Innovations & technologies

Rostec exec on how Russia’s top defense firm is adapting to a ‘rapidly changing world'

The biggest challenge is a rapidly changing world. Most nations don’t want to just buy, they want to acquire technologies. So in India, they have Made in India. In Indonesia, they want to produce locally. In the United Arab Emirates here, [the country] wants to jointly design an aircraft, a helicopter.

So we are having to change our ways from simply delivering equipment to establishing a technological partnership.

Another challenge is that nations want lifetime support plans. We have so much equipment scattered all over the world — both Soviet-made and Russian-made — and in many places it doesn’t work because we don’t have a technical service center. So we are creating a network of services and follow-up support.

We also have technological challenges. We are moving into the digital area. We are going into IT technologies, and within a few years we anticipate our IT exports will outpace our defense sales.

And last, but certainly not least, internally we have the wrong ratio between civilian products and defense. Historically Rostec was set up as a defense cooperation, but it’s difficult to stand on one leg. Around the world if you look at major defense corporations — Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics — they are 60-40, or half-and-half civilian to defense.