BoyElroy
02-11-2006, 04:01 PM
BBC Monitoring Kiev Unit
February 11, 2006 Saturday
HEADLINE: Russia breaking off ties with Ukrainian defence companies
Russian defence industry companies are breaking ties with their Ukrainian partners following Ukraine's moves towards Europe and NATO, a Ukrainian weekly has said. This policy is affecting cooperation in the production of gas turbines and engines for helicopters and missiles, the weekly says. However, hardest hit is the An-70 transport aircraft project which Russia agrees to continue to develop only if Ukraine joins the Single Economic Space. Ukraine could try to retaliate by refusing to provide maintenance for SS-18 missiles, the paper concluded. The following is the text of the article by Oleh Kozak entitled "Divorce, military-style: The expected large-scale disruption of ties with Russia will urge us to more actively to seek friendship in the west", published in the Delovaya Stolitsa newspaper on 6 February; subheadings have been inserted editorially:
Clear signals have emerged this year that Russia is breaking off its defence industry cooperation with the Ukrainian military-industrial complex. Moscow is making it crystal clear that Kiev's desire to join the European collective security system will cost it dearly. However, the Kremlin has sound arguments for breaking off the ties which have been maintained since Soviet times - the Russians do not want to go back to square one once Ukraine joins NATO, even though this is a distant prospect. Rather, Russia has firmly decided to live according to the principle: "Why put money aside for what you can produce yourself?" And, what's more, following this principle, there are no holds barred in the Kremlin.
Russia gets tough with Ukraine
The latest warning about the possible consequences which Ukraine might suffer by joining NATO came on 29 November from Russian Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov. He said that such a step could lead to a breaking off of cooperation between Moscow and Kiev in the military-technical sphere. We did not have long to wait for the reaction of the heads of Russian state-owned enterprises. In January, the director of the Russian Saturn-VMF programme, Leonid Ivanov, spoke about the intention of the Saturn scientific-production association to pool the potential of Russian enterprises specializing in the development and production of ship-based gas-turbine installations for the Russian navy. Sergey Ivanov openly admitted that the Russian authorities had set the task to organize production cooperation in this sphere exclusively through Russian companies. The Rybinsk engine builders have been working for some time on regulating the production of M75RU and M70FRU ship-based gas-turbine installations which, according to Ukrainian experts, have been "creamed off" power units serially produced at the Mykolayiv-based Zorya-Mashproekt scientific-technical gas-turbine construction complex. Up to now our devices have gone down a treat and been supplied to ships being built at Russian shipyards for export or for the needs of the Russian navy.
However, the Rybinsk engine builders now plan to muscle their Ukrainian competitors out of this profitable segment of the market. At the same time Saturn is a double winner, also receiving financial support from the state to the tune of about 1.5bn dollars to develop apparently new gas-turbine installations. In the future they will produce jointly 25 per cent for Saturn and 75 per cent for Zorya-Mashproekt.
Helicopter engines also hit
Another blow to Ukrainian-Russian cooperation was struck on 26 January by the managing director of the Klimov federal state company Oleksandr Vatagin. He said that serial production of parts for helicopters being built for a Russian Defence Ministry order from this year will be implemented only in Russia. According to inter-governmental agreements, previously the Zaporizhzhya-based Motor-Sich OJSC handled serial production of engines for Russian helicopters. The director admitted without batting an eyelid that the decision on this move was taken in connection with Kiev's plans to join NATO. According to him, at the first stage - from 2006 to 2008 - production would be carried out directly at the Klimov plant in St.Petersburg, and from 2009 at the Chernyshev plant in Moscow.
This came as no surprise to the Ukrainian company. Even before this statement was made the Russians had begun to openly squeeze out Motor-Sych from supplies of helicopter engines. Ten Mi-35 helicopters sent to the Czech Republic at the end of 2005 and the beginning of 2006 had already been equipped with TV3-117 engines assembled at St.Petersburg's Klimov plant.
In the future the Russians might also turn down cooperation in the production of VK-2500 engines turbo-shaft engines for Mi-171 helicopters. At the same time, in implementing these plans, they are not reckoning with costs. Some 90 per cent of the engine, or rather the gas generator which forms the basis of the power unit, is manufactured at Zaporizhzhya. In St.Petersburg it is fitted with parts manufactured in Saratov, so as a whole the Klimov plant's share in the production of the VK-2500 aircraft engine is 2-3 per cent. Our experts estimate that hundreds of millions of dollars will be required to organize serial production of these engines.
Threat to missile engines
It is a similar situation with the engines for the RD-36 long-range cruise missile, which are also being serially produced at Motor-Sich. Recently a Russian developer of the RD-36 said he was willing to produce them serially.
