Russian Control Systems Agency

The Control Systems Agency combined the functions of three former ministries: the Ministry of Radio Engineering, the Ministry of the Electronic Industry, and the Ministry for the Manufacture of Communications Equipment. Altogether it comprised a total of more than 700 enterprises. The task of the Agency was to create the technological base for the output of radio electronic products. The quality of the output during the early 1990s was subjected to severe criticism. It was said to be impossible to buy a normal transistor in Russia except at the Mitinsky Market.

The Russian Control Systems Agency was based on the reality that without microelectronics would be no development of the national economy. The Commission for Industry discussed, in particular, the question of recreating the microelectronic and technological base of the country. It was reported that it would launch a silicon plant at the end of 1999.

Restructuring became a formidable task that required enterprises to be capable of fulfilling government defense contracts and exporting their output. It was not easy to create integrated industrial structures, which contained various forms of design. There were some examples of structures that performed well, such as Fazotron, a 100-percent privately owned enterprise.

On 22 October 1999 the Federal Control Systems Agency was officially formed. All the Agency's structural departments had been established and started working. Among them were departments of the state defense order, economy, finances, promotion of military and technical cooperation, and also included the state of prices, marketing and property. The Agency's General Director was Vladimir Simonov. The first session of the Agency's board, which was attended by Russian Vice Premier Ilya Klebanov, defined the redemption of debt to defense enterprises, and providing arms and military equipment to national bodies as the most important tasks.

On 28 December 1999 the Russian Government passed the provision on Russian Control Systems Agency. Regulation #1430 was signed by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Under that provision, Russian Control System[s] Agency became a federal body of the executive power branch that implemented control and regulation. In addition, it was responsible for other aspects of radio electronics and control systems, which included research, development, manufacturing, updating and utilizing special control systems and electronic complexes, the systems of missile defense, the warning of missile attacks, and control over space. The Agency conducted the state enterprises of radio electronic industry.

The agency's more than 700 plants produced radio electronic hardware for equipping the Russian power structures, for export, the fuel and energy sector, transportation, medicine, construction, communication, television and other areas of human activity. In 2001 no fewer than 7,000 new specimens were born: from up-to-date radars to medical instruments and microcircuits. The volume of industrial production rose by 5.6 percent, and the output of scientific-technical products by 13 percent. Significantly, government defense contracts increased by more than a quarter, compared to the year 2000.

As to the holdings, by mid-2002 the agency had ten large integrated structures in place, incorporating about 200 enterprises. Based on an analysis of their activities and with consideration of the big analytical work of all the agencies it has been determined which structures ought to be created and within what time. The Agency made plans to set up another seventeen integrated structures. Already eight draft presidential decrees and appropriate governmental decisions have been prepared, they had been cleared with all the agencies appraising the effectiveness of the future integrated structures, and their approval will begin in the first quarter. But it is one thing to create holdings on paper, and quite another matter - in real life. There were the plans of action, the business plans, and together with the working groups for creating the holdings, the Agency was painstakingly carrying them out with due regard, of course, for the considerable work of the government and the State Duma on making more precise a significant number of legislative acts.

Determinant was and still remains military equipment - weapon systems and complexes for the Defense Ministry, MVD, other power structures and foreign customers. In recent years the state arms exporter Rosoboronexport became the largest customer, with it a considerable program of sales is scheduled. In 2001 contractors underfulfilled it for a number of objective reasons. But in 2002 it was predicated that it would confidently overfulfil the program what with the available contracts entered into or prepared for signing. Contracts were ready for the delivery of military and civil use locators, antiaircraft missile complexes, radio electronic equipment for aircraft, electronic warfare and reconnaissance systems, and other items. Together with them for the first time they were entering markets with offers of control systems and closed-circuit communication systems of the Akveduk type.

The presidential decree allowing enterprises to independently engage in services and the delivery of spare parts for earlier sold equipment, and the subsequent clarification of the regulatory base enable them within time limits acceptable throughout the world (days, not months) to provide weapons-and-military-equipment servicing. A number of enterprises were receiving the right. They are all from among the leading ones in the integrated structures to be newly organized. This is a new item of export, both in its own right and jointly with Rosoboronexport, within which an organization called Promzapchast (Industrial Spare Parts) has been created. We will aim, as in world practice, to achieve in sales of spare parts the sales volume of the main products.

The agency has cleared with all ministries its proposals for the development of the electronic component base of the country. If the President approves them, this year we will come up with a program to revive in the country electronics at the contemporary level according to priorities and special tasks in the field of arms, for the preservation and, most importantly, development of the scientific potential in electronics. The priority of government support is to be directed and concentrated from developers of new integral circuits, materials and technologies. One plant for the production of microcircuits costs 2 billion dollars. No one in the country can invest those monies in the coming years. Neither will they be provided for in the state budget. But we are confident that from 2006 on, such plants have to be established on the basis of the developments to come from the scientific centers being set up in 2002-2005, with consideration of the demand of Russia and its market for new high tech products.

And in general, the agency is participating in six federal target programs and four interstate ones. As they are fulfilled, the agency planned to raise the output of civilian products by 17-20 percent each year, a feasible target in the last few years, and that is bound to amount to more than 60 percent of the total sales by the agency's enterprises.

Federal objective programs (FOP) are considered to be an instrument of forming Russia's new quality in electronic world of the XXI century. These are important long-term state programs upon which the future of Russia depends greatly.

FOP 'Electronic Russia for 2002-2010' (the decision on development made by the instruction of the Government of the Russian Federation of 13 February 2001). The program's customers are Ministries of Economic Development, Communications, Education, Industry and Science of the Russian Federation, the Russian Aviation and Space Agency, RCSA and FAPSI (Federal Agency of Governmental Communications).

