Military-industrial complex, enterprises in Russia: placement features and description

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

All military-industrial complex enterprises together make up a complex system that ensures the defense capability of a huge country. The complex includes all institutions, organizations and industries involved in various stages of the production of final products - from the development and extraction of special raw materials to the assembly of equipment and machines.

Russian military-industrial complex enterprises after the USSR

The country inherited from the USSR a huge military-industrial complex, including hundreds of manufacturing enterprises and research institutes. Taking into account family members, almost every tenth citizen of the Russian Federation was associated with military-industrial complex enterprises until recently. However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the most important task facing the complex was conversion.

For more than two decades, military-industrial complex enterprises have tried with all their might to retrain for the production of civilian products, but only a few have succeeded. Many enterprises were closed, some began to produce dual-use products, and some were able to successfullyovercome the protracted crisis and reach a new level of development and production of military products.

Geographical features of the complex

The system of military-industrial complex enterprises that has developed in the Union has covered all the major cities of the country. This made it possible to include defense enterprises and special closed research institutes in the production chain of civilian products.

However, there was one feature in the Soviet military-industrial complex - closed cities, which appeared as a result of the government's obsession with secrecy. Such cities tend to specialize in the production or development of one type of defense product.

Closed formations of the Chelyabinsk region, formed around nuclear industry enterprises, can serve as vivid examples of such cities. The production association "Mayak", located in the city of Ozersk, specializes in the production of weapons-grade plutonium. In the same area, but in the city formation of Trekhgorny, there is an instrument-making plant specializing in the construction of atomic bombs. The special access regime in these cities continues to be maintained even after the collapse of the USSR.

Principle of placement

An important feature of the placement of military-industrial complex enterprises is that many of them duplicate each other. This legacy of the Soviet Union was formed due to the need to launch the production of the necessary products in case the enemy destroyed the main enterprise. However, in modern conditions, such duplication has become redundant and has led toadditional costs in the restructuring of the entire defense complex.

In addition to the principle of duplication, the principle of security is also important, according to which enterprises were located at the maximum distance from state borders. Hence the choice of the Urals and Siberia as important centers for the location of military-industrial complex enterprises.

The third factor in choosing the location of important enterprises were international treaties, according to which Russia has the right to build missile defense around Moscow. It was the ability to ensure the security of strategic institutions that led to the creation of a large number of military-industrial complex enterprises in Moscow. Most enterprises in Moscow and the region are engaged in the development of high-tech systems and complexes, whether it be electronics and automation, optics and control systems.

Aviation industry on the map of Russia

The space industry and aircraft industry have been the basis of the country's defense capability, its prestige and competitiveness with other world powers for many decades.

This industry requires a large number of highly qualified personnel interested in high wages and a decent quality of life. Consequently, the vast majority of aircraft manufacturing enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex are concentrated in large cities - scientific and educational centers.

The main composition of research enterprises engaged in the development of aviation technology is located in the Moscow region, and the Volga region is famous for its production facilities,operating in Samara and Nizhny Novgorod. The world-famous Black Shark helicopter is produced in the Primorsky Territory, in the city of Arseniev, where a large helicopter plant has been located for many decades.

Spaceports and Mission Control

As for the enterprises of the space industry, the most important of them is the Baikonur Cosmodrome, located in Kazakhstan. Russia uses it on a lease basis. The way military-industrial complex enterprises are located on the territory of Russia is due to the legacy of the Soviet era, that is, in fact, it is a consequence of the cold war between the two political systems.

The control center for all space flights with human participation is located in Korolev, near Moscow. However, there are two cosmodromes on the territory of the country, the most important of which today is Plesetsk.

Fuel and chemical industry

Efficiency and combat effectiveness of the army is unthinkable without a stable supply of consumables, ammunition and fuel. To meet these army needs, numerous enterprises have been created to ensure the production of fuels and lubricants.

It is in this segment that the defense complex is as close as possible to the enterprises of conventional industry, since engine fuel and lubricants are in great demand in everyday life.

However, for the production of rocket fuel, which is required in large quantities for both the space industry and the missile forces, specialenterprises. Throughout the 1990s, important elements of rocket fuel were purchased in Germany, but in 2016 a new enterprise was built in the Nizhny Novgorod region, specializing in the production of hydrazine. Thus, the list of military-industrial complex enterprises has been replenished with another strategically important production.

List of defense enterprises

The most important companies that ensure the security of Russia are: Rostec, Oboronprom, Uralvagonzavod, Izhevsk Machine-Building Plant, Motovilikha Plants, Nizhny Novgorod Machine-Building Plant.

Concerns such as Sukhoi, Almaz-Antey, and Severnaya Verf are widely known even among people who have nothing to do with the defense industry.

Summarizing, it is worth saying that the geography of military-industrial complex enterprises is extremely wide and includes almost all major cities of the country, as well as numerous closed urban formations. In addition, the enterprises of the defense complex include various research institutes, ammunition factories and fuel complexes. Numerous enterprises have dual-use status.

Thus, the way the military-industrial complex enterprises are located on the territory of Russia is determined not only by geography or economic and logistical feasibility, but also by the historical context of the Cold War.