Rocket weapons. Weapon of the century. Best rockets Types of rockets

Chapter 28. Creation of other types of missile weapons In addition to working on the A-4 itself, Peenemünde and the factories attached to it, even in the last months of its existence, were studying new possibilities for the creation and use of missile weapons. In the fall of 1943, Lafferentz,

III. Classes Let's leave the lord, let's leave the bourgeois who from a neighboring city or town manage their land or receive rent from it. These people were not, in essence, part of peasant society. Let's limit ourselves to this last one; it consists of farmers, directly

What is the structure of a multistage rocket Let's look at the classic example of a rocket for space flight, described in the works of Tsiolkovsky, the founder of rocket science. It was he who was the first to publish the fundamental idea of ​​​​manufacturing a multi-stage rocket.

The principle of operation of the rocket.

In order to overcome gravity, a rocket needs a large supply of fuel, and the more fuel we take, the greater the mass of the rocket. Therefore, to reduce the mass of the rocket, they are built on the multi-stage principle. Each stage can be considered as a separate rocket with its own rocket engine and fuel supply for flight.

Construction of space rocket stages.

First stage of a space rocket the largest, in a rocket for flight, the space of the 1st stage engines can be up to 6 and the heavier the load that needs to be launched into space, the more engines there are in the first stage of the rocket.

In the classic version there are three of them, located symmetrically along the edges of an isosceles triangle, as if encircling the perimeter of the rocket. This stage is the largest and most powerful; it is the one that lifts off the rocket. When the fuel in the first stage of a rocket is used up, the entire stage is discarded.

After this, the rocket's movement is controlled by the second stage engines. They are sometimes called boosters, since it is with the help of the second stage engines that the rocket reaches its first escape velocity, sufficient to enter low-Earth orbit.

This can be repeated several times, with each rocket stage weighing less than the previous one, since the Earth’s gravitational force decreases with altitude.

The number of times this process is repeated is the number of stages a space rocket contains. The last stage of the rocket is designed for maneuvering (propulsion engines for flight correction are present in each stage of the rocket) and delivering the payload and astronauts to their destination.

We reviewed the device and rocket operating principle, ballistic missiles are designed in exactly the same way and are not fundamentally different from space rockets multistage rockets, terrible weapon carrying nuclear weapons. They are capable of completely destroying both life on the entire planet and life itself.

Multistage ballistic missiles They enter low-Earth orbit and from there they hit ground targets with split warheads with nuclear warheads. Moreover, it takes them 20-25 minutes to fly to the most remote point.

At the end of 1993, Russia announced the development of a new domestic missile, designed to become the basis of a promising grouping missile forces strategic purpose. The development of the 15Zh65 (RS-12M2) rocket, called Topol-M, is being carried out by a Russian cooperation of enterprises and design bureaus. The lead developer of the missile system is the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering.

The Topol-M missile is being created as a modernization of the RS-12M ICBM. The conditions for modernization are determined by the START-1 Treaty, according to which a missile is considered new if it differs from the existing one (analogue) in one of the following ways:
number of steps;
type of fuel of any stage;
starting weight by more than 10%;
the length of either the assembled rocket without the warhead, or the length of the first stage of the rocket by more than 10%;
the diameter of the first stage by more than 5%;
throw weight of more than 21% combined with a change in first stage length of 5% or more.

Thus, the mass-dimensional characteristics and some design features of the Topol-M ICBM are strictly limited.

The stage of state flight testing of the Topol-M missile system took place at 1-GIK MO. In December 1994, the first launch took place from a silo launcher. April 28, 2000 The State Commission approved the act on the adoption of the Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile into service by the Strategic Missile Forces of the Russian Federation.

The deployment of units is a regiment in Tatishchevo (Saratov region) (since November 12, 1998), military unit in Altai (near the village of Sibirsky, Pervomaisky district, Atai Territory). The first two Topol-M /RS-12M2/ missiles were put on experimental combat duty in Tatishchevo in December 1997 after four test launches, and on December 30, 1998, the first regiment of 10 missiles of this type began combat duty.

The manufacturer of Topol-M missiles is the Votkinsk Machine-Building Plant State Enterprise. The nuclear warhead was created under the leadership of Georgy Dmitriev at Arzamas-16.

The RS-12M2 "Topol-M" missile is unified with the promising R-30 "Bulava" missiles, created to arm Project 955 strategic nuclear submarines.

In the west, the complex received the designation SS-X-27.

In the early 70s, the design bureau of Academician V. Makeev, in response to the deployment of naval ballistic missiles with multiple warheads (MIRVs) in the United States, began the development of two naval missiles with an intercontinental firing range: the liquid-propellant RSM-50 and the solid-fuel RSM-50. 52. The RSM-50 (R-29R, 3M40) missile, its control system and missile complex used circuit, design and technological solutions that were tested and tested on the R-29 (RSM-40) missiles.

The D-9R complex with the R-29R missile was created in an extremely short time, in less than four years, which allowed the Navy to begin deploying missiles with an intercontinental firing range and with multiple warheads two to three years earlier than abroad. Subsequently, the complex with the RSM-50 missile was repeatedly modernized, as a result of which the warheads were replaced with more advanced ones and the conditions for their combat use were expanded. For the first time, a new missile system ensured the formation of a salvo of any number of missiles, which was a very important operational-tactical circumstance.

The RSM-50 missile was intended to arm SSBNs of Project 667BDR (according to NATO classification - "Delta-III", according to the START-1 treaty - "Squid"). The lead boat K-441 entered service in December 1976. Between 1976 and 1984, the Northern and Pacific fleets received 14 submarines of this type with the D-9R complex. Nine of them are in the Pacific Fleet, and of the five Kalmars of the Northern Fleet, one was withdrawn from service in 1994.

Joint flight tests of the R-29R were carried out from November 1976 to October 1978 in Bely and Barents Seas on the lead boat K-441. A total of 22 missiles were launched, of which four were monoblock, six were three-block and 12 were seven-block. Positive test results made it possible to adopt a missile with MIRV IN as part of the D-9R missile system in 1979.

Based on the R-29 BR, three modifications were created: R-29R (three-block), R-29RL (monoblock), R-29RK (seven-block). Subsequently, the seven-round version was abandoned, mainly due to the imperfection of the warhead breeding system. Currently, the missile is in service with the Navy in its optimal three-block configuration.

The Volna launch vehicle was created on the basis of the R-29R rocket.

In the west, the complex received the designation SS-N-18 "Stingray".

In 1979, the design bureau of Academician V. Makeev began work on the design of a new intercontinental ballistic missile R-29RM (RSM-54, 3M37) of the D-9RM complex. The assignment for its design determined the task of creating a missile with an intercontinental flight range capable of hitting small-sized protected ground targets. The development of the complex was focused on achieving the highest possible tactical and technical characteristics with limited changes to the submarine design. The assigned tasks were solved by the development of an original three-stage rocket design with combined tanks of the last sustainment and combat stages, the use of engines with extreme characteristics, improving the rocket manufacturing technology and the characteristics of the materials used, increasing the dimensions and launch weight of the rocket due to the volumes per launcher when they are combined layout in a submarine missile silo.

A significant number of the new missile's systems were taken from the previous modification of the R-29R. This made it possible to reduce the cost of the rocket and reduce development time. Development and flight tests were carried out according to worked out scheme in three stages. The first used rocket models launched from a floating stand. Then joint flight tests of missiles from a ground stand began. At the same time, 16 launches were carried out, of which 10 were successful. At the final stage, the lead submarine K-51 "Name of the XXVI Congress of the CPSU" of Project 667BDRM was used.

The D-9RM missile system with the R-29RM missile was put into service in 1986. The R-29RM ballistic missiles of the D-9RM complex are armed with SSBNs Project 667BDRM of the Delta-4 type. The last boat of this type, K-407, entered service on February 20, 1992. In total, the Navy received seven Project 667BDRM missile carriers. They are currently in combat strength Russian Northern Fleet. Each of them houses 16 RSM-54 launchers with four nuclear units on each missile. These ships form the backbone of the naval component of the strategic nuclear forces. Unlike previous modifications of the 667 family, Project 667BDRM boats can launch a missile in any direction relative to the ship’s course of movement. Underwater launch can be carried out at depths of up to 55 meters at a speed of 6-7 knots. All missiles can be launched in one salvo.

Since 1996, the production of RSM-54 missiles has been discontinued, but in September 1999 the Russian government decided to resume production of the modernized version of the RSM-54 Sineva at the Krasnoyarsk Machine-Building Plant. The fundamental difference between this machine and its predecessor is that its stage sizes have been changed, 10 individually targeted nuclear units have been installed, the complex’s protection against electromagnetic pulses has been increased, and a system for overcoming enemy missile defenses has been installed. This missile incorporated a unique satellite navigation system and the Malachite-3 computer complex, which were intended for the Bark ICBM.

Based on the R-29RM rocket, the Shtil-1 launch vehicle with a throwable mass of 100 kg was created. With its help, for the first time in the world, an artificial earth satellite was launched from a submarine. The launch was carried out from an underwater position.

In the west, the complex received the designation SS-N-23 "Skiff".

Intercontinental ballistic missile Topol (RS-12M)

Development of strategic mobile complex"Topol" 15Zh58 (RS-12M), a three-stage intercontinental ballistic missile suitable for placement on a self-propelled vehicle chassis (based on the RT-2P solid-fuel ICBM), was launched at the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering under the leadership of Alexander Nadiradze in 1975. The government decree on the development of the complex was issued on July 19, 1977. After the death of A. Nadiradze, work was continued under the leadership of Boris Lagutin. The mobile Topol was supposed to be a response to increasing the accuracy of American ICBMs. It was necessary to create a complex with increased survivability, achieved not by building reliable shelters, but by creating vague ideas among the enemy about the location of the missile.

By the end of autumn 1983, a pilot series of new missiles, designated RT-2PM, was built. On December 23, 1983, flight development tests began at the Plesetsk training ground. During the entire period of their implementation, only one launch was unsuccessful. In general, the rocket showed high reliability. Combat units of the entire DBK were also tested there. In December 1984, the main series of tests was completed. However, there was a delay in the development of some elements of the complex that are not directly related to the rocket. The entire test program was successfully completed in December 1988.

The decision to begin mass production of the complexes was made in December 1984. Serial production began in 1985.

In 1984, the construction of stationary structures and the equipment of combat patrol routes for Topol mobile missile systems began. The construction objects were located in the position areas of the RT-2P and UR-100 intercontinental ballistic missiles being removed from duty and located in the OS silos. Later, the arrangement of position areas of the Pioneer medium-range complexes, which were removed from service under the INF Treaty, began.

In order to gain experience in operating the new complex in military units, in 1985 it was decided to deploy the first missile regiment in Yoshkar-Ola, without waiting for the full completion of the joint testing program. On July 23, 1985, the first regiment of mobile Topols took up combat duty near Yoshkar-Ola at the site of the deployment of RT-2P missiles. Later, the Topols entered service with the division stationed near Teykovo, which was previously armed with the UR-100 (8K84) ICBM.

On April 28, 1987, a missile regiment armed with Topol complexes with a Barrier mobile command post took up combat duty near Nizhny Tagil. PKP "Barrier" has a multiple protected redundant radio command system. The mobile launcher of the Barrier PKP carries a combat control missile. After the missile is launched, its transmitter gives the command to launch the ICBM.

On December 1, 1988, the new missile system was officially adopted by the USSR Strategic Missile Forces. In the same year, the full-scale deployment of missile regiments with the Topol complex began and the simultaneous removal of obsolete ICBMs from combat duty. On May 27, 1988, the first regiment of the Topol ICBM with an improved Granit PKP and an automated control system began combat duty near Irkutsk.

By mid-1991, 288 missiles of this type were deployed. In 1999, the Strategic Missile Forces were armed with 360 launchers of the Topol missile systems. They were on duty in ten position areas. Four to five regiments are based in each district. Each regiment is armed with nine autonomous launchers and a mobile command post.

The Topol missile divisions were deployed near the cities of Barnaul, Verkhnyaya Salda (Nizhny Tagil), Vypolzovo (Bologoe), Yoshkar-Ola, Teykovo, Yurya, Novosibirsk, Kansk, Irkutsk, as well as near the village of Drovyanaya in the Chita region. Nine regiments (81 launchers) were deployed in missile divisions on the territory of Belarus - near the cities of Lida, Mozyr and Postavy. After the collapse of the USSR, some of the Topols remained outside Russia, on the territory of Belarus. On August 13, 1993, the withdrawal of the Topol Strategic Missile Forces group from Belarus began and was completed on November 27, 1996.

In the west, the complex received the designation SS-25 "Sickle".

Strategic missile system R-36M2 Voevoda (15P018M) with ICBM 15A18M

The fourth-generation R-36M2 Voevoda (15P018M) missile system with the 15A18M heavy-class multi-purpose intercontinental missile was developed at the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau (Dnepropetrovsk) under the leadership of Academician V.F. Utkin in accordance with the tactical and technical requirements of the USSR Ministry of Defense and by the Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR dated 08/09/83, the Voevoda complex was created as a result of the implementation of a project to improve the heavy-class strategic strategic complex R-36M (15P018) and is intended to destroy all types of targets protected by modern missile defense systems in any conditions of combat use, incl. with repeated nuclear impact on a positional area (guaranteed retaliatory strike).

