Taming the pentagon
55 years ago, the Soviet Union eliminated US global invulnerability
Bearded joke “Do you want to go to America? Go serve in the rocket troops! ”Was filled with a very specific meaning 20 January 1960 year after the release of the Council of Ministers of the USSR number 60-20, adopted the intercontinental ballistic missile of the megaton class of the Soviet army.
MBR developed OKB-1, nuclear weapons - KB-11 (now VNIIEF) together with Scientific Research Institute-1011 (VNIITF). The rocket, according to the plan of her “father” Sergey Korolev, was created simultaneously as a means of nuclear deterrence and a carrier of spacecraft. The dramatic moments of the “Seven” tests are well shown in the famous film “The Taming of Fire”, where the role of the Queen (under the name of Bashkir) was performed by Kirill Lavrov. So it was: the first launch of 15 on May 1957 of the year at the Tyura-Tam test site, better known as Baikonur, was a failure (first stage failure), the second was postponed due to a control system failure, the third, 12 of July of the same year, the rocket exploded at the start. But in the fourth launch, 21 August 1957, P-7 managed to beat 5600 kilometers, reaching a given area in Kamchatka. What with pride (without details, of course) told TASS: "The other day, an ultra-long-range intercontinental multi-stage ballistic missile was launched."
A month later, with a little, 4 of October, the RV "Sputnik" - the space version of the P-7 - put the first in the near-earth orbit stories mankind artificial satellite of the Earth PS-1. The States started, a special shock was experienced at the Pentagon - after all, the Russians demonstrated not only their historical primacy in space, but also the fact that they had a formidable weapon - intercontinental ballistic missile. The first successful test of their Atlas ICBMs by Americans was only 17 December 1957 of the year.
Not for parades
Nuclear combat equipment P-7 was a monoblock warhead with a capacity of three to five megatons. The warhead weighed more than five tons. The charge itself consisted of a thermonuclear assembly (developed at SRI-1011 based on the RDS-37 charge by the Sakharov – Khariton design) and a primary nuclear charge based on the well-developed RDS-4. The thermonuclear charge for the P-7 was tested in the shell of an aerial bomb, dropping from a Tu-16 long-range bomber on Novaya Zemlya on October 6 1957, while the energy release was 2,9 megatons, 1,2 exceeding the calculated figure.
Soon, an even more advanced thermonuclear charge was created - the “49 product” (Trutnev – Babayev charge), which is characterized by an increased specific power with significantly reduced weight and size characteristics. An important innovation in the “49 product” was the boosting of the primary nuclear charge, that is, the inclusion in its design of a tritium-deuterium node, which ensures more efficient use of fissile material.
Scientists of KB-25 (VNIIA) took part in the development of a nuclear weapon for the “sevens”.
The creation of the “49 product” in turn made it possible to improve the performance of the P-7 rocket. Its new version of the P-7A (8K74) could throw a lightweight three-megaton thermonuclear unit weighing 2,2 tons to a distance of 14 thousands of kilometers, and a heavy five-megaton (weight 3,7 tons) - on the 9,5 thousands of kilometers against the maximum range of 8500-XNXX .
Nevertheless, the Р-7 and Р-7А, being the first representatives of the Soviet ICBMs, turned out to be very cumbersome in themselves, difficult to use in military operations and, moreover, vulnerable to enemy attack. The fuel in them was kerosene T-1 and liquid oxygen, and the rocket could be kept for a maximum of a month in the filled state at the start.
The combat starting position under the conventional designation of the Angara object was built next to the working settlement of Plesetsk in the Arkhangelsk region (this is how the Plesetsk cosmodrome was born). The ground launch complex, which had no anti-nuclear engineering protection and was not much different from the space launch at Baikonur, consisted of a launcher with maintenance farms and a technical position, from where the rocket was delivered on rails by a railway installer.
A purely “PR” moment: across Red Square, for fear of the adversary, the hefty P-7 with the wide “skirt” of the first-stage sides was not to be driven, but Khrushchev loved how to show the world strategic missiles at the grand May 1 parades and November 7.
"Angara" guarantees
The Angara object was handed over to missilemen by 1 in January 1960 of the year, and in the same month, in accordance with a decision of the Council of Ministers, they put the first seven on combat duty. And in the spring of the same year an advanced P-7A was placed here. The combat capability of the Angara facility was proven on July 16 on the 1960 by successful combat training launches from under Plesetsk at once two P-7A missiles.
In total, the Strategic Missile Forces had four such missiles in their "hot asset", which took Washington, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles "on the fly". To hit these cities in contrast to the domestic strategic aviation they could with a XNUMX% guarantee.
