Military space issues featured prominently during Russian Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov's visit to Baykonur on 8-11 June. He said that Russia would press ahead with the programme, which in part will continue to be based in Baykonur. While there, the minister also heard a report from the Space Troops commander, Gen Perminov, who said that work proceeded apace on a new generation of Proton "heavy" rockets. The following is the text of a report by the Russian newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda on 17 June:
As Krasnaya Zvezda has already reported, on 8-11 June Russian Federation Minister of Defence Sergey Ivanov was on an official visit to the Republic of Kazakhstan. (Read reports on his meeting with representatives of the Kazakhstan leadership and on his participation in a session of the Council of Defence Ministers of the participant states of the CIS in the 10 and 11 June issues.) The head of the military department devoted the last day of his visit to work at the Baykonur State Test Cosmodrome.
More than 1,200 booster rockets, 1,270 spacecraft for various purposes, and around 1,200 intercontinental ballistic missiles have been launched from Baykonur's launch pads during the history of its existence. Today Baykonur has the ability to launch seven types of delivery systems - from the heavy Protons to the light Tsiklons. Nine launch complexes with 15 launchers and 34 technical complexes for preparing rockets and spacecraft are in operation. The cosmodrome performs about 70 per cent of the spacecraft launches for federal and international programmes. In 2002 alone, 15 space rockets were launched from it, 22 spacecraft were inserted into orbit, and two ICBMs were launched. In 2003, no less than 20 booster rocket launches are planned from Baykonur, and after the loss of the Columbia space shuttle, launches of Progress and Soyuz rockets from its launch complexes for the International Space Station have acquired special significance.
After the collapse of the USSR, in accordance with agreements signed by the presidents of Russia and Kazakhstan on 28 March 1994, Baykonur was leased to Russia for 20 years. Now the question of extending this agreement for a lengthier term is being studied.
Recently, the attention of the leadership of the country and army towards the Space Troops has steadily grown. Just in the last winter academic period, the supreme commander-in-chief visited the Space Troops' headquarters and the A.F. Mozhayskiy Military Space Academy. And the minister of defence worked in an ABM formation and in the electro-optical system Okno, which is in Tajikistan.
The beginning of the summer period was marked for the Space Troops by the visit of Sergey Ivanov to the country's first cosmodrome. (Baykonur recently celebrated its 48th anniversary.) Last year, the head of the military department visited Plesetsk and Svobodnyy. He visited Baykonur, the cradle of domestic manned space flight, for the first time. Accompanied by Space Troops Commander Col-Gen Anatoliy Perminov, he visited the famed Gagarin launch installation, from which Soyuz-series booster rockets still blast off into space, and the homes in which the planet's first cosmonaut, Gagarin, and the legendary general designer, Korolev, lived before the main event of their lives. "I was simply touched by the modesty in which these great people lived and rested before the historic event," Sergey Borisovich shared his impressions.
In addition, the head of the military department visited the technical complex and the launch pad of the most powerful Russian rocket - the Proton. The commander of the Space Troops reported that work was actively under way today to create the new Proton-M booster rocket. Two experimental launches have already been made with real payloads; that is, with spacecraft. "A total of 10 launches are planned," Col-Gen Anatoliy Perminov reported. "But if things proceed like this, the possibility is real that the booster rocket will be accepted into service with a much smaller number of spacecraft launches. We hope to complete this work in the next two to three years."
In the headquarters of the formation, the minister listened to reports on the state of affairs from the cosmodrome's head, Lt-Gen Leonid Baranov, and the town mayor, Aleksandr Mesentsev.
During his work, the minister of defence devoted great attention to social problems. In his estimate, things are better in this regard at Baykonur than in Russia as a whole. For example, a young officer graduate of last year will earn net around 8,000 roubles including bonuses (duty outside Russia, remoteness, difficult climate and so on). There is no shortage of official housing.
As a serious, positive aspect, Sergey Ivanov noted the fact that the positions of sergeants and soldiers are being increasingly filled by contractors.
The minister of defence also emphasized that here, as in the Space Troops as a whole, the situation is favourable with providing servicemen with passports and their acquiring Russian citizenship through an accelerated procedure. According to him, at present only 50 personnel at the cosmodrome do not have passports or citizenship. Documents for them have already been submitted to the Russian president's administration.
Summarizing the results of his work at the cosmodrome, the minister of defence noted that the decision of the Security Council from two and a half years ago to develop the military component of our space is being thoroughly implemented. According to him, 20 spacecraft have been additionally launched into space over this period, and they work now in the interests of the Ministry of Defence.
This is not the first year that the fate of Baykonur has been debated in the press and political arena. The opinion has been expressed that, on the whole, we should do away with this cosmodrome. They say it is simply too expensive to maintain such a large facility abroad. Also heard are voices of those who support making Baykonur purely civilian, and conducting military launches from other cosmodromes. Sergey Borisovich Ivanov said firmly in this regard that Baykonur's military significance will certainly be maintained for the foreseeable future. We are now talking about transferring several launches, primarily intermediate-class booster rockets. But if we are talking about heavy rockets, then there are no plans for leaving Baykonur, and there can be none.
On the prospects for the Russian military space grouping, the minister of defence noted that it should be developed comprehensively and in a balanced manner. He described reconnaissance, communications, radio-relay, target indication and missile-attack warning as its most important components. He also emphasized that "without military space it is simply impossible to talk about increasing the mobility of the armed forces and creating precision weapons types".