Anyway, foreign policy aside, here are a few things to note about the update:
Rough Airstrips and Their Historic Impact on Soviet Aviation: The use of rougher and shorter airstrips than in the West especially at secondary and tertiary airports has been one of the defining factors that developed much of the Soviet aviation of the 1960s. Shorthaul aircraft were built first for rough field landing and short stopping distances with all other concerns secondary, making the flights some of the least efficient in the world due to lacking infrastructure development. The trend would only reverse through the early 70s as an increased focus on the aviation industry led to investment coming into airports, necessitating a new generation of soviet aircraft that could now focus on passenger transport and efficiency then almost military adjacent technical concerns. -Book, History of the Soviet Aviation Industry
Airports are definitely overdue, we should probably get at least another stage done, and perhaps get started on the Tupolev plant next turn.
Kursk Steel Mills(Stage 2/2): The maximalization of the KMA represents the last high-yield easy iron ore that can be domestically brought into exploitation and extraction. There are lower-grade deposits scattered all over the Union but soon enough further expansions to the steel industry will take imports of ore. The current mills are expected to form an expanded metallurgical complex on the site, increasing the production of steel and supplying the rapidly growing Western automotive industry. Shipbuilding is expected to further increase demand for steel as the Union grows, with more production necessary to keep domestic prices stable. (257/200) (-32 CI6 Electricity -9 Steel +2 Coal +1 General Labor +1 Educated Labor) (+40 RpY) (Completed)
With this, we have finally reached the limits of economic steel production for now. I think we might get a complex in the Far East to use imported Australian or Chinese ore, but we might want to just... let it be for a bit. We are not utilizing infra dice to their fullest extent, and more steel mills using hydropower will become available next plan. It might be worth it to simply let steel prices rise a bit to instead focus on other elements of our heavy industry.
Kansk-Achinsk Basin Exploitation(Stage 3/5) (327/150 Stage 3 Complete) (176/175 Stage 4 Complete) (1/200 Stage 5) (-100 CI5 Electricity -22 Coal +2 General Labor)
The deposit itself also runs deeper than expected, forming a new great basin for extraction and powering Soviet industry, if one that is dependent on cheap electricity.
We had some luck here, and this should give us some breathing room for at least one turn. Then we can do Donets and then move on to Kuzbas, which became cheaper than Kansk-Achinsk this turn. The latter now has the same amount of progress as it, but has more expensive dice. Also, the blurb implies at least another stage for this project, I suspect we will unlock it through the Kiev plant, but I think we can afford to delay its completion by one turn unless we do manual coal power plants.
Atomash(Stage 1/3): The development of a dedicated center of reactor manufacturing has been theorized through much of the past plan with little concrete work done on development. Now that the nation has mobilized massive industrial and technical resources the project itself can be made into a reality. The plant itself is meant for the series assembly line production of VVER-1000 cores along with several facilities for the production of associated turbines and machinery. The project represents one of the largest economic investments and is going to be definitive for the economy of Rostov. Initial production lots will take at least two years to improve production to scale from completion with current plans calling for the capacity to produce four nuclear cores per year. (406/300 Stage 1 Complete) (106/200 Stage 2) (-104 CI10 Electricity +2 Steel +1 Non-Ferrous +2 Educated Labor) (Unlocks Power Plant Construction(Nuclear VVER-1000): (-360RpY, +90 Electricity/y, and +20 RpY Post Construction))Atomash
Finally, some good progress on this. As expected, the dice for this are extremely expensive, though they will probably decrease in cost with economies of scale and are a significant improvement from the 320 RpY for 40 electricity, and should further improve with further stages. About twice as efficient in fact. Next stage should be another 200 progress, so with another 4 dice we should have a 76% chance of completion, we can definitely afford to put 2 dice this turn, freeing up a lot of resources to invest elsewhere.
Gorky Automotive Plant Modernization: With a specialization in the production of different models of cars and providing direct competition to VAZ, the modernization of the Gorky plant is also essential. Industrial automation is expected to significantly improve production with a new generation of cars already developed incorporating several major improvements. A strong increase in automotive manufacturing in Gorky is expected to help local employment, providing tens of thousands of high-paying jobs with new automated lines. (226/175) (Completed) (-79 CI5 Electricity +5 Steel +1 Petrochemicals +1 Educated Labor) (+100 RpY)
As expected, investing in our automotive industry yields huge returns, we should definitely get VAZ done by the end of the plan, another 100 or so RpY would be extremely helpful for our cash strapped 76-80 plan.
