| The top 20 best enterprises of the military-industrial complex have been compiled The latest rating of enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex was compiled by the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST) and the magazine “Arms Export” published by it. For the first time, CAST conducted monitoring of the most successful defense industry enterprises in 1999 together with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), well known in world scientific circles. To this day, the main source of information about the companies included in the rating is the data of the enterprises themselves, as well as information about their activities from open sources.
The structure of the rating includes sales volumes and net profit, shares of exports and civilian products, and number of personnel. The ranking deliberately did not include companies working in the field of nuclear deterrence. And this is perhaps the only limitation on the representativeness of the proposed classification.
In the top twenty defense industry enterprises, nine are related to the production of aircraft (aircraft manufacturing, engine manufacturing, instrument making and the production of aircraft weapons), four are related to the shipbuilding industry, followed by three helicopter manufacturing enterprises, three firms produce weapons and military equipment for the ground forces, and, finally, The list included one diversified corporation - Almaz-Antey Air Defense Concern. He became (for the first time) the absolute sales leader. Its total revenue amounted to 50 billion rubles. ($1.8 billion). Since 2004, the concern has occupied second place in the ranking, behind only AHC Sukhoi. "Almaz-Antey" takes over a large number of enterprises producing air defense systems, including shipborne ones. It was the export of ship-based anti-aircraft missile systems, as well as two S-300PMU-1 anti-aircraft missile systems for Vietnam, that provided the bulk of the revenue of airborne aircraft.
The air defense concern, with a large number of its member enterprises and a wide range of products, is already called an analogue of the largest Western companies Raytheon and Thales. True, critics of CAST note that the inclusion of Almaz-Antey in the rating is not entirely legitimate: the concern’s indicators would be more correct to compare, for example, with the total revenue of companies that will eventually be included in the United Aircraft Manufacturing Company (UAC). The second criticism of critics concerns approaches to calculating the revenue of enterprises. The amounts of some were calculated by CAST analysts according to Russian criteria, while others were calculated according to global ones. Hence, for example, AHC Sukhoi undeservedly ended up in seventh place. According to other estimates, Sukhoi Holding Company entered the top five companies due to the supply of spare parts and R&D.
In second place is the Irkut Corporation, which transferred eight kits to India for licensed production of the Su-30MKI and began production of airframes for the same aircraft. The third and fourth positions belong to the Admiralty Shipyards and Sevmashpredpriyatie.
The total revenue of the defense industry companies included in the top twenty is 269.5 billion rubles, or 9.5 billion dollars. Let us recall that in the previous year, 2004, this figure was 244.7 billion rubles. It turns out that the growth of nominal incomes is close to the inflation rate. That is, according to CAST, we are talking about “stabilizing real revenue indicators.” Although, it must be admitted, the dynamics cited by the center’s analysts do not coincide with official statistics characterizing the expenditures of the state defense order and export volumes.
The new ranking trends are interesting. For the first time, it has been recorded that the financial performance of the top twenty companies is influenced by the state defense order. Products sent to the domestic market increased from 32% in 2004 to 38% last year. This trend is especially noticeable in the activities of the Almaz-Antey air defense concern, Sukhoi Holding Company and the Tactical Missile Weapons Corporation. It is natural that these companies are conducting large-scale research and development work on new generation weapons systems. This refers to the promising front-line aviation complex (PAK FA) and the Su-27SM2 at Sukhoi, the S-400 anti-aircraft missile system at Almaz-Antey).
The year 2005 became a “maritime” year for the first time – there was a sharp increase in the performance of companies in the shipbuilding sector. And this is the second trend. The total sales volume of shipbuilders increased from 28.5 billion rubles. up to 59.5 billion. This is partly explained by the sale to China of six Project 636 diesel-electric submarines and a Project 956EM destroyer. Sales of aircraft manufacturing companies, on the contrary, fell sharply: from 72.2 billion rubles. up to 50.4. Again, partly due to the lack of supplies for export of commercial quantities of heavy fighters of the Su-30 family. Even helicopter makers' revenues, while up after falling in 2004, fell short of 2003's record highs. Nevertheless, the aviation industry remains the main source of sales for the Russian defense industry: 40.6% of the total revenue of the twenty comes from the aviation trinity - Sukhoi Holding Company, Irkut Research and Production Company and RSK MiG. These should also include helicopter pilots with their 6.5% of total top revenue. The increase in sales volumes of defense enterprises included in the top twenty continued, albeit at a significantly slower pace.
Among previous trends, CAST analysts note the continued export orientation of the top 20 companies. About 60% of their sales, despite the increase in state defense orders, remain exported. The diversification of enterprises, whose share of civilian production is very small, remains low. In particular, in aircraft manufacturing companies this share does not exceed 7%. This circumstance indicates, first of all, that Russia does not have a competitive product in the civil aircraft industry. An encouraging trend is observed only among engine and instrument engineers, among whom the compilers of the OPK rating single out the Aerospace Equipment company. Nevertheless, in general, the conversion of defense industry enterprises is proceeding very slowly.
CAST also gives a forecast for 2006: aircraft manufacturing companies will restore their dominant positions - due to Indian and Algerian contracts, Irkut will remain the leader in revenue (up to $1 billion). Nikolay POROSKOV |
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