MOSCOW. May 25 (Interfax) - The most recent setbacks in the space industry were due to delayed reforms in the space-industry sector, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said.
"We launched a serious reform in the defense industry five years ago and we have set up 50 integrated structures in this sector. Unfortunately, reforms in the space industry were only started 18 months ago. It is hard to imagine new aircraft being built without digital models now. Roscosmos, meanwhile, still has staff at its design bureaus standing by drawing boards with pencils in their hands," he said on NTV television.
Concerning probes into the recent rocket accidents, Rogozin said that it was hard to investigate, as experts have no wreckage at their disposal. "The accidents end up with debris falling into the ocean, or burning in the atmosphere. It is therefore very hard to reach down to the actual causes of the accidents. No material is available, he said.
Rogozin said in remarks about Audit Chamber head Tatyana Golikova's recent report on 92 billion-rubles in financial abuses uncovered in the space industry, that it would be wrong to claim that all of these resources had been misappropriated.
"Figures must be handled professionally. If a statement is made that so many billion rubles is missing, this does not mean the entire sum has been removed from the industry or stolen. This money was spent on the space industry, although with violations. But some figures indicate that fraud and theft were involved, indeed.
Rogozin said it would be hard for Western countries to design a tank similar to Armata.
"Plans are real, of course. They are high-technology countries with their own powerful design potentials and traditions. But I think France, Germany, the United States and Israel, which is known for tanks, will really have to do some very tough work," Rogozin said.
"The rivals are definitely 15-20 years behind us. Second, even if they do create anything of the kind, what we will do by then is invent something new," he said.