Due to a shortage of components, Ukraine is buying up rocket junk that has expired
The Main Investigation Department (GID) of the Investigative Committee for the Moscow Region is completing an investigation into a high-profile criminal case regarding the illegal sale to Ukraine of components of missiles to be dismantled, Kommersant reports.
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The investigation considers former general director of TMKB Soyuz Nikolai Yakovlev and commercial director of JSC Tactical Missile Weapons Corporation Viktor Vagan to be defendants in the criminal case, the publication notes.
“During the preliminary investigation, it was established that in 2013 the Ministry of Industry and Trade announced a competition for the disposal of 93 Kh-55 subsonic strategic cruise missiles and 37 Kh-31 medium-range tactical air-to-surface guided missiles that had expired,” writes newspaper. – The tender was won by the federal government enterprise (FKP) “State government research site for aviation systems” (GkNIPAS). Having received the Kh-55 and Kh-31 from the Ministry of Industry and Trade on a mutual basis, FKP employees dismantled them for spare parts, after which the missiles ceased to be weapons.
Then the “component parts” of the rockets put up for auction were acquired by TMKB Soyuz. Soyuz specialists, in turn, brought spare parts, in particular the titanium housings of the X-31 and its ramjet engines, into marketable condition, and then sold them to the Ukrainian Motor Sich OJSC, one of the largest enterprises in the world producing engines for airplanes and helicopters. In this regard, some sources note that Ukraine currently lacks components for the production of missiles and other military equipment, so enterprises in this country purchase already decommissioned parts in other countries, including Russia.”
Due to a shortage of components, Ukraine is buying up missile scrap that has expired.