Soon, in connection with the advent of new ballistic missiles, the idea to deploy a whole missile division of the “sevens” was abandoned. Four “Sevens”, already completely obsolete in combat quality, lasted until 1968, when the basis of the intercontinental arsenal of the Strategic Missile Forces were much more advanced missile-based missiles - Р-16, Р-9А, Р-36 and УР-100 (total The 909 MBR together with the “sevens” is a colossal power that made the war against the USSR senseless!).
However, the "seven", with the help of which (in the Vostok modification) 12 of April 1961 of the year was put into orbit by Yuri Gagarin’s eponymous spaceship, continues to live today as a space launch vehicle of the glorious Soyuz family. Enviable longevity! The modernization resource, pledged in his offspring by Sergei Pavlovich and his comrades, is simply amazing. And somehow the thought occurred that Korolev, creating the “seven”, was primarily thinking of the stars - not on his jacket, but on real ones - and the military mission of this rocket was for him in the background. By the way, this moment is reflected in “Taming the Fire”.
And what about the ocean?
The Americans, namely the firm Convair, developed their Atlas MBR, which also flew on oxygen and kerosene. The first production model - Atlas D - was launched, like our "seven", from an open ground table, the second one - Atlas E - was stored horizontally in an open concrete ground box (which somewhat increased resistance to a shock wave of a nuclear explosion) and before launching directly from the box (which the Americans called coffin - the coffin) was brought upright. The third model - Atlas F - was placed in the mines, but to launch, the rocket still needed to be lifted to the surface. It must be said that the Americans, thanks to the high-speed rocket fueling system developed by them, have achieved an important advantage of Atlas over the G7 in technical readiness for launch. If for P-7A, located on the launch pad, the preparation time was nine hours, then American missiles were refueled in just 15 minutes. The Atlas-based missile base could have been shot at Soviet cities in half an hour.
Atlas type MBRs were equipped with W-49 and W-38 thermonuclear warheads with a power of four megatons. In total, the United States had 129 "Atlas" in combat strength of its strategic forces, and it should be recognized that this number was enough to cause the USSR what is euphemically called unacceptable damage. They stopped combat duty in 1964 – 1965, being replaced by missiles of the Titan and Minuteman families. Like the "seven", the Atlas rocket in a modified form has been used as a space transport. For example, Pioneer interplanetary stations were launched with its help. And we recognize that this is the best use of rocket technology, which should serve the world, not war.
Bearded joke “Do you want to go to America? Go serve in the rocket troops! ”Was filled with a very specific meaning 20 January 1960 year after the release of the Council of Ministers of the USSR number 60-20, adopted the intercontinental ballistic missile of the megaton class of the Soviet army.
MBR developed OKB-1, nuclear weapons - KB-11 (now VNIIEF) together with Scientific Research Institute-1011 (VNIITF). The rocket, according to the plan of her “father” Sergey Korolev, was created simultaneously as a means of nuclear deterrence and a carrier of spacecraft. The dramatic moments of the “Seven” tests are well shown in the famous film “The Taming of Fire”, where the role of the Queen (under the name of Bashkir) was performed by Kirill Lavrov. So it was: the first launch of 15 on May 1957 of the year at the Tyura-Tam test site, better known as Baikonur, was a failure (first stage failure), the second was postponed due to a control system failure, the third, 12 of July of the same year, the rocket exploded at the start. But in the fourth launch, 21 August 1957, P-7 managed to beat 5600 kilometers, reaching a given area in Kamchatka. What with pride (without details, of course) told TASS: "The other day, an ultra-long-range intercontinental multi-stage ballistic missile was launched."
A month later, with a little, 4 of October, the RV "Sputnik" - the space version of the P-7 - put the first in the near-earth orbit stories mankind artificial satellite of the Earth PS-1. The States started, a special shock was experienced at the Pentagon - after all, the Russians demonstrated not only their historical primacy in space, but also the fact that they had a formidable weapon - intercontinental ballistic missile. The first successful test of their Atlas ICBMs by Americans was only 17 December 1957 of the year.
Not for parades
Nuclear combat equipment P-7 was a monoblock warhead with a capacity of three to five megatons. The warhead weighed more than five tons. The charge itself consisted of a thermonuclear assembly (developed at SRI-1011 based on the RDS-37 charge by the Sakharov – Khariton design) and a primary nuclear charge based on the well-developed RDS-4. The thermonuclear charge for the P-7 was tested in the shell of an aerial bomb, dropping from a Tu-16 long-range bomber on Novaya Zemlya on October 6 1957, while the energy release was 2,9 megatons, 1,2 exceeding the calculated figure.
