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How the Pentagon is mobilizing US intelligence (Part 2)

How the Pentagon is mobilizing US intelligence (Part 2)

Why DARPA is effective?

The US contract system is one of the oldest government systems.. Amount of budgetary funds, distributed under the federal contract system, is more than $800 billion. in year, and more than 160 thousand. commercial organizations. More than 2 000 existing contracts for the implementation of advanced research and the creation of breakthrough technologies, while the staff of the Agency is only 240 civil servants.

Numerous unsuccessful attempts in the US to copy the Agency model by the Department of Energy (ARPA-E), intelligence community (IARPA), Department of Homeland Security (HS-ARPA) only convince, that the shell is not the main success factor.

Where does the efficiency come from? How did you achieve such results??

The success of DARPA is not only driven by the aura of innovation and the protective structure of laws, but also the atmosphere inside it, in short, people.

The key factor is the management team (Timlidov) programs.

It is the leader who forms the vision of the program and the team., determines the medium and long term, manages all technical, contract and financial resources.

Necessarily professionals - educated, erudite, with high qualifications and the gift of technological foresight.

Mandatory talent as an organizer - with an interdisciplinary outlook across industries, related to the mainstream.

Depends on the personal qualities of the team leader, whether a promising solution will be proposed, correct and constructive discussion, and, in the end, goal achieved — successful implementation of the project.

Total in DARPA, as mentioned, for the entire state 240 employees account for about a hundred managers and program leaders.

This is the elite of the elites, advanced avant-garde defense of the United States. Looking for such leaders from among university employees, national laboratories and corporations. The process is continuous: usually, within three years of 90 team lead programs are being replaced 70. To provide greater organizational flexibility, most of the necessary technical and administrative staff, with whom the program manager interacts, hired on a temporary basis.

for example, at 2015 DARPA Biological Technology Division consisted of two directors, 11 team leaders and two full-time analysts. At the same time, the accompaniment was 20 research programs and 170 contracts, of which 33 accounted for SETA-support services («Systems Engineering and Technical Assistance»/«Science engineering and technical assistance» — организации, who provide system design and technical support services).

The key to the success of the implementation of the Agency's programs is the coherence of the work of the leader and his entourage: manager and expert divisions, implementing organizations along with DARPA contract services, coordinating units, connecting the work of the manager with the military services-customers, the leadership of the US Department of Defense and other departments.

But it is not necessary for employees to know the charters and regulations of the Ministry of Defense. Most of them (to 80 percent), as natives of scientific organizations and research departments of companies, have a vague idea of ​​the standards and rules for conducting R&D for MO, reporting system, procedures for interacting with military services. Newcomers as specific civil servants are given the most general concepts and provided with a buffer to communicate with Pentagon bureaucrats, from special SETA support organizations to fulfill the requirements when working on a project.

The tasks facing the Agency are not easy - to achieve technological superiority. Universities have to be involved in technically complex projects (from 20 to 30 percent of the total number of performers in the direction), small private companies and innovative enterprises, i.e. medium business (from 30 to 40 percent of the total number of performers in the direction). Very often, companies do not have employees in their staff to comply with the requirements of federal law., for example, on the implementation of the regulations for the preparation of documentation. In such cases, the role of SETA support firms is invaluable.. Their participation reduces the requirements for the performers themselves and allows participation in defense contracts of almost any company and even a separate university laboratory..

Timlid, the head of the technological department and the director of the agency ensure the organization of work at the stage of preparing the concept and the formulation of the technological results of the program upon its completion. SETA contractors, as private consultants and executing organizations on government contracts, accompany the current execution of public procurement programs directly for US Department of Defense units. Development contracts are large and complex, with a huge number of different special shapes and applications, requiring the admission of employees at various levels of secrecy. Often, to facilitate communication, employees of SETA contractors work in the same buildings, as DARPA employees, differing only in the color of the pass.

SETA-support agreements can also be search, and applied, and technological at any stage (elementary, intermediate, final), in any direction (biomedicine, robotics, Information Technology). Besides, it is the presence of SETA companies that allows the state structure DARPA to keep the number of personnel at a consistently low level even in the event of a radical change in the technological paradigm, and the technology strategy has changed four times in its history: at 1960, 1972, 1991 and 2001 gg.