Flight design tests of the R-36M2 complex began at Baikonur in 1986. The first missile regiment with the R-36M2 ICBM went on combat duty on July 30, 1988 (UAH Dombarovsky, commander O.I. Karpov). By decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR dated August 11, 1988, the missile system was adopted for service.

Tests of the complex with all types of combat equipment were completed in September 1989.

Missiles of this type are the most powerful of all intercontinental missiles. In terms of technological level, the complex has no analogues among foreign Republics of Kazakhstan. The high level of tactical and technical characteristics makes it a reliable basis for the strategic nuclear forces in solving the problems of maintaining military-strategic parity for the period until 2007. The Republic of Kazakhstan is the base for creating asymmetric countermeasures to a multi-echelon missile defense system with space-based elements.

Under the leadership of the chief designer of the Mechanical Engineering Design Bureau (Kolomna) N.I. Gushchin, a complex of active protection of the Strategic Missile Forces silos from nuclear warheads and high-altitude non-nuclear weapons was created, and for the first time in the country, low-altitude non-nuclear interception of high-speed ballistic targets was carried out.

As of 1998, 58 R-36M2 missiles (NATO designation SS-18 "Satan" mod.5&6,RS-20B) were deployed.

3M30 R-30 Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missile

The R-30 "Bulava" missile (3M30, START code - RSM-56, according to the classification of the US Department of Defense and NATO - SS-NX-30 Mace) is a promising Russian solid-fuel ballistic missile for deployment on submarines. The rocket is being developed by the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering. Initially, the development of the rocket was led by Yu. Solomonov, since September 2010 he was replaced by A. Sukhodolsky. The project is one of the most ambitious scientific and technological programs in the history of modern Russia - according to published data, in total at least 620 enterprises participate in the cooperation of producers.

By 1998, an unsatisfactory situation had developed regarding the improvement of the naval component of Russia's strategic nuclear forces, which threatened to develop into a disaster. Developed since 1986 by the Design Bureau of Mechanical Engineering (theme "Bark"), the 3M91 SLBM (R-39UTTKh "Grom"), intended for the re-equipment of 6 existing TARPC SN Project 941 "Akula" (20 SLBMs on each submarine cruiser) and the armament of promising ARPC SN project 955 "Kasatka" (Borey theme, 12 SLBMs on each submarine cruiser) did not satisfy the customer with negative test results - by 1998, out of 3 tests conducted, all 3 were unsuccessful. In addition, the customer’s dissatisfaction was caused not only by unsuccessful launches, but also by the general situation, which experienced the full impact of both the collapse of the USSR in 1991 (and, accordingly, the collapse of the cooperation of manufacturers that had developed during the work on the 3M65 (R-39) SLBM), and unsatisfactory funding: according to the general designer of the SLBM, approximately 8 more launches from submarines were required to fully test the complex, however, due to the high complexity with the existing level of funding, the construction of one missile took about three years, which delayed the process of testing launches and testing the complex to unacceptably long periods. In addition, in 1996, the Krasnoyarsk Machine-Building Plant ceased production of the R-29RMU SLBMs, which were equipped with all 7 ARPC SN of Project 667BDRM "Dolphin"; Of the 14 ARKK SN project 667BDR "Kalmar", equipped with R-29RKU-01 SLBMs, by the beginning of 1998, 3 cruisers had already left service. The warranty period for the modification of the R-39 SLBM - the R-39U SLBM - was supposed to end by 2004, which should have led to the withdrawal of Project 941 missile carriers from the active fleet.

In 1997, due to catastrophic underfunding of the construction of new nuclear submarines, as well as due to a series of unsuccessful test launches of the new R-39UTTKh missile, it was decided to freeze further construction of the lead SSBN of Project 955 K-535 "Yuri Dolgoruky", which was Construction began at Sevmashpredpriyatiya in Severodvinsk in November 1996. In connection with the current situation in the field of strategic nuclear forces, in November 1997, a letter was sent to the Chairman of the Russian Government, V. Chernomyrdin, signed by Russian Ministers Y. Urinson and I. Sergeev, which proposed, taking into account the realities of the international and domestic situation, financial and production capabilities of Russia, to give The Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering functions as the leading organization in the creation of promising strategic nuclear forces, including naval ones, bearing in mind, first of all, the determination of the technical appearance of such weapons. MIT General Designer Yu. Solomonov proposed to develop a universal strategic missile for the Navy and Strategic Missile Forces (according to some data, the preliminary design of such a missile began back in 1992). Based on existing developments, it was planned to provide in the process of creating the latest SLBM such a design of hull components, propulsion system, control system and warhead (special grades of fuel, structural materials, multifunctional coatings, special circuit-algorithmic protection of equipment, etc.) that ensured if the missile had high energy characteristics and the required resistance to the damaging factors of both nuclear influence and advanced weapons based on new physical principles. Despite the fact that previously the development of SLBMs was not within the scope of MIT’s activities, the institute deservedly won the reputation of the leading domestic creator of solid-fuel missiles not only after the development and introduction into service of stationary and then ground mobile versions of the complex with the Topol-M ICBM, but and the world's first mobile ground-based ICBM "Temp-2S", ICBM "Topol", mobile ground-based MRBM "Pioneer" and "Pioneer-UTTH" (known in the West as the "Thunderstorm of Europe"), as well as many non-strategic complexes. The current situation in the work on the promising NSNF of the Russian Federation, the high authority of MIT and the high reliability and efficiency of the complexes it had previously developed led to the fact that the letter sent to V. Chernomyrdin was later approved, and the matter was set in motion.

An official proposal to stop further development of the 3M91 SLBM in favor of the development of a promising SLBM was put forward in 1998 by Admiral V. Kuroyedov, appointed to the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, after three consecutive unsuccessful test launches of the 73% completed Bark strategic weapons complex (the lead missile carrier of Project 941 TK -208 by this time had been converted to the Bark complex as part of the modernization project 941U with a degree of readiness of 84%; the Project 955 SSBN was also designed for the same complex). The proposal was submitted to the Security Council of the Russian Federation taking into account the contents of the letter dated 1997. As a result, the Security Council of the Russian Federation refused to further develop the project of the Miass Mechanical Engineering Design Bureau named after. V.P. Makeev (developer of all Soviet SLBMs, with the exception of the R-11FM and R-31, which never became widespread). As a result, in September 1998, further development of the Bark missile system was stopped, and to arm Project 955 ships, a competition was announced for the development of a promising solid-fuel missile system under the designation Bulava. Based on the results of this competition, in which the State Research Center named after. V.P.Makeev with the Bulava-45 ballistic missile project (sometimes the designation Bulava-47 is found) of chief designer Yu. Kaverin and the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering with the Bulava-30 missile, MIT was recognized as the winner (see comparative diagram) . MIT voiced information that the competition, in violation of all the rules, was held twice and both times MIT emerged as the winner. At the same time, there was a search for opportunities for further construction of the lead boat in the absence of sufficient financing, contractor equipment and even hull steel. The redesign of the missile carrier for the new missile carrier was carried out in a hurry and was completed in the first half of 1999. In 2000, work on completing the cruiser was resumed. One of the consequences of the redesign was an increase in the ammunition load of the main weapons on board the submarine from 12 SLBMs to the “classic” 16 missiles.

After approval of the decision of the 28th Research Institute of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, which previously provided scientific and technical support for the development and testing of strategic missile systems sea-based, was removed from work, and his functions were transferred to the 4th Central Research Institute of the RF Ministry of Defense, which had not previously been involved in this. The industrial research institutes of Roscosmos were to one degree or another excluded from the development of strategic missile systems for the Navy and Strategic Missile Forces: TsNIIMash, Research Institute of Thermal Processes, Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering Technology, Central Research Institute of Materials Science. When creating SLBMs and conducting tests, it was decided to abandon the “classical” use of underwater stands for testing underwater launches and use for these purposes launches from the TARPC SN TK-208 “Dmitry Donskoy”, modified according to the 941UM project and used as a “floating testbed”. This decision may result in the rocket never being tested at extreme values ​​of disturbances. At the same time, the experience of KBM named after. V.P.Makeeva, like the organization itself, were largely involved in work on the Bulava-30 project - according to published data, already in December 1998 at the State Rocket Center named after. V.P. Makeev (the new name of KBM) work was carried out on the design of communication systems and equipment of the complex in cooperation with MIT. The preliminary design of the 3M30 SLBM, according to published information, was protected in 2000.

The decision taken to transfer the development of a new SLBM to MIT, as well as the events that followed it, was far from unambiguous and it had many opponents. They pointed (and point out) to the dubious advantages of unification (In early December 2010, Yu. Solomonov again stated that it was possible to use the unified Bulava missile as part of ground-based missile systems), which could in the future lead to a decrease in the performance characteristics of missiles, MIT’s lack of experience in creating sea-based missiles, the need to rework the 955 project, including the ship under construction, for a new complex, etc. and so on.

At the same time, the difficult situation of the domestic strategic nuclear forces also led to the urgent adoption of a number of decisions that were supposed to somewhat stabilize the situation in the near and, partly, medium term - in 1999, the production of R-29RMU SLBMs at Krasmash was resumed (for the reactivation of equipment from the state budget 160 million rubles were spent), in 2002 its modification R-29RMU1 was put into service (the R-29RMU SLBM with advanced combat equipment developed within the framework of the Stantsiya R&D project; modification of the missiles was apparently carried out according to the usual scheme in such cases - without removing them from the launch silos), and in 2007, the significantly improved R-29RMU2 SLBM entered service with the Russian fleet (the missile was developed within the framework of the “Sineva” theme and is mass-produced at Krasmash instead of the R-29RMU; new SLBM also carries new combat equipment developed within the framework of the "Station" R&D project; serial production of new missiles is planned until 2012). All 6 missile carriers of Project 667BDRM "Dolphin" remaining in service have already undergone (5 units) since December 1999 or are currently undergoing medium repairs and modernization (by the end of 2010, the last, sixth, SSBN of this project should also undergo this procedure), which will allow these ships, according to Russian officials, to remain in service for many more years. To maintain the technical condition of the Project 667BDRM missile carriers at an acceptable level, it was decided to carry out a further stage of modernization of the missile carriers, combined with factory repairs, starting in August 2010, when the K-51 Verkhoturye SSBN again arrived at the Zvezdochka shipyard, having passed through the first stage of modernization at the end of 1999. The next repair and modernization of the ships, along with work to modernize the ballistic missile system with the RSM-54 SLBM and increase the service life of the SSBN, will make it possible to maintain this component of the domestic strategic nuclear forces at the required level “until the 2020s.” Also, in order to make maximum use of the capabilities of the Project 667BDR Kalmar missile carriers remaining in the fleet, their missile system was modernized - in 2006, the improved R-29RKU-02 SLBM was put into service (the missile received new combat equipment developed as part of the development work " Station-2"; according to some data, this combat equipment is an adaptation of combat equipment from the Station R&D project to a different, older BMK, which made it possible to reduce the range of combat units as part of unification). As of 12.2010, the fleet included 4 cruisers of Project 667BDR, which, apparently, will leave the fleet after ships with the new Bulava SLBM begin to enter service, i.e. approximately until 2015, when the last remaining ships of Project 667BDR will finally wear out physically and become morally obsolete. For all modernized complexes, it was possible to fully realize the adaptive-modular properties, when missiles can be used on SSBNs in any combination corresponding to the ship design (for example, on the Project 667BDRM cruiser - R-29RMU1 and R-29RMU2 SLBMs in one ammunition load).

Initially, “throw” launches (see example of time-lapse photography) of weight-dimensional mock-ups of the new R-30 SLBM (with a prototype of the first stage solid propellant rocket engine, which had a fuel charge for several seconds of operation) were carried out from a prototype silo launcher at the training ground of the Design Bureau of Special Mechanical Engineering (Elizavetinka, Leningrad region ). After completing this stage, it was decided to proceed to the second, where the modernized Dmitry Donskoy TRPKSN was used. According to some data, the Dmitry Donskoy TRPKSN was first used as a floating platform for testing the Bulava SLBM on December 11, 2003, when a successful “throw” launch of a weight-size SLBM mock-up from the surface position was carried out from its board. In the media, this launch is considered “zero” and is not taken into account against the total number of launches; a full-fledged rocket did not take part in the experiment. Serial mass production of promising Bulava missiles is planned to be launched at the Votkinsk Plant Federal State Unitary Enterprise, where Topol-M missiles are produced. According to the developers, the structural elements of both missiles (as well as a modified version of the Topol-M ICBM - the new RS-24 ICBM with MIRVs created by MIT) are highly unified. The process of testing the components of the new complex even before the ICBMs entered testing was not smooth - according to media reports, on May 24, 2004, an explosion occurred at the Votkinsk Machine-Building Plant, part of the MIT corporation, during tests of a solid fuel engine. However, despite the difficulties that naturally arise when developing each new product, the work moved forward. In March 2004, the second ship of Project 955, named Alexander Nevsky, was laid down in Severodvinsk.

