Failure because of consumption

The state program for development of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex till 2017 is to be created by the end of the current year. This is what the deputy director general of the state concern Ukroboronprom Tetiana Khrypko informed the journalists about last Monday. The development of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine should be based on advanced scientific achievements in this sector and technological renovation of the enterprises of the military-industrial complex – this opinion is unanimously shared by the experts. However, the current practice seems not to consider it. The other day the head of the section of applied problems at the presidium of the National Ukrainian Academy of Sciences Oleksandr Sotnikov informed that, as a result of the systematic underfunding of industry scientific and research and construction works in the military-industrial complex, “the scientific developments are a complete failure” and the previously created resource is coming up to the end. He also reported that, according to some estimates, 80 percent of the main funds of the military-industrial complex are worn-out.

In the scientist’s opinion, the main tasks of the development of the military-industrial complex are assuring the advanced pace of the scientific developments of the industry scientific and research and construction works, renovation of the main funds of the military-industrial complex and technological modernization of its enterprises. According to Sotnikov, the National Ukrainian Academy of Sciences is currently creating a unified data base reflecting the needs of the military-industrial complex for scientific researches, however, he opines that this work should be based on a complex and systematic state support. The current order placement system in the military-industrial complex also needs to be improved. In Sotnikov’s opinion, it is too bulky and bureaucratized and the responsibility for executing state orders lies on head constructors and general directors of the military-industrial enterprises.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine the developments in the military-industrial complex are still thought to contribute to the economic development of the country. “They are the engine of the economy and society in general: industry, fundamental and applied science, education and engineering. The question is of the intellectual level of the country and its competitiveness in the world,” head of the parliamentary committee for national security and defense Anatolii Hrytsenko assured. “Space and aviation, shipbuilding and precision mechanics, aerohydrodynamics, sighting and navigation devices, location and acoustics, control, guidance and communication systems, microelectronics and computer engineering, special chemistry and material science, ergonomics and microbiology, medical technologies and nuclear energy,” he numbered the “advanced directions” that used to be developed in defense laboratories and then given to the civil sector.

However, we should not forget that the achievements of the industrial-military complex gave a real stir to the economic development only on condition of the sufficient funding. The Soviet Union could afford such expenses but Ukraine cannot. The domestic science and the military enterprises have been having hard times for ages, constantly feeling the lack of money. The state budget for 2012 provides that the Ministry of Defense will get 17.4 billion hryvnias. As compared to the budget of 2011 (13.7 billion), the tendency is positive. However, according to the observations of the director for military programs at the Razumkov Center Mykola Sunhurovsky, usually the military forces do not get more than a third of their budget at the end of a year.

Meanwhile, the leading countries spend at least 30 percent of their military expenses to buy new examples of arms and military machines, scientific and research and construction works. All over the last years Ukraine used to spend about 7 to 10 percent of the military budget. This year 510 million hryvnias have been assigned (about 411 million in 2011). “In the nearest years we will try to have the military funding of 1.49 to 1.55 percent of GDP, as required by the Ukrainian president,” Mykhailo Yezhel, the then minister of defense assured at the end of the last year.

Director of the Center for Army Conversion and Disarmament Studies Valentyn Badrak believes that the domestic military-industrial complex is not being invested in because all of its projects are long-term. The return of such investments is not likely to come to the civil branches of economy very soon. Moreover, businesses in our country have got used not to plan their activity for a period longer than five years, until the power changes. If, by miracle, the Ukrainian authorities provide the military-industrial complex with decent funding, we should not hope that it will lead to an economic breakthrough. With all due respect to Sotnikov’s opinion, even the world-known Ukrainian scientific and research and construction teams have lost a lot of their staff. The same goes for scientific and research institutes who are supposed to create the resource for the military-industrial complex. Today the rests of the Ukrainian developers of military machines are improving the systems created in the USSR.

However, even in such conditions military enterprises supply innovations to the civil sector. Most of them are directed to the space sector. For example, Pivdenny Machine Building Plant in Dnipropetrovsk is working to make the intercontinental missile SS-18 to be used for urgent delivery of the survival equipment to any place of the Earth. On request of the Ministry of Defense the state enterprise Kharkiv Armor Repair Plant has created a fire tank GPM-64 with a remote control based on the tank T-64.

To make the stir for economy more intensive the funding of scientific and research activity has to be significantly increased and the expenses on consumption have to be diminished. In the world to maintain the personnel not more than 50 percent of the whole military budget is spent. In 2012 86 percent of the Ukrainian military budget is assigned for this. Is it possible to maintain the defensive capacity in such conditions? The state program of development of the Ukrainian industrial-military complex till 2017 could resolve this problem. However, it does not exist even on paper yet. The only positive thing is that, according to Tetiana Khrypko, this document will be created not only by the Ministry of Defense and Ukroboronprom, but also by profile scientific organizations.