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VNIIRT - All-Russian Research Institute of Radio Engineering

The All-Russian Research Institute of Radio Engineering is one of the oldest defense research enterprises. On November 6, 2002 the Institute became an Open Joint-Stock Company (VNIIRT OJSC) as part of Almaz-Antei Concern JSC. On October 27, 1908, the State Duma recommended the construction of the Scientific and Technical Laboratory of the Military Department. By the beginning of the Great War, the Central Scientific and Technical Laboratory of the Military Department was already functioning, transformed in 1920 into the State Scientific and Technical Institute, on the basis of which the Special Technical Bureau, the predecessor of VNIIRT JSC, was established in 1921.

In the pre-war years, the first domestic models of radio control equipment of various equipment (boats, tanks, airplanes, submarines) were created over long distances. For the first time in the country, works on quartz frequency stabilization of radio devices were carried out, devices for controlling explosive bombs were developed, metal detectors were created to search for sunken ships and submarines, an electromagnetic trawl, radio devices and radio links for VHF communications and telemechanics. The newest types of powerful air bombs, aircraft scopes, and aids for the transportation of heavy weapons by air were developed. The first domestic serial models of ground-based, airborne and sea-based radar stations, created by the Institute, have found wide application in wartime.

During the years of the Great Patriotic War, the Institute was practically the only enterprise in the USSR that developed and supplied to the troops: ground-based, airborne and sea-based radars; automatic, fast, direct-printing, noise-resistant communications; means of radio navigation; portable radio special purpose; automation systems control aircraft, ship and tank weapons; sights for bombing; devices for controlling explosions of land mines at different distances.

In the postwar years, the Institute carried out a large amount of work on radar bomb mounts and homing heads. For the first time in domestic radar, centimeter and decimeter wavelengths are being mastered, coherent radars, three-coordinate radars, radio altimeters, radar with active phased array, solid-state automated radar stations are being created.

Since its foundation, the Institute has developed and together with factories delivered to the troops and abroad over 17,000 radars, more than 120 types of radar stations, many of which are mastered in mass production and have found application in our country and abroad. 21 development of the Institute was awarded State Prizes.

The main areas of scientific, technical and production activities of the Institute are:

• performance of works determined by the state defense order and the state armament program in terms of conducting scientific research, developing, producing prototypes and participating in the mass production of radar detection, guidance and target designation of interspecific use;
• comprehensive studies on the problems of creating a system of reconnaissance and warning of an aerospace attack and building a global information and control field in the interests of implementing the concept of aerospace defense of the Russian Federation;
• research on the problems of radar detection, development and participation in the mass production of radar detection, guidance and target designation, secondary radars for the Air Force, SV and Navy, as well as radar protection equipment against anti-radar missiles and high-precision weapons;
• research, including experimental work in ensuring the creation of all components of the radar, including unified antennas, transmitters and receivers, signal processing and information devices, as well as information display and transmission devices;
• performance of work on the supply of radar equipment to foreign customers.

On October 27, 1908, the State Duma recommended the construction of the Scientific and Technical Laboratory of the Military Department. Already by the beginning of the First World War, the Central Scientific and Technical Laboratory of the Military Department functioned, transformed in 1920 into the State Scientific and Technical Institute, on the basis of which the Special Technical Bureau was established on August 9, 1921, this is the official date of the All-Russian Research Institute of Radio Engineering. However, the roots of its formation are much deeper and go back to the pre-revolutionary period.

On August 9, 1921, the Special Technical Bureau for Special Purpose Inventions (Ostechbureau) was established by a Resolution of the Labor and Defense Council of the Supreme Council of the National Economy (STO VSNH) of the RSFSR. Vladimir Ivanovich Bekauri, a talented inventor, was appointed head of the Ostechbyuro. The largest specialists in relevant fields of science and technology took part in the development and development of Ostechbureau. One of the most active was a prominent scientist of the time in the field of electrical engineering and physics - Professor of the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute. M.I. Kalinina - Vladimir Fedorovich Mitkevich (later - academician).

