Gerbert Aleksandrovich Yefremov

The developer of the Russian hypersonic weapon - the Avangard intercontinental complex - the honorary general director, honorary general designer of the Reutov NPO Mashinostroeniya (part of the Tactical Missile Weapons Corporation, KTRV) Herbert Yefremov celebrates his 90th birthday on 15 March 2023. Efremov, in particular, led the creation of complexes with cruise missiles for firing at ground targets and anti-ship systems, as well as space systems and marine space reconnaissance vehicles. In 2020, it was announced that Herbert Yefremov was the developer of the Avangard aeroballistic hypersonic combat equipment.

On 14 March 2023, the opening ceremony of the exhibition dedicated to the 90th anniversary of Efremov was held at the Museum of Cosmonautics at VDNKh. It presents three thematic areas of work of NPO Mashinostroeniya - the development of cruise missiles and complexes based on them, strategic missile systems and the creation of space systems and vehicles. A film about Efremov was shown - "Work is akin to a feat."

The head of the Roscosmos state corporation Yuri Borisov congratulated the hero of the day via video link, in person - in particular, Konstantin Biryulin, deputy director general of KTRV for foreign economic activity and marketing, former commander of the Strategic Missile Forces (2001-2009), Colonel General Nikolai Solovtsov and military cosmonauts detachment. It was noted that Herbert Efremov considers the answers to the challenges of a potential adversary to be the main business of his life and the life of the enterprise. As seen from the film, several of these responses are related to the creation of strategic missile systems. With their help, Russia has more than once managed to achieve nuclear parity with the United States of America.

Efremov was directly involved and supervised the creation of complexes with cruise missiles for firing at ground targets and anti-ship systems, space systems and apparatus for marine space reconnaissance and target designation, anti-space defense with maneuvering spacecraft (SC). He also participated in the creation of a series of scientific satellites, the Almaz manned orbital complex, Almaz automatic reconnaissance stations, small spacecraft of the Kondor-E Earth remote sensing system, strategic missile systems and the Strela space missile system.

Efremov gave his entire working life - 67 years of continuous experience - to the Mechanical Engineering NPO, of which he managed the enterprise for 23 years. “It is quite difficult to describe any person, Herbert Alexandrovich is no exception here, but the fact that he <...> is a special person is evident from any communication with him and everyone who communicates with him feels it. I think that the most important his trait is purposefulness and what he taught me is the ability to make a decision,” Alexander Leonov, general director and general designer of NPO Mashinostroeniya, told TASS, “You can’t put off a decision, even if you make a non-optimal one, but it needs to be made on time.”

According to him, another interesting feature of Efremov is his courage in making personnel decisions. "His personnel decisions were often unexpected, he often appointed quite young people, literally under the age of 30, even as his deputies. An approach that basically justified itself," Leonov said.

He noted that Herbert Efremov, back in the days of the famous designer of rocket and space technology, Vladimir Chelomey, was engaged in very responsible work. “Being a designer, and then the head of the project direction, of course, he was engaged in all areas that the company worked on, practically without exception,” Leonov said. all that research base that was. This was achieved mainly due to the development of military-technical cooperation. There, Efremov's contribution, especially to cooperation with India, is huge. In 1995, this cooperation was born as an idea, in 1998 it was already implemented as a decision of the governments of our countries, and in 2001 the first Brahmos rocket flew.

Efremov was born on March 15, 1933 in the village of Maloe Zarechye, Belozersky district, Vologda region. His father was a military man, his mother worked in the local department of cultural enlightenment. The name was given in honor of the British science fiction writer HG Wells.

He graduated from the Leningrad Military Mechanical Institute with a degree in instrumentation (1956). Since 1956 he had been working at OKB-52 the Union Design Bureau-52 of the USSR Ministry of Aviation Industry to the city of Reutov, Moscow Region. (Design Bureau of Rocket and Space Technology under the leadership of Academician Vladimir Chelomey; since 1965 it was called the Central Design Bureau of Mechanical Engineering, TsKBM, Ministry of General Mechanical Engineering of the USSR; since 1983 - Scientific and Production Association of Mechanical Engineering, now JSC "Military Industrial Corporation" NPO Mashinostroeniya").

