The development of the largest military drone led to the criminal case
Arrested the General Director of OKB. Simon — developer of UAV “Altair”.
As it became known on Friday, the Soviet district court of Kazan was arrested on 18 April for two months of the General Director of experimental design Bureau (OKB). Simon Alexander Gomzin. According to TASS and Kazan edition “Business Online”, he is accused of abuse of office (part 3 of article 285 of the Penal code), swindle (part 7 of article 159) and abuse of authority (part 2, article 201).
Previously, “Business Online” reported that the field investigators of management of economic security and counteraction to corruption Ministry of internal Affairs of Tatarstan have repeatedly carried out the seizure of documents in OKB im. Simonov. The interlocutor of “sheets” in the defense industry says that we are talking about a subsidy programme of the Ministry of industry and trade, so a special article 285.4 of the criminal code on misuse of funds of the state defense order in this case does not apply.
OKB. Simon since 2011, is developing the largest of the publicly screened high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) long duration flight “Altair” with a mass of 7 tons, soaring for the first time in 2014
This development has spent more than 3 billion rubles, but it was not enough, and in 2017, the design Bureau introduced the civilian version of the UAV, the development of which was planned to the Ministry of industry and trade to 2 billion rubles.
Furthermore, OKB is developing in the interests of defense for multiple UAVs, and in the fall of 2017, won the tender for development of high speed UAV with a jet engine.
The editor of “unmanned aircraft” Denis Fedutinov does not exclude that the case can be initiated with the filing companies had certain grievances against the negative experience of cooperation with companies and organizations interested in getting control over the EDB. With regard to the main development of OKB — UAV “Altair”, — it is in the Ministry of defence attached great importance, the expert continues. Experience in the application of American Reaper drones in military operations over the past 10 years shows the growing importance of such systems for solving tasks of intelligence, surveillance, and precision strikes on various ground targets in the absence of risks for own troops. Therefore, this program started one of the first among other projects developing advanced drones.
According to him, the criminal prosecution of the General Director of OKB does not mean that the defence will close all these programs, but they will be audited. Ironically, on Friday in Kazan hosted a meeting of chiefs of General staffs of the CIS countries, where, as reported, the Russian defense Ministry was discussed including the issues of the use of drones and counter them. It should be noted that the devices in China, roughly analogous to “Altair”, of the participants are armed with Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, but not Russia.