From 1921 to 1929, Ostebbyuro consisted of three main scientific and technical departments that were engaged in the development of naval, aircraft, and radio-and-mechanical weapons for the army and navy. The department of naval armament improved and created new types of mine-torpedo and mine armament.

The department of aircraft armament developed the newest types of powerful air bombs, aircraft optical sights, electric bomb spreaders, and means for transporting heavy ground weapons (artillery, tanks, radio stations, etc.). The Department of Radio-Mechanical Weapons developed various means of controlling combat facilities at a distance of up to several thousand kilometers, special radio communications equipment for the army and navy.

In 1930, new departments appeared in the structure of Ostechburo. Departments were engaged in the development of mechanisms, devices and instruments for controlling ships, torpedo building, mine and aircraft weapons, radio communications and telemechanics. At the same time, there were laboratories for telefunges, land telemechanics, engineering telemechanics, selection, cipher equipment, pulse radio communications, aircraft automation and armament, and radio laboratories. Research and development work was carried out to create a new mine-torpedo weapon, rail caravan weapons and radio-remote control equipment for the Navy, weapons for Air Force aircraft, special equipment for communications troops and engineering troops. By this time, Ostekhbyuro had become a large research and development and design organization with specialized departments, laboratories and design offices, with a good production and experimental base, workshops, factories, watercrafts (ships and boats), an airfield and aircraft.

On September 5, 1939, the Institute received the status of the Central Institute of Aviation Telemechanics, Automation and Communication of the People's Commissariat of the Aviation Industry. In this capacity, the Institute conducts the development of:

• aviation and automated radio communications equipment;
• aerodrome and aircraft radio equipment for blind landing, radio range finders and radio altimeters;
• aircraft radio navigation equipment and equipment for communication with radio beacons;
• equipment for detecting airplanes by radio;
• radio lines, including direct printing, etc.

A new direction in the subject of the Institute was radar weapons. On April 2, 1939, by order of the Defense Committee of the USSR SNK, the Institute was commissioned to develop and manufacture two prototypes of the Redut-40 long-range reconnaissance radio range meter - the first Russian radar airspace control. On July 26, 1940, by order of the People's Commissar of Defense, the Redut-40 unit was adopted by the units of the air surveillance, warning and communication service, called RUS-2 (aircraft radio trap).

The first installation of the RUS-2 in the Moscow air defense zone was deployed in July 1941, near the city of Mozhaisk. Calculation of the installation of the RUS-2 took part in the reflection of the first mass air raid of German aircraft on Moscow on the night of July 22, 1941. The radar control station of the airspace of the RUS-2 timely detected a raid of more than 200 enemy bombers and allowed our aircraft to be raised in advance and bring anti-aircraft artillery into increased readiness. Thanks to the effective actions of the 1st Air Defense Corps and the 6th Fighter Aviation Corps, German aviation, which ruined many European cities, could not cause significant damage to the capital.

In the period of the fascist offensive on Moscow, the combat crews of the VNOS of a separate radio-technical battalion, having up to 10 radar RUS-2 and RUS-2C, uninterruptedly supplied the air defense command of Moscow and the Ground Forces command with air data, ensuring Moscow and Moscow suburbs. The German command had intelligence information about equipping the troops of the Moscow corps air defense area with radar stations, as evidenced by the trophy map of the organization of the air defense of Moscow given below. With the arrival of the first Russian radar RUS-2 and RUS-2S in the troops, the experience of defending Moscow’s air defense began to spread to the air defense troops of other major industrial and administrative centers, such as Leningrad, Novorossiysk and Sevastopol. So, in the defense of Leningrad during October - November 1942. by stations RUS-2 and RUS-2C, 7900 enemy aircraft were detected, of which 2020 were destroyed. These stations were also successfully used in the Navy and the Air Force.

In 1940, the Redut-K shipborne radar, installed in April 1941 on the Black Sea Fleet on the Molotov cruiser, was developed and manufactured by the Institute and participated in hostilities in the Sevastopol area and then in the Tuapse and Poti regions.