In 1956-1959, Herbert Efremov worked in the bureau as an engineer, senior engineer, design engineer of the 2nd category. In 1962 he took the post of deputy head of the design bureau - lead designer. Since 1964 he has been the head of the project department of the enterprise.

In 1970-1984 - Deputy chief designer and head of the Central Design Bureau (in 1970 - acting). Since 1971 he has been the deputy chief designer and head of the Central Design Bureau of Mechanical Engineering.

After the death of Vladimir Chelomey in 1984, he became the general designer of NPO Mashinostroeniya. In 1991, he took the post of general designer - general director of the enterprise, held this position until 2007. From 2007 to the present, Honorary General Director, Honorary General Designer of JSC "VPK "NPO Mashinostroeniya", Advisor to the military-industrial corporation "NPO Mashinostroeniya" on science.

In 1984, heading NPO Mechanical Engineering, Herbert Aleksandrovich Efremov found new technical and organizational solutions that made it possible in the emerging geopolitical and economic environment to ensure the creation of time-demanded weapons systems and the sustainable development of the team, as well as the headed cooperation of related enterprises and organizations. In the 1990s, which were difficult for the whole country, he was able to maintain the scientific, technical, personnel and property potential of the enterprise, ensured that NPO mechanical engineering entered new frontiers.

Under his leadership, the enterprise was actively involved in military-technical cooperation with foreign countries. A new form of interaction with foreign partners was developed to jointly create samples of military equipment, the implementation of which was an example of an effective investment project to involve the production and scientific and technical potential of the domestic defense industry in an active creative process.

In the 1990s, after the collapse of the USSR and a sharp reduction in state defense orders, Herbert Efremov was able to maintain the scientific, technical and personnel potential of NPO Mashinostroeniya. Under his leadership, as a general designer, a joint Russian-Indian project was implemented to develop the BrahMos naval cruise missile (BrahMos, first test launch in 2001).

Efremov was directly involved and supervised the creation of: complexes with cruise missiles for firing at ground targets (P-5, P-5D, S-5, "Meteorite") and anti-ship systems (P-6, P-35, "Progress", "Amethyst", "Malachite", "Basalt", "Volcano", "Granite", "Onyx", "Yakhont", "Brahmos"); space systems and vehicles: spacecraft of the marine space reconnaissance and target designation system, anti-space defense systems with maneuvering spacecraft, a series of scientific satellites - the Proton 1-4 laboratory, the Almaz manned orbital complex (Salyut-2, Salyut- 3", "Salyut-5"), automatic reconnaissance stations "Almaz", small satellites of the Earth remote sensing system "Kondor-E"; strategic missile systems with intercontinental ballistic missiles UR-100, UR-100M, UR-100K, UR-100U, UR-100N, UR-100N UTTKh, Avangard and the Strela space missile system.

Efremov was awarded the orders "For Merit to the Fatherland" II degree (2013), "For Merit to the Fatherland" III degree (2003), Lenin (1963), Red Banner of Labor (1971), "Badge of Honor" (1959), diploma of the government RF (2007), medals. Author of more than 80 inventions, numerous scientific papers on special topics. A minor planet of the solar system, registered in the international catalog under the number 9718 and called "Gerbefremov", is named after Efremov.

Author of a number of scientific papers, co-author of more than 80 inventions ("Hydraulic system of an aircraft", "Automatic spacecraft serviced in orbit", "Method of hitting vulnerable ground targets with a supersonic missile and a device for its implementation", etc.), as well as teaching aids ( "Features of the layout of sensitive and gyroscopic instruments in the design of spacecraft", 1993; "Investigation of the stability of a discrete system by the frequency method", 1994; etc.). In 2016, the book "Unlawful Speeches" was published, which contains transcripts of the designer's public speeches for 1989-2015.

He is the first and only holder of the titles of Hero of Socialist Labor and Hero of Labor of the Russian Federation to date. Efremov - Hero of Labor of the Russian Federation (2017), Hero of Socialist Labor (1963), laureate of the Prize of the Government of the Russian Federation (2002), State Prize of the Russian Federation named after Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov (2003), Lenin (1982) and State ( 1974) USSR Prizes, Knight of the Order of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called with Swords (2020), Candidate of Technical Sciences (1986), Professor (1996).