Yuzhmash

In 1944, the leadership of the USSR decided to build new automobile and car assembly plants in Kutaisi, Dnepropetrovsk, Odessa, Novosibirsk and Irkutsk.

After the liberation of Dnepropetrovsk, July 21, 1944, the State Defense Committee (GKO) adopted a resolution on the construction of a new automobile plant here. The plant was founded on the site of the aircraft engine plant, the construction of which was begun before the Great Patriotic War , but was not completed.

In 1951, the Dnepropetrovsk Automobile Plant became part of the Southern Machine-Building Plant production association.

The R-12 rocket, created at Yuzhmash, became the most massive ballistic missile in the USSR. After the production of the R-14 rocket began. At that time, it was the most powerful single-stage rocket in the world.

In 1983-1993, the Pavlograd Mechanical Plant, which was part of Yuzhmash Production Association, produced the RT-23 UTTKh Molodets rockets for the Combat Railway Missile Complex , which was armed with the Strategic Missile Forces of the USSR Armed Forces and the Russian Armed Forces ^[1] .

In 1995, a contract was signed for the production of Zenit launch vehicles for the Sea Launch project. In 1999, as part of this project, the first launch of the Zenit rocket took place. ^[2]

In 2008, the first launch of the Zenit rocket under the Ground Launch program took place from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. ^[2]

On February 13, 2012, the first launch of the Vega launch vehicle was carried out, one of the engines for which ( RD-843 ) is manufactured at Yuzhmash. On September 12, 2013, the first successful launch of the Antares American launch vehicle took place, for which part of the 1st stage units is produced at Yuzhmash. ^[2]

In 2014, the production of Zenit launch vehicles at Yuzhmash was suspended. ^[3] This dealt a severe blow to the enterprise, which Zenit production brought about 80% of revenue. According to the representative of Yuzhmash, “two or three orders for Zenit launch vehicles in recent years have allowed us to make ends meet and pay workers wages.” ^{[4] [5]}

According to the results of 2015, the sales volume of Yuzhmash products amounted to only 585 million hryvnias (about $ 25 million). For comparison, in 2011, the plant’s revenue was UAH 1.9 billion ($ 240 million). ^{[6] [7]} In July 2015, the assistant to the general director of Yuzhmash, Vladimir Tkachenko, reported that the plant had been unplugged for two weeks, the bathrooms were not working, there were delays in the payment of salaries to employees of the enterprise, etc. ^[8]

In 2016, the Yuzhmash plant increased the load of the enterprise by one and a half times. ^[9] The plant however remained in a crisis situation. In particular, problems remained with the payment of electricity bills, as well as with the payment of salaries. ^{[10] [11]}

In 2017, the head of the State Space Agency of Ukraine Yuriy Radchenko described the state of Yuzhmash as follows: “After the Sea Launch project was stopped, the plant has no serious orders. <...> By and large, in addition to the serial Zenit rocket, the plant today has no other point of application of effort. There are some minor contracts with foreign customers for internal cooperation. But they cannot replace those volumes of production for which the plant was designed. Its infrastructure and capacities make it possible to produce dozens of missiles annually, but we have not made a single missile in the last three years. ” ^[12]

The first stage of the Antares rocket

Yuzhmash is manufacturing the first-stage basic structure of the Antares launch vehicle. ^[fourteen]

RD-843 engine for Vega rocket

Yuzhmash is manufacturing the RD-843 engine for the 4th stage of the Vega launch vehicle. The mass of the engine is 16.5 kg, traction - 0.25 tf. ^[fifteen]

Zenit booster

Until 2014, Yuzhmash launched Zenit launch vehicles for the Sea Launch and Land Launch programs. In 2014, the production of Zenit was suspended. ^{[7] [3]}

In June 2017, Yuzhmash announced the signing of a contract with the Russian company S7 for the supply of Zenit missiles for the Sea Launch project ^[3] . In March 2019, the media reported that the management of S7 Space informed the Yuzhmash plant about the suspension and the planned termination of this contract ^{[16] [17]} .

Tractors

Back in the late 1950s, to conceal the secret production of missiles and other military-space products, as well as in connection with the need to increase the production of agricultural equipment in the USSR, the Minsk Tractor Plant , the Southern Machine-Building Plant provided documentation for the production of the MTZ- universal wheeled tractor 5 . Its production at Yuzhmash began in 1958 and continued until 1972.

In the 1960s, already at Yuzhmash itself, a more advanced family of YuMZ-6 wheel tractors was developed, which was produced from 1970 to 2001. YuMZ-6 tractors have become the most massive, especially in the construction industry. It was on them in the 70s - 80s that mounted mounted excavator plants of the type EO-2621A and EO-2621V were installed. These tractors could be easily distinguished from Minsk by the presence of a two-tone color.

Other

Booster Cyclone ^[18] , satellites ( Dnepropetrovsk satellite ), rocket engines, wind turbines, equipment for the food industry, aircraft landing gear An-140 , An-148 , An-158 , etc.

The plant also produced trolleybuses YuMZ-T1 , YuMZ-T2 and YuMZ E186 , Dnepr-T103 , Dnepr-T203 ; A186 bus.

• 1961 - 1986 - Alexander Makarov
• 1986 - 1992 - Leonid Kuchma
• 1992 - 2005 - Yuri Alekseev
• 2005 - 2014 - Victor Schegol
• 2014 - n. at. - Sergey Voight

• Design Bureau South
• Sapsan (missile system)

• Official site of Yuzhmash
• Yuzhmash containers may leave for the USA (inaccessible link) - Business Capital
• Yuzhmash tests A-186 bus of its own design
• The Ukrainian engine today delivers European satellites into orbit, but ...