Putin: an agent of influence or comprador? Part of 6
The US Missile Defense Agency and Boeing conducted successful tests of the new laser weapons that the US Air Force will use to intercept ballistic missiles, Aviation Week reported on Tuesday, 9 in September. A test shot of the COIL (Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser) oxygen-iodine laser gun mounted aboard the military Boeing 747-400 took place on Sunday, September 7, at the Edwards military air base in California, reportedly "split second". The tests were carried out in the framework of the American antimissile program ABL (Airborne laser - "Laser from the air"). This message did not become a sensation. For many years, the United States has been trying to create an airborne combat laser within a missile defense system.
However, after the appearance of this message in the Russian media, not too militarily educated journalists asked representatives of the academy to comment on this message. "A combat laser designed for installation on airplanes is being developed in Russia, Yuri Zaitsev, full academic adviser to the Academy of Engineering Sciences of the Russian Federation, told Interfax. According to him, the weapons program, which was approved by the Scientific and Technical Council of the Military Industrial Commission, has sections that involve further research and development of laser weapons. " This statement was replicated in the media, and Lenta.Ru called its note "Russian scientists engaged in creating a combat laser for aircraft". The low professionalism of journalists, even in their profession, affected this title. It was necessary to check. After all, even the note itself indicated that "A powerful enough unit was tested back in the 1972 year. Even then, the mobile" laser gun "quite successfully hit aerial targets". In reality, our designers and laser installed on the aircraft a very long time. And it is known, about this "Kommersant" wrote back in 2004 year:
Works on a similar system (A-60) are also carried out by Moscow. On the basis of the Il-76MD transport aircraft, as early as the 80-s, two A-60 were created in the Taganrog Aviation Scientific-Technical Complex named after Beriev. And although one of the airplanes in 90s burned to the ground at Chkalovsky airfield, the second one is still being tested. According to the Kommersant’s source in the Ministry of Defense, these works are among the few that receive full funding from the state armaments program.
A-60 recently seen on one of the military airfields:
Our A-60 the laser is placed differently - on the back, not on the nose, as in the Americans, and it looks like a bomber's machine gun turret. And "in order not to spoil the aerodynamics of the aircraft with another fairing, the gun was made retractable. The top of the fuselage between the wing and the keel was cut and replaced with huge flaps consisting of several segments. They were removed inside the fuselage, and then the turret with a gun came up".
"For the first time, the flying laboratory" 1A "was lifted into the air on August 19, 1981 by the crew headed by test pilot E.A. Lakhmostov. On August 29, 1991, the crew headed by test pilot V.P. Demianovskiy, lifted into the air the second flying laboratory, named "1A2". On board was a new version of a special complex, modified according to the results of tests carried out on "1A". "
So if Russian scientists and "engaged in the creation" of a combat laser for aircraft, then a very long time. And achieved results before the Americans. Nothing is known about the course of testing of a domestic combat laser, since they were completely secret and remain so until now. Americans also tried to do something else in 80's. They even managed then to "knock off" several AIM-9B Sidewinder air-to-air missiles. To break the infrared system of homing missiles - all that was then possible to the "combat" American laser. After such “successful” tests, work was abandoned and resumed at the beginning of this century only after information about Russian laser guns got to them. The Russian laser did not "break", but cut. And to make sure it is worth remembering about the ground-based version of a combat laser.
The quoted article is dated 2002 year and it also says that "Work on this installation has been going on since the 1996 of the year. At that time, the cannon even had a real combat mission: protecting Israeli territories from missile strikes from border areas." However, it can hardly be assumed that Israel itself has developed the technology. Together with emigrating scientists from Russia to Israel moved and technology. And from Israel, these technologies are already in the United States. This also applies to the combat laser. Why am I sure about this? But why.
Combat laser conversion It consisted only in the fact that the laser was put on a civilian KAMAZ with a trailer. And removed the guidance system for aerial targets. As a result, the beam of a peaceful laser cuts shipboard steel with a thickness of up to 120 mm from a distance of 30 meters. The attempt of military designers to make some money did not work out very well, but caused genuine interest from competing organizations. Decided to declassify and convert the technology apparently after reports from Israel about the testing of a combat laser. If you look at site of NGO "Almaz", then you can see the photo and non-conversion version of the laser gun. And the mobile version, over which the Israelis still only work. Well, "a fairly powerful installation was tested back in 1972 year," as mentioned above. Developed for a long time, these combat installations have not yet been adopted, but Russian gunsmiths are already probing the market. Even the cost of the shot was calculated: "Instead of shooting down attacking ballistic missiles with an equally expensive anti-aircraft missile, Russian defenders are proposing to destroy them with sighting laser shots worth $ 1000-1500 each." Apparently they will have to compete with Israel. “The THEL tactical high-energy laser developed there is planned to be used to protect Israeli cities from rocket attacks by Islamists. Last year, during testing, this hyperboloid shot down Soviet-made 25 missiles that were captured in Lebanon. By the way, the cost of a THEL shot approaches $ 3000, which By the standards of Russian gunsmiths expensive. " That is because speculators!
