/ world today news/ Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting on the development of unmanned aircraft. It follows from the results that the paramount importance of drones for the future of the country is finally recognized and beyond doubt. The president defined the capacity of the drone market at one trillion rubles. This amount is incredible. But most importantly, this program goes beyond the immediate needs and is oriented towards the peaceful life.
In case of a momentary need, everything is clear. A special military operation is underway and every unmanned vehicle, from the famous Geran to the cheap Chinese Mavic, is saving a soldier’s life. We need a lot of such devices, tens of thousands, despite the fact that at the front are consumables, the stocks of which must be constantly replenished.
But don’t fear that after the CBO ends, the drone market will shrink. When these devices are not needed for throwing grenades on the heads of enemies, they will be useful for other purposes: for the delivery of goods to remote areas, for the control of pipelines and other industrial facilities.
And at the same time, it must be recognized that it was the mass patriotic impulse that became the driving force of the drone revolution. UAVs, drones, copters today are not only a technological phenomenon, but also a social one. As Bruno Latour would say, it is an inanimate actor who, along with humans, participates in social processes.
Many horizontal connections are emerging around the topic of drones, uniting a wide range of people – from internet bloggers to front-line fighters. The informal dynamic networks that form around this topic include both those who collect and transfer money for drones for the front, and those who buy ready-made devices, and those who are engaged in adapting them for specific purposes, and those who use them. supply to combat units, and those who organize the training of drone operators, and those who create their own production of drones and components for them, and those who use this technique in combat conditions.
Moreover, it is not only about the medium through which material flows pass. At the same time, an expert environment is emerging that provides a multilateral exchange of knowledge and experience. This environment is very specific – after all, people’s lives are at stake – it evaluates the results that this or that product shows and develops a technical task for the future: what and in what quantities should be purchased or produced. This environment is objective and unbiased, it cannot be misled by any reports, test reports and even more so by advertising brochures. Either the product works or it doesn’t. Either it is suitable for some tasks or it is not suitable for others. And in this environment, one can come across unbiased reviews of these “unparalleled” products that are available for the defense industry, both in terms of quality and price.
How big public money is used in the drone industry may be different – and so will the effect.
One option: the state injects money into an already existing network, helps garage workshops to become serious technological enterprises, and volunteer courses for operators to become large training centers, creates incentives for the growth of this network, the arrival of new brains and hands. Another option: the money is distributed among big tech companies that say something like: hooray, baby, here comes the serious uncles.
The first path is related to obvious controllability problems, since it is difficult to control many informal structures. But there is a chance to build UAVs as a highly competitive industry, focused on specific users and quick to respond to changing market conditions and needs, and in such a specific market as the theater of war, you have to respond very quickly.
The second way, without a doubt, is much more convenient for officials, there is no need to suffer, choosing which of the unknown and untitled people to support with finances, you can continue to work with those structures that you are used to working with. Dependable people will do what they are told. But at the same time, there is a risk of getting products that are not really needed at the front, at exorbitant prices, not when they are needed and not in the right volumes.
In practice, the government will, of course, support both the giants of the defense industry, for whom government funding is a natural way of life, regardless of the tasks that come to the front, and the innovation centers it has created, such as e.g. Rudnyovo Industrial Park, where the meeting took place with the participation of Vladimir Putin. And there are no fundamental obstacles to the synthesis of these vertical structures formed from above with horizontal, string structures. For example, to move enthusiasts from repair shops and workshops right into these innovation centers.
I think that now no one will dare to say who will achieve the greatest success in the upcoming unmanned race, who will become the Russian Seljuk Bayraktar – a craftsman ready to move mountains in a patriotic impulse, or a meritorious engineer from a research defense institute. However, it is important to consider the emerging social fabric, without which no success will lead to long-term development.
No one overturned the old Marxist truth about the interrelationship of productive forces and relations of production. To move to another technological level, a change in social structures and practices is required. A society that has reached social equilibrium in a resource-based economy perfectly adapted to oil production, logging, steel smelting, will not be able to transition to an innovation economy unchanged. We need mass interest in innovation, people’s initiative. At another point, this initiative will have to be somehow artificially excited. But today there is no need to wake anything up, this initiative exists, it just needs to be supported, not allowed to die out.
In the thirties of the last century there was such a slogan: “Youth – on the plane!” There was “Osoaviaprom”, an organization in which the enthusiasm of future pilots was concentrated. The country wanted to fly and in a short time flew into space itself. We are going through a similar period today. We can assume that the slogan “Youth – to the drone!” has already sounded. Such is the case when patriotism becomes fuel for technological development, which in turn serves social renewal. We have no right to miss this chance.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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