The AI-222 aircraft engine, which is being produced at Motor-Sich for Yak-130 fighter training aircraft being manufactured at the Sokol aviation plant in Nizhniy Novgorod, may also find itself under threat of being squeezed out of the Russian market. The Russian AL-55, development of which will cost approximately 100m dollars, may become a competitor for the Ukrainian engine.
Unlike the efficient and resourceful Russians, our manufacturers have preferred to ignore the possible risks of our Russian partner refusing their services, and so have done nothing to avoid unpleasant consequences.
Moreover, at the Ukrainian plant they are still looking towards Russia, stubbornly believing there is no alternative to cooperating with it. "The company will take steps to stay in the Russian market since there is no-one in Ukraine to market our product. Moscow spoke a long time ago about its intention to produce parts for helicopter engines, but has decided not to do anything until the administration has made moves towards Euro-Atlantic integration. In taking this decision, the state should have thought about the support of manufacturers in the military-industrial complex, as they are doing in Russia. But that is not happening here," the deputy managing director for marketing of Motor-Sich, Volodymyr Shirkov, told Delovaya Stolitsa.
Until now the Kiev-based Artem state-owned holding company has had a monopoly on the Russian market of air-to-air missiles. The R-27 missiles which were designed in Russia have been produced in Kiev and supplied as part of the Russian MiG-29s, Su-27s and Su-30s for export. New R-77-type missile units (with an active homing head), which will be produced in Russia, are now being developed in the Russian Federation.
Russia is producing its own helmet-mounted target indication systems for the MiG-29 and the Su-30. Until now this system - the Sura - has been produced at the Kiev Arsenal plant and the Arsenal central design bureau. Delovaya Stolitsa was told that the Ukrainians are also being squeezed out of other segments of the missile market. "If we are talking about extending the service life of the heavy SS-20 and SS-18 Satan missiles, which we have developed, then they will continue to give service but without our guaranteed supervision. At the moment, representatives of the plant and the design bureau are permanently involved in carrying out the designer's guaranteed supervision in the Russian Federation. Russia's strategic missile troops are ordering this work for us, and this is good money," the general designer of the Pivdenne design bureau, Stanislav Konyukhov, told Delovaya Stolitsa.
Russia rejects An-70 project
But, perhaps, the most vivid example of Russia's reluctance to cooperate with Ukraine is the project of the An-70 short take-off and landing aircraft. There exists a Ukrainian-Russian intergovernmental agreement on its development and the purchase of 165 An-70s for the needs of the Russian air force and 64 for the Ukrainian air force. Russia's debt to our country for implementing this project is 48m dollars. However, instead of clearing the debt and allocating the necessary funds for the construction of new engines to continue tests and bring them to a rapid conclusion, Russian is putting forward more and more demands. The commander-in-chief of the Russian air force, Vladimir Mikhaylov, is constantly talking about new flaws in the plane. A source at the Ukrainian Industrial Policy Ministry admitted that there were big political reasons behind this. They are saying: "Enter the Single Economic Space, the Customs Union and the [CIS] Collective Defence Treaty and everything will be OK with the An-70 project."
Moscow is deliberately breaking off cooperation with Kiev and the Ukrainian military-industrial complex. Our manufacturer - the Antonov aviation plant - was not even invited to a tender held by the Russian air force last year for the development of a light military-transport aircraft. Unlike in Ukraine, Russia has no design bureau to develop military-transport planes. At the same time, Antonov is the acknowledged developer of this class of aircraft in the world.
Ukraine will lose a great deal if cooperation ties in the military-industrial complex are broken off. True, these losses will not be felt straightaway. The Russians will probably not be able to completely master the production of gas-turbine devices within less than five years.
Furthermore, before they start going into serial production they will have to run them in on Russian vessels, because they will not risk mounting untested devices on the ships they are exporting. The situation with helicopter and aircraft engines will develop in roughly the same way.
Ukraine may retaliate
For its part, Ukraine may inflict slight, but very tangible damage to Russia's nuclear shield by refusing to offer its services in extending the operational life and carrying out of maintenance work on SS-18 inter-continental ballistic missiles. This means that Russia will have to take these weapons out of use not in 2011, as planned, but much earlier. In return our country may begin closer cooperation with the US in the sphere of America's anti-missile defence. Ukrainian missile designers have plenty to propose to American specialists who are looking for counter-weapons against some of the deadliest missiles in the world.
The early warning centres in Sevastopol and Mukachevo, which are part of the missile attack early-warning station, may find another use (in the interests of the US or NATO). In other words, Russia is now simply pushing us into a more dynamic reorientation of our defence industry, developing our own armaments and military technology and purchasing non-Russian weapons.
