Russian UAV manufacturer: “If the supply of chips stops, we won’t be able to do anything”
There are people in Russia. Those with large capital do not want to engage in high technology.
This was reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent, said by Alexey Semenov, founder and head of the Geoscan group of companies, one of the leading Russian manufacturers of drones.
He claims that the company is not dependent on imports.
“We are not borrowing anything that is directly related to drones. We had a discussion with the Ministry of Industry and Trade about this. We said that our import substitution rate is almost 100%. They reasonably objected that we do not make microcircuits ourselves. Yes it is. But the degree of import substitution depends on the depth of viewing,” Semenov told Kommersant.
According to him, microcircuits are not the responsibility of Geoscan.
“We have brought all the developments, all the design documentation to microcircuits and components for general use: all the boards are our design, manufactured in Russia, all the software is our design, all the constructs are the same, as well as, of course, the final assembly.
If we imagine that the whole world wants to stop the production of drones in Russia and refuses to supply everything related to them, we will still make them. Thus, in our area of responsibility, we have brought import substitution to 100%.
Moreover, we are doing more complex work: not import substitution, but import exclusion. In the field of aerial photography, geological exploration, and drone shows, we have built fortresses in Russia that foreign manufacturers have never entered,” boasted the head of the company.
However, he further reported some not very good news, answering the question, what will happen if there are no microcircuits?
“If the supply of microcircuits stops, we will not be able to do anything,” admitted the publication’s interlocutor.
He clarified that in value terms, foreign components in the drone make up about 15%, mainly the payload and engines.
“But we continue import substitution: we ourselves made an optical quantum magnetometer for geological exploration, a multispectral camera, a gyro-stabilized platform and video cameras for the new copter. We create communication channels ourselves. It’s already difficult for us to move further, and it’s impossible to move into microelectronics. All we can do here is create domestic demand,” the businessman noted.
He believes that Russia needs its own Elon Musk, but this is not yet possible.
“Musk is not only about big ideas, but also about big investments. He had a large net worth, so he was entrusted with a big task, he plunged into it 100% and solved it. And not just one. We have people with a lot of capital, but they personally will not go 100% into high technology. And those who can go do not have much capital.
In Russia, it is necessary either to create dozens of “proto-Masks”, from which a real one can then hatch, or to create partnerships between private technology companies and good state-owned companies that themselves deal with technology. But it’s partnerships, not acquisitions,” Semyonov concluded.
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