Engineered Wood Production (292/175) (Over Completed) (-42 CI4 Electricity +3 Petrochemicals +3 General Labor) (+40 RpT)
Unfortunate we overcompleted here, I am pretty sure we were supposed to get more than 40 RpT, at least we got some more employment. But intensification and extensive development definitely have their costs.
Gas Infrastructure: The massive Eastern gas fields are stuck with an inadequate connection towards the west with a new pipeline essential for keeping up with the demand. Construction needs to start in the short term as future production increases will be necessary to keep pace with the demands of the power industry. The line itself will focus on the primary route with fields built up and attached later as they are developed. Current pipelines will effectively be built around a high-diameter new system spanning from East to West to supply an increasing gas fraction across the Volga region and Moscow. (233/150) (Completed) (Gas Price now Tracked, No CMEA/International price as the transfer is not possible)
Finally gas has become its own resource, this was long overdue, I am very glad we now track it. We will likely get manual gas power plants, which are definitely preferable to coal since the latter is a resource to be husbanded, and dedicated projects to its extraction instead of getting it as a byproduct. We definitely need to push gas hard, so we get projects to transport it to European CMEA as soon as possible. Their coal prices should rise above 40 this turn or the next, and our petrol is going to become more expensive than ME oil, so I suspect they will start importing it (which will need tankers, so we should do Baltic Sea Shipyards)
and using it for power production, leaving them even more vulnerable to oil shock.
Water Management Programs: Officially admitting that water resources are limited and that no radical programs are coming to solve the problem is a monumental step. Limiting water itself is an open question and is almost certainly politically impossible but simple hardening and ensuring that catchment basins can be preserved can slow down the losses. An assessment of current irrigation works can be started to pioneer methods of reducing evaporation and increasing retention. Water savings are unlikely to reach even a fifth of required standards but buying more time for more effective measures is still worthwhile. (285+15 Cannon Omake/300) (Completed)
Evaluations of drip irrigation systems have proven logistically challenging, if possible through the commitment of significant technical effort. Advanced polymer rolls have allowed for the irrigation of wide swaths of soil without excessive difficulty or soil pollution of water channels. Deployment of new systems is expected to be gradual and primarily focused on the parched areas of the Union, favoring crops that do not utilize excess quantities of mechanization and those that can be placed into static rows. The immense promise of the program has broadly failed as current technical limitations prevent its use for primary caloric crops, but the effective water impact of several vegetable cultivars has almost been more than halved.
The large promise offered by solving the water issues in the USSR through a single technique has failed but the facilities rapidly developed for it can still be brought to use. New irrigation system developments are usable across many cultivars of fruit with current recommendations for the shift of virgin land areas in hot zones to the planting of fruit trees and selective vegetable cultivars. Increased transport across the deep water system promises a further reduction of prices and even if the land cannot become a second breadbasket it can become a second North Caucuses. -Report by the Agricultural Water Commission
Our water management programs have underdelivered, showing the limitations of drip irrigation in more conventional agriculture. However, it seems like its infrastructure will allow Central Asia to grow vegetables and other less extensive crops, so it definitely not a wash. And going by the blurb, I imagine this will significantly benefit our
[]Intensification of Central Asian Agriculture project.
Fuel Oil Reduction Plans: Eliminating the use of high-viscosity fuel oils in power production will take time, but as a measure, it can reduce the impact on the petrochemical industry. The heaviest of oils effectively require heavy refining to be made into useable fractions but they still can be at affordable rates. Current coal power stations that are running on fuel oils will be presented with a plan for use reduction to eliminate its use by 1980. Accompanying programs for its cracking and refinement will be put underway to finalize the transition away from wasteful uses of limited oil. (63) (+2 Coal Use until 1980, Two -6 Petroleum Fuel Projects Available)
Initial plans for the ecological transition towards coal power have begun to spare petroleum for other uses. The heavy fuel oil itself is of a grade poor enough to be used in some naval vessels but the majority of it is closer to bitumen than usable fractions. Dedicated cracking infrastructure has been pioneered if not yet fielded at a large scale to sufficiently process the petrochemical product. The economics of the matter are further deeply questionable as it is expected for the state to take a significant loss processing the heaviest of oils. Some have advocated for the use of refinery infrastructure to process imported heavy oils, but those comprise a tiny share of the market and are primarily from the Americas.
We definitely want to do those cracking plants sooner rather than later, making those fuel oil fractions usable will probably slow down our field depletion a bit, and I expect for the "significant loss" Balakirev/Klim expect to turn into a profit when the oil crisis does hit. It might also make our oil projects get us a tiny bit more oil.