Before our eyes is the fifth.

Well, the main American principle: the more accurate the score, the stronger the friendship.

All activities for the research and development of new technologies must be properly separated in the US Department of Defense financial department into budget categories, characterizing the final goals of the work:

1. Basic Research

2. Applied Research

3. Development of promising technologies

4. Technical developments

5. Management and provision of research

6. Modernization of existing weapons systems

For the Special Interested - DARPA Report to the US Congress for 2021 and DARPA Budget Estimates for 2023 US Department of Defense fiscal year.

Like we have?

“And in our apartment there is gas!» We are building an innovative perspective of the country in wartime in accordance with the requirements of FZ-44 and FZ-275, which were accepted in 2013 and 2012 year respectively. For the period from February 2022 nine changes in FZ-44 and five in FZ-275, but overall the concept is the same. But times are different!

There is an open military confrontation with our country.

We destroy drones over the Kremlin, and we shoot down dozens of long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles. Today it is immoral to continue slowly to equip military affairs, in peacetime. The reaction of the Americans to our satellite in 1957 year was fast, and the emergence of the Agency, nearly 70 years of successful activity, dictated by the dire need.

To apply for Russian military science and technology the best of the experience of organizing the work of DARPA in the execution of contracts for scientific- technical development is not easy.

High risk of getting a positive result, especially if the customer is federal executive authorities, does not stimulate performers to a creative feat. Today, in Russian practice, when organizing financing for advanced research projects, the experience of providing qualified services to comply with the special regime, technological and expert support of R&D by third parties is absent.

In the case of research or work for the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation or another manager of the state defense order, functions, similar to SETA-maintenance, not included in contracts, and in some cases are performed by the executing organization itself under a government contract.

The Contractor also monitors the progress of their work., and for conducting their tests, and for checking their reporting documentation. Some works, reminiscent of accompaniment in the performance of secret work for small start-up companies, conduct regime-secret departments at universities and state corporations, as an agreement for the provision of services for the protection of state secrets under the license of the FSB and the technical protection of information under the license of the FSTEC.

Federal target program (FTP) "Research and development" (state customer - Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation) provides for expenses for organizational, technical, information and analytical support in the amount of four percent of the total cost of the program. FTP "Pharma-2020" (state customer - Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation), in which the share of R&D is usually not less than 80 percent and there is a significant amount of capital work, provides for the cost of support in the amount of the entire 0,7 percent. from the cost of the program. In contracts and agreements of the Advanced Research Foundation, RNF, RFBR organizational and technical support is not provided. Bad then, that system errors not identified during development, usually, appear only at the stage of acceptance (final) test. What if the project is interdisciplinary?? In addition to the risk of scientific and technological errors of the contractor, there is a risk of choosing the appropriate suppliers of work and materials.

AT 2014 year, the RF Ministry of Defense developed a concept for the use of military robotic systems for the period up to 2030 year and adopted a comprehensive target program (KCP) "Creation of promising military robotics before 2025 of the year". As part of the formation of the Advanced Military Research and Development System, leading organizations have been identified: FGANU "Central Research and Development Institute of Robotics and Technical Cybernetics" (Central Research Institute of RTK), Main Research and Development Testing Center for Robotics (GNIITS RT MO RF), Main Department of Research Activities and Technological Support of Advanced Technologies (innovative research), working in conjunction with the Research Institute "Republican Research Scientific and Consulting Center for Expertise", 924-th State Center for Unmanned Aviation under the Directorate for Construction and Development of the System for the Use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

State military standards are being developed, establishing uniform requirements for military robotics in four main areas: complexes with unmanned aerial vehicles, ground robotic systems, underwater uninhabited vehicles and unmanned boats.

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation also has its own "mini-Tsukuba" (or Silicon Valley?) — innovative technopolis "ERA", open in september 2018 years on the Black Sea coast in Anapa. Here, in eight training companies, they serve for a year. 320 conscripts in 16 scientific areas. The results of the activities of the army know-how can be found here.

And that's not counting industry institutions., Design bureaus and laboratories at giant concerns of the Rostec and KTRV level.

