TASS Interview of Former Yuzhmash Head Two Weeks Before Oreshnik Visit

Yuzhmash complex

Vyacheslav Smolenko photo by TASS

The Russian edition of TASS headline reads: Former head of the Russian division of Yuzhmash: the Ukrainian plant is a threat to the Russian Federation. Then follows its 9 November 2024 interview with Vyacheslav Smolenko its link being provided to me by Gym subscriber Natalya Volkova. Thanks once again, Natalya! The interview was done just two weeks before the Dnipro plant was visited by the new Oreshnik missile. Readers will discover that despite many previous missile hits, the plant was very much still alive and producing for NATO’s war against Russia. However, the plant’s vast size makes it likely that some parts survived and that a second visit will be needed to make it 100% kaput. The interview follows:

What enterprise did Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev talk about from the UN rostrum, what is the Palyanitsa drone missile and can the general director of Motor Sich be exchanged - Vyacheslav Smolenko, former general director of the Russian industrial group Yuzhmash, spoke about this in an exclusive interview with TASS.

– Vyacheslav Alexandrovich, thank you very much for agreeing to the interview! Let's start with your native Yuzhmash. The Russian Ministry of Defense has repeatedly reported effective strikes on Yuzhmash. Today, what is Yuzhmash, what capacities and capabilities does it have?

— First of all, you need to understand that this is a gigantic territory and several branches. A regular bus runs through the plant with an area of 750 hectares with stops. This is a real city, so that you understand. If you walk from workshop to workshop, you can spend half a day to get there and come back.

Vast territories are occupied by the Pavlograd Mechanical Plant (PMZ). Pavlohrad is 30 km from Yuzhmash. BZHRK (combat railway missile systems - approx. TASS) were made there. Next to PMZ is the Pavlograd Chemical Plant (PChZ) - this is everything related to solid rocket fuel, explosives, with the damned PFM-1 "Lepestok".

The enterprise is so multi-level, multi-complex. Based on the electricity consumed by the enterprise, it would be possible to calculate its productivity. And in the Soviet Union, it was necessary to hide energy. For example, when there were parades on Red Square and rockets were transported, they were models, because even by the weight of the rocket it would be possible to give some characteristics. So: Yuzhmash made 100 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) per year. Every three days - ICBMs. No one in the world had this. When [Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Nikita] Khrushchev "banged his shoes" at the UN, it's all about Yuzhmash, that we make missiles "like sausages".

In the Soviet Union, Yuzhmash was built primarily as an advanced center for ICBMs, a missile factory. Spacecraft, spy satellites, remote sensing of the Earth, and electronic warfare equipment were produced here.

Up to a certain point, this enterprise was a pride, and now it has become a direct threat to us. For me, Yuzhmash is not only workshops, factories and production, but all its managers, my close friends. We were family friends, dreamed together, made plans. Now we do not communicate, we are in different positions.

- What threats does Yuzhmash pose to Russia?

"Yuzhmash, in my opinion, poses a direct threat to the Russian Federation, and not only to us. Because Yuzhmash is a tool, a knife, a scalpel - whatever you want to call it - in the hands of criminals. Over the past two and a half years, we have seen a lot of forces that want to incite war, that do not stop. We see that there were at least several waves, more than three strikes on Yuzhmash, on its workshops, and the enterprise is working.

Yuzhmash has a huge substation, and not only the giant enterprise, but also the city of Dnepropetrovsk is powered by it. We hit the substation, turned it off, and Yuzhmash is working. The plant itself was built, designed, and operated with a direct nuclear strike in mind. You can set up workshops from above, and energy and ventilation will work at the bottom.

There was a kind of illusion that Yuzhmash had lost personnel, did not pay salaries, that there were strikes. Well, yes, there were some difficulties, but when an external interested party with a resource appeared, then Yuzhmash immediately had money, orders, new jobs, machine tools spun, new equipment appeared.

The information I have provided about missile capabilities and threats from the Kyiv bloody regime confirms the timeliness and correctness of the decision of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief to launch a special military operation (SMO). It was undeniably obvious and confirmed by numerous sources that the Kiev bloody regime had taken aim at direct aggression against Donbass, spitting on the Minsk agreements.

Missile strikes on Yuzhmash, PChZ, PMZ, Motor Sich and Artem plants destroyed the missile program of the Kyiv regime. But these missile strikes did not destroy the potential for the restoration of this missile production, so I believe that only taking full control of all these enterprises and taking full control of all nuclear power plants on the territory of the former Ukraine can guarantee security from missile threats.

The most important thing I want to convey is that sensible forces in the world must do everything to prevent the use of nuclear weapons. The lifting of restrictions, the breakdown of the stop valve on the use of nuclear weapons will inevitably provoke the nuclear deterrence mechanisms to get out of control.