On September 23, 2004, from the submarine cruiser TK-208 "Dmitry Donskoy", based at the Sevmashpredpriyatiya in Severodvinsk, a successful "throw" launch of a weight-size mock-up of the "Bulava" missile was carried out from an underwater state. The test was carried out to check the possibility of its use from submarines. In the media, this launch is often considered the first, although only a mass-size mock-up of an SLBM was launched. The second test launch (or the first launch of a full-scale product) was successfully carried out on September 27, 2005. The missile, launched from the White Sea with the Dmitry Donskoy SN TARKK from the surface at the Kura training ground in Kamchatka, covered more than 5.5 thousand kilometers in about 14 minutes, after which the missile’s warheads successfully hit their intended targets at the training ground. The third test launch was carried out on December 21, 2005 from the Dmitry Donskoy TARPC SN. The launch was carried out from an underwater position at the Kura training ground, the missile successfully hit the target.

The successful start of testing contributed to the emergence optimistic mood Among the participants in the work, in March 2006, the third ship of Project 955 was laid down in Severodvinsk, which received the name "Vladimir Monomakh" (according to some data, this ship belongs to Project 955A - it was noted that this project differs from Project 955, first of all, in that that during its construction the backlog of unfinished Project 971U submarines is not used. All hull structures are manufactured anew. In addition, an attempt was made to exclude contractor supplies from neighboring countries. The hull contours have undergone minor changes, vibroacoustic characteristics have been somewhat optimized, etc.), however Subsequently, this optimism was subjected to the most serious test.

The fourth test launch from the submarine cruiser Dmitry Donskoy on September 7, 2006 ended in failure. The SLBM was launched from an underwater position towards the battlefield in Kamchatka. After flying for several minutes after launch, the rocket deviated from its course and fell into the sea. The fifth test launch of the missile from the submarine cruiser Dmitry Donskoy, which took place on October 25, 2006, also ended unsuccessfully. After several minutes of flight, the Bulava deviated from its course and self-destructed, the debris falling into the White Sea. The creators of SLBMs made frantic efforts to identify the causes of unsuccessful launches and eliminate them, hoping to end the year with a successful launch, but this hope was not destined to come true. The sixth test launch of the missile was carried out on December 24, 2006 from the TARPC SN "Dmitry Donskoy" from a surface position and again ended unsuccessfully. The failure of the engine of the third stage of the rocket led to its self-destruction in the 3-4th minute of flight.

The seventh test launch took place on June 28, 2007. The launch was carried out in the White Sea from the missile carrier Dmitry Donskoy from an underwater position and was partially successful - one of the warheads did not reach the target. After the tests were carried out on June 29, 2007, it was decided to serial production the most developed components and parts of the rocket. The next launch was supposed to take place in the fall of 2007. However, there is no official information about testing during this period. The eighth launch was carried out on September 18, 2008. According to media reports, TARPC SN launched a Bulava missile from an underwater position. The training units reached their target in the area of ​​the battlefield of the Kura training ground. However, information was soon disseminated in the media that the launch was only partially successful - the active part of the trajectory of the rocket passed without failures, hit the target area, the warhead separated normally, but the stage for disengaging the warheads was unable to ensure their separation. It is worth noting that the Russian Ministry of Defense refrained from any additional official comments in connection with the rumors that arose.

The ninth launch, which took place on November 28, 2008 from the strategic nuclear submarine "Dmitry Donskoy" from an underwater position as part of the state flight testing program for the complex, took place completely as usual, the warheads successfully arrived at the Kura test site in Kamchatka. According to a source in the Russian Ministry of Defense, it was stated that the missile testing program was completed in full for the FIRST TIME, which raised doubts about the veracity of previous reports about “successful launches” No. 2 and No. 3, which took place in 2005. The doubts of the skeptics were partially confirmed after the tenth launch. It was produced on December 23, 2008, also from the nuclear submarine Dmitry Donskoy. After testing the first and second stages, the rocket entered an abnormal mode of operation, deviated from the calculated trajectory and self-destructed, exploding in the air. Thus, this launch became the fourth (taking into account only partially successful ones - the sixth) unsuccessful in a row out of nine carried out. In addition, by December 2008, the question arose about the degree of unification of the promising Bulava SLBM with the Topol-M ICBM, since due to all sorts of modifications and fine-tuning during pilot tests, the number of common parts was steadily decreasing. The developers, however, noted that from the very beginning the conversation was mainly not about functional and aggregate unification, but about the use of technical and technological solutions proven during the creation of the Topol-M rocket.

The eleventh launch took place on July 15, 2009 from the submarine missile carrier Dmitry Donskoy from the White Sea. This launch was also unsuccessful; due to a failure during the operation of the first stage engine, the rocket self-destructed in the 20th second of flight. According to preliminary data from the commission investigating the incident, a defect in the steering unit of the first stage of the rocket led to the emergency situation. This launch was the tenth test launch of a standard product (not counting the throw-in) and the fifth unsuccessful (the seventh, taking into account two “partially successful” launches). After another failure, the director and general designer of the Moscow Institute of Heat Engineering, Academician Yu. Solomonov, resigned. In mid-September 2009, following a competition, the post of director of MIT was taken by the former general director of the Moscow Machine-Building Plant Vympel OJSC S. Nikulin. However, Yu. Solomonov retained the position of general designer. Soon after the unsuccessful launch, the chief of the general staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Army General N Makarov announced the possibility of transferring the production of the Bulava SLBM from the Votkinsk plant to another enterprise. However, this statement was then disavowed by representatives of the Russian Ministry of Defense, who explained that we could talk about transferring the production of only individual launch vehicle units, the quality of which there are complaints about.

The next series of tests was expected in October-December 2009. At the end of October 2009, it was reported that the nuclear submarine Dmitry Donskoy checked the readiness of the mechanisms for launching the rocket, leaving the base on October 26 and returning on the night of October 28. On October 29, a source at the Belomorsk naval base told reporters: “The strategic missile submarine Dmitry Donskoy returned from a training ground in the White Sea to its home base. All assigned local tasks were completed. It turned out to be unfulfilled the main objective exit - carrying out the next test launch of the Bulava. There are many versions of what happened, but the reasons can only be announced after analyzing what happened." Presumably, the missile did not come out of the silo due to automatic protection. New tests of the Bulava missile were supposed to take place on November 24, 2009. It was assumed that the launch at the Kura test site from North Sea will launch the Dmitry Donskoy nuclear submarine from underwater, but the missile launch was postponed by the decision of the commission investigating the causes of the July accident and the unsuccessful launch attempt in October. As a result, the launch on November 24 also did not take place. The tests were postponed until early December, media reported citing military-industrial circles. The twelfth launch was eventually carried out on December 9, 2009 and ended in failure. According to official information from the Russian Ministry of Defense, the first two stages of the rocket operated normally, but a technical failure occurred during the operation of the third stage. The abnormal operation of the third stage of the rocket gave rise to an impressive optical effect in the conditions of the polar night, observed by residents of northern Norway, and called the “Norwegian Spiral Anomaly”. A commission to investigate the cause of the latest unsuccessful launch of the Bulava sea-based ballistic missile found that the emergency situation occurred due to a design error, sources in the military-industrial complex said. However, a number of Russian media reported that the incident was caused by a manufacturing defect and not a design error. Difficulties with the creation of a new SLBM led to the fact that the laying of the fourth Project 955 missile carrier out of 8 in the series, named "St. Nicholas", planned for December 2009, was postponed indefinitely. This missile carrier was to be the first to be manufactured according to Project 955U, which differs from Projects 955 and 955A power plant new generation, new electronics (primarily hydroacoustic complex), defensive weapons, modified hull design with massive use of new generation materials, etc. - all these improvements should truly ensure the emergence of a domestic 4th generation missile carrier, while the first Project 955/955A missile carriers belong, rather, to generation 3+. A number of observers believe that the number of new missile carriers in the series may increase, because the number of 8 RPK SN for two fleets (Northern Fleet and Pacific Fleet) is not optimal, due to its obvious insufficiency.

The unsuccessful December launch was investigated by a special commission of representatives of the Ministry of Defense and the military-industrial complex. The results of the commission's work inspired optimism in the military and industry and led to the decision to resume testing, a source close to the commission said. According to him, it turned out that the cause of the accident was a failure of the thrust control mechanism of a solid fuel engine produced by the Perm NPO Iskra. This information was confirmed by a source in the Ministry of Defense. Media representatives were unable to get comments from Iskra. According to the military, this means that it was a purely production defect, that is, a fixable defect, and not a fundamental error in the design. Consequently, it makes sense to continue work on the rocket, which (without taking into account the work on the Project 955 ARKC SN, each of which costs, according to various sources, $0.75-1.0 billion) has already cost the country “several tens of billions of rubles.” At the same time, the State Research Center named after. V.P. Makeeva, encouraged by the successful results achieved within the framework of the work "Station", "Station-2" and "Sineva", which ended with the adoption of the corresponding products into service with the Russian Navy, according to information in the media, proposed for consideration the result of the work, coded "Sineva-2" " - as part of this work, a project was developed for the R-29RMU3 liquid-fueled SLBM, adapted for use on promising Project 955 missile carriers. However, according to the commander-in-chief Navy Russian Federation Admiral V. Vysotsky, Project 955 nuclear submarines will not be rearmed with this ballistic missile. At the same time, based on the results of the work of the State Commission, a decision was made to resume testing of SLBMs, starting in August 2010, although the date of the specific launch was repeatedly postponed. According to statements by the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, 3 missiles were prepared for testing, absolutely identical to each other, including in terms of assembly conditions and the materials and technologies used, which should have made it possible with a high degree of probability to identify shortcomings, both design and build quality. In September 2010, project management underwent another major change - the single position of General Designer was abolished at MIT. The position was divided into two: 1) General designer of ground-based ICBMs (it was filled by Yu. Solomonov); 2) General designer of sea-based solid fuel missiles (occupied by A. Sukhodolsky). All this time, research work on the complex continued - in 2007-2009. GRC named after. V.P. Makeeva, with the help of her unique experimental base, carried out work on the B-30 research project, in particular testing components and assemblies of products on a vacuum-dynamic stand.

Domestic authors often criticize the Bulava missile system being developed for a fairly large percentage of unsuccessful tests. But, according to the former general designer of MIT and the Bulava SLBM, Yu. Solomonov: “During flight tests (since this is a closed topic, I cannot talk about design features), it was impossible to predict what we encountered - no matter who neither spoke about the possibility of such forecasting. In order to understand what values ​​​​we are talking about from the point of view of quantitative estimates, I can say that the events during which emergency situations occurred with equipment are estimated in thousandths of a second, while the events are absolutely random in nature And, when we, based on the information that we managed to “get” when analyzing telemetric data, ground conditions reproduced what happened during the flight, in order to understand the nature of these phenomena, we needed to conduct more than a dozen tests. This once again demonstrates how, on the one hand, the picture of the occurrence of individual processes is complex, and on the other hand, how difficult it is to predict from the point of view of the possibility of reproduction in ground conditions." According to Deputy Prime Minister S. Ivanov, the reasons for the failures were related to the fact that , that "insufficient attention is paid to ground testing of products." According to the chief designer of Project 941 Akula submarines, S. N. Kovalev, this is due to the lack of necessary stands. According to unnamed representatives of the defense industry, the main reason for the failures was the insufficient quality of components and assembly , the opinion was expressed that this indicates problems in the serial production of the Bulava. However, repeated failures in testing the new missile are not something unique. For example, the R-39 SLBM, which was armed with the Project 941 Akula nuclear submarines in the period 1983-2004, of the first 15 launches (in the period 1980-1982), 8 were completely unsuccessful. But after appropriate modifications, the SLBM was tested with another 20 launches in 1982-1983. (all were completely or partially successful; another missile did not exit the silo during launch) and was adopted by the USSR Navy in 1983.

