Flexible strategic fist
The evening of November 14 nuclear ballistic missile submarine (SSBN), "Vladimir Monomakh" project 955 "Borey" development of CDB ME "Rubin" from the depths of the White Sea has made the launch of two intercontinental ballistic missile "Bulava-30" (3M30 or PCM-56 - on classification of the Treaty on the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms), created by the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering (MIT), at the Kura test site in Kamchatka.
STRENGTHENING THE MEASL
The tumultuous recent events: the war against the “Islamic State” banned in Russia, the death of a Russian passenger plane in the sky over the Sinai, the terrorist attack in Paris - turned a significant share of attention to the problems associated with curbing international terrorism. However, the external situation around Russia is not rosy either. Therefore, our country has to pay a lot of attention to maintaining the combat readiness of the Armed Forces, and above all - their strategic component. This circumstance was indicated by Russian President Vladimir Putin during a series of November meetings in Sochi, where issues of increasing the state’s defense capability were discussed. Of particular concern is the continued construction by the United States and its allies of a global missile defense system. “We have repeatedly pointed out that such actions are regarded as an attempt to undermine the existing parity in the field of nuclear weapons, and in fact to undermine the entire system of regional and global stability,” said the head of state and commander-in-chief. That is why, according to him, Russia is forced to respond to the challenges of the times.
The emblem of SSBN "Vladimir Monomakh".
For the first time, a salvo launch of the Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missile launcher from the Vladimir Monomakh SSBN is one of the elements for practicing actions to overcome the missile defense system. Recall that each "Mace" carries up to ten nuclear warheads of individual guidance with the possibility of maneuvering yaw and pitch. It uses the principle of "bunch of grapes", that is, the warheads simultaneously attack several targets. Integrated countermeasures against missile defense also include a flat flight path and the ability to counter electronic suppression.
“Vladimir Monomakh”, which last year joined the Russian Navy, after a successful salvo firing, the Bulava will now replenish the number of nuclear-powered submarines of the Naval Strategic Nuclear Forces (NSNF) of Russia. They include other important events.
On September 30 this year, the Alexander Nevsky submarine - the first production boat of the Borey type - under the command of Captain 1st Rank Vasily Tankovid, arrived at its permanent base - Vilyuchinsk in Kamchatka. SSBN made an inter-naval transition from the North fleet to the Pacific, breaking 4500 miles under arctic waters. Next year, Vladimir Monomakh will also come there. Thus, there will be a phased replacement of the Pacific squad project 667BDR Kalmar built in the early 80s of the last century. In the meantime, Vilyuchinsk continues to improve the infrastructure for the basing of new generation nuclear powered ships.
October 15, after more than two months of autonomous navigation in the Arctic, returned to the Yadi Dolgoruky base in Gadzhiyevo SSBN under the command of captain 1 rank Vladimir Shirina. It was the first combat service of the lead strategic nuclear-powered icebreaker of the fourth generation 955 project in the Arctic Ocean. As the Northern Fleet Commander, Admiral Vladimir Korolev, stated during the meeting of the NS, “the crew of Yuri Dolgoruky once again confirmed that the Russian Navy has the most modern nuclear-powered missile carriers capable of performing the tasks of strategic nuclear deterrence in the World Ocean, including Arctic ice.
SSBN "Vladimir Monomakh".
QUARTET FOR CHANGE TRIO
October 30, another important event took place, which remained as if in the shadow of the mass of others News. On this day, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation conducted a routine audit of the Armed Forces command and control system. It, in fact, has become a fleeting training of the nuclear triad and not only it. The exercises were attended by formations and units of the Strategic Missile Forces, the Northern and Pacific Fleets, the Caspian Flotilla, as well as the Far aviation and ground forces. “During the training, the reliability of passing combat training orders and signals across the entire control vertical from the National Center for Defense Management of the Russian Federation to command posts of formations and military units inclusive was checked,” the Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
The Alexander Nevsky SSBF arrived in Vilyuchinsk.
