Belarus (bbabo.net), - The geopolitical crisis on the European continent is increasingly threatening to move into a hot phase. The unwillingness of the West to respect the national interests of Russia, the pumping of Ukraine with weapons, as well as the desire to create a belt of instability around the Russian Federation actually forced the Kremlin to begin a significant restructuring of the economy and the socio-political life of the country.
Against the background of the partial mobilization announced by Vladimir Putin on September 21, the issue of building up Russia's military potential, which is now seriously affected by EU and US sanctions, remains important. In the current situation, cooperation with the allied countries of the Russian Federation, primarily Belarus, is acquiring a strategically important character.
For several years now, Moscow has paid special attention to the military-industrial complex (MIC) of the country, where significant funds are being invested to modernize and re-equip the Russian army. Vladimir Putin has repeatedly emphasized that in recent years the country has achieved significant results in this direction, and the Russian military-industrial complex has managed to establish the production of “truly unique types of weapons that today are ahead of their foreign counterparts, and some of them have no analogues in the world in a number of characteristics.” The Special Military Operation (SVO) in Ukraine has become an additional incentive to intensify the work of the Russian defense industry. On September 20, the Russian leader set a number of new tasks for the gunsmiths, the fulfillment of which should bring the country's military-industrial complex to a new level. According to Putin, the military-industrial complex should “increase production capabilities as soon as possible, maximize equipment utilization, optimize technological cycles and, without compromising quality, reduce production time.” In addition, it was emphasized that it is necessary "to ensure the supply of the required weapons and equipment to the troops, weapons of destruction as soon as possible," and the Russian government must immediately resolve issues of material, financial and resource support for defense enterprises. In this regard, the problem of import substitution is of no small importance, where Moscow may well rely on its closest ally, Belarus.
Over the past decades, there have been various periods in Belarusian-Russian relations in which the parties did not always understand each other. However, cooperation in the field of defense has never been in doubt, no matter what issues arise between Minsk and Moscow in economics or politics. The Belarusian defense industry has always had orders from Russia, which allowed it to continue its development. In turn, the Belarusian military-industrial complex helped to ensure the defense capability of the Russian Federation, supplying what it needs for the needs of the Russian army. At the same time, new types of weapons were delivered to Belarus and continue to be sent from Russia. It may be recalled that Minsk and Moscow recently concluded an agreement for the supply of Su-30SM 4+ generation multipurpose fighters, and dozens of helicopters, air defense equipment, as well as a batch of modern BTR-82A armored personnel carriers have already been sent to Belarus. In the spring of this year, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko announced the purchase of Iskander operational-tactical missile systems (OTRK) and S-400 Triumph air defense systems from Russia. In addition, in the summer, Andrei Yelchaninov, deputy chairman of the collegium of the Military-Industrial Commission of the Russian Federation, said that the two countries were discussing a joint project for the production of modern weapons on the territory of Belarus. All this and much more, in fact, was a direct response to the actions of NATO countries near the western borders of the Union State.
At the same time, the events of recent months indicate that the Belarusian-Russian cooperation in the military sphere requires new steps, which were not previously discussed in Minsk and Moscow. In particular, we are talking about the need to directly involve Belarus in increasing the defense capability of the Russian Federation and providing it with its own competencies in the military-industrial complex. And no matter how skeptical the West is about this issue, telling that no one will help Russia anymore and that the country allegedly uses microcircuits from washing machines in the production of missiles, Minsk has something to offer its ally.Currently, dozens of enterprises related to the military-industrial complex are operating in Belarus, and Minsk is already supplying to the Russian Federation not only individual parts and assemblies, but also complete products. In total, more than 250 organizations from both sides participate in mutual deliveries with Russia. It is also important in this case that today Belarusian specialists are ready to provide their Russian colleagues with their own developments, which can be slashed in the combat conditions of the Northern Military District. In particular, we are talking about the traditional strengths of the military-industrial complex of Belarus: electronic warfare equipment that the republic provides itself with, optoelectronic devices, sights, etc. For example, today Russia may be interested in the Belarusian radar station "Rosa", which allows you to simultaneously detect and determine the type of more than 50 air targets, which can be of great help to the Russian military when “hunting” for drones in the zone of a special military operation.