Yes, took the initiative "PMC Wagner Center". But what are they doing and what has already been implemented? There are no answers on the site., and people need to understand, what will happen to him, if he comes to talk.

At the end of March, the State Duma announced, that to help the troops created a public "Center for Defense Innovation Support". “Civil society in Russia is forced to conduct a Social Military Operation, and the war, as always in history, stimulates technological progress!», - said the deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Dmitry Kuznetsov. Supported by representatives of the Moscow Region, and "Union of Fathers of Russia", and "GOZ Platform", and production directors. declared, that in the near future the best developments for production and implementation will be presented to the top. But you can't do without activists and private initiative, and called on innovators and innovators to join.

laudable initiative!

Question: what connection algorithm? Who and how will evaluate innovation? It will be an expert group or a specialized company? The Center will work on a permanent basis or meet twice a month on Fridays? How about intellectual property?? An innovator from the Russian outback will describe his idea in detail and send a rationalization proposal to the Center, so what is next? Act within the framework of Federal Law-44?

In the series "Fiction to Life"!» not the first year removed by the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of Russia, Russian Venture Company, Oleg Deripaska's Volnoe Delo Foundation, Skolkovo University of Science and Technology, FSBI "Innovation Promotion Fund", Foundation for Advanced Studies (FPI). Only PEF has more than ten years of experience in the selection and support of innovative projects, but who except experts knows about them? How the system of selection and education of personnel works?

There are some good trends.

A real help to the front - a unified planning and correction module (UMPK) for FABs, direct analogue of the Western JDAM system. In a year they made and launched into a series. American set worth 80 000 dollars. Ours is much cheaper. The FAB-500 or FAB-1500 bomb turns into a planning and corrected one in just 1 or 1,5 million rubles. Subject to reset at the desired speed and altitude, it flies a distance of up to 80 km. The power of the FAB-1500-2600TS was known before, but now, with UMPK, 470 kilograms of explosives will fly literally into the enemy temple. New "Russian roulette".

Another example of a bottom-up initiative is the Oko Design Bureau.. A small company from St. Petersburg was founded in 2022 year, ten staff members. Starting Achievements 2023 years are impressive, and big plans for the future. In the “product line” of design bureaus, the concept of “massively-cheaply-reliably-efficiently” is implemented.

The idea is in high demand on the line of contact. The resource of the combat vehicle is designed for a one-way flight, and not for five years of continuous operation in a distant garrison. Manufacturing is easy to stream.

But there are nuances.

Compliance with the requirements of various GOSTs, presence of military acceptance, secrecy mode - it's unrealistic for guys to do. Not enough money to arrange all the procedures, no time. so, “goods” will not reach the active parts of the RF Armed Forces, unless for volunteers. And what to do? There are not enough "lancets" and qualified operators for everyone, and the cost is different.

How did the enemy implement such an initiative?

Australian company SYPAQ donates one hundred disposable cardboard Corvo PPDS drones to Kyiv Nazis every month (Precision Payload Delivery System). In Ukraine, a cardboard product from koala lovers is turned into a kamikaze drone. The design is built on interchangeable modules, and if a power plant and avionics from a downed vehicle are found on the battlefield, then they can be reused.. The cardboard is impregnated with wax and does not fall apart in the rain during the flight. Depending on the model, it can carry from three to five kg of load for a range of up to 120 kilometers and is in the air for up to three hours.

Forums for the exchange of experience are held in Ukroreikh, Dangerous "gifts" of various shapes and sizes appear massively at the front, and our specialists of the Center for Integrated Unmanned Solutions (CKBR) analyze a trophy combat FPV drone just mined in the special operation zone, created using technology for Martian missions. The main feature of the American product is special batteries, used in NASA missions to Mars, which allows its use at extremely low temperatures. Besides, this UAV is equipped with reliable powerful American-made engines for military purposes and is equipped with an original payload control system, which allows you to reconfigure it for various combat missions - reconnaissance, mining, ammunition dump, kamikaze.

Question: ukrvoyaks are exhausted by overseas GOSTs? Field military acceptance overseas organized? Or every operator from the trench in Avdiivka signed an NDA?

Time calls for new solutions. Russian troops need more of the best! And faster. He who hesitates is lost!

Mikhail Pospelov,

A source

                          
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