The first step along this road to hell has already been taken.

The non-nuclear state of the former Ukraine invaded the territory of the nuclear state of the Russian Federation in order to seize the nuclear facility of the Kursk nuclear power plant. And all the facts indicate that the Kiev junta will not stop there and will continue to look for an opportunity for a new nuclear provocation.

— Are the technologies that Yuzhmash uses now Soviet? Or are they still Western?

— From 2014-2015, there was a transition period of about a year, all joint cooperation programs between Roscosmos and the State Space Agency (SSA) of Ukraine were curtailed, because Yuzhmash and PCP are directly subordinate to the SSA. All general programs were curtailed. At that time, it seemed to me and many others that the fate of Yuzhmash was predetermined. The plant will close, there are no orders. But suddenly there were interested parties.

This is primarily Northrop Grumman, in its person - the Pentagon. This is about Firefly Aerospace. Everyone understands that the company is a dummy, since it was bought by Northrop Grumman for $1. Well, it doesn't happen that space companies are bought for $1. Accordingly, when the Pentagon came to Yuzhmash in the person of Firefly, the competencies, the equipment that was needed came there - what Yuzhmash lacked for production.

75% of the configuration of the Zenit launch vehicle fell on Russia: engine, aluminum body, fuel, rocket sensors, cables, titanium. In fact, we called the Yuzhmash missiles Russian missiles assembled in Ukraine.

And the Pentagon gave Yuzhmash composites - a composite missile body. When we talk about Palyanitsa, as far as I know, there are no downed drones yet, to study, based on the data that is leaking, we can conclude that the body is composite. Yuzhmash made wind turbines - 60 m high, 48 m in diameter of the circle, 24 m long blades - they are all made of composites, that is, all the technologies that are needed for the production of what was missing, the Americans gave everything.

Then there are balloons, they can withstand a pressure of 180 atmospheres, during tests it reaches 250-300 atmospheres. The British gave a new technology - carbon threads, braiding. This is such an attraction of unprecedented generosity. It would seem - why all of a sudden? And here's the thing. Britain does not have ICBMs of its own design - the Americans did not allow the British to make these missiles. Yuzhmash is just helping to make a rocket.

It is obvious to everyone that the investments that the Pentagon is making in Yuzhmash, they could have been made inside America. How many employees of Yuzhmash, Yuzhnoye Design Bureau would be ready to move? But the Americans did not do this. They keep specialists, because Yuzhmash is not workshops, not machine tools and not equipment, it is people. Yuzhnoye SDO employs 4.5 thousand mathematicians, IT specialists, designers, engineers. All this time they did not sit, worked and developed.

- You mentioned the Palyanitsa drone-missile. What are these weapons?

"[Vladimir] Zelensky came out and said: "And we are making "Palyanytsia". And what is "Palyanitsa"? In fact, very little is known. Drone missile 3.2 m long. This is a very small rocket. Accordingly, the declared range is 1,500 km - I do not believe in it. A rocket 3 m long, if you calculate the capacity of the fuel tanks, cannot fly 1,500 km.

Let's move on. Body made of composite materials. I think: yes, they can do it.

The turbojet engine is most likely the MS400 Motor Sich. These engines are on the Neptune cruise missile, and Motor Sich supplied these engines to Turkey for Turkish cruise missiles, the first batch of 12 engines entered there.

There is an engine, there is a body, ballistics has been developed. The Motor Sich enterprise, Antonov specialists, all this is there.

But Yuzhmash is not only rocket production. It was still intertwined with the Antonov Design Bureau. All chassis on the An-148, An-140, An-178 and An-158 are all Yuzhmash. Mutual cooperation between aviation and space.

I personally assess that yes, Yuzhmash is capable of producing such a drone missile, but with those declared 3 m, there can be no such range. The declared weight of the warhead is 450 kg. 20, 30, 50 kg for such dimensions is the maximum delivery. The MC400 engines on the Neptune have approximately the same characteristics, it depends on aeroballistics, but the Neptune does not have a range of 600 km. I will estimate the range of the "Palyanitsa" at no more than 300-350 km with a warhead of 30-50 kg maximum.

It's still a threat, it's a reality, but the declared 1,500 km and 450 kg of warhead - I believe that this is still all fairy tales. It should be a completely different missile. Such a missile needs to be designed and tested. And now it is impossible to do such work in Ukraine. Yuzhmash specialists can make it in Turkey, in Britain.

- You spoke, among other things, about the use of Motor Sich for the production of the Palyanitsa engine. What is the fate of the former general director Vyacheslav Boguslaev, who was detained by the Ukrainian special services?

"For many years I was friends with Slava Boguslaev, who is now in prison. We are close friends. And I believe that Slava can be exchanged, he will return. At least, I have reliable information that negotiations on his exchange are underway.

