Problems of the Kazan Helicopter Plant and the Ansat program
September 18th, 12:13 am
The Tatarstan business resource "BUSINESS Online" published Timur Latypov's article "We are talking about the very existence of the Ansat program: will Kolesov be able to spin the KVZ blades? The 2022 plan is under threat, there are no Ansat engines for 2023, and the idea is to ban the Soviet Mi” on the crisis situation at the Kazan Helicopter Plant (KHP) of the Russian Helicopters (VR) holding and on the proposed cessation of production of light helicopters Ansat.
Assembly of Ansat helicopters at the Kazan Helicopter Plant (KVZ) of the Russian Helicopters holding (c) president.tatarstan.ru
To date, Kazan Helicopter Plant has built only 45 out of 111 helicopters planned for 2022. In the industrial circles of Kazan they say that the task is unrealistic. In turn, Kazan Helicopter Plant employees discuss personnel policy - they say that a lot of people who are poorly associated with production have appeared in the middle management. Previously, a surge of defeatist sentiments was extinguished by an emergency meeting with the staff of Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov and BP General Director Nikolai Kolesov. What has changed at the enterprise during the 9 months of the power of the new management and what awaits the strategic plant in the future, found out "BUSINESS Online".
Unprecedented: Ulan-Ude rushes to the aid of Kazan
Having headed Russian Helicopters (VR) in November last year, General Director Nikolai Kolesov soon surprised a lot by setting the task of handing over 111 helicopters in 2022 (58 Mi-8/17, 41 Ansat and 12 Mi-38 ). In the recent history of the plant for a hundred, it was chosen only twice - in the record years in all respects (including exports) in 2013 and 2014: 103 and 107 cars. Then a rapid decline began with a bottom in 2019 (27 helicopters) and an anguished survival in 2020 and 2021 - 39 and 45.
As of today, four months before the end of the year, Kazan Helicopter Plant, according to BUSINESS Online, has assembled no more than 44 helicopters. BP has not commented on the situation. There is talk in the industry and industrial circles of the Republic of Tatarstan that the plant most likely will not fulfill the plan.
“There will be a maximum of 80, but I would give Ginsburg (Vladimir Ginsburg headed the KVZ on December 8 - ed.) a medal for this,” emphasizes our source in the helicopter industry. According to him, now the situation at Kazan Helicopter Plant is the same as in 2019, when 27 helicopters were assembled only due to the fact that there were backlogs from fuselages riveted in 2018, and as soon as this stock dried up, everything stopped. “In recent years, the plant has actually stopped,” he states.
There are several reasons. Our interlocutor says that one of the main ones is this: an instruction from the former leadership of BP that there are no unfinished products in the shops - riveted, but empty fuselages. “A plant with the current system of production planning cannot work as a conveyor,” explains our interlocutor. - It is necessary that there are always backlogs. Yes, according to the materials, a glider is only 20 percent of a helicopter, but 80 percent in terms of labor intensity and time. And when your fuselages are in a row and you have resolved the issue of financing, you will assemble a helicopter in 8 months, otherwise - in 12-16.
The riveters left without earnings began to quit en masse, and today it is very difficult to find such specialists. As of early summer, the plant needed more than a hundred riveters. As a kind of incident, our interlocutor pointed out: in order to speed up the process, parts of the fuselages for the Kazan Mi-8 were instructed to make the former worst competitor - the Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant (UUAZ).
Problems in mechanical production. For some types of work, there is a delay of several months, the source says. He pointed out that machining has always been a strength of KHP, but it needed to be supported, injected. At the beginning of the year, Kolesov announced the upcoming technical re-equipment (for 8 billion rubles). When it starts is unknown.
The third weak link is purchased components (PKI). According to the source, in 2018, at the direction of BP, Kazan Helicopter Plant began the transition to an automated system of financial and procurement activities, as a result, even before that, unstable supply turned out to be completely paralyzed and remained so until mid-2020. “The supply system is very overregulated, and therefore purchases are stretched for a long time,” the source explains. — And the suppliers of the 2nd and 3rd levels have their own problems. I am sure that the fuselages will eventually be made, but the main thing today is the purchased products.” Kolesov, according to our interlocutor, is trying in the interests of business to break the existing system of supply and planning. “He, in fact, did not give a damn about the regulations of Russian Helicopters, and the production chain came to life,” our source says.
Adviser to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Tatarstan Nazir Kireev, in an interview with BUSINESS Online, pointed out the PKI problem as a paramount one: “The implementation of the plan will depend on the supply of components. Everything that depends on KVZ, he will do completely - the fuselages will be ready. According to our source, the rate of output was supposed to increase in the second half of the year. Kireev noted that Kazan Helicopter Plant traditionally
half or most of the program was done in the last four months.
“Bring a friend”, or what they talk about at Kazan Helicopters
But question number 1 is, of course, working personnel. In the current year, Kazan Helicopter Plant has developed a vigorous activity in the field of recruitment of workers, focusing on agitation for the full load of the enterprise, its financial stability and wage increases. The main production workers and auxiliary workers of the production unit received a 20-30% increase, but nothing is reported about how the increase looks against the background of previous salaries and, as a rule, the piecework nature of such workers. About how deep the personnel gap is, a lot is said by a notion similar to network marketing of the personnel officers of the KVZ. Under the "Bring a Friend" campaign, any employee can recommend their candidate for open vacancies. For each new employee who is employed and has worked for the next three months, the recommender is paid 10 thousand rubles.
