KP SPB Arsenal

Arsenal (formerly Central Arsenal Central Design Bureau) is a leading developer and manufacturer of optical and optoelectronic devices for space, aviation and ground military and civilian equipment in Ukraine. The Arsenal Central Design Bureau was established in 1954 as an independent structural unit of the Arsenal plant, founded in 1764. In 1991, it received the status of a state-owned and then a state-owned enterprise. In 2009, by the decision of the Government of Ukraine, the state-owned enterprise Central Design Bureau Arsenal was renamed the state-owned enterprise of special instrument making Arsenal. KP SPB "Arsenal" is part of the management of the State Space Agency of Ukraine.

KP SPB "Arsenal" develops optical and optoelectronic devices and systems for aerospace complexes, various weapon systems, for measuring and analytical purposes in the industry, in agriculture, medicine, phototechnics. KP Arsenal cooperates with the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, leading enterprises of the aerospace industry and the defense industry of Ukraine and other countries, always open to new challenges and ready to consider proposals for the creation, production, modernization and testing of optoelectronic products for various purposes.

KP SPB "Arsenal" has highly qualified scientific and technical staff, developed design and metrological base, necessary technologies (optical technologies; gyrotechnologies; cryotechnologies; metrology of optical systems), which allow to conduct research, develop and manufacture optoelectronic products with characteristics at the level of the best world models.

The state enterprise of special instrumentation “Arsenal” mastered the production of an improved infrared homing head “IS-90” for air-to-air missiles. This was reported February 2014 by Defense Express Deputy Director KP SPB “Arsenal” Vladislav Fisherman. According to V. Rybak, all types of tests of the GOS were carried out at the enterprise and today its serial production is carried out in the interests of the foreign customer. He also noted that the project is funded according to the schedule prescribed in the contract.

The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the State Space Agency of Ukraine, and foreign enterprises of the optoelectronic, aerospace, and defense industries are regular customers of Arsenal's products. KP SPB "Arsenal" is widely open for business cooperation in the development, placement, integration, modernization, production of optoelectronic devices for various purposes. Products exported in 2019 are devices for aviation equipment and aviation weapons, anti-aircraft missiles, initial orientation systems, inertial navigation systems.

In general, the products developed at the Arsenal Central Design Bureau can be found in almost all parts of the world (Europe, Asia, America, Africa). The geography of exports of products and services of KP SPB "Arsenal" is also wide. Exports were made to the following countries: Europe - Sweden, Poland, the Republic of Belarus; Asia - the People's Republic of China, the Republic of India, the Republic of Indonesia, the Republic of Pakistan, the Republic of Korea, the Republic of Turkey; America - USA; Africa - South Africa.

Basic technologies: • optical; • gyroscopic; • cryogenic. The main directions of research, development and production of KP SPB "Arsenal": • optical devices for space systems of remote sensing of the Earth in different spectral ranges; • spacecraft astro-orientation devices; • devices and systems of initial azimuth orientation of missile, space and artillery complexes; • inertial measuring instruments of navigation systems, including laser gyroscopes and pendulum accelerometers; • aviation aiming systems, collimator indicators, onboard simulators; • helmet targeting and indication systems; • infrared homing warheads for aircraft missiles; • infrared homing warheads; • gyrocompasses and gyrotheodolites; • gyroscopic devices for tanks; • lenses, including for infrared technology, optical elements. From 1750 to 1763, wooden buildings were erected in Pechersk to manufacture and repair the artillery equipment of the Pechersk Fortress, and a small number of full-time military workers were recruited. During the reign of Catherine II , in 1764 [3] the "Regulations on the Kiev arsenal team" was published. This year is considered to be the date of the actual establishment of the Kiev Arsenal, which until 1854 was located in the Lybidsky part, where there were locksmith, wooden and blacksmith workshops . Later, in 1764, a large stone "Arsenal" was built there (opposite the Holy Trinity Abroad of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra), the final construction of which was completed in 1798. Performed by military engineer Meller. In a few decades, new workshops appeared here, including drawing rooms, weapons and ammunition storage facilities, a factory management building and its head office.

By 1854, for the needs of the plant, which was constantly developing according to the project of the commander of the Kyiv Engineering Department, Colonel Engineer Klymenko, the construction of the new Arsenal complex at the intersection of the current Moskovskaya and Mazepa Streets (Arsenalna Square) was completed. In 1855, to ensure foundry production, the first technical water main in the city's history was built with two steam engines with a capacity of 65 horsepower and pumps. Over the next two decades, the plant installed mechanical forging kilns , mechanical hammers, foundry furnaces, more than 140 milling, drilling, turning and planing machines, which allowed to perform complex technical work.

The number of workers is over 600; civilian labor has been introduced since 1868. In 1871, civilian workers were hired at the plant instead of the military. The procurement of materials, as well as the staff of the administration, are the same as in the Bryansk arsenal.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, about 800 people worked here, it was the largest enterprise in the city. The plant had (apart from industrial and administrative buildings) several residential buildings for employees and workers, its own kindergarten, a two-grade school (now Klovsky Lyceum), a library, and a free hospital. The Kyiv Vocational School taught the working professions for the plant. At that time, Arsenal manufactured cannon carriages , shells, and repaired artillery weapons. The plant served the artillery of the Pechersk fortress and fortifications that surrounded the city. Prior to the First World War, the plant was of all-Russian strategic and defensive importance, fulfilling military orders throughout the Empire.

In the winter of 1918, the workers of the plant took part in the January Uprising against the Central Rada. After the establishment of Soviet power, the plant retained its military profile. In addition, in small quantities, and began to produce civilian products: agricultural equipment, tools and household goods for various purposes.