During a training session of the Strategic Missile Forces, the Topol intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome. A strategic nuclear submarine “Bryansk” of the project 667BDRM “Dolphin” fired an R-29RMU2 “Sineva” submarine from the Barents Sea. A SSNS "Podolsk" project XNUMBBDR struck the SLBM P-667Р from the depths of the Sea of Okhotsk.
Submariners love to joke.
In turn, strategic supersonic long-range aviation bombers Tu-160 launched cruise missiles at targets at the Pemboi ranges in the Komi Republic and Kura in Kamchatka. At the Kapustin Yar test site, the calculation of the launcher of the Iskander operational-tactical complex entered into business. Judging from the video distributed by the press service of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, it was Iskander-K with cruise missiles developed by the Novator Design Bureau, which is part of Concern VKO Almaz - Antey. The range of destruction of targets by these high-precision and unobtrusive means is up to 500 km.
SSBN "Yuri Dolgoruky" returns to base after combat service in the Arctic.
Finally, from the Caspian Sea, the crew of the small rocket ship Velikiy Ustyug fired at the designated target with a Caliber-NK cruise missile. “As you know,” said Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu at a conference call following a training session, “this complex of high-precision weapons Long-range has already shown its combat capabilities in the course of a massive strike on the infrastructure of the militants of the Islamic State in Syria. ” As the head of the Russian defense department emphasized, “on the whole, the results of the training showed high combat readiness of the strategic nuclear forces and high-precision long-range weapons complexes - all the designated targets were hit with the established accuracy”.
The SSBN of the 667BDRM project is still the basis of the Russian NSNF.
The October 30 exercises, first, confirmed the high coherence of all components of the strategic nuclear triad. Secondly, they demonstrated flexibility in cooperation with non-nuclear strategic deterrence devices, which were represented by the Iskander-K and Kaliber-NK cruise missiles. Thirdly, today we can say that the strategic trio of the Russian Armed Forces has been transformed into a quartet, which not only expands the range of use of deterrents, but also allows using them in different combinations, depending on the situation and situation, and if necessary all together. And, of course, high-precision cruise missiles, again, if necessary, can be equipped with nuclear warheads.
Today, strategic forces are also being used to combat the Islamic State Islamic Organization (IG), which is banned in Russia. Since November 17, Long-Range Aviation with the participation of Tu-22М3, Tu-160 and Tu-95MS airplanes are delivering massive bombing and rocket attacks on headquarters, training camps, warehouses and infrastructure facilities of gangs in Syria. In the video plots of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation there are shots showing the latest X-101 cruise missiles developed by the Raduga GosMCB, which is part of the Tactical Missile Weapons Concern. These cruise missiles of length 7,45 m and warheads weighing 400 kg fly at subsonic speeds, but they are extremely difficult to detect. The rocket's fuselage is made using low-visibility stealth technology, and it moves to a target at low altitude, which does not allow the radar to detect it in a timely manner. X-101 is designed to hit objects at a distance of 5500 km. There is also an option with a nuclear warhead power 250 kilotons. Its designation is X-102. “Unobtrusive and capable of flying without getting into the radar detection zone, the X-101 is especially suited for the so-called sudden first strike, especially when striking well-protected targets,” writes the American magazine Popular Mechanics. Thus, the publication emphasizes, "The Bear" shows its newest claws ". “Bear” means not only Russia, whose symbol has become this beast, but specifically the Tu-95 bomber, which in the West is designated as “Bear” (“Bear”). But the X-101 / X-102 carriers are not only Tu-95 bombers, which deliver eight such missiles to the launch site, but also Tu-22М3, raising four missiles each. And Tu-160 bomb-compartments accept twelve X-101 / X-102 altogether.
Launch of the Sinev SLBM.
