Hort Historical Reference
   Joint stock company Arsenal Machine-building Factory has originated from Peter the First's "Cannon Casting Shops", founded in 1711. For almost three centuries Arsenal's work has been associated with the country's defense. It has started with Peter the First's cannons and proceeded to modern automatic vessel artillery systems and automatic space units.
   Arsenal Construction Bureau, called Central Construction Bureau No. 7 before 1958, was founded in 1949 on the basis of the Arsenal Factory's construction sections and of the Naval Artillery Central Construction Bureau. At first, the bureau's main task was to make new vessel artillery weapons. Over its half-century-long activity period, Arsenal has developed and handed over to the Navy more than 20 models of automatic artillery units of various calibers, from 45 millimeter surface-to-air missile units up to 130 millimeter automatized artillery complexes. The bureau's engineers and constructors have created several models of ship missile-launching and passive jamming devices. Arsenal continues to perfect its vessel artillery weapons.
   During the late 1950's Arsenal has begun to engineer its first strategic solid-fuel ballistic missile complexes. Since 1961 it has been developing a mobile ballistic missile complex that uses a solid-fuel medium-range missile. In 1967 this missile complex has been successfully tested. In 1972 the construction bureau has completed the modernization of a shaft-based intercontinental missile. This missile has been in use until 1991. Arsenal's experience of building solid-fuel missiles has by 1970 allowed it to begin the development of highly complex ballistic missile units for the submarine fleet. It has created the first strategic naval solid-fuel medium-range ballistic missile complex in the country, called R-31. In 1979 this device has been recommended for Navy use, and it has been operating on submarine missile cruisers until 1990.
    Taking Arsenal's impressive technological potential into consideration, the industry's administration has in 1969 decided to charge the bureau with space technology projects. As a result of Arsenal's efforts, a system of space marine reconnaissance and target finding, continuously inspecting the world's oceans, has been in use by the Defense Ministry since the 1970's.
    In 1981 Arsenal has been officially given the status of the country's chief organization for the creation of space ocean-inspecting systems. Since then, the construction bureau's space projects became its main area of work. Over the past years Arsenal and its partners have created and put into operation 76 space units of the "Cosmos" series.
   Over its course of work, Arsenal has actively participated in the realization of the country's large-scale space programs, "Cosmos" and "Energia-Buran", and also the international projects "Wind-Conus" and "Water Start".
    At the present time Arsenal is one of the leaders of Russia's space technology. In November, 1995 Arsenal has been awarded the Golden International Star "for excellence of quality and corporate image" in Madrid. Arsenal became the first space technology company in Russia to receive this award. In March, 1997 the construction bureau was awarded the International Quality Prize in Paris. In April 1998 Arsenal has received the European Quality Award Certificate.
   Facing the 21st Century
   In late 1990's Arsenal, like many other Russian enterprises, finds itself in a difficult situation due to the sharp reduction of defense projects' financing. To strengthen its economical standing, the construction bureau is conducting conversion processes. Specifically, certain wind energy units, gas energy batteries and medical equipment models have been developed. Some developments in the bureau's traditional areas of cryogenic and compressor technologies have also been made. Yet it is apparent that the bureau's technological potential can only be used fully in space technology projects aimed at the solution of scientific, social and economical problems, and the bureau considers this direction of its work most important.
   Upon the completion of Arsenal's marine reconnaissance system's space unit project, most of its work in the space technology area was redirected towards the development of space units for scientific, socioeconomic and commercial purposes. The Lotus and Pion ("Peony") spaceships are intended for the radiophysical examination of the Earth's surface. Predvestnik ("Forerunner") is used in studying physical events that are forerunners to earthquakes and for their effective predictions. Obzor ("Surveyor") is used in radiolocational scanning of the Earth's surface for purposes of natural resource exploration and ecological monitoring.