- Let's go back to Yuzhmash. Does Yuzhmash and Ukraine have strategic missile weapons at its disposal? What technologies and resources does Kyiv have for its production?

"Academician Valentin Glushko once said: "Tie a fence to my engine, and this fence will fly." Rocket scientists believe that the most important thing in a rocket is the main engine. This is the heart of the rocket. I will dwell on what Yuzhmash has produced and can produce now. This is very important.

Yuzhmash had the Cyclone-4 project based on the 8K69 missile. This is a combat vehicle with the best statistics in the world - 102 launches, 0 accidents. No one has such statistics. This is the 8K69 missile, called "Cyclone-4", - combat. Yuzhmash made all 100% of this missile itself. If the Zenit launch vehicle is 75% Russian, then the 8K69 is 100% Yuzhmash.

Can Yuzhmash be revived after the cessation of hostilities? Yes. Can it produce 8K69? Yes.

Farther. Yuzhmash and PMZ produced the 15Zh61 or RT-23 UTTH Molodets missile system - BZHRK (combat railway missile system - approx. TASS), in which three combat solid-propellant missiles were located in one composition. In the negotiations on the limitation of strategic arms (SALT), the most serious attention was paid to the disposal and destruction of the BZHRK. This was the Achilles' heel that the Americans were putting pressure on. We had 12 such trains, on which 36 of these missiles were on combat duty. All 36 missiles were destroyed, acts were drawn up. There are none.

In parallel with this project, the Yuzhmash BZHRK was developing and building a new rocket - RT-23 UTTH-M. The small letter "M" at the end says a lot. This is the so-called Yermak missile, which did not hit the SALT. A program of disposal, reduction of missile weapons was underway, and at the same time, the development of a new missile was launched at Yuzhmash.

And I have information from reliable sources that Yuzhmash could save, hide from disposal four Yermak missiles, that is, a batch could be launched for ten missiles, of which four missiles were ready, and the rest lacked some components, assemblies, no one dealt with them. That is, with a very high degree of probability, it can be assumed that Yuzhmash still has four R-23 UTTH-M Yermak missiles. We cannot deny this. We can assume that with the cessation of hostilities, Yuzhmash is able and can resume the production of the Yermak BZHRK in Pavlograd, anywhere.

Why? All design documentation, including for the complex, comes from the Yuzhnoye Design Office. It is all at Yuzhmash. But in the production of ICBMs, several fundamentally important problems need to be solved. The first problem is the launch pad. It is now impossible to build a cosmodrome in Ukraine.

Next - to make a silo-based missile. There was the 46th missile division in Pervomaisk, the 43rd missile army in Vinnitsa, but now it is impossible to build such a mine in Ukraine. It is also impossible to create a mobile missile system, like the Yars and Topols, in Ukraine now.

And what about the railway car? This is a compact workshop, it is small. This is not a gigantic workshop. There are railway cars in it, their roof is sawed off. Jacks are placed inside that lift the rocket. A car is made separately as a control center, and the train is connected. Outwardly, such a train cannot be distinguished from a regular train. Yuzhmash can preserve and reproduce such competencies, I unequivocally confirm this.

Now there is a new wave of medium-range missiles. We destroyed the Oka and Pioneer complexes under SALT-1 and SALT-2. But now, 30 years later, this wave begins again in Europe: Germany asks, Poland asks, and Ukraine according to Zelensky's "victory plan". But even there, in this regard, this clown (Zelensky - approx. TASS) writes that missiles should be deployed in Ukraine, but no one will allow medium-range missiles to be deployed there.

Is Yuzhmash capable of producing operational-tactical missiles? 100%. All the competencies of scientists and designers have been preserved. It is worth leaving such a small scrap, on which will be written "Ukraine", a yellow and blue flag with Bandera, - Yuzhmash can be resumed on this territory. Now factories are being built from sandwich panels in three months.

The main thing is scientists, they exist and are not confused. This is a separate city in which all the shots are saved. The main thing is the design documentation. These are not drawings, this information has long been stored on hard drives.

And inside, on the territory of the nuclear power plant, imagine: in three months, a workshop for the production of rockets appears. Will anyone hit the workshop in the nuclear power plant? No. Therefore, unfortunately, the junta that has seized power in Ukraine is not a monkey with a grenade, but a scalpel, a knife, an axe in the hands of a pathologist who clearly wants to harm not only Russia. You have to understand that this is a big game. Having such trump cards as Yuzhmash in your hands in this game, you can provoke any disaster.

— Did some Yuzhmash specialists leave, stopped cooperating with Ukraine, or did everyone stay there?

