On December 9, 2021, Mikhail Mishustin, Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, visited for the first time the facilities of Perm Engines Research & Production Complex, UEC-Aviadvigatel and UEC-PM (part of Rostec United Engine Corporation).
He was accompanied on his trip by Igor Komarov, Presidential Envoy to the Privolzhsky Federal District; Yuri Borisov, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia; Denis Manturov, Head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade; Maxim Reshetnikov, Head of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade; Vitaly Savelyev, Minister of Transport, Anton Siluanov, Head of the Ministry of Finance, Viktor Bondarev, Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Defense and Security; Alexei Krivoruchko, Deputy Defense Minister; Andrey Yelchaninov, Senior Deputy Chairman of the Military Industrial Commission Board; Alexander Neradko, Head of the Federal Air Transport Agency; Sergey Chemezov, General Director of Rostec State Corporation; Dmitry Makhonin, Governor of Perm krai, and other officials.
During his visit to one of the UEC-PM’s assembly shops, Mikhail Mishustin had a look at the main stages of industrial engines production and the UEC products display. During the tour around facilities, the Prime Minister had a talk with the company's specialists. The engine builders themselves proposed the topics for conversation: government support of the company personnel education and training, and the need to decide in the nearest future on the baseline aircraft to be equipped with the advanced high-thrust PD-35 engine, which is being designed presently.
At the Perm Engine manufacturing site, the Prime Minister held a meeting devoted to the implementation of breakthrough domestic projects in aero engine building. During the meeting, Alexander Artyukhov, General Director of UEC, and Alexander Inozemtsev, Deputy General Director of UEC for Perm Engines Research & Production Complex Management, Managing Director and General Designer of UEC-Aviadvigatel, made their reports. While speaking about the PD-14 project implementation, Mr. Inozemtsev said: “The organization was something new in our practice, however, thanks to the introduction of UEC, we managed to create cooperation not only in production, but also in design: the best design efforts were joined together, the engine was divided into components and modules, and this cooperation showed a successful collaboration.”
At the meeting, Mr. Mishustin announced additional budget funding in the amount of ₽44.6 bn for the PD-35 project, the first high-thrust engine in the history of the domestic industry, and also raised a subject of the test facilities for the advanced engine. The Chairman of the Cabinet says: “The first Russian new generation PD-14 engine has been designed. It will be a worthy alternative to its foreign competitor on the latest MS-21 passenger aircraft. Now it is important to speed up an entry into the aircraft market with the domestic propulsion system, and about ₽50 bn have been allocated for this target in the federal budget”.
The Chairman of the Government also emphasized the new approaches to the implementation of breakthrough projects in the civil aircraft engineering. “It is essential to create not only new engines or aircrafts, but firstly think thoroughly over the entire life cycle: from the development to after-sales service,” M. Mishustin says. – The entry of the product into the market and the initial operation may require as much investment as its development, R&D and production. We are talking about the costs of introducing maintenance centers, spare parts stores, personnel training centers and other service infrastructure required for the common use of aviation products”.
As a conclusion to the open part of the meeting, Mikhail Mishustin made acknowledgements to the managers of UEC and the Perm “cluster” enterprises for the tour. He noted that the Perm engine-building enterprises had a rich history, and they were well-established companies for a long time to prove themselves as the country's leading engine-building association. Presently, the key task for the Perm engine builders is to increase the engine supply to the domestic market and bring to the export horizons. To do this, the government will drive the demand for the Russian engine-driven aircrafts and improve the economic conditions for their service. “I hope that through our joint efforts we will do our best to ensure that the entire aircraft production line is supplied with both engines and highest quality materials, to hold the country's leading position in the engine industry and aviation in general,” – Mr. Mishustin points out.
