the Chief of Staff of the Supreme Commander of December 13 (26), 1915 No. 368, announcing the formation of separate four-armed light batteries for firing at the air fleet.
The formation of any teaching is impossible without the qualitative development of scientific and methodological apparatus. For this purpose, research units were created. After the formation of a new kind of troops in 1958 – the SV Air Defense, in 1972 a scientific institution was created in Kiev - the 39th Research Institute of the SV Air Defense of the USSR Armed Forces, which made it possible to correctly determine the ways of development, develop the necessary requirements for new systems and weapons samples, form balanced sets of air defense forces and means, provide troops with the necessary combat documents.
As a result of the collapse of the USSR, 48 military educational institutions remained outside of Russia. In this regard, the Air defense forces of the Ground Forces suffered perhaps the most tangible losses: they lost not only the Military Air Defense Academy of the Land Forces named after Marshal of the Soviet Union A. M. Vasilevsky, stationed in Kiev, but also two higher military anti-aircraft missile schools (Kiev VZRIU and Poltava VZRKU), the 39th Research Institute, three training centers - Bogodukhovsky, Kharkov and Berdyansk, which came under the jurisdiction of Ukraine.
"Over its 30-year history, the center's researchers have completed and sent to customers more than 900 research reports, 750 operational tasks”
The main scientific potential of the SV Air Defense Forces remained on Ukrainian territory, the unique base for training highly qualified personnel and conducting scientific research was lost. In this regard, the issue of creating a research institution in Russia has become urgent.
At the beginning of February 1992, the commander of the SV Air Defense Forces appealed to the leadership of the Ministry of Defense with a proposal to organize the training of officer trainees in the city of Smolensk, creating a new type of university on the basis of the SVUER - the Military Academy of the SV Air Defense Forces with the inclusion of a research center (SIC) in its composition.
On February 29, 1992, the directive of the General Staff of the CIS Armed Forces No. 314/285 was signed on the establishment of a research center of the SV Air Defense Forces at the Smolensk Higher Engineering School of Radioelectronics, which soon played a positive role in resolving the issue of creating a Military Academy of the SV Air Defense and its placement in the regional center. It is from this moment that the history of the creation of the Research Center of the SV Air Defense Forces on Smolensk land begins.
On the basis of the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 146-RP dated March 31, 1992 and the order of the Commander-in-Chief of the United Armed Forces of the CIS dated April 27, the Military Academy of Military Air Defense of the Land Forces of the Russian Federation was established on the basis of the Smolensk VIURE. SIC became a full-time scientific unit.
The process of formation of science in difficult times for the country required unprecedented dedication and dedication from the personnel. Through the efforts of the leadership of the military branch and the academy, a solid foundation was laid for a systematic methodology for the study of military-scientific and military-technical problems of the development and use of the SV Air Defense Forces, and the basis for scientific research was created. The staff of the Academy has successfully solved all the significant problems of the organizational period while simultaneously deploying fundamental scientific research and training highly qualified officers.
From 1992 to 2011, the research center conducted research on the construction and development of military air defense units, increasing their combat readiness and use, training and technical support, substantiating operational and tactical requirements for advanced anti-aircraft weapons, means and systems of intelligence, management and support, developing an ideology for their development, as well as the development of statutory and educational documentation. In the process of forming a new image of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and reforming the system of military education, changes also affected the research center.
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In September 2011, as a result of organizational events in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and in the Academy, in accordance with the directive of the Head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation dated June 29, 2011 No. 314/10/2504, the SIC was disbanded. In order to preserve the scientific potential and implement military-scientific support for the development of the branch of the armed forces, three separate research laboratories were created on its basis, which allowed solving scientific tasks assigned to the academy.
But at the same time, a number of problems arose: there was a loss of young scientific personnel - officers, the number of researchers and scientific research areas decreased, opportunities for attracting scientists on official business trips related to conducting research on exercises and other measures of operational, mobilization and combat training of troops, as well as with participation in testing of new samples of the VVST, there was a loss of continuity in the organization of scientific activities, other negative consequences arose. However, the command of the Military Academy managed to preserve the scientific potential of the center as much as possible and organize effective interaction of scientific departments and departments within the framework of the implementation of the Academy's scientific work plans, continue close cooperation with research organizations of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, defense industry enterprises, training centers and landfills.