The combined massive strike on the IG objects was carried out on 20 November, when special-purpose aviation flight crews based on the Syrian Hmeimim airfield attacked the targets held by the Islamic State gangs, almost simultaneously with the Long-Range Aviation and 18 airplanes of the “Calib“ Calib “Calib“ Calibrated ”. launched from the ships of the Caspian Flotilla, on seven sites in the provinces of Rakka, Idlib and Aleppo. They were all amazed.
ABOUT "AMAZING THINGS"
In the evening of November 7, flickering green-blue light lit up the dark sky over Los Angeles. In the largest California metropolis panic began. Someone thought it was a falling meteorite, others took the unusual phenomenon as a UFO, and finally, others thought about the beginning of a nuclear war. The local airport in connection with the inexplicable situation even stopped the takeoffs and landings of aircraft. But everyone was wrong. This, it turns out, was amused by the Pentagon, more precisely demonstrated the American military might of Russia, China and its own citizens. The Kentucky nuclear-powered missile submarine (SSBN 737) launched the Trident II D-5 SLBM from the Pacific Ocean adjacent to Los Angeles. This was not done by chance.
Just at this time, US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter gave a speech at a military-political conference at the Ronald Reagan Memorial Library in Simi Valley California, California - actually a suburb of Los Angeles. He accused Russia of “endangering the world order”. According to the associate of the American news agency Associated Press, Robert Barnes, this speech of the Pentagon chief was "the toughest attack on the former American rival in the Cold War."
Supersonic strategic bomber Tu-160.
If you follow the logic of Ashton Carter, then all the evil in the modern world comes from two sources - Russia and China. "Of course, neither Russia nor China can change this order (by which the leadership of the United States is meant - author's note), but both countries challenge it," said the Pentagon chief. That is why "we (that is, the United States - author's note) are investing in technologies that are most important for countering Russian provocations, such as new unmanned systems, new long-range bombers, and innovative technologies, including electromagnetic rail guns, lasers and new systems for waging electronic war, among which there are so amazing things that I cannot even tell about them here. ”
The head of the US military did not specify what these “amazing things” are, but I think he was unpleasantly surprised when, three days later, he heard from television news about a new surprise for “insidious Russians”. And that's what happened. The report dealt with the second day of the meeting in Sochi under the chairmanship of President Vladimir Putin, at which issues of strengthening the stability of strategic forces were discussed. “We have repeatedly said that Russia will take the necessary response to strengthen the potential of strategic nuclear forces,” said the Russian leader, anticipating the discussion. “We will work on missile defense systems, but at the first stage, as we have repeatedly, I repeat, we said, we will work on attack systems that are able to overcome any missile defense systems.” “Over the past three years, defense industry enterprises have created and successfully tested a number of promising weapon systems that are capable of solving combat missions in a layered defense system,” he said. “Such systems have already begun to enter the army this year.” And just here the page of the presentation booklet, which was lying on the table in front of one of the participants in the Sochi meeting, got into the camera lens.
And it showed elements of a new type of naval strategic weapon - the ocean multi-purpose system “Status-6”. It is intended, as is clear from the booklet, to destroy “important objects of the enemy’s economy near the coast and cause guaranteed unacceptable damage to the territory of the country by creating zones of extensive radioactive contamination unsuitable for military, economic and other activities in these zones for a long time ".
Launch of the Kalibr-NK cruise missile with the Velikiy Ustyug MRK.
The main components of the system are self-propelled underwater vehicles (SPA), equipped with compact nuclear power plants (probably of direct-flow water-vapor type), capable of delivering cobalt nuclear charges with a power of 100 megatons (Mt) to the enemy’s coast, which is at a distance of 6200 miles (10000 km ). The underwater projectile moves to the target at a speed of 100 nodes, that is, 185 km / h. The depth of his stroke can reach 1000 meters. In other words, it is impossible to intercept a SPA with currently available PLO weapons. It is also almost impossible to detect because the engine noise is shifted to high frequencies, which will not allow existing sonar stations to detect them in a timely manner.
Launcher of the Iskander-K complex.
