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Main: On the Institute
Our success is in our traditions
The All-Russia Research Institute of Automatics (Russian acronym - VNIIA), one of the three nuclear weapons designers in Russia, was founded in 1954 on initiative of academician Yuli B. Khariton, who was the immediate manager of the development of the first atomic charges and bombs in the Soviet Union. Under the Decree of the USSR Council of Ministers, KB-25 (the first official name of VNIIA) was turned over to the USSR Ministry of Medium Machine-Building as an affiliated facility of the first Soviet nuclear center, which is today the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - the All-Russia Research Institute of Experimental Physics (RFNC-VNIIEF, Sarov). Currently VNIIA is the part of the nuclear weapons complex of the State Corporation for Atomic Energy "Rosatom". The first director of the Institute was the outstanding Russian designer and scientist, one of the founders of the national nuclear weapons and nuclear charge design school, trice Hero of the Socialist Labor, correspondent-member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, Lieutenant-General of Corps of Engineers Nikolai L. Dukhov. Under his directorship (1954-1964) all the defense research lines of the new Institute were founded, the research, design, production and testing units were created, and the first nuclear weapons for the majority of the national armed forces were developed. The greatest achievement of General Dukhov as our director was the successful attempt to gather a united creative team of scientists and to establish a comprehensive self-improving system of development, fabrication and operation of the products, which in time made the Institute one of the leading facilities of the atomic industry.
There was a number of outstanding people working at the Institute, whose name are famous within the atomic industry and far beyond it. These were the first Hero of the Soviet Union in history A.V.Lyapidevskiy, the Hero of the Socialist Labor N.I.Pavlov. The Hero of the Socialist Labor A.A.Brish, who has been a participant of the atomic project since 1947, is still working at the Institute. Over 1,000 of our employees were awarded by the Government. Among them there are over 140 of the Lenin and the State Prize winner, the Russian Government Prize winners, 3 Honored Scientists, 4 Honored Designers, one Honored Machine-builder, and one Honored Economist of Russia. The staff of the Institute has been awarded with the October Revolution Order and the Labor Red Banner Order. Since 1964 the Institute has borne the name of N.L.Dukhov to mark his service to the Nation. In 1960s-1990s the defense-related activities were extended, the laboratories, the production shops, and the computing center were equipped with the modern devices and systems, a number of top-qualification experts were educated, the enterprise management system was restructured in the modern way. The Institute has become the leading organization in a number of technical defense-related areas; a series of unique products has been designed. The Ministry of Electronic Industry has handed over to VNIIA the activities related to electro-vacuum equipment, previously done in the interest of the atomic industry by the Research Institute of Vacuum Equipment. These activities were deployed at the new site - Moskorechie. A lot of construction efforts have been completed in a short time - the production shops buildings, the housing for the employees, the social center, the trade school, the children summer camp and the kindergarten.
Late 1990s became the most economically complicated time for the Institute, nevertheless VNIIA continued progressing. Two strategic decisions were made: first, start the serial manufacture of the products designed at the Institute; second, start designing and fabricating the non-defense products using the experience obtained during the decades of defense-related research, as well as the best international practices in the area of electronics. Besides that, the "replacing" production of the key electronic components was commissioned to substitute the production that was shut down in the former USSR. At the same time the units that design and produce technologically similar products were integrated into three research & production complexes - for electronics, electro-vacuum equipment and semiconductors. The quality system established at the Institute in 1978 evolved on the base of interlinked standards that regulate the functions and responsibilities of the units in their areas. At the beginning of the third millennium the new stage of full-scale diversification has been launched. VNIIA has proved its status of a cost effective and competitive company. The Institute is being re-equipped with state-of-the-art fabrication, testing, measurement & control and analytical instrumentation. Over one third of the Russian nuclear stockpile is being maintained. The scope of the fabricated hi-tech products, including the exported is growing. The new "replacing" productions and the new research & production complexes are established, the theoretical research and mathematical modeling capabilities are consolidated. The appropriate conditions have been created for recruiting the qualified experts in the new areas of science and technology and for using their skills and creative potential.
In 2010 the management of the atomic industry decided to consolidate the Institute; and based on the President decree, VNIIA took the authority over the Research Institute of Pulse Technique (Russian acronym - NIIIT), which on January 1, 2010 became the VNIIA Research & Production Center for Pulse Technique. NIIIT was founded in 1961 on the basis of a laboratory of the Institute of Chemical Physics of the USSR Academy of Science as the affiliated facility of KB-25. NIIIT was a facility of the atomic industry specifically devoted to the development of the measurement technique and hardware for nuclear testing at the Ministry of Defense test sites, as well as for monitoring the nuclear tests at the foreign test sites. A wide range of equipment for measuring the amplitude-time characteristics of electromagnetic, optical, and ionizing radiation, as well as seismic waves was designed at NIIIT. Consolidation of the similar research & design efforts of VNIIA and NIIIT allows to aim the staff at the key missions, rationally use the facilities and equipment, and enhance the research potential and the competitiveness of VNIIA. The Institute has 4,700 employees, including over 130 Candidates and Doctors of Science. We are sure that our motto "Our success is in our traditions" reflects our philosophy, which incorporates the flexible response to the challenges of time and the pursuit to accomplish the defense-related missions for the Nation in the most responsible way and to satisfy the expectations of the Customers of our non-defense products. RESEARCH, DESIGN AND MANUFACTURING CAPABILITIES >>
VNIIA SITES
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