Source: Delovaya Stolitsa, Kiev, in Russian 6 Feb 06; p 6
February 11, 2006 Saturday
HEADLINE: Russia breaking off ties with Ukrainian defence companies
Russian defence industry companies are breaking ties with their Ukrainian partners following Ukraine's moves towards Europe and NATO, a Ukrainian weekly has said. This policy is affecting cooperation in the production of gas turbines and engines for helicopters and missiles, the weekly says. However, hardest hit is the An-70 transport aircraft project which Russia agrees to continue to develop only if Ukraine joins the Single Economic Space. Ukraine could try to retaliate by refusing to provide maintenance for SS-18 missiles, the paper concluded. The following is the text of the article by Oleh Kozak entitled "Divorce, military-style: The expected large-scale disruption of ties with Russia will urge us to more actively to seek friendship in the west", published in the Delovaya Stolitsa newspaper on 6 February; subheadings have been inserted editorially:
Clear signals have emerged this year that Russia is breaking off its defence industry cooperation with the Ukrainian military-industrial complex. Moscow is making it crystal clear that Kiev's desire to join the European collective security system will cost it dearly. However, the Kremlin has sound arguments for breaking off the ties which have been maintained since Soviet times - the Russians do not want to go back to square one once Ukraine joins NATO, even though this is a distant prospect. Rather, Russia has firmly decided to live according to the principle: "Why put money aside for what you can produce yourself?" And, what's more, following this principle, there are no holds barred in the Kremlin.
Russia gets tough with Ukraine
The latest warning about the possible consequences which Ukraine might suffer by joining NATO came on 29 November from Russian Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov. He said that such a step could lead to a breaking off of cooperation between Moscow and Kiev in the military-technical sphere. We did not have long to wait for the reaction of the heads of Russian state-owned enterprises. In January, the director of the Russian Saturn-VMF programme, Leonid Ivanov, spoke about the intention of the Saturn scientific-production association to pool the potential of Russian enterprises specializing in the development and production of ship-based gas-turbine installations for the Russian navy. Sergey Ivanov openly admitted that the Russian authorities had set the task to organize production cooperation in this sphere exclusively through Russian companies. The Rybinsk engine builders have been working for some time on regulating the production of M75RU and M70FRU ship-based gas-turbine installations which, according to Ukrainian experts, have been "creamed off" power units serially produced at the Mykolayiv-based Zorya-Mashproekt scientific-technical gas-turbine construction complex. Up to now our devices have gone down a treat and been supplied to ships being built at Russian shipyards for export or for the needs of the Russian navy.
However, the Rybinsk engine builders now plan to muscle their Ukrainian competitors out of this profitable segment of the market. At the same time Saturn is a double winner, also receiving financial support from the state to the tune of about 1.5bn dollars to develop apparently new gas-turbine installations. In the future they will produce jointly 25 per cent for Saturn and 75 per cent for Zorya-Mashproekt.
Helicopter engines also hit
Another blow to Ukrainian-Russian cooperation was struck on 26 January by the managing director of the Klimov federal state company Oleksandr Vatagin. He said that serial production of parts for helicopters being built for a Russian Defence Ministry order from this year will be implemented only in Russia. According to inter-governmental agreements, previously the Zaporizhzhya-based Motor-Sich OJSC handled serial production of engines for Russian helicopters. The director admitted without batting an eyelid that the decision on this move was taken in connection with Kiev's plans to join NATO. According to him, at the first stage - from 2006 to 2008 - production would be carried out directly at the Klimov plant in St.Petersburg, and from 2009 at the Chernyshev plant in Moscow.
This came as no surprise to the Ukrainian company. Even before this statement was made the Russians had begun to openly squeeze out Motor-Sych from supplies of helicopter engines. Ten Mi-35 helicopters sent to the Czech Republic at the end of 2005 and the beginning of 2006 had already been equipped with TV3-117 engines assembled at St.Petersburg's Klimov plant.
In the future the Russians might also turn down cooperation in the production of VK-2500 engines turbo-shaft engines for Mi-171 helicopters. At the same time, in implementing these plans, they are not reckoning with costs. Some 90 per cent of the engine, or rather the gas generator which forms the basis of the power unit, is manufactured at Zaporizhzhya. In St.Petersburg it is fitted with parts manufactured in Saratov, so as a whole the Klimov plant's share in the production of the VK-2500 aircraft engine is 2-3 per cent. Our experts estimate that hundreds of millions of dollars will be required to organize serial production of these engines.
Threat to missile engines
It is a similar situation with the engines for the RD-36 long-range cruise missile, which are also being serially produced at Motor-Sich. Recently a Russian developer of the RD-36 said he was willing to produce them serially.
