Chemezov told Putin about the increase in the production of military helicopters

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a working meeting with the head of the state corporation “Rostec” Sergei Chemezov. During the meeting, Mr. Chemezov said that over the past year, Rostec doubled the production of helicopters under the state defense order. The state corporation’s revenue in 2022 grew by 2.5% and amounted to 2.116 trillion rubles. Net profit, on the contrary, decreased from 165 billion to 39 billion rubles.

“In 2022, our Russian Helicopters holding produced 296 helicopters. Last year there were 134, this year – 296, a significant increase. This, of course, is primarily due to the increase in the State Defense Order: under the State Defense Order, we doubled the production of military helicopters, but we also worked on civilian helicopters,” said Mr. Chemezov (quoted from site Kremlin).

According to the head of the state corporation, due to a significant increase in the state defense order, the share of civilian products produced by Rostec has decreased. In 2022, it was 45.5%, in 2023 – 44.5%.

Sergey Chemezov noted that about half of the entire State Defense Order of Russia “lies on the shoulders” of Rostec enterprises. In 2022, the state defense order was completed by 99.5%. He stressed that production volumes were increased for all types of military products that are involved in the military operation in Ukraine.

“If we talk about the SVO, then 90% of all the products that are involved there are ours. First of all, these are cannon, rocket artillery, light and heavy armored vehicles, transport helicopters, heavy fire systems, all types of ammunition,” he said and added that all the volumes that are necessary for the Ministry of Defense are “completely closed.”

Vladimir Putin, in turn, pointed to the need to increase the percentage of production of the latest weapons. “We are just working on this,” Mr. Chemezov replied.

At the same time, Sergei Chemezov drew attention to the fact that Rostec still lacks “people”. The average number of employees at the enterprises of the state corporation is 592,000 people. According to Mr. Chemezov, 23,000 vacancies need to be filled urgently this year.

Speaking about the financial results of Rostec, Sergey Chemezov said that the state corporation’s revenue in 2022 increased by 2.5% compared to the previous year and amounted to 2.116 trillion rubles. “This year we have already reached such a figure as 2 trillion 116 billion rubles. Increased by 2.5% compared to last year. But, unfortunately, our net profit has decreased significantly and amounted to only 39 billion, and last year it was 165 billion,” he said.

Mr. Chemezov linked the decrease in indicators also with the state defense order. “The profitability is zero, and sometimes even negative. Those losses that we incur are covered by civilian products that we already have today, and we can somehow raise the financial component in order to be in the black,” he said.

In November 2022, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu informedthat the state defense order in 2023 will be increased by 1.5 times, this will provide the troops with weapons and equipment by 97%. In the middle of June this year, Denis Manturov announced on the fulfillment of the state defense order by almost 100%. At the same time, Vladimir Putin pointed out that the lack of highly qualified specialists at the enterprises of the military-industrial complex affects the timing of the implementation of the state defense order.

Milena Kostereva