The first deputy chief of the Navy General Staff, Vice Admiral O. Burtsev, said about the new SLBM back in July 2009: “We are doomed to the fact that it will fly anyway. Moreover, the test program has not yet been fully completed. “Bulava” is new a rocket, during its testing one has to face various obstacles; nothing new comes right away.” Later, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, Admiral V. Vysotsky, admitted that the situation with the development of the latest weapons for the new generation of submarines is complex, but not hopeless and is associated with a crisis in the development of technology in Russia. Chief Researcher at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Major General V. Dvorkin, believes that the tests are worth continuing. According to him, “an unsuccessful launch is a sad event, but it’s not worth abandoning the rocket: alternatives to the Bulava (taking into account the amount already invested in the program financial resources) no." At the same time, a number of domestic observers consider it certainly alarming that in the statements of domestic officials of various ranks regarding the "Bulava" there are often some "notes of doom" and references to the fact that "there is no alternative." It should be admitted , that taking into account the large financial resources already invested in the program and the complete unknown regarding its prospects (5 years of testing do not yet allow us to give any responsible forecasts regarding the date of entry of the missile into service - even in the event of further successful tests, the adoption of the complex for service is no longer planned earlier than 2011" and the previously predicted dates have been changed upward more than once), the overall picture of what is happening looks quite worrying. At the same time, in March 2010 it was announced that the second missile carrier of Project 955 - K-550 "Alexander Nevsky" - "almost will be ready for withdrawal from the workshop in November 2010" with subsequent completion, launching and testing. The lead ship of this project - K-535 "Yuri Dolgoruky" - already completed sea trials in July 2010, and further tests are planned to be carried out together with the ship's main armament, the Bulava naval combat missile system. At the beginning of December 2010, the second nuclear-powered missile submarine of Project 955, the K-550 Alexander Nevsky, was removed from the workshop. According to unconfirmed information, the production of components of the fourth SSBN, bearing the name "St. Nicholas", is already underway, which allows us to expect its official laying soon.

According to the test plans, in 2010, it was initially planned to carry out two launches of the Bulava SLBM with the Dmitry Donskoy TRKSN, the General Staff of the Russian Naval Forces reported. “If these launches of the Bulava are successful, then this year the tests will continue on board its “standard carrier” - the nuclear submarine cruiser Yuri Dolgoruky,” said the General Staff of the Navy. The next tests of the Bulava ballistic missile began as planned - in the fall of 2010. The repeatedly postponed launch of the Bulava SLBM, the thirteenth in a row, took place on October 7, 2010 from the submarine missile carrier Dmitry Donskoy from the White Sea. According to official representatives of the Navy, the launch was carried out from an underwater position, warheads reached their targets in the Kura test site area. According to officials, the launch program was completed in full, the launch was successful. The fourteenth launch of SLBMs took place on October 29, 2010 from the Dmitry Donskoy missile launcher from an underwater position. According to Navy officials, the warheads reached their goals in the Kura training ground area. The launch program was completed in full, the launch was successful. According to the Navy's plans, after a comprehensive analysis of the results of the previous launch, preparations began for a new one, which was planned for December 2010. By the end of 2010, it was planned to carry out another launch of the Bulava SLBM - this time from a standard carrier, the RPK SN Yuri Dolgoruky. According to the agreed decision of the Navy and the SLBM developers, the first launch from the new SSBN was to be made from the surface position, i.e. the test program will have common elements with the test program on board the Dmitry Donskoy. However, in December 2010 the launch did not take place - the official reason was difficult ice conditions in the White Sea. It was decided to postpone the launch, according to reports from responsible persons from the Ministry of Defense and the organizations developing the complex, to “spring-summer 2011”. At the same time, according to some data, the reason for the transfer was the condition of the Yuri Dolgoruky SSBN, which, after a series of intensive tests in 2010, arrived for repairs at Sevmashpredpriyatie (Severodvinsk).

To date (January 2011), 14 test launches of the Bulava have been carried out (taking into account the throwing of a weight-dimensional mock-up from an underwater position), and seven of them were considered fully or partially successful. Launches of the 2010 series from the Dmitry Donskoy took place completely as usual, which is evidence of the effectiveness of earlier measures taken to improve the quality of SLBM manufacturing. The Navy clarified that first a single missile launch will take place from the K-535 (originally planned in December 2010, currently postponed to the spring-summer of 2011), and then, if successful, a salvo launch will apparently be carried out ( rockets launch one after another with an interval of several seconds). In all likelihood, no more than two missiles will be used in the salvo, one of which will be aimed at the Kura training ground in Kamchatka, and the second will be launched at maximum range to the Pacific Ocean (Aquatoria region). According to sources from the Navy, taking into account the successful series of launches in 2010, and if this success is demonstrated to be non-random by SLBM launches in 2011, the issue of adopting the Bulava SLBM for fleet service will be decided already in 2011. According to statements by officials and designers, a total of 5-6 launches are planned in 2011, if all of them are successful. In addition, there were statements that by the beginning of December 2010 the thermonuclear charge for the Bulava SLBM warhead had already been tested, and by the time the missile entered service, it was planned that the warheads would also be fully tested. In total, according to statements by a number of domestic figures, it is planned to mass-produce “up to 150 new SLBMs.” According to the announced plans, the first missile carriers with Bulava SLBMs will be introduced into the Pacific Fleet (Kamchatka Peninsula, Vilyuchinsk, 16th submarine squadron) - for the first time in the history of the Russian fleet: previously, the leader in the development of the latest nuclear missile submarines was Northern Fleet. According to data published in the media, the preparation of infrastructure for new ships at the Pacific Fleet is coming to an end. According to Y. Solomonov’s statements, the Bulava SLBM complex will be capable of ensuring strategic stability “at least until 2050.”

Strategic missile system UR-100N UTTH with 15A35 missile

The third generation intercontinental ballistic liquid missile 15A30 (UR-100N) with a multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) was developed at the Central Design Bureau of Mechanical Engineering under the leadership of V.N. Chelomey. In August 1969, a meeting of the USSR Defense Council was held under the chairmanship of L.I. Brezhnev, at which the prospects for the development of the Strategic Missile Forces of the USSR were discussed and the proposals of the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau regarding the modernization of the R-36M and UR-100 missile systems already in service were approved. At the same time, the scheme for modernizing the UR-100 complex proposed by TsKBM was not rejected, but in essence - the creation of a new missile system UR-100N. On August 19, 1970, Government Decree No. 682-218 was issued on the development of the UR-100N (15A30) missile system with “the heaviest missile among light ICBMs” (this term was later adopted in the agreed treaties). Along with the UR-100N complex, a complex with the MR-UR-100 ICBM was created on a competitive basis (under the leadership of M.K. Yangel). The UR-100N and MR-UR-100 complexes were proposed to replace the UR-100 (8K84) family of light-class ICBMs, adopted by the Strategic Missile Forces in 1967 and deployed in large quantities (the peak of deployment was reached in 1974, when the number of simultaneously deployed ICBMs of this type reached 1030 units). The final choice between the UR-100N and MR-UR-100 ICBMs had to be made after comparative flight tests. This decision marked the beginning of what is called the “debate of the century” in historical and memoir literature on Soviet rocket and space technology. In terms of its performance characteristics, the UR-100N complex, with a missile that was very advanced in its main technical characteristics, was between the “light” MR-UR-100 and the “heavy” R-36M, which, according to a number of participants and observers of the “dispute of the century,” gave rise to V.N. Chelomeya hopes not only that his missile will be able to win the competition with the MR-UR-100, but also that, as it is cheaper and more widespread, it will be preferred to the relatively expensive heavy R-36M. Such views, of course, were not shared by M.K. Yangel. In addition, the country's leadership also considered it absolutely necessary for the defense of the USSR to have heavy class ICBMs in the Strategic Missile Forces, so the hopes of V.N. Chelomey’s plan to “replace” the R-36M with the help of the UR-100N did not materialize.

Strategic cruise missile 3M-25 Meteorite (P-750 Grom)

On December 9, 1976, a Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR was issued on the development of a universal strategic supersonic cruise missile 3M-25 "Meteor" with a flight range of about 5000 km. The missile was supposed to be launched from ground launchers (Meteorit-N), nuclear submarines (Meteorit-M) and Tu-95 strategic bombers (Meteorit-A). The lead developer was TsKBM (later NPO Mashinostroeniya, chief designer V.N. Chelomey).

Initially, it was planned to use the APKRRK pr. 949, modernized according to pr. 949M, as a carrier for the marine version of “Meteorit-M”. However, the design studies carried out by the Rubin Central Design Bureau showed that in order to place the 3M-25 missile launcher on the Granit launcher, a radical change in the design of the latter is necessary, and to accommodate the second set of control equipment for shipboard systems for daily and pre-launch maintenance (AU KSPPO ) of the "Meteorite" complex, it will be necessary to increase the length of the APKRRK by 5-7 m. Attempts to create a unified AU KSPPO for the "Granit" and "Meteorite" complexes were not successful.

At the suggestion of LPMB "Rubin", a decision was made to convert one of the RPK SN pr.667A, withdrawn from the strategic forces under the SALT-1 treaty, into "Meteorit-M", bearing in mind not only the testing on this submarine, but also the subsequent operation of the boat as a combat unit. For the conversion, the K-420 submarine was allocated, on which the missile compartments were cut out and related repairs were performed. Sevmashpredpriyatie (General Director G.L. Prosyankin) was appointed as the construction plant. The technical project for the conversion of the nuclear submarine pr.667A for the Meteorit-M missile system (project 667M, code "Andromeda") was developed by LPMB "Rubin" in the 1st quarter of 1979. Development of a launcher for the "Meteorit-M" missile system, located on the submarine of the project 667M and designated SM-290, was carried out by the Special Engineering Design Bureau (Leningrad). The SM-290 launcher passed all types of tests and was put into trial operation by the Navy in the early 80s.

Work on the re-equipment and repair of the submarine was carried out by Sevmash at an exceptionally fast pace. Testing of missiles by launches from a ground stand (Kapustin Yar test site) and a floating test stand of the PSK on the Black Sea took place in parallel with the re-equipment of the ship. The first launch of "Meteorite" took place on May 20, 1980. The rocket did not exit the container and partially destroyed it. The next three launches were also unsuccessful. Only on December 16, 1981, the rocket flew about 50 km. In total, according to the flight design test program from stands in 1982-1987. More than 30 launches of ZM-25 missiles were carried out. The first launch of "Meteorit-M" from the K-420 boat took place on December 26, 1983 in the Barents Sea, tests continued until 1986. inclusive (one launch in 1984 and one launch in 1986).

There were several reasons for such a long development of the complex, but, perhaps, the main one was the large number of fundamentally new technical solutions adopted in the project: a “wet” underwater launch of a cruise missile under the launch-acceleration stage, an inertial guidance system with correction based on radar maps of the area, a multifunctional defense complex and etc. All these progressive solutions required careful experimental testing, which led to multiple repeated tests and, accordingly, to numerous postponements of delivery dates. As a result, joint (state) tests of the Meteorit-M complex began only in 1988, first from a ground stand (4 launches), and then from a submarine (3 launches). Unfortunately, the number of successful launches at all stages of testing approximately corresponded to the number of unsuccessful ones, since the complex was still not brought to perfection. In addition, the cost of converting Project 667 SSBNs, withdrawn under the SALT-1 agreement, to fit the Meteorit-M complex turned out to be too high. As a result, by a joint decision of industry and the Navy, work on the program was stopped at the end of 1989. The ship's part of the complex was transferred for safekeeping to the submarine personnel, and the boat itself was delivered to the fleet in 1990 in a torpedo version.

To test the aircraft-based complex, a special carrier aircraft, designated Tu-95MA, was prepared at the Taganrog Aviation Plant (now JSC TAVIA) on the basis of the serial missile carrier Tu-95MS No. 04. Two Meteorit-A missile launchers were placed on special pylons under the wing, which left the bomb bay free. In it, within the specified loads, it was possible to place an MCU with 6 X-15P anti-radar missiles. Testing of “product 255” at the test site began in 1983. During the flight tests, 20 launches were carried out from the Tu-95MA aircraft. The first launch from the Tu-95MA on January 11, 1984 was unsuccessful. The rocket flew completely into the wrong steppe and self-destructed at 61 seconds. During the next air launch from the Tu-95MA, which took place on May 24, 1984, the missile again had to be eliminated. However, a large flight test program made it possible to practically complete the rocket. The tests of the ultra-long-range missile posed a number of new tasks for the technical management. The range of the Kapustin Yar training ground route was not enough. On the flight path from the Volga to Balkhash (the Groshevo-Turgai-Terehta-Makat-Sagiz-Emba route) it was necessary to carry out a very exotic (for a rocket with such speed) 180° turn maneuver. The launches were also carried out in the interests of assessing the missile’s protection from air defense systems, for which two modern anti-aircraft missiles were used missile complex. But even knowing the flight path and launch time, with the onboard defenses and maneuvering programs turned off, the anti-aircraft missiles were able to hit the TFR only from the second launch. When testing the aviation version of the missile (Meteorit-A), a Tu-95MA aircraft with a missile on an external sling took off from one of the airfields near Moscow, went to the launch zone of the TFR, carried out the launch and returned back. The launched rocket flew along a closed route several thousand kilometers long. The test results confirmed the technical feasibility of creating complexes of various types with long-range strategic missile systems.

The 3M-25 missile was not deployed on ground and aircraft launchers, because in accordance with the international treaty, ground- and air-launched medium- and short-range missiles were subject to destruction.

In the west, the Meteorit-M complex received the designation SS-N-24 "Scorpion", "Meteorit-N" - SSC-X-5, "Meteorit-A" - AS-X-19

Strategic cruise missile Kh-55 (RKV-500)

The X-55 is a subsonic small-sized strategic cruise missile that flies around the terrain at low altitude and is intended for use against important strategic enemy targets with previously reconnoitered coordinates.