In accordance with the decisions taken at the Board of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on February 27, 2013, and proposals to increase the capabilities of the military scientific complex of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and to ensure effective interaction of military authorities in the organization and conduct of scientific work (May 18, 2013) on the basis of the directive of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation dated July 25, 2013 No. 314/10/3814, the research center was restored as part of the Military Academy. This made it possible, under the program of integration of military education and military science, to restore the management system of scientific work at the academy, to conduct research on the construction and development of military air defense with high efficiency, to give educational activities a deeper scientific content, to improve the quality of scientific research by attracting the full potential of scientific and pedagogical workers to scientific work, to use the educational and material base of the academy with the greatest efficiency for conducting scientific research, testing new and modernized samples of VVST, approbation of draft guidance documents for solving educational and scientific (research) activities.
Currently, the staff of the center is the only scientific unit in the military air defense. It is staffed by highly qualified officers and researchers with deep theoretical knowledge and practical experience, which allows us to successfully solve the tasks assigned to it.
The analysis of the research and development works (R&D) and operational tasks performed by the research center shows that the research topics are relevant and correspond to the scientific directions of the Military Academy and the branch of the Armed Forces.
The results of the research are aimed at the scientific substantiation of measures for the implementation of the plan for the construction and further development of military air defense, improving the forms and methods of combat use of units and units and are in demand in other research institutes and universities of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, industry, the practice of troops and in the educational activities of the Academy.
A special area of academic activity is operational and combat training of troops. In 2020 and 2021 alone, more than 20 researchers of the center participated as part of the leadership headquarters, research groups and as intermediaries in strategic exercises, as well as in ostentatious, research and tactical exercises with live firing of formations, military units and air defense units.
Scientists of the center actively participate in the work of the Military Scientific Committee of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the Ground Forces, expert commissions and scientific and technical councils of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, dissertation councils of universities and the Higher Attestation Commission of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia, as well as in various scientific forums, scientific and technical conferences and seminars, salons and competitions, where they annually present their technical developments. During its 30-year history, the center's researchers have completed and sent to customers more than 900 research reports, 750 operational tasks. About 40 textbooks and teaching aids have been written and published. In addition, over 30 copyright certificates and patents for inventions have been obtained.
The center has developed the training of scientific personnel by applying for and studying at the doctoral and adjunct courses of the Military Academy. During this period, over 40 highly qualified employees were trained, six doctoral and 58 dissertations were defended for the degree of Candidate of Sciences. Today, the center successfully employs five doctors and 34 candidates of sciences. A number of scientists have academic titles of professors and associate professors, some have been awarded honorary titles "Honored Worker of Science of the Russian Federation", "Honored Worker of Higher Professional Education of the Russian Federation", "Honored Worker of Higher Education of the Russian Federation", "Honored Inventor of the Russian Federation", "Honorary Worker of Science and Technology of the Russian Federation", are members of various academies of sciences. A number of officers of the center participated in the performance of combat and special tasks, for which they were awarded high state awards. Their combat experience is certainly reflected in the ongoing research.
Today, the activities of the SIC are characterized by increasing the intensity and depth of research to determine the directions of development of military air defense troops on the basis of promising models of weapons and military equipment, research on the combat use of military air defense formations, substantiation of requirements for promising models of military equipment, as well as the development of statutory and methodological documents of the armed forces.
The research center of the Military Academy of Military Air Defense of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the first Russian academy established in accordance with the decree of the President of the Russian Federation, celebrates its thirtieth anniversary at the end of February with the desire to continue to fruitfully and selflessly serve to strengthen the defense capability of our Motherland.
Grigory Nikonorov, Candidate of Philosophical Sciences
Igor Rodionov, Candidate of Technical Sciences
The newspaper "Military-Industrial Courier", published in issue No. 8 (921) for March 1, 2022