"Bulava" if it flies, it will not strengthen the shield of Russia

A special commission of the Ministry of Defense handed over to the government the materials of the investigation of unsuccessful launches of an intercontinental ballistic missile of the sea-based Bulava. Officially, the specific reasons for the numerous failures have not yet been announced, but Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov has already stated that "the problem of unsuccessful launches of the Bulava rocket lies in the assembly technology." Thus, the Minister confirmed the previously repeatedly voiced version of the reasons for unsuccessful launches.

Recall that the Bulava missile began to be developed in the 1998 year, it should have been adopted as early as the 2007 year. But due to the regular failures during the test, the adoption of the missile into service was postponed indefinitely. A total of 12 launches took place, of which 5 was deemed relatively successful, and only 1 unconditionally successful.

In the spring of 2010, an interdepartmental commission was formed, which was supposed to find the reasons for the failed Bulava launches. It is expected that the final conclusions of the Commission will present 30 May. However, it is unlikely that there will be something new in the conclusion - the banal technology marriage has repeatedly been called the main reason.

So, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, who oversees the defense industry, last year said that the “technological defect” was to blame for everything, which could not be found earlier, because about 650 enterprises are involved in the creation of the rocket, and therefore to track the quality of all the rocket components is impossible.

The chief designer of the Bulava, Yuri Solomonov of the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering, stated that the range of problems is much wider. According to him, the main reasons for unsuccessful rocket launches are poor-quality materials, violation of production technology and inadequate quality control. In addition, according to Solomonov, for the successful production of this type of missile, it is necessary to have about 50 names of materials that are simply not in Russia. “In one case, poor-quality materials are used, in the other, the necessary equipment is missing to eliminate the human factor in manufacturing, in the third, inadequate quality control,” Solomonov explained in an interview with Izvestia.

However, some observers point out that during the testing of the Bulava, some inappropriate innovations were made. Solomonov is guilty of abandoning the traditional Soviet three-stage missile test system, in accordance with which the first stage involves deep-sea bench tests, the second - ground, and the third - launches from the submarine. At the Moscow Institute of Heat Engineering, it was decided to immediately proceed to the tests from a submarine. This step was argued by the fact that the Mace is the sea counterpart of Topol, which is being developed at the same institute. This led to the fact that the data of real launches were replaced by mathematical calculations, which, according to some experts, could lead to errors.

Despite the obvious problems with the Bulava tests, vice-admiral Oleg Burtsev, the first deputy chief of the Navy's General Staff, said in July 2009, “We are doomed to fly anyway, especially since the testing program has not been fully completed. “Bulava” is a new rocket, during its tests one has to face various obstacles, nothing new comes right away ”. In confirmation of the vice-admiral's words, it can be added that the Bulava predecessor is the P-39 rocket, which is armed with the 941 project's Akula submarines, more than half of the first 17 launches, but after the modifications, more 13 launches and was adopted for service.

However, Peter Belov, a professor at the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, in an interview questioned the need to finalize the Bulava in its current form and revealed some of the root causes of the failed tests:

- At one time, the project of a sea-based solid-fuel rocket was selected from the State Rocket Center. Academician V.P. Makeeva, who traditionally engaged in the creation of missiles for submarines, and transferred to the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering. MIT was then seduced by the Ministry of Defense with the fact that they already had some kind of stocking at the Topol base, which only needs to be modified slightly, and it will be suitable for use both at sea and on land. But the idea of ​​universality is absurd in this case.

In addition - much worse - the designer Yuri Solomonov, who took on the development, completely forgot about the state of our military-industrial complex and neglected all its canons and traditions. He was not guided by the country's capabilities, not by his own construction materials and did not take into account a certain degradation of the military-industrial complex, the lack of specialists, the loss of technology, etc. As a result, he drew a project that cannot be carried out in modern conditions.

Another touch: Solomonov in his book “Nuclear Vertical” boasted that only the construction materials that he included in the project and which are not produced in Russia are fifty. Probably there are components that can not be made in our country. But this is absurd.

First, until now there was a rule not to use foreign materials in domestic developments. After all, if these are structural materials, then their delivery to Russia at any time can be terminated. If we are talking about components, then the technology is now at such a level that certain bookmarks can be embedded in them, which are unknown to the buyer, and which can be used against his interests. Secondly, to date, the institution of military representatives, who controlled the process of production, debugging and testing, has been completely and purposefully destroyed.

The imposition of these circumstances and led to the fact that the project was extremely expensive. For example, since the rocket body should be as light and high-strength as possible, terribly expensive carbon plastics are used ... These are the reasons why the project does not work and is unlikely to work. In general, the decision-making system in this area is very vague. I believe that the current outcome of the development was also lobbied and known in advance. About who and how to make these decisions, who removed the SRC them. Makeeva than it was motivated, a separate conversation.

- It turns out that the refinement and adoption of the Bulava are inappropriate?

- Would this project be any serious in terms of integral characteristics - drop weight, number of blocks, cargo dimensions, etc. But the Bulava is even inferior to the American Trident I rocket, the first modification of which was adopted as early as 1979.

It is alleged that the Bulava has a short “active segment” of the trajectory (the first section of the path traveled with the engine running), which led to a significant simplification of the task of intercepting this missile in the “passive segment” that the rocket passes outside the atmosphere. Experience has shown that the naval component of the American missile defense system copes with interception precisely in this area ... That is, even if we get this missile, which I personally find unlikely, it will not strengthen our nuclear potential.

This is all the more terrible because the latest START Treaty, which was signed by Russia and the United States, contains a provision on the obligation of the parties to exchange telemetric information. Despite the fact that it seems that both parties should provide information, only Russia will do this. The Americans are not developing and are not going to develop new rockets, but we are now tormented by this “Bulava”. Telemetry information, which we will have to transmit under the contract, will allow us to calculate the parameters of the so-called. unpredictable rocket maneuver. Telemetry has nothing to do with control over compliance with the provisions of the START Treaty: this is data on the state of the engine and other systems of the carrier’s operation in flight. But all the telemetric data for the same Bulava and other missiles that are being prepared for tests now will be transferred to the Americans. Dmitry Medvedev said that he and Obama know better than others what telemetry is, so this is a conscious decision.

Comments

[kuga]

Even as amplify.

[Florist]

flies already) But we still need to refine ..