Scientific Production Association
The Scientific Production Association (Russian: Научно-производственное объединение, romanized: Nauchno-proizvodstvennoye obyedineniye, NPO) is a form of scientific research-to-production facility in the Soviet Union and its successor states, including Russia and Ukraine.
They first appeared in the late 1960s, after a Soviet decree was approved on 24 September 1968 to reform research and development structures; by 1980 there were 250 NPOs in the Soviet Union.[1]
NPOs were established to consolidate research and production activities into a single entity.[2] They were meant to bridge the technological gap between design bureaus and production plants, as new designs were often developed without considering the technical capabilities of the production facilities, leading to long delays between the start of development and serial production.[3]
They are usually headed by a research or design organization.[4] Though they exist in many sectors, they are most common in electrical engineering, electronics, aviation, instrument-making and chemical industries.[1]
List of NPOs
- NPO Altair
- NPO Almaz
- NPO Antey
- NPO Energomash (Moscow)
- NPO ELSIB (Novosibirsk)
- NPO Novator (Yekaterinburg)
- NPO Almaz (Moscow)
- NPO Avtomatiki (Yekaterinburg)
- NPO Lavochkin (Khimki)
- NPO Mashinostroyeniya (Reutov)
- NPO Molniya (Moscow)
- NPO Orion (Moscow)
- NPO Polyot (Omsk)
- NPO Splav (Tula)
- NPO Tekhnomash (Moscow)
- NPO Toriy (Moscow)
- NPO Trud/Kusnetsov (Samara)[5][6]
- NPO Yuzhnoye (Dnipro) designers of the R-12 Dvina rocket[5]
References
- Guroff, Gregory; Carstensen, Fred V. (2014). Entrepreneurship in Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9781400855285.
- Rockets and People, Volume III, Hot Days of the Cold War. Government Printing Office. ISBN 9780160867125.
- Kassel, Simon (1989). Soviet Advanced Technologies in the Era of Restructuring (PDF). p. 51.
- Barry, Donald D.; Gingsburgs, George; Maggs, Peter B. (1979). Soviet Law After Stalin: Soviet Institutions and the Administration of Law. BRILL. ISBN 9028606793.
- "Iran Missile Chronology" (PDF). Nuclear Threat Initiative. August 2011. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
- Shahab-5/IRSL-X-3, KOSAR/IRIS