The engines are changing the steering – Newspaper Kommersant No. 14 (7459) dated 01/26/2023

As it became known to Kommersant, in the near future, the head of the United Engine Corporation (UEC), Alexander Artyukhov, will leave his post and move to Rostec to oversee aviation projects. His place should be taken by the general director of the Ural Civil Aviation Plant (UZGA) Vadim Badekha. Kommersant’s interlocutors evaluate the results of Alexander Artyukhov’s work ambiguously: he was able to improve the financial performance of the UEC, but a number of import substitution projects were significantly delayed.

According to Kommersant, the head of the United Engine Corporation (part of Rostec), Alexander Artyukhov, will leave his post next week, which he has held since 2015. According to Kommersant’s sources in Rostec and the aviation industry, in early February he will move to the position of managing director of Rostec’s aviation programs. Instead, the UEC will be headed by UZGA General Director Vadim Badekha. According to Kommersant’s sources, a native of Rostec’s aviation enterprises may take his place at the UZGA, but a final decision has not yet been made.

Rostec and UEC did not comment. A source close to the state corporation confirmed that Artyukhov was offered to move to a new position: “There are no final decisions yet, but the likelihood of reshuffles is high.”

The main activities of Alexander Artyukhov in the new position “will be the coordination of interaction between the holding companies of the corporation on key projects.”

According to one of Kommersant’s interlocutors, rumors about Mr. Artyukhov’s departure due to non-renewal of the contract have been circulating in the industry since 2019-2020. But, according to another Kommersant source, there were no serious complaints from Rostec against him, and “moral responsibility for the failure of a number of projects” was assigned to the executive director of UEC-Klimov, Alexander Vatagin, who, according to unofficial data, retired in August 2022. However, another source assures that Mr. Vatagin “remains within the perimeter of the UEC.”

Alexander Artyukhov was faced with the task of solving the financial problems of the UEC, which ended 2014 with a loss of 17 billion rubles. He coped with it: the total profit of the holding during the years of his leadership amounted to 145 billion rubles. (including RUB 23.7 billion in 2021). Another task was import substitution and increase in serialization, and here, according to Kommersant’s interlocutors, for various reasons, much failed. So, to replace the Ukrainian TV3-117 and D-136 helicopter engines (developed by Motor Sich), the UEC was supposed to increase the production of VK-2500 engines, including those ordered by the Ministry of Defense, from 50 to 350 units by 2017.

However, at the end of 2021, Klimov assembled about 300 engines – VK-2500 in combination with TV3-117.

Kommersant’s interlocutor in the aviation industry attributes the creation of a large gas turbine GTD-110M and a gas turbine power plant M55R for frigates of the Russian Navy, as well as the modernization of the NK-32 aircraft engine, to achievements. He considers the creation and certification of the PD-14 engine for the MS-21 airliner at the end of 2020 to be a success, and the delay in testing the PD-8 engine for the SSJ New, which is expected to be certified this year, is a failure. In addition, problems with the engines of the TV7-117ST family for the Il-112V and Il-114-300 disrupt the deadlines for work on these aircraft, to the point that, according to several interlocutors of Kommersant, these projects in the future “may be abandoned” .

The mistake was that UEC began to develop capacities for the production of 300 helicopter engines, although the management of UEC-Klimov argued that it was necessary to focus on at least 500 engines, says Oleg Panteleev, executive director of Aviaport. Now the needs of the holding have increased significantly, and production in St. Petersburg needs to be expanded urgently. At the same time, absolute priority will be given to the state defense order, since the state “will not reduce the requirements for production volumes for fighters and bombers.”

The busiest sites, according to Kommersant’s interlocutors, are in St. Petersburg and Perm, and it is on them that the main burden will fall on the production of civilian PD-14 and PD-8 engines.

By 2030, according to the government’s plans, UEC should more than double the production of aircraft engines, up to 658 units per year.

Aigul Abdullina, Polina Smertina