Soon, an even more advanced thermonuclear charge was created - the “49 product” (Trutnev – Babayev charge), which is characterized by an increased specific power with significantly reduced weight and size characteristics. An important innovation in the “49 product” was the boosting of the primary nuclear charge, that is, the inclusion in its design of a tritium-deuterium node, which ensures more efficient use of fissile material.
Scientists of KB-25 (VNIIA) took part in the development of a nuclear weapon for the “sevens”.The creation of the “49 product” in turn made it possible to improve the performance of the P-7 rocket. Its new version of the P-7A (8K74) could throw a lightweight three-megaton thermonuclear unit weighing 2,2 tons to a distance of 14 thousands of kilometers, and a heavy five-megaton (weight 3,7 tons) - on the 9,5 thousands of kilometers against the maximum range of 8500-XNXX .
Nevertheless, the Р-7 and Р-7А, being the first representatives of the Soviet ICBMs, turned out to be very cumbersome in themselves, difficult to use in military operations and, moreover, vulnerable to enemy attack. The fuel in them was kerosene T-1 and liquid oxygen, and the rocket could be kept for a maximum of a month in the filled state at the start.
The combat starting position under the conventional designation of the Angara object was built next to the working settlement of Plesetsk in the Arkhangelsk region (this is how the Plesetsk cosmodrome was born). The ground launch complex, which had no anti-nuclear engineering protection and was not much different from the space launch at Baikonur, consisted of a launcher with maintenance farms and a technical position, from where the rocket was delivered on rails by a railway installer.
A purely “PR” moment: across Red Square, for fear of the adversary, the hefty P-7 with the wide “skirt” of the first-stage sides was not to be driven, but Khrushchev loved how to show the world strategic missiles at the grand May 1 parades and November 7.
"Angara" guarantees
The Angara object was handed over to missilemen by 1 in January 1960 of the year, and in the same month, in accordance with a decision of the Council of Ministers, they put the first seven on combat duty. And in the spring of the same year an advanced P-7A was placed here. The combat capability of the Angara facility was proven on July 16 on the 1960 by successful combat training launches from under Plesetsk at once two P-7A missiles.
In total, the Strategic Missile Forces had four such missiles in their "hot asset", which took Washington, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles "on the fly". To hit these cities in contrast to the domestic strategic aviation they could with a XNUMX% guarantee.
Soon, in connection with the advent of new ballistic missiles, the idea to deploy a whole missile division of the “sevens” was abandoned. Four “Sevens”, already completely obsolete in combat quality, lasted until 1968, when the basis of the intercontinental arsenal of the Strategic Missile Forces were much more advanced missile-based missiles - Р-16, Р-9А, Р-36 and УР-100 (total The 909 MBR together with the “sevens” is a colossal power that made the war against the USSR senseless!).
However, the "seven", with the help of which (in the Vostok modification) 12 of April 1961 of the year was put into orbit by Yuri Gagarin’s eponymous spaceship, continues to live today as a space launch vehicle of the glorious Soyuz family. Enviable longevity! The modernization resource, pledged in his offspring by Sergei Pavlovich and his comrades, is simply amazing. And somehow the thought occurred that Korolev, creating the “seven”, was primarily thinking of the stars - not on his jacket, but on real ones - and the military mission of this rocket was for him in the background. By the way, this moment is reflected in “Taming the Fire”.
And what about the ocean?
The Americans, namely the firm Convair, developed their Atlas MBR, which also flew on oxygen and kerosene. The first production model - Atlas D - was launched, like our "seven", from an open ground table, the second one - Atlas E - was stored horizontally in an open concrete ground box (which somewhat increased resistance to a shock wave of a nuclear explosion) and before launching directly from the box (which the Americans called coffin - the coffin) was brought upright. The third model - Atlas F - was placed in the mines, but to launch, the rocket still needed to be lifted to the surface. It must be said that the Americans, thanks to the high-speed rocket fueling system developed by them, have achieved an important advantage of Atlas over the G7 in technical readiness for launch. If for P-7A, located on the launch pad, the preparation time was nine hours, then American missiles were refueled in just 15 minutes. The Atlas-based missile base could have been shot at Soviet cities in half an hour.
Atlas type MBRs were equipped with W-49 and W-38 thermonuclear warheads with a power of four megatons. In total, the United States had 129 "Atlas" in combat strength of its strategic forces, and it should be recognized that this number was enough to cause the USSR what is euphemically called unacceptable damage. They stopped combat duty in 1964 – 1965, being replaced by missiles of the Titan and Minuteman families. Like the "seven", the Atlas rocket in a modified form has been used as a space transport. For example, Pioneer interplanetary stations were launched with its help. And we recognize that this is the best use of rocket technology, which should serve the world, not war.
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