Losses of Roskosmos grew in 2022 by about 60% to 50 billion rubles

The State Corporation Roscosmos expects losses in the amount of about 50 billion rubles in 2022. – mainly due to chronic failures in the delivery of products. The new management of the state corporation drew up new realistic schedules and introduced personal responsibility of managers for non-compliance with the time parameters of projects

Losses of the state corporation “Roscosmos” in the outgoing year may amount to 50 billion rubles. This figure in an interview with Vedomosti was named by the general director of Roskosmos Yuri Borisov. In 2021, the losses of Roskosmos amounted to 31 billion rubles. According to Borisov, Western sanctions imposed after the start of a special military operation (SVO) and other reasons that led to a disruption in the execution of orders led to an increase in losses. “The main source of losses was related to the improper organization of the work of enterprises. The companies undertook to fulfill the state order or the orders of the state corporation itself, but did not fulfill them on time.

The reasons are different – from the non-delivery of the electronic component base to the improper organization of the process, labor discipline was lame, among other things, ”Borisov said in an interview. At the same time, “almost all the leading enterprises” of the state corporation did not fulfill their obligations to deliver products either in 2021 or in 2022, its general director said. “At the same time, they have to pay salaries, bear overhead costs – maintain the building, stand base. The cost of work is rising. And a contract that is profitable at the start becomes unprofitable at the finish,” he explained.

The management of the state corporation is taking measures to correct the situation, stopping the “spontaneous transfer of work to the right”, offering customers new schedules for the delivery of products. “For each case, we conducted a detailed analysis of the causes with the military department and developed pre-race work schedules. They must be realistic, truthful and underpin the correction of the situation. We repeatedly analyzed the completeness of the electronic component base, materials, as well as the production and personnel readiness of enterprises, and, finally, schedules. When we coordinated them, the chief designers, managers put their signatures, we presented them to the customer, he agreed with the real terms. This became the basis for correcting the situation,” says Borisov. Changes were made to the contracts of all managers, which provide for additional conditions – a fine and administrative punishment in case of failure of new schedules for a month and the possibility of dismissal in case of a two-month failure, Borisov said.

The practice of the Ministry of Defense is to immediately issue penalties in arbitration courts in case of failure to meet deadlines for the delivery of orders, this fully applies to Roskosmos, says a Vedomosti source close to the Ministry of Defense. Only at the beginning of 2022, Roskosmos had to restructure, but not cancel, penalties in the amount of about 12 billion rubles, he said. Therefore, drawing up a realistic schedule for the delivery of products will be able to save the state corporation from further increasing losses, says the source of Vedomosti.

In March 2022, due to sanctions against Russia, the contract for the supply of 12 engines for Antares rockets to the United States was terminated. The United States stopped purchasing RD-180 engines for Atlas V rockets back in 2021. In addition, in March 2022, a contract with the British OneWeb corporation worth $1.2 billion for 21 launches of Soyuz-2 rockets was terminated (the state corporation managed to fulfill 12 launches). This was the only major contract of Roskosmos for the launch of Western-made satellites at the time of the start of the NWO.

The disruption in the supply of imported electronic component base, which led to the postponement of the delivery of Roscosmos products, the termination of contracts for launch services and the supply of engines due to sanctions were important reasons for the increase in losses for the state corporation, says Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies. But one cannot discount the mistakes in planning and other issues made by the former management of Roscosmos, the expert believes.