On November 18, 2014 in the “Davos” hall of the “Red Hills” hotel the Intensive Special Course for staff reserve of defense enterprises’ managers entitled “Strategic management” was inaugurated. Organizers and developers of the special course are: Collegium of the Military-Industrial Commission under the Government of the Russian Federation, the “Analytics” Association, the RAS Institute for Economic Strategies. At the opening ceremony the Deputy Chairman of the Collegium of the RF Military-Industrial Commission Oleg Bochkarev addressed the audience, representatives of major defense enterprises. The main topics of conversation were the issues of defense industry development, the state defense order and HR policy in the industry.

The article examines the development imperatives of “tomorrow weapons” for the Russian army. It is shown that war in the Arctic and cyberwarfare, as well as “slow wars” and “cryptowarfare” require fundamentally new approaches. Attention is paid to long-term work organization schemes in the defense-industrial complex providing development of competition, as well as to the important role that could be played by the Russian Academy of Sciences and its institutions in the expertise of promising projects in the field of arms and in designing the future.

The articles presents studies results of the military expenditure effect on the state economy. It is shown that this effect is ambiguous, that in today’s Russia SDO funding up to 3% of GDP is positive and will contribute to the country’s economic development.