Question: Mr Rogozin, will you brief us on the decisions taken at the meeting with respect to the complicated problems facing engine manufacturing in Russia?

Dmitry Rogozin: There is a well-known joke, a favourite joke of students and teachers at the Moscow Aviation Institute… They say that the only thing that makes a glider fly, the only thing that transforms a glider into an airplane is the engine. Everything else just gets in the way. So it is clear that when discussing issues related to creating new Russian civil and combat aviation, we should primarily discuss the fate of the heart, the engine, which takes the body into the air, makes it economical, achieves the necessary altitudes, distances and so on.   

Engine building is a very sophisticated field and it had been a serious problem in the Soviet Union. They say that the Soviet Union lagged behind in terms of engine efficiency and distances. At that time, Soviet officials did not seek to save this real money. Nowadays we are working in an open space, in a competitive market space. Currently they are creating an engine for a new long-range aircraft, such as the MS-21 (hopefully Russia will begin to produce these airplanes in 2015). It is obvious that these airplanes need a new engine.

Today its prototype was unveiled for the Prime Minister. That is the PD-14 engine, which our engine builders in Perm are currently working on. Other engines for other types of airplanes were also unveiled. We are going back to creating our own professional knowledge in carrier aviation. In St Petersburg, under a new import substitution programme, they have deployed a new production platform where they will assembly helicopter engines – making us independent from foreign producers of this class of engines – they will produce engines for carrier aviation, in particular, for MIG-29K/KUB. So we have reason to hope that in the future we will be able to work on an aircraft-capable fleet – we had had no such prospects in the past.  

However, we should remember that the world is developing, technology is developing. Earlier we discussed aviation and spacecraft separately, and now we see… Our country has experience creating flight vehicles which could also serve as spacecraft – space planes. The boundaries between the stratosphere, air and space are currently disappearing. When creating new professional knowledge – in the area of construction, production and testing – we should prevent new fences from going up between the designers and producers of such engines.

In late February, the Federal Space Agency will submit to the Government its proposals on reforming the missile and space industry. In this regard, we will also take care to prevent the emergence of any fences, for example between the United Engine-Building Corporation and those engine construction capacities that exist in the national missile and space industry. The meeting participants mentioned these issues, and we are discussing them while preparing for the meeting that the President will hold soon in Novosibirsk. It will be devoted to the development of combat aviation. We have started with engines and later on we will deal with entire aircraft.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Finance and all our integrated agencies have received instructions to upgrade the quality of production, complete import substitution and, most important, start investing in advanced R&D. This is only natural, because a new engine requires not only a new engineering solution but also the use of new strategic composite materials that will make it lighter, more durable and more reliable.

Upon completing this work the said ministries will submit reports to the Military-Industrial Commission. These reports will be used for determining the state defence order for 2014, 2015 and 2016, and for making some decisions that will become part of the long-term state arms programme for 2016-2025. The Prime Minister will personally monitor this work.

Question: Mr Rogozin, are there any deadlines for these reports? Or how will they proceed?

Dmitry Rogozin: The protocol instruction is divided into several points. There is a time period for each point and officials responsible for its implementation. Naturally, as I said, reports on implementing these proposals will be submitted to the Military-Industrial Commission, which will draft a Government decision by the end of this year.

Mr Medvedev has said that the situation is not as dramatic as it was just a few years ago, when we were not only lagging behind others but were not investing in R&D. We were relying on our old achievements. Now specific instructions have been issued to increase the share of R&D. Not all the funds should be spent on production. In the future we should divide the expenses on production and R&D 50/50, or at least spend 40%-60% on production and 40%-45% on R&D. Otherwise, we're just daydreaming.

We have the money and must make the most of it. New integrated research agencies will be set up for this purpose. One of them will be established on the basis of the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) and will include a large aviation cluster – Bolshoi Zhukovsky – which is located here, in the Moscow suburbs. Proposals will most likely be drafted… At any rate, the Military-Industrial Commission believes this should be done.

Similar technical expertise agencies will be set up around the National Research Institute of Aviation Materials (VIAM), which deals with strategic aviation materials. Clearly, new composite solutions are critical, along with engineering ideas. They alone can give us an understanding of where to move and how to ensure the production of reliable engines in the future.

Question: Mr Rogozin, I’d like to stray slightly from the subject. Some time ago the media reported that upgraded Borei-A class subs will be equipped with just 16 rather than 20 Bulavas. Is this right?

Dmitry Rogozin: Would you like to look at their blueprints as well?

Reply: No, that's not necessary. 

Dmitry Rogozin: The image of strategic nuclear missile submarines will be changing depending on our understanding of our needs. This will determine our decisions on their stealth, speed and armaments. For the time being, I don’t want to go into details because the prototype submarine will be very different from serial ones. The latter will belong to a new generation and their armaments will change accordingly. This applies not only to Borei submarines but also to Yasen – multi-purpose submarines that will be equipped with very powerful cruise missiles. All the necessary decisions on this score are being adopted, and we will soon review proposals of design bureaus at the Military-Industrial Commission’s shipbuilding council. We regard a submarine as primarily a carrier of armaments and useful loads – communications, information, and control and reconnaissance systems – and all these elements will be upgraded each time. I’m trying to avoid certain things that I'm not permitted to talk about.

Question: Mr Rogozin, has the Ministry of Defence signed even a single full life-cycle maintenance and repair contract with defence companies, for instance Sevmash, on the Yury Dolgoruky?

Dmitry Rogozin: Let’s come back to earth a bit. After all, we are talking about aviation and engine building. So let me use these examples in answering your questions. It is perfectly obvious that all armaments and military equipment must be viewed in terms of their full life cycle. Half a year ago the Government’s Military-Industrial Commission made a decision to this effect. The life cycle of any hardware must be ensured primarily by their original producers – the head companies that have all the rights for their production and subsequent scrapping. A life cycle starts with the generation of an idea. Then follow R&D, development of a prototype, its serial production, repairs (including medium-stage repairs), and maintenance, in which the producer must take part by all means. So we will match the interests of the Ministry of Defence and the defence industry. They will be like two actors, one of whom plays the first role and another the second, but they replace each other, as it were. In other words, the Ministry of Defence will determine the image and formulate an engineering assignment. Then the industry takes over and formulates a technical solution to it in conjunction with military research. It is also abundantly clear that when the life cycle of the hardware is over, its producer should have the exclusive right to scrap it.

Today this issue was raised at the meeting chaired by the Prime Minister. Its participants discussed the scrapping of engines made by the Kuznetsov Research and Technical Complex of Samara. Today they confirmed that this complex has the exclusive rights to dispose of these engines as their sole producer.

The repairs of aircraft equipment last year have left us with a bad taste in our mouth. These repairs were made not by the original producers, but by the maintenance companies of the Ministry of Defence. Regrettably, we had many complaints about deadlines and quality and simply on how they carried out these repairs in general. A decision on this score has been made and will soon be published. I think you will learn about it at the Ministry of Defence board meeting that will take place in the next few days. This decision stipulates that the majority of maintenance companies of the Ministry of Defence will be transferred to the industry and be subordinate to the enterprises that have produced the given hardware. We are confident that this will allow us to cut down on expenses and improve quality. We will finally overcome this unjustified approach that was used in the repair of sophisticated hardware. Such decisions have already been made regarding one enterprise and in the future they will be extended to the entire system of relations between the customer and the industry.

Question: So for the time being there are no contracts?

Dmitry Rogozin: Contracts will be signed this year. They will be made during the formation of the defence order, and this date is known – such contracts must be signed before 15 April. Thank you, colleagues, and goodbye.