The Belarusians presented their most modern developments at the recent Army-2022 exhibition in Kubinka, where 230 items of military and dual-use products were demonstrated. Among other things, the Belarusian military-industrial complex showed armored vehicles, modern automated control systems, systems and means of communication and data transmission, air-based robotic complexes, including those in strike design, mobility and reconnaissance equipment, means of displaying and processing information for harsh operating conditions, equipment in the field of radar, communications and navigation, etc. Thus, the Minsk Wheel Tractor Plant (MZKT), which has been working with the Russian Ministry of Defense for more than a decade, presented the V-2 MZKT-690003 (8 × 8) armored personnel carrier with an uninhabited combat module "Adunok- BM-30. In addition, the Cloud complex air defense system was demonstrated, including a complex for reconnaissance and destruction of air targets, mobile systems for radio interception and radio direction finding of the HF range of the Volar family, an optoelectronic detection and aiming system, and much more.
In addition to everything, the Belarusians showed their capabilities in the modernization of military equipment of Soviet and Russian production. For example, the Grad combat vehicle based on the Belarusian MAZ chassis (BelGrad-2 project) and the Shkval multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) with a caliber of 122 mm. In the latter case, it should be noted that this system is equipped with Belarusian-made ammunition rails, as well as an automatic firing system, satellite navigation equipment and a weather station. Thus, the Shkval has high mobility, which is extremely important in combat conditions. True, so far only a prototype has been created, but work on this system continues: the power of the charges has been increased, and their range of destruction has been increased to 40 km. All this makes the Shkval a rather interesting object of attention for the Russian Ministry of Defense, especially in the context of the SVO.
At the same time, the most interesting development of the Belarusian military-industrial complex for the Russian Federation is the Polonaise MLRS, which is considered the pride of the defense industry of the republic. This is one of the most powerful systems of this type in Europe, which not only increases the combat capability of the Belarusian army, but can also seriously affect the conduct of hostilities in Ukraine.
The history of the appearance of "Polonaise" in Belarus is replete with various twists and turns, some of which were directly related to friction in Belarusian-Russian relations. Minsk has always wanted to have modern missile systems in service, but for a long time it was not possible to resolve this issue with Moscow. That is why the Belarusian authorities decided to follow the path of creating their own MLRS with the direct assistance of another of their strategic partners - China. Within the framework of bilateral cooperation between countries, the Polonaise appeared, which was made on the MZKT chassis and equipped with Chinese missiles. For the first time, this MLRS was presented to the public at a military parade on May 9, 2015 in Minsk.
The Belarusian "Polonaise" is a system capable of simultaneously delivering a pinpoint strike on eight targets in 50 seconds with a preparation time for a volley of 8 minutes. Initially, this MLRS was equipped with Chinese A200 missiles with a caliber of 301 mm and a range of up to 200 km, but already in May 2017, a new tactical ballistic missile with an official range of up to 300 km was demonstrated at the 8th International Exhibition of Arms and Military Equipment MILEX-2017 . This made the Polonaise one of the longest-range MLRS of this type in Europe. By 2021, the Belarusian military-industrial complex has even launched the production of its own missiles of such a range, which in the near future should completely replace the Chinese ones.An important feature of the "Polonaise" is that it has a combined guidance system with the possibility of satellite correction. Similar systems are also used in the Avangard, Caliber and Kinzhal missile systems, which allows the Belarusian MLRS, if necessary, to quickly integrate into the Russian structure for more effective use on the battlefield. According to military experts, the combined guidance system makes it possible in some cases to be independent of the satellite, which distinguishes Polonaise from American HIMARS, which become almost blind without GPS coordinates.
In addition, the Polonaise can boast of its high mobility, and the missiles are delivered to the complex in transport and launch containers, which facilitates their use and allows the complex to quickly change its position. In addition to this, the Belarusian MLRS has a turntable with a lifting mechanism, which makes it possible to quickly orient the missiles in the right direction, saving time for guidance. Deviation from the target when striking does not exceed 30 meters. All this, for example, allows several Polonez batteries in service with Belarus to hit both enemy manpower and protected objects in less than a minute on an area of \u200b\u200babout 100 square meters. km. All these characteristics make this development very attractive for many countries of the world. For example, Belarus delivered 10 complexes to Azerbaijan.
Of course, today Russia has all the competencies to create its own similar systems, and the Russian army has more powerful weapons, for example, the Iskander OTRK. However, as the development of the SVO shows, the use of such high-precision weapons often does not have an urgent need, and the Uragan, Smerch and Tornado MLRS do not always allow solving operational tasks due to their firing range from 35 to 120 km. Therefore, Belarusian developments cannot but be of interest to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, especially given the rapidly developing events today and the ongoing build-up of NATO's military potential near the western and northern borders of the Union State and in Ukraine.
In general, it must be emphasized that the military-industrial complexes of Belarussia today can only count on each other. In the current situation, there is no other way out but to accelerate the process of import substitution and bring the exchange of competencies and technologies between the two countries to a new level. Only in this case, the Union State will have a new weapon that can cool the hotheads in NATO.
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