The Governor of the Tula Region, Alexey Dyumin, in an interview with TASS on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg Economic Forum (SPIEF), spoke about the region's contribution to supporting a special military operation, training personnel for the region's defense complex and plans for the serial production of unmanned aerial vehicles capable of operating in electronic warfare (EW) conditions
— Alexey Gennadievich, literally in May, the seventh issue took place at the Tula Training Center for Operators of unmanned aerial vehicles, 170 specialists were trained. Are there plans to start training in this direction in additional specialties in the region, which ones?
— At the moment, the instructors of the Tula center train operators in three directions: "High-speed UAVs", "reconnaissance UAVs" and "Airplane-type UAVs". Now these are the most popular specialties. The scope of application of drones is very wide, in today's conditions, for obvious reasons, military directions are most relevant. But we don't forget about civilians either, the Tula State Technological College will start training operators on them from September 1, 2023. Graduates will be able to work in cartography, industry, agriculture and other industries.
— Earlier TASS reported that in the Tula region, with your support, specialists from the region have developed UAVs from domestic components. Are there plans to open its mass production? Will there be demand?
— I can't talk about it in detail, because most of the information is non-public. But such a UAV has really been developed, and now it is planned to organize its production. The peculiarity of such a drone is that it is capable of operating in conditions of electronic warfare. I am sure that in today's circumstances it will be effective and in demand.
— An important topic for the region is the work of enterprises of the military—industrial complex (MIC). In the Tula region, much attention is paid to solving the personnel issue for the defense industry in order to ensure the fulfillment of the state defense order. What measures have been taken, what results have been achieved?
— In order to retain and attract employees to the defense industry in 2022, we created a staff to provide the defense industry with personnel, it brought together representatives of companies, executive authorities, educational institutions and law enforcement agencies. The package of support measures was developed based on the analysis of best practices. All this allowed to reduce the acute need for personnel: since the beginning of the headquarters, about 6 thousand specialists have come to defense enterprises. And we will definitely continue this work.
— Can I give examples?
— Yes, for example, a curator from the employment center was assigned to each enterprise, the schedule of kindergartens was extended for the children of employees from the defense industry, the bus schedule was adjusted for those employed in night shifts. Nonresident employees are compensated for rental housing. In addition, employers introduce corporate measures to support young professionals, pay scholarships and various benefits to target students. They implement housing programs, pay for vouchers, develop a mentoring system, give social vacations, and conduct professional development.
— It is obvious that in order to solve the personnel issue, it is also necessary to change the system of training the right specialists. Are there solutions in this direction?
— In general, we approach the training of personnel for industry — not only the defense industry — comprehensively, building a system of continuous engineering and technical education. At the school level — early career guidance, in the segment of secondary vocational education — the opening of new, sought-after specialties. This year we have opened a specialty "Operation of unmanned aircraft systems", next year two more will appear: "Operator—adjuster of machine tools with software control" and "Locksmith-adjuster of control and measuring devices".
Also in 2023, the number of places funded by the region in the direction of "Mechanical Engineering" has been increased by 10% — now there are more than 1 thousand. At the university level, we form student design bureaus that allow us to train personnel for specific production tasks. Our largest defense enterprises, including the Instrument Engineering Design Bureau named after him, participate in their work. Academician Shipunov, Scientific and Production Association "Alloy" named after Ganichev. The mechanism of targeted contracts has also proved its effectiveness, so that the quota for their conclusion can be increased, we strive to increase the number of budget places in the universities of the region annually.
— The Tula region was one of the first to join in providing assistance to participants of a special military operation, residents, enterprises, and the regional development fund "Perspektiva" help. What is the total amount of funds currently allocated for these purposes?
— Assistance to military personnel is now in the first place for us, we have been providing it since the very beginning of the special operation. We keep in constant contact with the fighters and the commanders of the units where they serve, we make sure that our guys have everything they need. On my instructions, representatives of the regional government regularly travel to their locations.
In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, more than 2 billion rubles have been spent on manning the fighters, this work does not stop — we continue to transfer cargo to the front line on an ongoing basis.
In addition, we have a whole range of measures to support the families of ITS participants, these are lump-sum payments for children, 120 thousand rubles for pre-gasification, and benefits for paying for capital repairs, social housing rental and benefits for public transport, free vacation packages for children and much more.