An important milestone in the development of the Institute was the creation of the station for detecting enemy flights and targeting the fighter aircraft of the P-3 radar, the first Russian Gneiss-2 aircraft radar. The Gneiss-2 radar detected enemy planes at ranges of 4-5 km not only in front of the aircraft, but also to the right and to the left of the aircraft. Thus, the radar "Gneiss-2" has significantly increased the combat capabilities of our aircraft and marked the beginning of the creation of aircraft radar patrol and guidance. The station was installed on transport aircraft Li-2, Pe-2, Pe-3 bombers and fighters. The Institute has manufactured 15 sets of Gneiss-2 radars. These aircraft received their first combat use at the end of 1942 near Moscow and then near Leningrad. In July 1943, the Gneiss-2 radar was put into service.

In 1943, the Gneiss-2M radar was created, allowing to search and detect both air targets and surface ships. During World War II, Gneiss-5, Gneiss-5C and Gneiss-5M airborne radar systems were developed and manufactured with increased detection range and attack accuracy, a wider viewing angle in the vertical plane. During the war years, the Institute and factories manufactured and sent to the front more than 700 radar stations. On January 21, 1944, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Institute (NII-20) of the People's Commissariat for Industry was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor for completing the special task of the Government, successfully developing samples of new equipment, their development and production.

In the post-war years, NII-20 (then State All-Union Research Institute No. 244 (NII-244), Yauzsky Radio Engineering Institute) was transformed into the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Radio Engineering (VNIIRT), which in the USSR was the head enterprise for the development of radar weapons. The Institute initiates the creation and contributes to the formation of new research institutes, design bureaus and factories in the industry.

In the period from 1947 to 1970, along with the further development of the meter range radar, the Institute creates new domestic samples of the centimeter and decimeter range of radio waves, coherent radar for detecting targets against a background of reflections from the earth (water) surface, radar altimeters, homing heads, ground-based radar interrogators to determine the nationality of targets, radio broadcasting lines.

The period 1971-1980 characterized by the transition to a new technology and the development of several areas of functional electronics:

• ultrasonic delay lines (CRL) on bulk and surface acoustic waves (OAB and surfactant);
• high frequency and microwave converters;
• acousto-optic devices on bulk acoustic waves;
• filters and correlators using the effect of surface acoustic waves and nuclear magnetic resonance;
• creation of digital antenna arrays.

During these years, the development of the country's first multifunctional three-coordinate automated radars for detecting and tracking targets in a difficult jamming environment (Mashuk) was being made; Radar detection of low-altitude targets in conditions of intense reflections from the earth's surface and meteorological formations (ST-68); complex passive location ("Base").

In 1991, the All-Union Research Institute of Radio Engineering was transformed into the All-Russian Research Institute of Radio Engineering (VNIIRT). In the period from 1981 to 1993. The Institute createe a number of mobile automated block-modular unified radars for interspecific use.

Since 1994, the main activities of the Institute are:

• development of mobile radar detection, guidance and target designation with PARs - “Gamma-S1”, which provides detection and tracking of a wide class of modern and future air targets, including aircraft missiles, under the influence of natural and deliberate interference;
• development of new generations of unified block-modular radars for interspecific use, including using program review and energy management in two planes; digital signal and information processing; methods of adaptation to interfering environments; and automated radar operation control.
• creation of passive and multi-position radar systems;
• research and development of methods and tools for semi-natural modeling and imitation radar based on electronic computers and high-performance means of external trajectory measurements using space navigation systems.

A characteristic feature of this stage in the history of the Institute is the all-round desire to expand foreign economic activity and increase its efficiency, strengthen individual structures and departments in order to intensify marketing work and vigorously promote products to the international market.

In modern conditions, the Institute focuses on the development of new generations of unified block-modular radars for interspecific applications, including those using phased arrays with electronic beam control, digital signal and information processing, methods of adaptation to interfering environments, automation of radar control; creation of a radar with a software overview and controlled energy in two planes, passive and multi-position radar systems. The Institute’s measuring, antenna and test sites with developed infrastructure continue to be improved. In the period 2002-2010, development and serial production of radar stations for various types of troops was organized.