West lagging on laser arms here it is obvious, although it is difficult to estimate the time gap - still, it is still secret. However, it is not only laser technologies that can serve as an example of the lag of the west in radiation weapons. There are more microwave weapons, plasma. Here is what the newspaper "Izvestia" wrote in 1993:
"As the editorial office learned, during the talks between Russian President Boris Yeltsin and the United States President Bill Clinton at a summit meeting in Vancouver, our country’s proposal to hold a joint large-scale experiment to repel a rocket attack on the Pacific Atoll Kwajelaine will also be heard. This experiment is Russian scientists , who worked in the top secret defense industry for a long time, called the Trust (Trust). Such research and production centers as the Research Institute Experimental Physics of the closed city of Arzamas-16, TsAGI, Central Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering from Moscow, Kaliningrad, which created our best rocket. Scientific Research Institute of Radio, part of the structure of the super secret Interstate Joint Stock Corporation "Vympel" leading institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences and other groups. "
It was about conducting an experiment with the so-called "plasma weapon", which can hit any object moving in the Earth's atmosphere, be it a rocket, its warhead, a plane, or another artificial or natural celestial body like a meteorite. "The energy directed by the ground-based components of the weapon does not concentrate on the target itself, but on the portion of the atmosphere directly in front of it, on the flight path. It ionizes this portion and completely violates the aerodynamics of the flight of a rocket or aircraft. The object leaves the trajectory and collapses from monstrous overloads. Parry such an impact of ground-based energy is almost impossible ... Academician Avramenko argues that in such a form of missile defense and air defense weapons for the first time it is possible to combine radar facilities in a single complex Observations and means of electronic delivery to the target at the speed of light of a striking factor - a plasmoid. This makes the plasmoid an almost invulnerable weapon of guaranteed protection against any attack from space or the upper and lower layers of the atmosphere. " From the message it becomes clear that by the year 1993 Russia already possessed plasma weapons and Yeltsin tried to even demonstrate it to the Americans in a joint experiment. Those refused. It would be painfully embarrassing for them. Americans are much better than our rulers imagined the consequences of such demonstrations. First of all in the propaganda plan. By the way, Gorbachev demonstrated a laser of megawatt power to them. So the Soviet achievements, and so they were fed up. Their SOI-PRO program would have been blown away in an instant in the light of similar USSR achievements. But that's not all.
The laser, in fact, is most effective in space. There he does not interfere with the atmosphere, there is no scattering of the beam. The idea of placing a laser in space as a defensive means against ballistic missiles simply suggests itself and one of the most important elements of US missile defense has this component:
"As one of the most promising percussion tools developed by the US system for intercepting space targets for many years considered a space-based laser weapon based on Space Based Laser (SBL). Work on it is carried out with the participation of Boeing, Lockheed Martin and TRW" First SBL Tests scheduled for 2012 year. Space combat platforms with lasers on board can also fight against satellites. Even space debris to destroy. This is a universal space fighter. And he is with us was already in 1987 year!
15 of May 1987 of the year from the cosmodrome Baikonur launched a rocket "Energy". The rocket was able to put into orbit more than 100 tons of payload and on it as a "payload" was attached a device called Polyus weighing 80 tons. As it turned out much later, it was space fighter with a laser weapon "Skif-DM"... According to official reports, the launch was only a test for the rocket, which was successful. However, these were also tests for the prototype space fighter, which did not go as smoothly as for the rocket. The Skif's stabilization and orientation engines did not stop the rotation of the vehicle after its regular 180-degree turn, which was necessary after separation from the rocket. As a result, the device was unable to turn on the main engine. Not gaining the required orbital speed, the spacecraft went along a ballistic trajectory and fell in the same place as the central block of the Energia launch vehicle - into the waters of the Pacific Ocean. However, the first unsuccessful launch did not at all indicate the failure of the entire program.
Gorbachev wanted to be present at launch, he came and inspected the device a few days before the launch. But the launch date coincided with the date of his speech from the UN rostrum. And from this rostrum, he stated that "we are against the arms race, including in space ... Our interests here coincide with the interests of the American people ... We are categorically against the transfer of the arms race to space ..." The first launch of "Skiff" was his last launch. The whole program "Energy-Buran" has lost its meaning. For it was aimed precisely at bringing the complex of laser weapons into space. Billions of people's money in vain. The interests of the Secretary General here more likely coincided with the interests of the Pentagon and NASA. They got a head start already in 25 years! The US missile defense plan did not disrupt Gorbachev’s concession. She gave them a quarter of a century to catch up with the Russians. Now, if we want parity, we will have to restore the destroyed system. This will also require the time and resources that Russia has less than the USSR. And until 2012, there is not much time left. Why don't Belkovsky’s “analysts” shout about this? Tasks were not. Suddenly Russia will have time?
Again, this is not all. You can return to conventional weapons. Talk about airplanes. After all, the Americans have already put into service the fifth generation aircraft! Super-invisible super-shock multipurpose fighter-bomber. You can talk about it. But in the next part.
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