With the start of the war in 1941, the plant with all its equipment and about three thousand specialists was evacuated to the Urals. After the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the plant increased the output of military products. In early July 1941, in connection with the approach of the front line and air raids on Kyiv, the government of the USSR decided to evacuate the Kyiv Arsenal plant. The planning, organization and management of the evacuation of the plant was carried out by the director of the plant G.P. Shardin and the senior engineer of the GAU of the USSR People's Commissariat of Armaments P.I. July 29 - August 14, 1941 the plant was evacuated to the east, to the city of BalashovSaratov region - 36 echelons (1100 wagons) were used to move all factory equipment and 2500 workers, engineering and technical workers and employees of the plant. At the new location, the first section of the plant's machine assembly shop began work three days after the installation of the equipment.

Since 1946, the enterprise has been re-profiled into the production of optical, opto-mechanical and opto-electronic devices, mainly for the needs of the military industry.

After the war, Arsenal received equipment from the plant of the well-known company Carl Zeiss Jena (manufacturer of photographic equipment and optical devices), exported from Germany for reparations , and interns and industry experts also arrived. This determined the further profile of production. Since 1946, the plant has refocused on the production of optical, opto-mechanical and opto-electronic devices for military use. Arsenal became a regime enterprise of the military-industrial complex of the USSR. In 1954, the Arsenal Central Design Bureau was established as an independent structural unit of the plant.

All space launches of the former USSR and Russia are provided with the use of optoelectronic guidance systems produced by Arsenal. A significant achievement is the set of simulators of the external visual environment created in the 1970s, which recreate the complete illusion of maneuvering and controlling a spacecraft during ground training of astronauts. Simulators manufactured at the plant are equipped with modeling stands and simulators, astronaut training centers and the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The plant manufactured aviation helmet targeting systems used on fighter jets in combination with "arsenal" homing heads for air-to-air missiles.

Since 1994, the Arsenal Plant team, which had more than 50 years of experience in the creation and production of optical and optoelectronic devices and systems for military and industrial purposes (orientation systems, aiming, homing, observation, measurement, analysis and photographing devices), designed for operation both in laboratory and in harsh natural conditions, it gradually changed its profile to the production of optical-electronic measuring and counting equipment for medicine, banking, and housing and communal services. The production of cameras, due to non-competitiveness and high cost, decreased to small wholesale lots. The new management of the enterprise set a course for the gradual closure of the plant, by reducing government orders, closing workshops, leasing buildings and premises, and laying off employees.

As reported, in April 2009, the Cabinet of Ministers decided to reorganize the state-owned enterprise "Central Design Bureau" Arsenal "into the state-owned enterprise of special instrument making" Arsenal". The Cabinet of Ministers decided to join the state-owned enterprise the Arsenal plant and the Ukrainian technological center for optical instrument making.

On July 28, 2009, the Commercial Court of Kyiv, by its ruling, opened proceedings on the bankruptcy case of the State Enterprise Zavod Arsenal. In December 2009 - the liquidation of the Arsenal Plant was completed. The enterprise was divided into KP SPS "Arsenal" and SE "Arsenal" in order to counteract its destruction.

On November 24, 2009 , two enterprises were merged - the Arsenal Plant State Enterprise and the Arsenal Central Design Bureau State Enterprise (held by the order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of April 10, 2009 # 525-r). The aim was to combine the scientific, technical and production capabilities of the Central Design Bureau "Arsenal" and the State Enterprise "Arsenal" to create a powerful modern instrument-making enterprise. As a result of the reorganization, a new enterprise was created - the State Enterprise of Special Instrument-Making "Arsenal" (abbreviated as KP SPB "Arsenal"). All employees of the Arsenal plant (over 2,500 people) were transferred to work in the new enterprise.

The state-owned enterprise of special instrument making "Arsenal" (KP SPB "Arsenal", Kiev) intended to start production of improved homing warheads for air-to-air missiles. This is stated in the investment project published by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. In particular, within the framework of the investment project, it is planned to prepare and master production at the enterprise of the IS-90 infrared homing head (GOS) for short-range air-to-air missiles using a multi-element photodetector, new digital information processing algorithms, new design solutions and modern element base.

The total amount of financing for the investment project was UAH 357.297 million. Start of project implementation - 2013, end of implementation - 2016. KP SPB "Arsenal" specializes in the production of navigation systems, orientation and aiming systems for rocket and space technology; infrared homing heads for surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles; household and industrial gas meters; banking equipment; medical technology; road LED traffic lights; photographic equipment; optical and electro-optical devices.

On 07 July 2015, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Yuri Borisov paid a working visit to the Kurgan Region. He visited 2 of the largest defense enterprises in the region: Kurganmashzavod and Kurganpribor. And on August 20, 2015, the Kurganpribor Special Design Technological Bureau (SKTB) rocket plant was opened in Kurgan. The enterprise produces a new short-range air-to-air missile R-74 (RVV-MD). For the first time a new rocket was publicly presented at the ARMY-2018 forum.

04 April 2019 year in Kyiv at KP "SPB" Arsenal" a meeting of the Board of the State Space Agency of Ukraine chaired by Chairman Pavel Degtyarenko took place, during which the results of work of the enterprises and establishments of space branch for 2018 year and identified priority areas for future work.

As of 2019, the paint shop that burned down in 2009 at st. Mikhail Grushevsky, 36. 2 lower floors are leased in the building at Moskovskaya, 2. Illegal construction work is being carried out in the building at ul. Moscow 8b. The building at 26 Klovsky Spusk was bought out for development. All other buildings remain in the possession of the enterprise and are used for their intended purpose. For the 1st quarter of 2020, the number of employees was 1098 people.