The AI-222 aircraft engine, which is being produced at Motor-Sich for Yak-130 fighter training aircraft being manufactured at the Sokol aviation plant in Nizhniy Novgorod, may also find itself under threat of being squeezed out of the Russian market. The Russian AL-55, development of which will cost approximately 100m dollars, may become a competitor for the Ukrainian engine.
Unlike the efficient and resourceful Russians, our manufacturers have preferred to ignore the possible risks of our Russian partner refusing their services, and so have done nothing to avoid unpleasant consequences.
Moreover, at the Ukrainian plant they are still looking towards Russia, stubbornly believing there is no alternative to cooperating with it. "The company will take steps to stay in the Russian market since there is no-one in Ukraine to market our product. Moscow spoke a long time ago about its intention to produce parts for helicopter engines, but has decided not to do anything until the administration has made moves towards Euro-Atlantic integration. In taking this decision, the state should have thought about the support of manufacturers in the military-industrial complex, as they are doing in Russia. But that is not happening here," the deputy managing director for marketing of Motor-Sich, Volodymyr Shirkov, told Delovaya Stolitsa.
Until now the Kiev-based Artem state-owned holding company has had a monopoly on the Russian market of air-to-air missiles. The R-27 missiles which were designed in Russia have been produced in Kiev and supplied as part of the Russian MiG-29s, Su-27s and Su-30s for export. New R-77-type missile units (with an active homing head), which will be produced in Russia, are now being developed in the Russian Federation.
Russia is producing its own helmet-mounted target indication systems for the MiG-29 and the Su-30. Until now this system - the Sura - has been produced at the Kiev Arsenal plant and the Arsenal central design bureau. Delovaya Stolitsa was told that the Ukrainians are also being squeezed out of other segments of the missile market. "If we are talking about extending the service life of the heavy SS-20 and SS-18 Satan missiles, which we have developed, then they will continue to give service but without our guaranteed supervision. At the moment, representatives of the plant and the design bureau are permanently involved in carrying out the designer's guaranteed supervision in the Russian Federation. Russia's strategic missile troops are ordering this work for us, and this is good money," the general designer of the Pivdenne design bureau, Stanislav Konyukhov, told Delovaya Stolitsa.
Russia rejects An-70 project
But, perhaps, the most vivid example of Russia's reluctance to cooperate with Ukraine is the project of the An-70 short take-off and landing aircraft. There exists a Ukrainian-Russian intergovernmental agreement on its development and the purchase of 165 An-70s for the needs of the Russian air force and 64 for the Ukrainian air force. Russia's debt to our country for implementing this project is 48m dollars. However, instead of clearing the debt and allocating the necessary funds for the construction of new engines to continue tests and bring them to a rapid conclusion, Russian is putting forward more and more demands. The commander-in-chief of the Russian air force, Vladimir Mikhaylov, is constantly talking about new flaws in the plane. A source at the Ukrainian Industrial Policy Ministry admitted that there were big political reasons behind this. They are saying: "Enter the Single Economic Space, the Customs Union and the [CIS] Collective Defence Treaty and everything will be OK with the An-70 project."
Moscow is deliberately breaking off cooperation with Kiev and the Ukrainian military-industrial complex. Our manufacturer - the Antonov aviation plant - was not even invited to a tender held by the Russian air force last year for the development of a light military-transport aircraft. Unlike in Ukraine, Russia has no design bureau to develop military-transport planes. At the same time, Antonov is the acknowledged developer of this class of aircraft in the world.
Ukraine will lose a great deal if cooperation ties in the military-industrial complex are broken off. True, these losses will not be felt straightaway. The Russians will probably not be able to completely master the production of gas-turbine devices within less than five years.
Furthermore, before they start going into serial production they will have to run them in on Russian vessels, because they will not risk mounting untested devices on the ships they are exporting. The situation with helicopter and aircraft engines will develop in roughly the same way.
Ukraine may retaliate
For its part, Ukraine may inflict slight, but very tangible damage to Russia's nuclear shield by refusing to offer its services in extending the operational life and carrying out of maintenance work on SS-18 inter-continental ballistic missiles. This means that Russia will have to take these weapons out of use not in 2011, as planned, but much earlier. In return our country may begin closer cooperation with the US in the sphere of America's anti-missile defence. Ukrainian missile designers have plenty to propose to American specialists who are looking for counter-weapons against some of the deadliest missiles in the world.
The early warning centres in Sevastopol and Mukachevo, which are part of the missile attack early-warning station, may find another use (in the interests of the US or NATO). In other words, Russia is now simply pushing us into a more dynamic reorientation of our defence industry, developing our own armaments and military technology and purchasing non-Russian weapons.
Source: Delovaya Stolitsa, Kiev, in Russian 6 Feb 06; p 6