The missile was developed at NPO Raduga under the leadership of General Designer I.S. Seleznev in accordance with the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR dated December 8, 1976. The design of a new rocket was accompanied by solving a lot of problems. Long flight range and stealth required high aerodynamic quality with minimal weight and a large fuel supply with an economical power plant. Given the required number of missiles, their placement on the carrier dictated extremely compact shapes and made it necessary to fold almost all protruding units - from the wing and tail to the engine and fuselage tip. As a result, an original aircraft was created with folding wings and tail surfaces, as well as a bypass turbojet engine located inside the fuselage and extended downwards before the rocket was uncoupled from the aircraft.

In 1983, for the creation and development of production of the X-55, a large group of workers from the Raduga Design Bureau and the Dubninsky Machine-Building Plant were awarded the Lenin and State Prizes.

In March 1978 The deployment of production of the X-55 began at the Kharkov Aircraft Industrial Association (KHAPO). The first production rocket manufactured at HAPO was handed over to the customer on December 14, 1980.

The carriers of the KR X-55 are strategic aviation aircraft - Tu-95MS and Tu-160. Tu-95MS aircraft are distinguished by a modified cockpit, a redesigned cargo compartment, the installation of more powerful NK-12MP engines, a modified electrical system, a new Obzor-MS radar, electronic warfare and communications equipment. The crew of the Tu-95MS was reduced to seven people. A new position of navigator-operator was introduced into the crew, responsible for preparing and launching missiles.

Testing of the X-55 took place very intensively, which was facilitated by careful preliminary testing of the control system on NIIAS modeling stands. During the first stage of testing, 12 launches were carried out, only one of which ended in failure due to the failure of the power system generator and the loss of the rocket. In addition to the missiles themselves, the weapon control system was developed, which from the carrier board carried out the input of the flight mission and the installation of the missile’s gyro-inertial platforms - the most precise reference to the position and orientation in space for the start of an autonomous flight.

The first launch of the serial X-55 was made on February 23, 1981. On September 3, 1981, a test launch was carried out from the first production vehicle Tu-95MS No. 1. In March of the following year, it was joined by a second aircraft, which arrived at the Air Force Research Institute base in Akhtubinsk to continue state tests.

The envisaged possibility of equipping the aircraft with underwing suspensions led to the release of two variants: the Tu-95MS-6, which carried six X-55s in the cargo compartment on the MKU-6-5 multi-position ejection mount, and the Tu-95MS-16, additionally armed with ten more missiles - two each internal underwing ejection installations AKU-2 near the fuselage and three each on external installations AKU-3 located between the engines. The ejection of the missiles, throwing them at a sufficient distance from the aircraft and the disturbed air flow around it, was carried out by a pneumatic pusher, and their retraction by hydraulics. After launch, the MKU drum rotated, sending the next missile into the launch position.

The modernization of the Tu-95MS was specified by government decree in June 1983. The preparation and launch equipment installed on production aircraft was replaced by a more modern one, unified with that used on the Tu-160 and ensuring operation with a large number rockets. The aft cannon mount with two AM-23s was replaced with a new UKU-9K-502-2 with twin GSh-23s, and new communications and electronic warfare equipment were installed. Since 1986, production of modernized aircraft began. In total, before 1991, the Air Force received 27 Tu-95MS-6 and 56 Tu-95MS-16 aircraft (the number is given according to the START-1 agreement), several more aircraft were delivered to the customer over the next year.

Test launches of the X-55 were carried out in almost the entire range of flight modes of the carrier from altitudes from 200 m to 10 km. The engine was started quite reliably, the speed on the route, adjusted depending on the weight reduction during fuel consumption, was maintained in the range of 720 ... 830 km/h. At given value KVO, in a number of launches it was possible to achieve remarkable results with hitting the target with minimal deviation, which gave reason to characterize the X-55 in reporting documents as “ultra-precise”. During the tests, the planned launch range of 2500 km was also achieved.

On December 31, 1983, the air-launched missile system, which included the Tu-95MS carrier aircraft and Kh-55 cruise missiles, was officially put into service. The teams of the Raduga MKB, headed by I.S. Seleznev and HAPO, were awarded the Lenin and five State Prizes for the creation of the X-55, and 1,500 plant employees were awarded government awards.

In 1986, production of the X-55 was transferred to the Kirov Machine-Building Plant. The production of X-55 units was also launched at the Smolensk Aviation Plant. Developing the successful design, the Raduga IKB subsequently developed a number of modifications of the basic X-55 (product 120), among which can be noted the X-55SM with an increased range (adopted into service in 1987) and the X-555 with a non-nuclear warhead and an improved system guidance

In the west, the X-55 missile was designated AS-15 "Kent".

Combat railway missile system 15P961 Well done with ICBM 15Zh61 (RT-23 UTTH)

Work on the creation of a mobile combat railway missile system (BZHRK) with intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) began in the mid-1970s. Initially, the complex was developed with the RT-23 missile, equipped with a monoblock warhead. After testing, the BZHRK with the RT-23 ICBM was put into trial operation.

The resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR dated August 9, 1983 set the development of a missile system with the RT-23UTTH "Molodets" (15Zh61) missile in three deployment options: combat railway, mobile ground "Tselina-2" and silo. The lead developer is the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau (general designer V.F. Utkin). In November 1982, a preliminary design of the RT-23UTTKh missile and BZHRK with improved railway launchers (ZhPU) was developed. In particular, for firing from any point on the route, including from electrified railways, the BZHRK was equipped with a high-precision navigation system, and the ZHDPU - with special devices for short-circuiting and diverting the contact network (ZOKS).

In 1987-1991, 12 complexes were built.

In 1991, NPO Yuzhnoye proposed using a RT-23UTTH type rocket to launch spacecraft into Earth orbit from an altitude of 10 kilometers, after dropping the rocket on a special parachute system from a heavy transport aircraft AN-124-100. Further development this project was not received. Currently, the complex has been withdrawn from service.

In the west, the RT-23UTTH (15Zh61) missile received the designation SS-24 "Scalpel" Mod 3 (PL-4).

Name according to START-1 - RS-22V, classification according to START-1 - assembled ICBM in a launch container (Class A)

Intercontinental ballistic missile RS-24 "Yars"

The RS-24 intercontinental ballistic missile (according to unconfirmed reports, the missile has the index 15Zh67) as part of a mobile ground-based missile system (PGRK) was developed by a cooperation of enterprises headed by the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering (MIT). The chief designer of the complex is Yu. Solomonov. The RS-24 missile is a deep modification of the 15Zh65 missile of the RT-2PM2 Topol-M complex.

The history of the creation of a fifth-generation solid-fuel ICBM with a wide range of combat equipment began back in 1989, when, by decision of the USSR Military-Industrial Complex No. 323 dated 09.09.1989, within the framework of the “Universal” theme, two leading Soviet centers for the development of solid-fuel ICBMs - the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering and Design Bureau "Yuzhnoye" (Dnepropetrovsk, Ukrainian SSR), - was instructed to quickly develop a new-generation light-class solid-fuel ICBM, suitable for deployment with various types of deployment (in OS silos and on heavy BGRK tractors).

Despite the restrictions in the form of the START-1 treaty, the collapse of the USSR and other objective and subjective difficulties, the cooperation of developers led by MIT was able to cope with the difficult task and finalize a new complex for both deployment options under difficult conditions. The stationary version of the ICBM went on experimental combat duty in 1997, and the mobile ground version in 2006. The new missile was named RT-2PM2 "Topol-M" (15Zh65). The combat equipment of the new ICBM - a monoblock warhead of an increased power class - was the result of military-political concessions by the country's leadership at a time when the USSR announced the creation of a new missile as a modification of the monoblock RT-2PM Topol, which was recorded in the START-1 treaty . The creation of a complex with MIRV IN on the basis of the new missile was envisaged at the stage of work on the "Universal" theme, which envisaged the possible equipping of the MIRV IN missile with high-speed unguided warheads of small or medium power class. At the same time, the Decree of Russian President B.N. Yeltsin on the creation of the RT-2PM2 Topol-M missile system, issued on February 27, 1993, provided, according to a number of information, for work related to the creation of advanced combat equipment for the new missile . It is from this moment that the immediate start of work on the creation of the RS-24 complex is most often counted.

After the US withdrawal from the ABM Treaty and the widespread deployment of missile defense work, Russia’s main efforts are aimed at completing the ongoing long-term work to qualitatively improve the combat equipment of strategic missile systems, as well as methods and means of countering promising missile defense in the United States and other regions of the world. This work is carried out under accepted restrictions on various international obligations and active reduction of domestic strategic nuclear forces. A significant number of enterprises and scientific and production organizations of industry, higher education and research institutions of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation were involved in the work. The scientific and technical foundations created during the years of opposition to the American “Strategic Defense Initiative” are being updated and new technologies are being created based on the modern capabilities of Russian cooperation enterprises.

The creation of modernized complexes is carried out on the basis of unification with existing and promising missile systems of various bases. Measures to create maneuvering hypersonic warheads, promising MIRVs, as well as reducing the radio and optical signature of standard and future warheads of ICBMs and SLBMs in all sectors of their flight to targets. Improvement of these characteristics is planned in combination with the use of qualitatively new small-sized atmospheric decoys. The creation of an improved mobile ground-based ICBM, called the RS-24, serves, according to statements by responsible officials from the Military-Industrial Complex and the Ministry of Defense, as an example of achieving these goals in a number of areas.

Experts express the opinion (confirmed by statements from representatives of the MIT and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation) that in a number of technical and technological solutions, components and assemblies, the RS-24 is unified with the promising R-30 Bulava SLBM (3M30, R-30, RSM-56, SS-NX-30 Mace), created by almost the same cooperation of manufacturers and currently undergoing testing.

As part of the creation of the RS-24 ICBM, on November 1, 2005, with the launch of the Topol ICBM with a standard launcher from the Kapustin Yar test site (Astrakhan region) towards the Sary-Shagan test site, flight tests of a unified platform for breeding warheads, new means of overcoming missile defense and unified warheads for the RS-24 ICBM and the Bulava SLBM. The tests were successful. The media stated that “this launch was already the sixth as part of testing a system created to overcome the American missile defense. For the first time, the launch was made not from the Plesetsk cosmodrome at the Kura test site in Kamchatka, but from the Kapustin Yar test site.” at the 10th test site "Balkhash" located in Kazakhstan (Sary-Shagan region near the city of Priozersk). This is due to the fact that the radar support of the Kura test site does not allow recording maneuvers performed by warheads after their separation from intercontinental ballistic missiles. "In addition, these maneuvers are monitored by American measuring instruments located in Alaska. The flight parameters from Kapustin Yar to Balkhash are monitored exclusively by Russian monitoring instruments."

On April 22, 2006, testing of the breeding platform and warheads continued. The K65M-R launch vehicle was launched from the Kapustin Yar test site. The warhead breeding platform is designed to deliver 6 MIRVs. The proven platform has the ability to perform trajectory maneuvers that make it difficult for the enemy to solve missile defense problems. The start-up program was completed completely. MIT General Designer Yu. Solomonov said in 2006 that testing of a new unified breeding platform and a unified warhead should be completed in 2008, but these plans were not completed on time.

December 8, 2007 from the Kapustin Yar training ground in Astrakhan region A successful test launch of the Topol-E rocket with a new warhead was carried out. The latest launch to date (April 2011), also successful, as part of the testing program for new warheads and platforms, was carried out on December 5, 2010 from the Kapustin Yar test site using the Topol-E ICBM at the Sary-Shagan test site. According to a statement by Yu. Solomonov dated January 27, 2011, in 2010, the development of “a new type of combat equipment was completed, which is the result of integrating ballistic-type combat equipment with individual means of its deployment instead of the so-called “bus.” Adaptation of the development to the already existing missile systems will require several years of testing, which will be carried out using the experimental Topol-E rocket.

Speaking about the creation of promising combat equipment for strategic missile systems of the Strategic Missile Forces and the Navy, it is necessary to especially note the results obtained during flight tests of the latest combat equipment of domestic strategic missiles using the universal test site (Sary-Shagan test site) measuring radar complex "Neman-PM" (until 2008 . - "Neman-P"), created by NIIRadiopriborostroenie. Since 1981, this radar has been involved in providing flight tests of various missile systems with the main task of obtaining the maximum amount of radar information about the elements of a complex ballistic target in all phases of its flight various types probing signals. The Neman-PM radar, in its technical, design and technological solutions, is a unique radar with information capabilities that provide the full range of characteristics of observed objects, necessary both for assessing the effectiveness of promising means of overcoming missile defense, and for testing methods and algorithms for selecting warheads ballistic missiles at various parts of their flight path. For the first time in radar practice, the “Radio Vision” mode was implemented in the Neman-P radar. Before this, the radar signal reflected from the target “saw” one mark as the sum of reflections from individual structural elements of this target (the so-called “shiny points”), but the configuration (image) of the irradiated object, i.e., its “portrait,” could not be obtained possible. The ultra-wideband antennas created at the Neman-P radar made it possible to do this, which ensured the implementation of additional high-quality characteristics in the radar to solve problems of recognizing observed objects.

