Translated material
Trojan "bug"
The army and navy are promised new control and communication systems
The curator of the Russian military-industrial complex, First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, having built a system of holdings in the aviation and shipbuilding industries, began to work on control and communications systems for the armed forces. Actually, it is these systems, on which the effectiveness of the use of any weapon directly depends, that primarily influence the military security of the state and strategic stability in the world. The problem of communications equipment for the armed forces could not be completely resolved even in the extremely militarized Soviet Union.“As part of the state armament program for 2007-2015, we have planned to re-equip formations and units of the army and navy with new control systems,” Sergei Ivanov said on Wednesday at a meeting of the Military-Industrial Commission under the Russian government, held at the Research Institute automatic equipment (NII AP) named after V.S. Semenikhin. This company is engaged in the development of communication and command and control systems. In particular, systems were created there to manage divisions and brigades of air defense systems, control the Senezh and Rubezh troops, as well as a system that tracks the location of the Horizon transport.
According to Mr. Ivanov, the problem of command and control in the troops became clear in 2002, although, according to experts in this field, the problem has always existed, even in the best Soviet times for the army. Nevertheless, it was in 2002 that the military department came to the conclusion that it was necessary to modernize control and communications systems down to the tactical level, that is, to the battalion-company-platoon level. Active re-equipment of such systems is already underway. There is simply no other option - this is an area where it is impossible to use foreign equipment, because every microcircuit and every microchip can contain a “bug” or “bug” - a tiny device, stylized as an element of a microcircuit, which will then be successfully downloaded confidential information. Our military got burned by this back in the perestroika years, when they accepted foreign computers as gifts.
The stable global trend is that the role of information support in the preparation of military operations and their conduct will only increase. As a result of the development of information technology, information itself has turned into a type of weapon, and a very effective one at that. This weapon, admits Sergei Ivanov, makes it possible to conduct combat operations in any theater of military operations and without the use of actual military force. Suffice it to recall the fighting in Yugoslavia and especially in Iraq, where the attacking side, with the help of high-precision weapons, disabled the enemy’s information means, while preserving its own. Superiority in management tools and information support allowed us to achieve superiority.
The state armament program for 2007-2015 provides for a significant amount of research and development work in the field of automation and communications. The combat capabilities of troop groups and the effective use of weapons and military equipment largely depend on their equipment. “In order not to end up with nothing in the future, today we must take all the necessary steps for the development, and if necessary (it already arises), the development of new information systems for various purposes,” summed up the First Deputy Prime Minister. There are plenty of obstacles to a good undertaking. The main thing is the disunity of efforts between customers and performers. There is no coordination of work in the production of automated control systems for troops and weapons - each branch of the military and branch of the armed forces “sculpts” its own automated control systems.
At the meeting of the military-industrial complex, the discussion was about creating “acceptable and effective mechanisms for coordinating the efforts of participants in the process of creating promising automated control systems.” It is already clear today that a structural restructuring of enterprises involved in the production of automated control systems will be required. It’s good if you can do it quickly and painlessly. Sergei Ivanov did not focus attention on another, very painful for the Russian defense-industrial complex, problem - the element base. Without its radical renewal, no R&D will produce results. As the Military-Industrial Commission explained to Vremya Novostey, this is a separate topic; it has already been considered, and not only in relation to automated control systems, but in general to the defense industry.
At the Semenikhin AP Research Institute, Sergei Ivanov was shown samples of not only military, but also civilian products of the enterprise. For example, an information processing center for medical laboratory research, which has already been installed in an oncology center in Moscow. The Institute has also developed a “telemedicine” system that allows doctors in the provinces to receive real-time consultations from recognized metropolitan specialists.
At the meeting of the military-industrial complex, issues of consolidation of defense enterprises producing automated control systems were also discussed. It is likely that in the near future we should expect the creation of another holding structure in the Russian defense-industrial complex. However, the forecasts here may turn out to be just as wrong as in the just completed history of the creation of vertically integrated structures in the aircraft engine industry.