— For the past 10 years, since 2014, we have been working very closely with America. I have already said that the Americans did not build facilities for Yuzhmash in the United States, but this does not mean that the Americans do not have plans for this. And now, when the NWO began to strike at Yuzhmash, the Americans did not launch in their United States, as I said, the construction of a town and workshops for Yuzhmash.

Here is Elon Musk with a huge program. Why did Elon Musk have such a mega effect? He's not a rocket scientist himself. And who developed his engines? We said that this is the main thing in a rocket. Who is he? This developer is from Yuzhmash. And what is such a giant breakthrough and effect of Elon Musk? Both NASA and Roscosmos have very strict requirements. And these requirements are dictated by the lives of testers, rocket accidents.

And a commercial organization, such as Elon Musk's, retreats from these requirements and takes risks. We hear how often Elon Musk's rockets explode and fall. But the money is so colossal, huge that he turns a blind eye to it and works it off. The state does not want to take these risks. But the United States clearly understands that they have developed one monster in the person of Elon Musk with his own program, which means that he, like Boeing and Lockheed Martin - they compete - needs to create a second monster.

Northrop Grumman, a mega-company, one of the main contractors of the Pentagon, can create technologies based on Yuzhmash specialists, add something of its own. If not a direct competitor to Musk, but to divide all the risks and movement forward into two baskets.

But the biggest threat is Britain's lack of competence, technology, specialists and production of combat missile systems and London's desire to get them. Britain needs war. And Yuzhmash can become a detonator for this war. This risk cannot be ignored.

"Yuzhmash" before the NWO tested "Grom-2", and the strikes were confirmed. This is an operational-tactical missile, according to tactical and technical data, its range of destruction is 500 km, but they can improve it. Medium-range missiles are more than 1-2 thousand km, up to 5 thousand km. Yuzhmash is able to do this. And so Britain, with the help of such an axe, a scalpel – whatever you want to call it – it is capable of any provocations. Personally, my opinion is that "Palyanitsa", about which Zelensky tells fairy tales, is a purely British idea.

- Can the British get Yuzhmash technologies, such as the production of BZHRK and ICBMs, already in a combat-ready form?

- I can definitely assume that Britain itself is interested in having such a production and such BZHRKs in the Royal Air Force. Judging by how tightly the British take care of Zelensky, [Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy] Yermak and the entire team, judging by how they stand on their hind legs in front of Britain, everything that Britain needs, MI6, if they need it, they have long received it. If they need specialists, they will also get specialists.

It is easy to make such production in Britain, in Poland. Cars can be made in Poland, they look no different from ordinary ones.

Before the start of the NWO, no one in a nightmare could have thought that direct strikes would be carried out on a nuclear power plant. Adventure with Kursk, when combat units are going to seize the nuclear power plant. So they approached, hypothetically surrounded the Kursk nuclear power plant with four battalions. What will you do next? A grip is a fight. Where will the fight be? In the operating room? An imminent explosion, you see? This nuclear blackmail with nuclear power plants is obvious to us. For us, there is a direct real threat.

The goal is not to obtain nuclear weapons. No one will allow Ukraine to have nuclear weapons. Neither America, nor Russia, nor China. No one. Not only does Ukraine not have centrifuges, no these technologies, no one will even allow this topic to be developed in Ukraine.

Therefore, I believe that Yuzhmash should return home, it was created by the great Soviet Union through the work of the entire great Soviet people. This is not a Ukrainian invention, not a Ukrainian heritage. This is the legacy of the great Soviet Union, which created such a gigantic enterprise through incredible efforts and expenses. Ukraine does not have this kind of training ground and there is no territory and routes for the fall of missile stages. [My Emphasis]

Yuzhmash was people and its design records first and foremost, then came the workshops. Without technicians, nothing technical can be produced. What percentage of the staff was eliminated by Oreshnik; how many records? It appears only a portion of Yuzhmash was hit by Oreshnik suggesting it needs to be hit again. The Soviets did design the complex to be extremely strong. Clearly as stated, only physical possession of such sites can completely neutralize them. It would be easy to assume given the extremely tight security around the site that a sizable portion of Yuzhmash was damaged and also undamaged given the site’s massive size. What other former Soviet sites remain within Ukraine us casual observers know nothing about?

It also seems clear and not just from the interview that a great many people are still very loyal to the Soviet Union and its system, and not all of them reside in Russia. It appears that NATO is once again hoping to use its former enemies to boost its science-based weapons development since it can’t produce scientists of the same caliber. PeterAU1 has put forth the idea that Russia has developed the math and new physical and material sciences to go with it that are beyond the conceptual abilities of Western scientists, which is why they can’t master the new scientific principles that make hypersonic flight and weapons possible. Perhaps most important are the lessons history holds for today that Richard Wolff expounded on during his discussion with Michael Hudson on Nima’s Dialog Works today.

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