The powerful transmitting active phased antenna array implemented in the Neman-P radar deserves special attention. It provides a wide frequency band of emitted signals, which is fundamentally important for signal measurements and the implementation of the “radio vision” mode. The time it takes to switch the beam to any angular direction within the viewing sector is a few microseconds, which ensures simultaneous servicing of a large number of targets. The Neman-P radar system is built using a multi-channel scheme for generating and processing a wide range of probing signals of different durations and frequency spectrum, which ensures detection and tracking of targets, as well as obtaining measurements of their reflective characteristics simultaneously at several operating frequencies. The multichannel signal processing circuit includes direction finding channels for the active interference station and a channel for measuring the spectral power of active interference and the width of its spectrum. Thanks to the multi-channel construction scheme, it was possible to modernize the Neman-P radar without stopping its operation in 2003-2008.

The RS-24 rocket entered flight tests in 2007. On May 29, its first launch took place, all tasks of which were completed. The launch was carried out from the Plesetsk cosmodrome (Arkhangelsk region) using the modernized Topol-M BGRK, which confirms the high degree of unification of both missile systems. On December 25 of the same year, the second launch of the RS-24 ICBM was successfully carried out, and on November 26, 2008, the third, also successful. In all three cases, the launch was carried out from the Plesetsk cosmodrome across the battlefield of the Kura training ground on the Kamchatka Peninsula.

Initially it was announced that the deployment of the new complex would begin no earlier than the end of 2010 - beginning of 2011, but in July 2010 the first deputy. Minister of Defense V. Popovkin announced that in the 54th Guards missile division(Teykovo, Ivanovo region) the first 3 combat missile systems, constituting one division, were deployed by the end of 2009, having entered experimental combat duty (flight tests have not yet been fully completed; previously it was assumed that at least three years, conducting at least 4 test launches, including three successful launches - it has now been announced that three more test launches will be carried out during 2011). On November 30, 2010, the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces, S. Karakaev, stated that the Strategic Missile Forces would gradually rearm from mobile complexes with monoblock Topol-M missiles to complexes with missiles with MIRV IN RS-24. It is not specified whether the mobile version of the Topol-M ICBMs already put on combat duty will be brought to the level of the RS-24. On December 17, 2010, the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces, Lieutenant General S. Karakaev, stated that the second division of Yars complexes (3 SPU) entered service with the Teikov missile division in December 2010. On March 4, 2011, it was announced that the first missile regiment with the RS-24 ICBM took up combat duty in the Strategic Missile Forces. The regiment of the Teikov missile division included 2 missile divisions of RS-24 ICBMs, delivered to the Strategic Missile Forces in 2009-2010. In total, the regiment as of 03.2011 included 6 RS-24 complexes. The number of RS-24 missiles intended for deployment in 2011 has not been announced, however, based on the experience of past years, it can be assumed that at least 3 more missiles will be deployed before the end of the year, which will make it possible to form the first regiment of 9 BGRKs in the troops, fully equipped of this ICBM.

RS-24 missiles are produced at the Votkinsk Machine-Building Plant. The mobile complex launcher is located on an eight-wheeled chassis MZKT-79221 produced by the Minsk Wheel Tractor Plant and developed in the Central Design Bureau"Titanium". Serial production of launchers for the mobile complex is carried out by the Volgograd Production Association "Barricades". According to media reports from 2010, the RS-24 missiles will be replaced in the silo-based version of the RS-18B and RS-20V ICBMs as their warranty periods expire. From 2012, only the RS-24 Yars ICBM is planned to remain in serial production. At the same time, contradictory statements by various individuals were also published that the RS-24 missile will be deployed only in a mobile version, and that the Topol-M monoblock ICBM will continue to be deployed in a stationary version. In addition, information has appeared about the start of deployment in 2018 of a new liquid heavy-duty ICBM based in an OS silo, which has yet to be created. The deployment of the RS-24 ICBM in the BZHRK variant is not envisaged.

A number of experts express surprise at the relatively small volume of flight tests of the new ICBM before transferring the complex to the troops, compared to what was accepted in the Soviet years (only 3 launches in 2007-2008, all carried out successfully). The leadership of MIT and the Ministry of Defense in response to this indicate that a different testing methodology has now been adopted for the latest ICBMs and SLBMs - with much more intensive and productive computer modeling and a much larger volume of ground-based experimental testing than before. This approach, considered more economical, was used during the USSR period, first of all, when creating the most complex and heavy new missiles (for example, RN 11K77 Zenit and especially 11K25 Energia), which made it possible to get by with a minimum number of extremely expensive ones destroyed during test launches. heavy carriers and their payload, however, after the collapse of the USSR, due to a sharp reduction in funding for defense tasks, it was decided to fully use this approach when creating light-class missiles. As for the new RS-24 missile, the volume of flight testing required for it is relatively small and due to the declared significant unification with the 15Zh65 Topol-M ICBM. They also point to the experience of testing the Topol-M ICBM - the new complex was transferred to the troops for experimental combat duty after 4 successful launches.

US/NATO designation is SS-X-29.

This article will introduce the reader to such an interesting topic as the space rocket, launch vehicle and all the useful experience that this invention has brought to humanity. It will also talk about payloads delivered into outer space. Space exploration began not so long ago. In the USSR it was the middle of the third five-year plan, when the Second World War ended. The space rocket was developed in many countries, but even the United States failed to overtake us at that stage.

First

The first successful launch to leave the USSR was a space launch vehicle with an artificial satellite on board on October 4, 1957. The PS-1 satellite was successfully launched into low-Earth orbit. It should be noted that this required the creation of six generations, and only the seventh generation of Russian space rockets were able to develop the speed required to enter near-Earth space - eight kilometers per second. Otherwise, it is impossible to overcome the gravity of the Earth.

This became possible in the process of developing long-range ballistic weapons, where engine boost was used. It should not be confused: a space rocket and a spaceship are two different things. The rocket is a delivery vehicle, and the ship is attached to it. Instead, there can be anything there - a space rocket can carry a satellite, equipment, and nuclear warhead, which has always served and still serves as a deterrent for nuclear powers and an incentive to maintain peace.

Story

The first to theoretically substantiate the launch of a space rocket were Russian scientists Meshchersky and Tsiolkovsky, who already in 1897 described the theory of its flight. Much later, this idea was picked up by Oberth and von Braun from Germany and Goddard from the USA. It is in these three countries work began on the problems of jet propulsion, the creation of solid fuel and liquid jet engines. These issues were best resolved in Russia; at least solid fuel engines were already widely used in World War II (Katyusha engines). Liquid jet engines were better developed in Germany, which created the first ballistic missile, the V-2.

After the war, Wernher von Braun's team, taking the drawings and developments, found shelter in the USA, and the USSR was forced to be content with a small number of individual rocket components without any accompanying documentation. The rest we came up with ourselves. Rocket technology developed rapidly, increasingly increasing the range and weight of the load carried. In 1954, work began on the project, thanks to which the USSR was able to be the first to fly a space rocket. It was an R-7 intercontinental two-stage ballistic missile, which was soon upgraded for space. It turned out to be a success - extremely reliable, securing many records in space exploration. It is still used in its modernized form.

"Sputnik" and "Moon"

In 1957, the first space rocket - the same R-7 - launched the artificial Sputnik 1 into orbit. The United States decided to repeat such a launch a little later. However, in the first attempt, their space rocket did not go into space; it exploded at the start - even on live television. "Vanguard" was designed by a purely American team, and it did not live up to expectations. Then Wernher von Braun took up the project, and in February 1958 the launch of the space rocket was a success. Meanwhile, in the USSR the R-7 was modernized - a third stage was added to it. As a result, the speed of the space rocket became completely different - a second cosmic speed was achieved, thanks to which it became possible to leave the Earth's orbit. For several more years, the R-7 series was modernized and improved. The engines of space rockets were changed, and a lot of experiments were done with the third stage. The next attempts were successful. The speed of the space rocket made it possible not only to leave the Earth’s orbit, but also to think about studying other planets in the solar system.

But at first, mankind's attention was almost completely focused on the Earth's natural satellite - the Moon. In 1959, the Soviet space station Luna 1 flew to it, which was supposed to make a hard landing on the lunar surface. However, due to insufficiently accurate calculations, the device passed a little past (six thousand kilometers) and rushed towards the Sun, where it settled into orbit. This is how our star got its first artificial satellite - an accidental gift. But our natural satellite was not alone for long, and in the same 1959, Luna-2 flew to it, completing its task absolutely correctly. A month later, Luna-3 delivered us photographs reverse side our night luminary. And in 1966, Luna 9 softly landed right in the Ocean of Storms, and we received panoramic views of the lunar surface. The lunar program continued for a long time, until the time when American astronauts landed on it.

Yuri Gagarin

April 12 has become one of the most significant days in our country. It is impossible to convey the power of the people's jubilation, pride, and truly happiness when the world's first human flight into space was announced. Yuri Gagarin became not only a national hero, he was applauded by the whole world. And therefore, April 12, 1961, a day that triumphantly went down in history, became Cosmonautics Day. The Americans urgently tried to respond to this unprecedented step in order to share space glory with us. A month later, Alan Shepard took off, but the ship did not go into orbit; it was a suborbital flight in an arc, and the United States succeeded in orbital flight only in 1962.

Gagarin flew into space on the Vostok spacecraft. This is a special machine in which Korolev created an extremely successful space platform that solves many different practical problems. At the same time, at the very beginning of the sixties, not only a manned version of space flight was being developed, but a photo reconnaissance project was also completed. "Vostok" generally had many modifications - more than forty. And today satellites from the Bion series are in operation - these are direct descendants of the ship on which the first manned flight into space was made. In the same 1961, German Titov had a much more complex expedition, who spent the whole day in space. The United States was able to repeat this achievement only in 1963.

"East"

An ejection seat was provided for cosmonauts on all Vostok spacecraft. This was a wise decision, since a single device performed tasks both at the launch (emergency rescue of the crew) and the soft landing of the descent module. Designers focused their efforts on developing one device rather than two. This reduced the technical risk; in aviation, the catapult system at that time was already well developed. On the other hand, there is a huge gain in time than if you design a completely new device. After all, the space race continued, and the USSR won it by a fairly large margin.

Titov landed in the same way. He was lucky to parachute around railway, along which the train was traveling, and journalists immediately photographed it. The landing system, which has become the most reliable and softest, was developed in 1965 and uses a gamma altimeter. She still serves today. The USA did not have this technology, which is why all of their descent vehicles, even the new SpaceX Dragons, do not land, but splash down. Only shuttles are an exception. And in 1962, the USSR already began group flights on the Vostok-3 and Vostok-4 spacecraft. In 1963, the first woman joined the corps of Soviet cosmonauts - Valentina Tereshkova went into space, becoming the first in the world. At the same time, Valery Bykovsky set a record for the duration of a single flight that has not yet been broken - he stayed in space for five days. In 1964, the multi-seat Voskhod ship appeared, and the United States was a whole year behind. And in 1965, Alexei Leonov went into outer space!

"Venus"

In 1966, the USSR began interplanetary flights. Spaceship Venera 3 made a hard landing on a neighboring planet and delivered there the Earth's globe and the USSR pennant. In 1975, Venera 9 managed to make a soft landing and transmit an image of the planet's surface. And "Venera-13" took color panoramic photographs and sound recordings. The AMS series (automatic interplanetary stations) for studying Venus, as well as the surrounding outer space, continues to be improved even now. The conditions on Venus are harsh, and there was practically no reliable information about them; the developers knew nothing about the pressure or temperature on the surface of the planet; all this, naturally, complicated the research.

The first series of descent vehicles even knew how to swim - just in case. Nevertheless, at first the flights were not successful, but later the USSR was so successful in Venusian wanderings that this planet began to be called Russian. "Venera-1" is the first spacecraft in human history designed to fly to other planets and explore them. It was launched in 1961, but a week later the connection was lost due to sensor overheating. The station became uncontrollable and was only able to make the world's first flyby near Venus (at a distance of about one hundred thousand kilometers).

In the footsteps

"Venera-4" helped us find out that on this planet there are two hundred and seventy-one degrees in the shadow (the night side of Venus), a pressure of up to twenty atmospheres, and the atmosphere itself is ninety percent carbon dioxide. This spacecraft also discovered a hydrogen corona. "Venera-5" and "Venera-6" told us a lot about the solar wind (plasma flows) and its structure near the planet. "Venera-7" clarified data on temperature and pressure in the atmosphere. Everything turned out to be even more complicated: the temperature closer to the surface was 475 ± 20°C, and the pressure was an order of magnitude higher. On the next spacecraft, literally everything was redone, and after one hundred and seventeen days, Venera-8 gently landed on the day side of the planet. This station had a photometer and many additional instruments. The main thing was the connection.

