A high-tech version of swords into plowshares. (WIP).

During the Cold War, the Siberian city of Zheleznogorsk was home to hundreds of engineers busily making ballistic missiles destined to be pointed at the U.S.. You've probably not heard of Zheleznogorsk: it was so secret the Soviet government denied that it even existed. Today, many of those same highly trained people are looking for work, and they may find it in Detroit via the Internet.

Luna Technical Services (Livonia, MI), a 30-person firm that provides engineering and project management services to automotive companies, has set up an electronic trial communication program with a group of Russian engineers from Zheleznogorsk. The goal: using their CAD/CAE skills to design auto parts 

The idea is not a new one. U.S. companies have been electronically outsourcing engineering to other countries for years, most notably to India, but Winston J. Lindsley, president of International Technological Information Consultants [ITIC; Fairfax, VA], the company that employs the Russian engineers, says that the Soviet-established educational system in Russia produces people with superior math and science skills.

ITIC engineers have already designed wheels and other parts for Russian automotive suppliers, and, according to Lindsley, "I am 100% sure we will have a contract in Detroit within the next one to two months." He cites the fact that Bush administration officials and Congressional leaders speak regularly about the need to help Russia's nuclear industry find work, but claims that outside of ITIC, Pepsi and Coca-Cola are the only visible American companies in Zheleznogorsk [and chances are they are not employing nuclear engineers to tweak their cola formulas.] He sees the current low fortunes of Russia's engineers as a tremendous opportunity for the U.S. auto industry to both get high-quality CAD/CAE work done with alacrity, and to help meet America's political goal of aiding Russia.

Rich Lewandowski, Luna's vice president of Business Development, hadn't even considered the political implications when AD&P talked to him. His focus was 100% on the bottom line. According to Lewandowski, Luna's engineering services are often contracted by automakers and suppliers when projects are behind schedule, so the company must maintain the flexibility to ramp-up and ramp-down projects quickly. Therefore, having a group of highly-trained engineers whose skills can be accessed via the Internet as needed would be a definite business strength.

And, inasmuch as Luna's client list includes some of the biggest companies in the automotive industry like Ford (Lewandowski says his company has complete design responsibility for the Econoline van, including representing Ford to suppliers], Delphi, Magna, and Lear, we may soon see Russian engineering skills developed for the Cold War in some hot new American vehicles.