Automated Control Systems as a Strategic Tool for Decision Making and Forecasting in a tate-Planned Economy
Introduction. In the 1960s, the USSR and the United States raced not only in the sphere of arms and space exploration, but also in various socio-economic spheres, including advanced automated management systems in the field of economics, which treated economy as a single object of management. Study objects and methods. The present research involved declassified archival documents, as well as domestic and foreign works on automated control systems (ACS). Results and discussion. The authors analyzed the fundamental goals and objectives set by the leaders of the two superpowers, focusing on the nationwide automated processing and control systems (NAPCS), their operation principles, and the reasons behind their failure. They compared NAPCS with alternative systems, e.g. ACS-70, ACS-80, the system of the Kuntsevo radio engineering plant, ARPANET, etc., as well as with modern systems that were based on the Soviet heritage. Conclusion. Apparently, the USSR won the first part of the ACS race, but the project failed, and the USA with its ARPANET (1969) became the undisputed leader. However, most contemporary Russian situation centers are based on the Soviet studies.