It turned out that the lighting on the nearest neighbor is almost no different from that on Earth - just like ours on a cloudy day. It’s not just cloudy there, the weather has really cleared up. The pictures of what the equipment saw simply stunned the earthlings. In addition, the soil and the amount of ammonia in the atmosphere were examined, and wind speed was measured. And “Venera-9” and “Venera-10” were able to show us the “neighbor” on TV. These are the world's first recordings transmitted from another planet. And these stations themselves are now artificial satellites of Venus. The last to fly to this planet were “Venera-15” and “Venera-16”, which also became satellites, having previously provided humanity with absolutely new and necessary knowledge. In 1985, the program was continued by Vega-1 and Vega-2, which studied not only Venus, but also Halley’s Comet. The next flight is planned for 2024.

Something about a space rocket

Since the parameters and technical characteristics of all rockets differ from each other, let us consider a new generation launch vehicle, for example Soyuz-2.1A. It is a three-stage medium-class rocket, a modified version of the Soyuz-U, which has been in operation very successfully since 1973.

This launch vehicle is designed to launch spacecraft. The latter may have military, economic and social purposes. This missile can take them to different types orbits - geostationary, geotransition, sun-synchronous, highly elliptical, medium, low.

Modernization

The rocket is extremely modernized, a fundamentally different digital control system has been created here, developed on a new domestic element base, with a high-speed on-board digital computer with a much larger volume random access memory. The digital control system provides the rocket with high-precision launch of payloads.

In addition, engines have been installed on which the injector heads of the first and second stages have been improved. A different telemetry system is in effect. Thus, the accuracy of the missile launch, its stability and, of course, controllability have increased. The mass of the space rocket did not increase, but the useful payload increased by three hundred kilograms.

Specifications

The first and second stages of the launch vehicle are equipped with liquid rocket engines RD-107A and RD-108A from NPO Energomash named after Academician Glushko, and the third stage is equipped with a four-chamber RD-0110 from the Khimavtomatika Design Bureau. Rocket fuel is liquid oxygen, which is an environmentally friendly oxidizing agent, as well as slightly toxic fuel - kerosene. The length of the rocket is 46.3 meters, the weight at launch is 311.7 tons, and without the warhead - 303.2 tons. The mass of the launch vehicle structure is 24.4 tons. The fuel components weigh 278.8 tons. Flight tests of Soyuz-2.1A began in 2004 at the Plesetsk cosmodrome, and they were successful. In 2006, the launch vehicle made its first commercial flight - it launched the European meteorological spacecraft Metop into orbit.

It must be said that rockets have different payload launch capabilities. There are light, medium and heavy carriers. The Rokot launch vehicle, for example, launches spacecraft into low-Earth orbits - up to two hundred kilometers, and therefore can carry a load of 1.95 tons. But the Proton is a heavy class, it can launch 22.4 tons into a low orbit, 6.15 tons into a geostationary orbit, and 3.3 tons into a geostationary orbit. The launch vehicle we are considering is intended for all sites used by Roscosmos: Kourou, Baikonur, Plesetsk, Vostochny, and operates within the framework of joint Russian-European projects.

Science and technology

Ballistic missiles. Ballistic missiles are designed to transport thermonuclear charges to a target. They can be classified as follows: 1) intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) with a flight range of 560024,000 km, 2) intermediate-range missiles (above average) 24005600 km, 3) “naval” ballistic missiles (with a range of 1400 9200 km), launched from submarines, 4) medium-range missiles (8002400 km). Intercontinental and naval missiles, together with strategic bombers, form the so-called. "nuclear triad".

A ballistic missile spends only a matter of minutes moving its warhead along a parabolic trajectory ending at the target. Most of time of movement of the warhead is spent on flight and descent into outer space. Heavy ballistic missiles usually carry multiple individually targetable warheads, directed at the same target or having their own targets (usually within a radius of several hundred kilometers from the main target). To ensure the required aerodynamic characteristics upon re-entry, the warhead is given a lens-shaped or conical shape. The device is equipped with a heat-protective coating, which sublimates, passing from a solid state directly into a gaseous state, and thereby ensures the removal of heat from aerodynamic heating. The warhead is equipped with a small proprietary navigation system to compensate for inevitable trajectory deviations that can change the rendezvous point.

V-2. Nazi Germany's V-2 rocket, designed by Wernher von Braun and his colleagues and launched from camouflaged fixed and mobile launchers, was the world's first large liquid-fueled ballistic missile. Its height was 14 m, the hull diameter was 1.6 m (3.6 m along the tail), the total mass was 11,870 kg, and the total mass of fuel and oxidizer was 8,825 kg. With a range of 300 km, the missile, after burning out its fuel (65 s after launch), acquired a speed of 5580 km/h, then in free flight it reached its apogee at an altitude of 97 km and, after braking in the atmosphere, met the ground at a speed of 2900 km/h. The total flight time was 3 minutes 46 seconds. Since the missile was moving along a ballistic trajectory at hypersonic speed, the air defense was unable to do anything, and people could not be warned. see also ROCKET; BROWN, WERNER VON.

The first successful flight of the V-2 took place in October 1942. In total, more than 5,700 of these missiles were manufactured. 85% of them launched successfully, but only 20% hit the target, while the rest exploded upon approach. 1,259 missiles hit London and its environs. However, the Belgian port of Antwerp was hit the hardest.

Ballistic missiles with above average range. As part of a large-scale research program using German rocket specialists and V-2 rockets captured during the defeat of Germany, US Army specialists designed and tested the short-range Corporal and medium-range Redstone missiles. The Corporal rocket was soon replaced by the solid-fuel Sargent, and the Redstone was replaced by the Jupiter, a larger liquid-fuel rocket with an above-average range.

ICBM. ICBM development in the United States began in 1947. Atlas, the first US ICBM, entered service in 1960.

The Soviet Union began developing larger missiles around this time. His Sapwood (SS-6), the world's first intercontinental rocket, became a reality with the launch of the first satellite (1957).

The US Atlas and Titan 1 rockets (the latter entered service in 1962), like the Soviet SS-6, used cryogenic liquid fuel, and therefore their preparation time for launch was measured in hours. "Atlas" and "Titan-1" were initially located in heavy-duty hangars and were brought into operation only before launch. combat status. However, after some time, the Titan-2 rocket appeared, located in a concrete shaft and having an underground control center. Titan-2 ran on long-lasting self-igniting liquid fuel. In 1962, the Minuteman, a three-stage solid-fuel ICBM, entered service, delivering a single 1 Mt charge to a target 13,000 km away.

CHARACTERISTICS OF COMBAT MISSILES

The first ICBMs were equipped with charges of monstrous power, measured in megatons (meaning the equivalent of a conventional explosive - trinitrotoluene). Increasing the accuracy of missile hits and improving electronic equipment allowed the United States and the USSR to reduce the mass of the charge, while simultaneously increasing the number of detachable parts (warheads).

By July 1975, the United States had 1,000 Minuteman II and Minuteman III missiles. In 1985, a larger four-stage MX Peacekeeper rocket with more efficient engines was added; at the same time, it provided the ability to retarget each of the 10 detachable warheads. The need to take into account public opinion and international treaties led to the fact that ultimately it was necessary to limit ourselves to placing 50 MX missiles in special missile silos.

Soviet strategic missile units have various types of powerful ICBMs, usually using liquid fuel. The SS-6 Sapwood missile gave way to an entire arsenal of ICBMs, including: 1) the SS-9 Scarp missile (in service since 1965), which delivers a single 25-megaton bomb (over time it was replaced by three detachable individually targetable warheads ) to a target 12,000 km away, 2) the SS-18 Seiten missile, which initially carried one 25-megaton bomb (later it was replaced by 8 warheads of 5 Mt each), while the accuracy of the SS-18 does not exceed 450 m, 3) the SS-19 missile, which is comparable to the Titan-2 and carries 6 individually targetable warheads.

Sea-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM). At one time, the command of the US Navy considered the possibility of installing the bulky Jupiter MRBM on ships. However, advances in solid propellant rocket motor technology have made it possible to give preference to plans to deploy smaller, safer Polaris solid-propellant missiles on submarines. The George Washington, the first of 41 U.S. missile-armed submarines, was built by cutting apart the latest nuclear-powered submarine and inserting a compartment that housed 16 vertically mounted missiles. Later, the Polaris A-1 SLBM was replaced by the A-2 and A-3 missiles, which could carry up to three multiple warheads, and then the Poseidon missile with a range of 5200 km, which carried 10 warheads of 50 kt each.

Submarines carrying Polaris changed the balance of power during the Cold War. US-built submarines have become extremely quiet. In the 1980s, the US Navy launched a program to build submarines armed with more powerful Trident missiles. In the mid-1990s, each of the new series of submarines carried 24 Trident D-5 missiles; According to available data, these missiles hit the target (with an accuracy of 120 m) with a 90% probability.

The first Soviet missile-carrying submarines of the Zulu, Golf and Hotel classes each carried 23 single-stage liquid-propellant missiles SS-N-4 (Sark). Subsequently, a number of new submarines and missiles appeared, but most of them, as before, were equipped with liquid propellant engines. The Delta-IV class ships, the first of which entered service in the 1970s, carried 16 SS-N-23 (Skif) liquid-propellant rockets; the latter are placed in a similar way to how it is done on US submarines (with “humps” of lower height). The Typhoon class submarine was created in response to US naval systems armed with Trident missiles. Strategic Arms Limitation Treaties, the end of the Cold War and the increasing age of missile submarines led first to the conversion of older ones into conventional submarines, and subsequently to their dismantling. In 1997, the United States decommissioned all submarines armed with Polaris, retaining only 18 submarines with Tridents. Russia also had to reduce its weapons.

Medium-range ballistic missiles. The most famous of this class of missiles are the Scud missiles developed in the Soviet Union, which were used by Iraq against Iran and Saudi Arabia during the regional conflicts of 1980-1988 and 1991, as well as the American Pershing II missiles, intended to destroy underground command centers, and the Soviet SS-20 (Saber) and Pershing II missiles, they were the first to fall under the scope of the above-mentioned treaties.

Anti-missile systems. Beginning in the 1950s, military leaders sought to expand air defense capabilities to cope with the new threat of multiple warhead ballistic missiles.

"Nike-X" and "Nike-Zeus". In the first tests, the American Nike-X and Nike-Zeus missiles carried warheads simulating a nuclear charge designed to detonate (out of the atmosphere) the enemy's multiple warheads. The feasibility of the task was first demonstrated in 1958, when a Nike-Zeus missile launched from Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean passed within the specified proximity (required to hit the target) of an Atlas missile launched from California.

Systems eliminated by the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty. Given this success and a number of subsequent technical improvements, the Kennedy administration proposed in 1962 the creation of the Sentinel missile defense system and the placement of missile defense launch sites around all major US cities and military installations.

Under the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty of 1972, the United States and the USSR limited themselves to two launch sites for launching anti-missile missiles: one near the capitals (Washington and Moscow), the other in the corresponding center of the country's defense. Each of these sites could accommodate no more than 100 missiles. The US national defense center is the Minuteman missile launch site in North Dakota; a similar Soviet complex was not specified. American system ballistic missile defense, which is given the name "Safeguard", is formed by two lines of missiles, each of which carries small nuclear charges. Spartan missiles are designed to intercept enemy multiple warheads at distances of up to 650 km, while Sprint missiles, whose acceleration is 99 times greater than the acceleration of gravity, are designed to intercept surviving warheads that have approached at a distance of about a few kilometers. In this case, targets are captured by a surveillance radar detection station, and individual missiles must be accompanied by several small radar stations. The Soviet Union initially deployed 64 ABM-1 missiles around Moscow to protect it from US and Chinese missiles. Subsequently, they were replaced by the SH-11 (“Gorgon”) and SH-8 missiles, respectively providing interception at high altitude and at the final section of the trajectory.

"Patriot". The first practical use of Patriot missiles was to protect Saudi Arabia and Israel from Scud IRBMs launched by Iraq in 1991 during the Gulf War. Scud missiles had a simpler design than the SS-20, and were divided into parts upon entry into the atmosphere. Of the 86 Scud missiles launched against Saudi Arabia and Israel, 47 were within range of batteries firing 158 Patriot missiles against them (in one case, 28 Patriot missiles were fired at a single Scud missile). According to the Israeli Ministry of Defense, no more than 20% of enemy missiles were intercepted by Patriot missiles. The most tragic episode occurred when the computer of a battery armed with Patriot missiles ignored an incoming Scud missile that struck an Army Reserve barracks near Dhahran (killing 28 people and wounding about 100).

After the end of the war, the US Army received the improved Patriot system (PAC-2), which differs from the previous one in greater guidance accuracy, better software and the presence of a special fuse that ensures detonation of the warhead when sufficiently close to the enemy missile. In 1999, the PAC-3 system entered service, which has a larger interception radius, involves homing by thermal radiation of an enemy missile and hits it as a result of a high-speed collision with it.

IRBM interception program at high altitudes. The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) aimed to create a comprehensive missile destruction system that would use high-energy lasers and other weapons in addition to space-based missiles. However, this program was discontinued. The technical effectiveness of the kinetic weapon system was demonstrated on July 3, 1982 as part of the US Army's program to develop controlled interception technology. see also STAR WARS.