   In the process of conversion some of Arsenal's existing space units of the "Cosmos" series are being supplemented with additional machinery, able to solve problems of fundamental and applied science. "Conus-A" became the first project to be realized. This space experiment was conducted on the Arsenal-made Cosmos 2326 space unit, put into operation in December 1995. The "Conus-A" exploratory apparatus, developed by Ioffe's Physics Technical Institute for the studying of gamma-ray splashes, one of the most intriguing phenomena of modern astrophysics, has been installed on this space unit. The observation of gamma-splashes has simultaneously been done by the U.S. Wind space unit, equipped with similar Russian-made "Conus" apparatus. During Cosmos 2326's flight, valuable scientific data was gathered and this exploration program was carried further on the Cosmos 2367 space unit, made by Arsenal. The realization of the "Conus-A" project has demonstrated the rationality of this direction in space technology conversion and the possibility of solving important science problems with moderate financial investments, which is particularly important in our time.
   Since 1990 Arsenal, in co-operation with the Institute of Earth Magnetism, Ionic Sphere and Radio Wave Diffusion has carried out a wide spectrum of works for the purposes of short-term earthquake prediction. The "Forerunner" project is ultimately aimed at the creation of a space system of earthquake forerunners monitoring in the future. This will allow to considerably reduce the number of human casualties and lower the levels of damage done by earthquakes. The project is planned on the basis of the latest research findings, obtained by scientists over the last two decades. The bureau's works are supported by the Russian Space and Aviation Agency. The first stage in the realization of the "Forerunner" project will consist of a specialized space experiment. With regard to the project's global humanitarian value, Arsenal is currently seeking foreign partners to participate in its sponsorship.
   Arsenal is also working on the promising "Surveyor" space project. This project is aimed at the development of a space radiolocational system for observing the Earth, exploring natural resources and conducting ecological monitoring. The system will exceed all existing and developing space systems of distance scanning in terms of its informative content. The use of a complex of important new methods for processing multi-wavelengh multiply-polarized scanning results, developed by the Institute of Space Geological Exploration (St. Petersburg) is a major element of the system's design. These methods have opened up the possibility to collect data not only about the Earth's surface, but also about the inside layers of the Earth. This presents unique opportunities for geological scanning. The use of the "Surveyor" system will allow a sharp increase in the effectiveness of natural resource explorations and will reduce the scale and cost of surface geological explorations, improving the reliability of ecological evaluations. Arsenal is presently in search of investors in order to expand this commercially profitable project.
   The space platform is the basis for any space unit's development by the construction company. Arsenal's experts have completed the design of a basic medium-class space platform, compatible with the Soyuz-2 rocket-carrier. Platforms for small space units are currently being developed. On the basis of these platforms Arsenal will be able to create new space units freely, meeting a wide spectrum of scientific and socioeconomic needs. Foreign and domestic consumers are offered a complex of services called "Platform", which includes integrating the customer's machinery with any space platform, launching the space unit and carrying out flight control, receiving and processing data from the space unit and sending it to the customer.
   In addition, Arsenal offers a number of civil-purpose products, such as autonomous wind energetics devices with power capacity up to 25 kWt; autonomous mobile gas electricity generators with up to 16 kWt capacity; halocarbon-free stationary and automobile refrigerators with freezing capacities of up to 6 kWt; spiral compessor units for moving automobile parts' air systems (up to 1 cubic meter per minute with the working pressure of up to 10 atmospheres); multi-purpose drilling complexes for hydrogeological shafts up to 300 meters deep and up to 300 millimeters in diameter.
   Arsenal has highly reliable and qualified working partners. Its major projects are realized on the Arsenal Machine-building Factory in St. Petersburg.
   Brief Information about Arsenal's Administration
   Fedotov Leonid Dmitrievich, First Deputy General Director and First Deputy General Constructor. Born in 1937. Graduated from the Leningrad Military Technology Institute. Works at Arsenal since 1960. Well-known expert in rocket technology, author of numerous inventions and research works.
   Sedykh Vadim Lukich, Deputy General Director and Chief Engineer. Born in 1934, graduated from the Leningrad Military Technology Institute. Works at Arsenal since 1958. Prominent expert in rocket design and information technology. Author of many inventions and research projects. Chairman of the St. Petersburg Committee of Russia's Space Federation, member of the "Nevsky Bastion" military technology almanach's editorial staff.
   Sapozhnikov Vladimir Ivanovich, Deputy General Constructor on issues of conversion, marketing and external affairs. Born in 1935, graduated from the Leningrad Military Technology Institute. Well-known expert in the area of various-purpose gear production. Many inventions and research works in the area of rocket technology.

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