The program's principal objective is the creation of conditions for development of effective and balanced economy in the Russian Federation, oriented at internal consumption and export of information technologies and services and based on principles of: clear division of responsibility spheres and principles of activities between economy and the state, maximum use of intellectual and cadre potential, harmonic entry into the world's post-industrial economy on the basis of cooperation and information openness, overcoming of information inequality and reaching equal in rights entry of Russian citizens into global information society on the basis of observance of human rights, including the right to free access to information, right to personal information protection and obligation on the part of state, public and commercial organizations to reveal information.

To achieve these aims the solution of the following problems is foreseen:

• to form an effective liberal normative-legal basis of information and communicative technologies, which is based upon direct action laws;
• to provide the efficiency of the state control bodies communications at both internal and interagency levels as well as with managing subjects and citizens on the basis of using modern information technologies;
• to provide conditions for increasing the efficiency and scale of using information technologies in the country's economy;
• to provide increasing of the personnel training and retraining level by means of the education system's modernization on the basis of information technologies in concert with ongoing reform of education;
• to realize pilot projects on creating technopark (technopolices) in Russian regions and on property support of activities of small and medium enterprises engaged in the introduction of new information technologies.

The priority directions of the domestic electronics' development are designated as microelectronics, SHF-electronics, nanoelectronics, micromechanics, quantum electronics, acoustoelectronics, optoelectronics on semiconductor nanoheterostructures basis, science of electronics materials.

FOP 'National technological base' for the period of 2002-2006 Principal goals:

• Preservation and further development of the national technological base capable of providing the development and production of competitive science-capacious products in the interests of reaching the priority objectives of providing the country's social-economic development and national security;
• Development of new technological structure of the domestic economy (in concert with the other federal objective programs of scientific-technological and industrial profile);
• Maintaining high competitiveness of Russian products at internal and world markets;
• Development of scientific and technological basis for cardinal change of the export structure and increasing the share of science-capacious end-products in order to get long-term political, strategic and economic advantages.

The technological projects that earlier have been developed within the program's framework in accordance with separate branch FOPs, including such programs as 'Electronics technology development in Russia', 'Development of communications, television and radio broadcasting technical means', as well as in accordance with the drafts of such programs as: 'Computing equipment development', 'Optics and optical instrument building development', 'Cryogen aerospace and other transport equipment development' and a number of other programs, will be realized.

The realization of the 'National technological base' program will provide:

• Development of critical technologies and technological base, development of high-technology science-capacious products of the world class in the field of important technical systems (air, sea and land transports, missile-space and computing equipment, control and communications systems, machine-building, power, including atomic, equipment etc.), providing in general the technological aspects of Russia's economy development and national security, creating preconditions for equal in rights international cooperation in sophisticated technical systems development;
• Development of technological and industrial basis for stable work of the industry's largest enterprises with the general number of working places totaling around 450 thousand and cardinal changing of the export structure in favor of science-capacious products with increasing its share by 2-3 times.

FOP 'Reforming and development of defense-industrial complex' (2002-2006) Principal goals are forming of a new image of the defense-industrial complex by means of its reformation in accordance with the objectives of military building and taking into consideration the basic parameters of The State Armaments Program for 2001-2010, prognosis evaluations of military-technical cooperation and the need to maintain at the required level the mobilization capacities, as well as creating conditions for stable development of the defense-industrial complex, development and production of competitive at internal and external markets high technology military and civilian purpose products.

Main objectives:

• Creation of conditions for ensuring the stable development of the defense-industrial complex, development and production of competitive at internal and external markets high technology military and civilian purpose products;
• Development of the necessary normative-legal basis, outlining the issues of the defense-industrial complex reformation and establishing system-forming integrated structures;
• Optimization of the defense-industrial complex's composition and structure by means of concentrating defense production at the limited number of system-making scientific-production complexes controlled by the state;
• Preservation of scientific-technological potential of the defense-industrial complex and creating preconditions for its stable development; Optimization of the state participation's share in the defense-industrial complex organizations' capital;
• Conjugation of state defense order's resources, capabilities of military-technological cooperation, utilization of capabilities of dual-use technologies for forming of scientific-technological base on development of prospective technologies and military and civilian purpose product models.
• Diversification of production in order to increase production volumes of high technology civilian purpose products;
• Realization of the state social guarantees provided to the defense-industrial complex's employees in connection with the complex structural reformation, including carrying out the activities on personnel retraining and ensuring employment of highly skilled specialists.

FOP 'Global navigational system' (2002 - 2011) Principle objectives are the further development and effective use of the global navigational satellite system GLONASS in the interests of the country's social-economic development and ensuring its national security; preserving the leading positions of Russia in the field of satellite navigation by means of guaranteed providing of navigational signals to domestic and foreign customers. The Russian Control Systems Agency's principal objectives within the program's framework is the development and manufacturing of competitive domestic navigation equipment meeting the international standards requirements and creating conditions for its introduction at the Russian market.

FOP 'Information-telecommunications system' (2001-2007) Principle goal is the establishment and development of the special purpose controlling information-telecommunications system (ITCS) in the interests of state executive bodies. The ITCS, being a technological basis of the Russian Federation control, makes it it's aim to provide information support of the state bodies of all levels decision-making processes, including operational and efficient control of economic reforms in the country.

Following the termination of the Mikhail Kasyanov government on February 24, 2004, President Putin restructured the country's defense agencies. The Conventional Weapons Agency, Shipbuilding Agency (Rossudostroyenie), and Control Systems Agency were all disbanded. Their functions and responsibilities were transferred to the Ministry of Industry and Energy under the authority of the Federal Industry Agency (FAP).