In the early 1990s, the US Army began a program to intercept MRBMs on high altitudes(more than 16 km) using a range of SOI technologies. (At higher altitudes, the thermal radiation from missiles becomes easier to detect because there are no extraneous emitting bodies.)

A high-altitude interception system would include a ground-based radar station designed to detect and track incoming missiles, a command post and multiple launchers, each with eight single-stage solid-propellant missiles with kinetic destruction equipment. The first three missile launches, which took place in 1995, were successful, and by 2000 the US Army had carried out a full-scale deployment of such a complex.

Cruise missiles. Cruise missiles are unmanned aircraft that can fly a long distance at an altitude below the threshold for enemy air defense radars and deliver a conventional or nuclear weapon to a target.

First tests. The French artillery officer R. Laurent began researching a “flying bomb” with a jet engine in 1907, but his ideas were noticeably ahead of their time: the flight altitude had to be maintained automatically by sensitive instruments for measuring pressure, and control was provided by a gyroscopic stabilizer connected to servomotors that drive movement of the wing and tail.

In 1918, in Bellport, New York, the US Navy and Sperry launched their flying bomb, an unmanned aircraft launched from rails. In this case, a stable flight was carried out with the transportation of a charge weighing 450 kg over a distance of 640 km.

In 1926, F. Drexler and a number of German engineers worked on an unmanned aerial vehicle, which was supposed to be controlled using an autonomous stabilization system. The equipment developed as a result of the research became the basis of German technology during the Second World War.

V-1. The German Air Force's V-1, a straight-wing, unmanned jet aircraft powered by a pulsejet engine, was the first guided missile used in warfare. The length of the V-1 was 7.7 m, the wingspan was 5.4 m. Its speed of 580 km/h (at an altitude of 600 m) exceeded the speed of most Allied fighters, preventing the destruction of the projectile in air combat. The projectile was equipped with an autopilot and carried a combat charge weighing 1000 kg. A pre-programmed control mechanism gave the command to turn off the engine, and the charge exploded on impact. Since the V-1 had a hit accuracy of 12 km, it was a weapon to destroy civilians rather than military targets.

In just 80 days, the German army rained down 8,070 V-1 shells on London. 1,420 of these shells reached their target, killing 5,864 and wounding 17,917 people (10% of all British civilian casualties during the war).

US cruise missiles. The first American cruise missiles, the Snark (Air Force) and Regulus (Navy), were almost the same in size as manned aircraft and required almost the same care in preparation for launch. They were withdrawn from service in the late 1950s, when the power, range and accuracy of ballistic missiles increased noticeably.

However, in the 1970s, US military experts began to talk about the urgent need for cruise missiles that could deliver a conventional or nuclear warhead over a distance of several hundred kilometers. Solving this problem has been facilitated by 1) recent advances in electronics and 2) the advent of reliable, small-sized gas turbines. As a result, the Navy Tomahawk and Air Force ALCM cruise missiles were developed.

During the development of the Tomahawk, it was decided to launch these cruise missiles from modern Los Angeles-class attack submarines equipped with 12 vertical launch tubes. ALCM air-launched cruise missiles have changed their launch pad from being launched in the air from B-52 and B-1 bombers to being launched from mobile ground-based Air Force launch complexes.

When flying, the Tomahawk uses a special radar system for displaying the terrain. Both the Tomahawk and the ALCM air-launched cruise missile use a highly accurate inertial guidance system, the effectiveness of which has increased significantly with the installation of GPS receivers. The latest upgrade ensures that the maximum deviation of the missile from the target is only 1 m.

During the 1991 Gulf War, more than 30 Tomahawk missiles were launched from warships and submarines to hit a number of targets. Some carried large spools of carbon fibers that unwound as the projectiles flew over Iraq's high-voltage long-distance power lines. The fibers twisted around the wires, knocking out large sections of Iraq's power grid and thereby de-energizing air defense systems.

Surface-to-air missiles. Missiles of this class are designed to intercept aircraft and cruise missiles.

The first such missile was the radio-controlled Hs-117 Schmetterling missile, used by Nazi Germany against Allied bomber formations. The length of the rocket was 4 m, the wingspan was 1.8 m; it flew at a speed of 1000 km/h at an altitude of up to 15 km.

In the United States, the first missiles of this class were the Nike-Ajax and the larger Nike-Hercules missile that replaced it: large batteries of both were located in the northern United States.

The first known case of a surface-to-air missile successfully hitting a target occurred on May 1, 1960, when Soviet air defenses, launching 14 SA-2 Guideline missiles, shot down a US U-2 reconnaissance aircraft piloted by F. Powers. The SA-2 and SA-7 Grayle missiles were used by the North Vietnamese military from the beginning vietnam war in 1965 and until its end. At first they were not effective enough (in 1965, 11 aircraft were shot down by 194 missiles), but Soviet specialists improved both the engines and electronic equipment rockets, and with their help Northern Vietnam shot down during the war approx. 200 US aircraft. Guideline missiles were also used by Egypt, India and Iraq.

The first combat use of American missiles of this class occurred in 1967, when Israel used Hawk missiles to destroy Egyptian fighters during the Six-Day War. The limitations of modern radar and launch control systems were clearly demonstrated by the 1988 incident, when an Iranian jet airliner was on a scheduled flight from Tehran to Saudi Arabia, was mistaken by the US Navy cruiser Vincennes for a hostile aircraft and shot down by its long-range SM-2 cruise missile. More than 400 people died.

The Patriot missile battery includes a control complex with an identification/control station (command post), a phased array radar, a powerful electric generator and 8 launchers, each equipped with 4 missiles. The missile can hit targets located at a distance of 3 to 80 km from the launch point.

Military units taking part in military operations can protect themselves from low-flying aircraft and helicopters using shoulder-launched air defense missiles. The most effective missiles are the US Stinger and the Soviet-Russian SA-7 Strela. Both are homing on the thermal radiation of an aircraft engine. When using them, the missile is first aimed at the target, then the radio-thermal guidance head is turned on. When the target is acquired, an audible signal sounds and the shooter activates the trigger. The explosion of a low-power charge ejects the rocket from the launch tube, and then it is accelerated by the main engine to a speed of 2500 km/h.

In the 1980s, the US CIA secretly supplied guerrillas in Afghanistan with Stinger missiles, which were later successfully used in the fight against Soviet helicopters and fighter jets. Now the "leftist" Stingers have found their way to the black market for weapons.

North Vietnam widely used Strela missiles in South Vietnam starting in 1972. Experience with them stimulated the development in the United States of a combined search device sensitive to both infrared and ultraviolet radiation, after which the Stinger began to distinguish between flares and decoys . Strela missiles, like the Stinger, were used in a number of local conflicts and fell into the hands of terrorists. Later "Strela" was replaced by more modern rocket SA-16 ("Needle"), which, like the Stinger, is launched from the shoulder. see also AIR DEFENSE.

Air-to-surface missiles. Projectiles of this class (free-falling and gliding bombs; missiles for destroying radars and ships; missiles launched before approaching the air defense zone) are launched from an aircraft, allowing the pilot to hit a target on land and at sea.

Free-falling and gliding bombs. An ordinary bomb can be turned into a guided projectile by adding a guidance device and aerodynamic control surfaces. During World War II, the United States used several types of free-fall and glide bombs.

VB-1 "Eison" a conventional free-fall bomb weighing 450 kg, launched from a bomber, had a special tail unit, controlled by radio, which made it possible for the bomb thrower to control its lateral (azimuthal) movement. In the tail section of this projectile there were gyroscopes, power batteries, a radio receiver, an antenna and a light marker that allowed the bomb thrower to monitor the projectile. The Eizon was replaced by the VB-3 Raison projectile, which allowed control not only in azimuth, but also in flight range. It provided greater accuracy than the VB-1 and carried a larger explosive charge. The VB-6 Felix round was equipped with a heat seeking device that responded to heat sources such as exhaust pipes.

The GBU-15 shell, first used by the United States in the Vietnam War, destroyed heavily fortified bridges. This is a 450 kg bomb with a laser search device (installed in the nose) and control rudders (in the tail section). The search device was aimed at the beam reflected when the laser illuminated the selected target.

During the 1991 Gulf War, it happened that one aircraft dropped a GBU-15 projectile, and this projectile was aimed at the laser “bunny” provided by the second aircraft. At the same time, a thermal imaging camera on board the bomber aircraft monitored the projectile until it met the target. The target was often a ventilation hole in a fairly strong aircraft hangar through which the projectile would penetrate.

Radar suppression rounds. An important class of air-launched missiles are projectiles that are aimed at signals emitted by enemy radars. One of the first US shells of this class was the Shrike, first used during the Vietnam War. The US currently operates a high-speed radar jamming missile, HARM, equipped with sophisticated computers that can monitor the range of frequencies used by air defense systems, revealing frequency hopping and other techniques used to reduce the likelihood of detection.

Missiles launched before approaching the air defense zone boundary. At the nose of this class of missiles is a small television camera that allows pilots to see the target and control the missile in the final seconds of its flight. When an aircraft flies to a target, complete radar “silence” is maintained for most of the way. During the 1991 Gulf War, the United States launched 7 such missiles. In addition, up to 100 Maverick air-to-surface missiles were launched daily to destroy tankers and stationary targets.

Anti-ship missiles. The importance of anti-ship missiles was clearly demonstrated by three incidents. During the Six-Day War, the Israeli destroyer Eilat carried out patrol duty in international waters near Alexandria. An Egyptian patrol ship in port fired a Chinese-made Styx anti-ship missile at it, which hit the Eilat, exploded and split it in half, after which it sank.

Two other incidents involve the French-made Exocet missile. During the Falkland Islands War (1982), Exocet missiles launched by an Argentine aircraft caused serious damage to the British Navy destroyer Sheffield and sank the container ship Atlantic Conveyor.

Air-to-air missiles. The most effective American air-to-air missiles are the AIM-7 Sparrow and AIM-9 Sidewinder, which were created in the 1950s and have been modernized several times since then.

Sidewinder missiles are equipped with thermal homing heads. Gallium arsenide, which can be stored at ambient temperature, is used as a thermal detector in the rocket's search device. By illuminating the target, the pilot activates the missile, which homing in on the engine exhaust of the enemy aircraft.

More advanced is the Phoenix missile system installed on board the US Navy F-14 Tomcat fighter jets. The AGM-9D Phoenix model can destroy enemy aircraft at a distance of up to 80 km. The presence of modern computers and radars on board the fighter allows it to simultaneously track up to 50 targets.

Soviet Akrid missiles were designed to be installed on MiG-29 fighters to combat US long-range bomber aircraft.

Artillery rockets. Salvo system rocket fire MLRS the main missile weapon of the US ground forces in the mid-1990s. The launcher of the multiple launch rocket system is equipped with 12 missiles in two clips of 6 each: after launch, the clip can be quickly changed. A team of three determines its position using navigation satellites. Rockets can be fired one at a time or in one gulp. A salvo of 12 missiles distributes 7,728 bombs at a target site (1-2 km), remote at a distance of up to 32 km, scattering thousands of metal fragments during the explosion.

The ATACMS tactical missile system uses the multiple launch rocket system platform, but is equipped with two dual clips. Moreover, the destruction range reaches 150 km, each missile carries 950 bombs, and the missile's course is controlled by a laser gyroscope.

Anti-tank missiles. During World War II, the most effective armor-piercing weapon was the American bazooka. The warhead, which contained a shaped charge, allowed the bazooka to penetrate several inches of steel. In response to the development Soviet Union a number of increasingly equipped and powerful tanks In the United States, several types of modern anti-tank shells were developed that could be launched from the shoulder, from jeeps, armored vehicles and helicopters.

The two most widely and successfully used types of American anti-tank weapons are the TOW, a barrel-launched missile with an optical tracking system and wired communication, and the Dragon missile. The first was originally intended for use by helicopter crews. 4 containers with missiles were attached to each side of the helicopter, and the tracking system was located in the gunner’s cabin. A small optical device on the launch unit monitored the signal light at the rocket's tail, transmitting control commands through a pair of thin wires that unwinded from a coil in the tail compartment. TOW missiles can also be adapted for launches from jeeps and armored vehicles.

The Dragon missile uses approximately the same control system as the TOW, however, since the Dragon was intended for infantry use, the missile has a lighter mass and a less powerful warhead. It is used, as a rule, by units with disabilities transportation (amphibious vehicles, airborne units).

In the late 1970s, the United States began developing the laser-guided, helicopter-launched, shoot-and-forget Hellfire missile. Part of this system is a night vision camera that allows you to track targets in low light. The helicopter crew can work in tandem or in conjunction with ground-based illuminators to keep the launch point secret. During the Gulf War, 15 Hellfire missiles were launched (within 2 minutes) before a ground assault, destroying Iraqi early warning system posts. After this, more than 5,000 of these missiles were fired, which dealt a crushing blow to Iraqi tank forces.

Promising anti-tank missiles include the Russian RPG-7V and AT-3 Sagger missiles, although their accuracy decreases with increasing range, since the shooter must track and direct the missile using a joystick.

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