At the beginning of the year, 303 basic workers were required. It is reported that more than 400 people came, including 76 who once quit the factory. Here are just almost 250 of the newcomers - students, that is, people from scratch. They were immediately introduced into the brigades in order to quickly get professionals. But will they become one? And will they stay at the factory?
Ansat at the crossroads
But the current difficulties are not so bad. In the end, our source close to BP assures that the plant has no unsolvable problems today. In particular, he drew attention to Minnikhanov's remark that Kolesov had resolved the issue of financial recovery. At the beginning of the year, bad debts accumulated 13.5 billion rubles, today there are none (there is no mention of the cleansing mechanism). The enterprise is fully provided with orders. Until recently, this was an impossible dream. Plan 2023 - 120 helicopters, 2024 - 125.
But there is a more fundamental problem - Ansat engines. As you know, there will be no more deliveries of PW207K from Pratt & Whitney Canada to Russia. Plan-2022 for Ansat is provided with these engines - a stock has been formed, as well as for other imported components, and there are a lot of them in Ansat, as Aleksey Garipov, chief designer of the Design Bureau of Kazan Helicopter Plant, spoke about recently at an aircraft building forum in Kazan. But for 2023, the stocks are no longer enough.
T
he independent engine building corporation (UEC) will deliver experimental VK-650V by the end of this year or the beginning of next year - this is the Russian replacement for the PW207K. Under them, a completely imported Ansat is being made. The helicopter will have a "glass cockpit", that is, with instruments that ensure flights not only during daylight hours, as it is now, but also at night and in bad weather. Apparently, the machine will combine the developments previously made by the Rychag company controlled by Kolesov and the KVZ Design Bureau - Ansat-RT and Ansat-M, respectively. It will be produced in only one modification, that is, a simpler helicopter with a dashboard with “alarm clocks” is leaving. According to Garipov at the same forum, there is every chance that the helicopter will appear in 2024. Nothing is said about the timing of testing, certification and the start of mass production.
“The number of modifications should be as limited as possible,” says Matveev. “But for Ansat, the main issue is not modernization – today we are talking about the very existence of the program, and it depends on the engines.” The concern is understandable: they have been talking about the creation of the engine for 20 years, there were even real projects, but they were not given a go, and today they are declaring the imminent readiness of the VK-650V, which they began to create only in 2019. According to BUSINESS Online, in connection with the change of the engine in 2023, the release of Ansats is not expected. With a high degree of certainty, the same can be said about 2024.
Kazan Helicopter Plant still has the Mi-38 program, but so far this is a piece production: the plan for 2022 included 12 machines, but sources believe that we are talking about no more than four. In 2023, they intend to make 9.
Salvation - "guillotine" for old helicopters?
The main one, as in previous times, will be the release of the Mi-8/17. For this helicopter, Kolesov began a policy of redistribution of forces, sources indicate. Until recently, foreign orders for the Mi-17 were loaded mainly by UUAZ - its exports exceeded the state defense order and deliveries in Russia. In Kazan, there were mostly "citizen" and state defense orders. Today the situation is changing. In particular, according to some information, fairly large export contracts by today's standards can be signed for Kazan Helicopter Plant. And in general, we are talking about the fact that between KHP and UUAZ there will be parity in terms of the production plan for helicopters, with which distortions were previously observed. One of our sources states that today the Buryat enterprise, due to political support (Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Industry of the Russian Federation Denis Manturov comes from there), generally has the best position in the industry, the processes of financing, production, receiving orders are perfectly streamlined, a first-class helicopter has been created. He points out that the concept of parity, obviously, should be interpreted more broadly. “Kolesov forced the entire holding to work for Kazan,” our interlocutor said without a shadow of irony.
But one of our sources pointed out a paradoxical thing: today the high plan is a double-edged sword. Yes, Kolesov, thanks to powerful lobbying levers, developed a stormy export activity (countries are not named), but it is obvious that under the conditions of sanctions, hopes for the international market are unsteady. “By and large, there is nowhere to put the helicopters,” our interlocutor says. According to Matveev, there is no reason to count on a tangible growth of the civilian market, and in the short term the demand for military helicopters will be decisive. However, it is obvious that although the orders of the Ministry of Defense are a load, but if we talk about prices, where you sit on the military, you get off there.
As it became known to BUSINESS Online, under these conditions, the leadership of BP approached Rosaviatsia with the initiative to stop maintaining the airworthiness of helicopters as soon as the life of the machine is extended until it is able to fly safely. First of all, we are talking about the oldest type - the Mi-8T. Meanwhile, this is the most massive helicopter in the Russian Federation - 500 machines, and in total there are 1.1 thousand rotorcraft in the industry, of which 800 are domestic. That is, in a few years, civilian helicopter pilots will lose almost half of the fleet and, accordingly, will be forced to buy new ones Mi-8. BUSINESS Online sent a request to BP to comment on the information, but has not yet received a response.
According to our information, the initiative aroused the indignation of the operators. They intend to send a corresponding appeal to the government of the Russian Federation. The helicopter pilots interviewed by BUSINESS Online emphasize that the ban will have an extremely negative impact on the aviation market, including the oil and gas sector, exploration, and the construction industry, as well as reduce the volume of transportation to remote areas, call into question the effectiveness of search and rescue works and air extinguishing of forest fires. Thousands of highly qualified pilots, engineers and technicians will be unemployed. In addition, as statistics and studies of specialized institutes show, the Mi-8T is the safest domestically produced helicopter: modern BP products do not always reach this level.
In general, the idea of such a ban is not new. For the first time, it was proposed by BP holding, by the way, in Kazan, at the forum of the helicopter industry association in November 2018. Ugh
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