Some of these days the first open general meeting of members of Non-Departmental Advisory Board on Aerospace Defense (NAB ASD) was held at the Cultural Center of the RF Armed Forces. This is a unique organization that accumulates expert scientific resources of ASD professionals. The representatives of the State Duma, the Federation Council, the Russian Federation government, the ASD Forces Command, the Major Air Command, the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff, the Office of the Director of armaments, heads of research institutes and defense industry enterprises took part in the work of the forum.

A tone of the discussion was set by chairman of the presidium of the Non-Departmental Advisory Board, Doctor of Engineering Science Igor Ashurbeyli.

“In the age of globalization of the threats from air and space, not only for Russia or coalitions of states, but also for humanity, - underlined the speaker, - the task of developing the aerospace defense could be one of the missions of Russia, a part of its national idea”.

In such a case, as Igor Ashurbeyli considers, it’s necessary “to remove the theater of possible military operations out of the RF borders” all the way to the territory of the potential aggressor in order to provide adequate security for the country. In this regard several original technical ideas were suggested by the chief of NAB ASD.

Igor Ashurbeyli proposed to introduce a new term – the integrated system of aerospace defense (IS ASD). This idea, as we should note, is deeply rooted: in 2007 at the suggestion of Ashurbeyli, who then headed SPA “Almaz” named after Academician Raspletin, the concept of developing the integrated system of air and missile defense AD-ABM (IS IMD AD-ABM) was put forward and approved by the RF Military-Industrial Commission. Now, in view of expansion of the tasks set by President Vladimir Putin for the aerospace defense, the concept of developing IS ASD was proposed. In such a case, IS IMD AD-ABM will be one of its elements.

Igor Ashurbeyli also underlined that unlike the Defense Ministry, where at the end of last year the military forces of ASD, the unified command and the customer had been formed, in the defense industry no such centralization had happened. There are only a number of large organizations developing separate, often unrelated arms and military equipment for ASD and that’s not answerable to the necessity of creating IS ASD under the sole command. Igor Ashurbeyli proposed to organize the Russian Federal Center of the Aerospace Defense and to consider what shape would be optimal for such structure.

The problems of the European antiballistic missile defense, international integration in the issues of ASD require serious domestic legal framework which is now practically non-existent in Russia. In this regard, it was suggested to activate the work on the preparation and publication of the “Law on ASD of Russia”.

Large systemic reports were also made at the meeting by Chief of the Command Headquarters of the air and missile defense AD-ABM of the ASD Military Forces Major General Andrei Demin, president of the Academy of Military Science, General of the Army Mahmud Gareyev, and the other competent experts.

The event that took place, in fact, in the form of a military-scientific conference was resulted in the decision to entrust the presidium with the task to elaborate a report for the country's leadership. The main conclusions of the report are: first, it’s necessary to create the integrated system of aerospace defense (IS ASD). In such a case NAB ASD is naturally ready to take an active part in the development of this integrated system.
Secondly, it is proposed to set up under the Military-Industrial Commission of the Russian Federation Government the expert community on the basis of NAB ASD by signing the corresponding agreement.
Third, in order to concentrate forces in the defense industry complex on creation of IS ASD it’s appropriate to organize in 2012 the Russian Federal Center of ASD (RFC ASD) and charge it with systems integrator functions in the ASD field as well as to appoint it as the only performer of the above-noted work since 2013. Fourthly, it is necessary to entrust the preparation of the proposals on the draft documents for the creation of IS ASD and RFC ASD to the Non-Departmental Advisory Board under the guidance of the Military-Industrial Commission and with the participation of the RF Ministry of Defense and the other concerned authorities and industrial enterprises.

Non-Departmental Advisory Board on Aerospace Defense (NAB ASD)
It was set up in 2003 at the initiative of Igor Ashurbeyli by a constituent group and combines efforts of the eminent scientists, military leaders and defense industry workers who have reach experience in the field of ASD. Among the co-chairmen of the NAB ASD Presidium there are member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Hero of Socialist Labor, research supervisor of OJSC “SPA “Almaz” Boris Bunkin, General of the Army, advisor of the General Director of SPA “Almaz” Anatoly Kornukov.

For the implementation of the research activities the Board has an appropriate license issued by the Center for Licensing, Certification and Protection of State Secrets of RF FSB. In January 2012 the amendments of the Chapter were inserted (registered by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation in May this year), a new presidium of NAB ASD headed by Igor Ashurbeyli was elected. The number of the members of the Board was increased to 100, and they represent 46 companies and institutions. The scientific potential of the Board includes five members of the Russian Academy of Sciences, more than 70 PhDs, and 29 generals. The total number of the research employees at the enterprises and institutions represented in NAB ASD is more than 15 000, and more than 7,500 researchers - in the interacting public and scientific organizations.

NAB ASD concluded the general agreements on cooperation with nine leading public and scientific organizations in the field of the military-industrial complex. The press organ of the Board is magazine “Aerospace Defense”.

The Non-Departmental Advisory Board operates in four structural areas:
1. Geopolitics, threats and dangers for the national security of the Russian Federation from the aerospace zone. International and Russian rules and regulations of building and developing the Russian Federation aerospace defense system RF ASD system.
2. Military building of the RF ASD system. The forms and methods of warfare in the aerospace zone.
3. Armament plan of the RF ASD system. Modernization of the defense industry to meet the challenges of creating the RF ASD system.
4. Military and economic expertise and pricing of arms and military equipment for ASD RF.