Issues of Legal Regulation of Contracts for the Performance of Development Work in the Process of Digital Transformation of the Defense Industry of the Russian Federation

The purpose of the research. The authors of the article conduct a study of the legal prerequisites for the digital transformation of the defense industry of the Russian Federation, analyze their features for contracts for the performance of experimental design work, and assess the existing digital contractual instruments in order to determine the possibility of their application for experimental design work (RD) in the future of industrial digitalization. Results. As a result of the conducted research, the authors come to the conclusion that in the process of digitalization, the technical component of RD work will be subject to legal regulation much earlier than its legal component—the conclusion of the contract. Such a division will arise due to the uneven pace of digital transformation of industry, the prevailing part of which is the direction to increase the speed of development of its industries, innovation, and, therefore, the competitiveness of manufactured products. At the same time, legal regulation of RD in terms of contracts will become a logical consequence of the digital transformation of the technical component and will be expressed in the development of legal regulation of procurement activities, the conclusion of contracts for the implementation of RD in the form of modified smart contracts, unification with contracts for the implementation of research and development work into a single type—research and development activities.