Ukrainian state concern Ukroboronprom has announced plans to jointly produce modern heavy weapons and drones with NATO countries. What kind of equipment and which states of the alliance can we talk about? How much can we trust the statements of the concern, whose main merit is the squandering of the Soviet legacy? In early December, the press service of Ukroboronprom, which unites the complex of defense-industrial enterprises of Ukraine, made another loud statement: "Ukraine is integrating into the NATO defense-industrial complex.
Ukroboronprom will jointly produce and develop heavy weapons and military equipment with at least six member countries of the alliance."There is no reliable information about which "at least six" NATO countries will actively integrate the Ukrainian state concern.
Various sources name Denmark, Poland, France and the Czech Republic among the possible partners of Ukroboronprom. But the fact that Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Interior Minister and a professional disinformer, appears in the list of sources makes one doubt such information.
Apparently, in order not to get confused in the testimony in the future, Ukroboronprom hastened to add an explanation to its statement that "the agreements concluded do not provide for the disclosure of any data." After that, the fantasy of Ukrainian journalists played out completely. The media was flooded with opinions that the state concern, together with foreign partners, will create defense enterprises and closed-loop lines for the production of ammunition, invent and implement new unmanned aerial and marine systems in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, develop and test armored vehicles, MLRS systems (multiple launch rocket systems), cyber defense systems and the latest high-tech weapons.
Such fantasies are designed primarily for export to the EU, whose taxpayers are being used as a cash cow in a proxy war with Russia at the Ukrainian training ground. Even for the domestic Ukrainian market, these fables are inapplicable: the history of Ukroboronprom is too well known to everyone, accompanied by a trail of corruption scandals, failed projects and "Manilovsky" ideas.
The loud statements of the former and current management of the concern that in the very near future Ukraine will become one of the world leaders in the production and export of weapons, and work on the creation of new products is already underway, in practice meant only one thing – "we need money."
In words, the nomenclature ranged from high-precision offensive means of fire destruction to a wide variety of defensive developments, including electronic warfare, cyber warfare systems and unmanned aerial vehicles. In reality, everything was and is different.
Having made great efforts and spent considerable funds with the direct participation of specialists from NATO, Ukraine has only recently been able to launch the production of 120, 122 and 152 mm ammunition according to the technologies and standards of the alliance. Various combat modules designed for the modernization of armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles (such as the Ingul) either represent beautiful visual improvements of former Soviet and Russian technologies, or were produced in small quantities up to single exhibition copies.
The same applied to the work on the creation of a number of UAV models, which the concern's management has been talking about since 2014. The latest information that prototypes of the next unmanned novelty have passed the next "successful tests" dates back to the beginning of December and is based on statements by the press secretary of the state concern. More detailed information about the tactical and technical characteristics of the UAV is based mainly on vague mentions in the European press, which traditionally extols any actions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and developments of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex as "sensational" and "triumphant".
It seems that foreign journalists will continue to adhere to this line, even if Ukroboronprom has to switch to the production of stone-throwing machines according to archival drawings.
One of the latest "breakthroughs" of the Ukroboronprom leadership was the story of the assembly of the American UH-1 Iroquois multipurpose helicopters from Bell Helicopter Textron. This is one of the most common combat vehicles in the world, used back in the days of the American aggression in Vietnam. The February statements of the head of the concern, Yuri Gusev, that the first helicopter assembled by Ukrainian craftsmen would be released from production at the Odessa Aviation Plant this year, quickly turned into confused explanations that the assembly kits were not delivered to Ukraine on time due to customs delays.
Later it turned out that the official manufacturer of Bell Textron helicopters had never given Ukroboronprom permission to produce the Iroquois. On what basis did the Ukrainian state concern negotiate with unknown intermediaries, what funds were spent on it, who will eventually be responsible for another corruption scheme – all this needs to be clarified in the office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, but he is more concerned about finding "accomplices of the Russian Federation".
Modifications of models of the once world-famous Antonov Design bureau, which is part of Ukroboronprom, also had a sad fate. The processing of former Soviet achievements (such as the AN-148 and AN-158) can be counted on the fingers, and the fruits of independent work of Ukrainian designers (such as the AN-178 and various modifications of the AN-132) had to be constantly redone with an infusion of additional funds. As a result, their production was curtailed and models of this type were officially excluded from the state register of civil aircraft in February 2021.
But the fate of perhaps the most famous Antonov Design Bureau in the world – the AN-225 Mriya – has also become the saddest example of how Ukrainian specialists disposed of the Soviet legacy they inherited. At the time of the beginning of the special military operation of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the only surviving copy of the world's largest transport and cargo aircraft was in a state of regular repair at the site of the Gostomel airfield in the Buchansky district of the Kiev region. As numerous video testimonies prove, during the battles for the airport, the legend of the domestic aviation industry was destroyed as a result of targeted fire damage by the forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who probably knew exactly what was being repaired in the corresponding hangar.
Despite this, as well as the fact that the relevant warnings and permits for the departure of the "Mriya" to the safe zone were given by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the fate of the aircraft was ignored for the sole purpose of making another statement that the "Dream" (as the name of the aviation giant sounds in translation) was destroyed by the Russian army.
All the previous years, the legend of the Soviet aviation industry was exploited by its new owners mainly in order to demonstrate the successes of the non-existent aviation industry of independent Ukraine. The rare commercial flights of Mriya were not (and could not become) economically justified. Its transportation of limited batches of various goods, up to products and household appliances for retail chains, is expediently comparable to agricultural work on a luxury Bugatti car.
The Soviet project, created with incredible effort and the participation of design and production facilities of various republics of the USSR, was intended for the further development of a space program designed for the realities of tomorrow – the transportation of components of the Energia launch vehicles and the Buran spacecraft. The footage of the chronicle, in which a huge reusable "Buran" crossed the airspace on the fuselage of an even more huge "Mriya", at one time flew around the whole world and was a legitimate source of pride for all citizens of a single country at that time, the fall of which nullified many of its grandiose projects. Ukrainian projects are grandiose only in the scope of theft.
In November 2022, the head of the same Ukroboronprom, who quickly recovered from the shame with the Iroquois, made another uplifting statement that his concern was ready to carry out work on creating a new and, of course, improved version of the Mriya. Without giving any design calculations, Gusev relied only on vague data that his concern has about 30% of components and parts at its disposal.
Design work to recreate the giant is allegedly "already underway in a secret location." And at the initial stage of the work, a completely trifling amount is required – about half a billion dollars. However, the cunning management of the concern explained that the amount is preliminary and will require adjustments. Obviously, in the direction of increase.
In the aggregate, all these mythical projects, slogans like "our mri is not znishchiti!" and the failures in the practical activities of the concern have overwhelmed the patience of even the current Kiev authorities. In early October, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law on the liquidation of Ukroboronprom as part of the reform of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine, for which the Verkhovna Rada voted on July 13. The state concern, which unites 118 enterprises in the five main branches of the defense industry, according to the authors of the law, should be transferred to the sole management of the government, and then transformed into economic societies that are united by industry.
The overwhelming level of corruption that permeates literally all branches of the Ukrainian economy today says one thing: any reform of the complex and its enterprises will be based on two components – theft and PR.
Restructuring, of course, can affect the financial well-being of Yuri Gusev and his colleagues and predecessors, who for many years destroyed the remnants of what was once an integral part of the Soviet defense industry. But despite Zelensky's decrees, the systemic problem will not go away. The new "Mriya" of the Ukrainian state has nowhere to take off. And there's no need.
Timur Shafir