What is a cobalt nuclear warhead with a power of 100 MT? The most powerful thermonuclear bomb AN602, later called "Tsar Bomb" dropped from a Tu-95V commanded by Major Andrew Durnovtseva 30 1961 October, the above ground "Dry Nose" in the New Earth, had the power 57-58,6 Mt of TNT . After the explosion at an altitude of 3700-4200 m (different numbers here refer to sources), a fireball was formed with a radius of 4,6 km, the mushroom cloud rose to an altitude of 67 km, its diameter reached 95 km, and the seismic wave went round the Earth three times.
Cruise missile X-101 out of the Tu-160 bomb bay.
It is worth noting that the capacity of AN602, created by a team led by three times Hero of Socialist Labor Academician Andrei Sakharov, was almost halved, as there were concerns about the extremely high level of radioactive contamination that it should have caused. The fact is that the "Tsar-bomb" originally had a three-stage structure. The first stage with a power of 1,5 Mt “launched” the second stage thermonuclear reaction (50 Mt), and she, in turn, initiated the nuclear “Jekyll-Hyde reaction” in the third stage with a power of 50 Mt. Undermining this third stage would have caused the strongest radiation and radioactive contamination. As the American magazine The National Interest points out in this connection, if such a bomb had been detonated in Los Angeles, then “within a radius of five miles from the epicenter, all those who did not die from the blast wave and heat would receive a lethal dose of hard radiation - 500 rem An 20 mile radius would cause an explosion to gut all buildings, including reinforced concrete structures. In short, the Tsar Bomb would have completely devastated Los Angeles with all the suburbs. ” And AN602 itself, exploded on Novaya Zemlya, turned out to be very “clean”. In the epicenter of the explosion, the testers were able to appear within two hours after the monstrous firestorm swept over the ground.
US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter believes that Russia and China "endanger the world order." And the United States is called upon to stop them.
HELL. Sakharov proposed the use of cobalt-238 cobalt-59 instead of uranium-60 in shells of thermonuclear ammunition. After the explosion of such warheads, an intense and long-lasting cobalt-510 isotope radiation field is formed. The first to describe the effect of a cobalt bomb, an American physicist of Hungarian origin, Leo Szilard, called this weapon the “Doomsday Machine”, because, according to scientists, only 60 and Cobalt-XNUMX are enough to stop life on Earth.
"Torpeda SAKHAROVA"
From the page of the presentation booklet it is not clear how the Status-6 self-propelled underwater vehicles will operate. Some experts say that these are giant torpedoes of caliber 1,6 m, designed to literally torpedo the state of the enemy, or rather its areas adjacent to the coast. This is enough for the country to cease to exist. After all, for example, 75-80% of the industrial potential of the United States falls on coastal areas. Most of the population lives there.
The Sakharov torpedo is also remembered in this connection. At the initiative of this scientist in the USSR at the end of 40-s - the beginning of 60-s of the last century in the Scientific Research Institute-400 under the guidance of N.N. Shamarin was developing an unusual torpedoes T-15. Its caliber is 1,5 m, length is 24 m, mass is about 40 t. It had to carry a cobalt thermonuclear charge with a power of about 100 megatons. That is, a number of parameters of the Sakharov torpedo are close to those intended to be achieved at the SPA. However, its stroke range was approximately 30 km. To deliver the torpedo to the site of the attack, work was carried out on the first national nuclear submarine of the 627 project. When the sailors became acquainted with the ideology of this weapon, they decisively rejected it. After all, in order to get close to the American coast, it was necessary to overcome powerful anti-submarine frontiers. And this seemed impossible, because in those days the US Navy had absolute superiority in the seas and oceans. Even if T-15 were able to fire, it was highly likely that it would be destroyed by depth charges.
AN602 explosion at the Dry Nose testing range 30 October 1961
But, probably, even this circumstance would not have stopped Sakharov’s project. “The hull of such a torpedo can be made very durable; mines and barrage nets are not afraid of it,” AD wrote in his memoirs. Sakharov. “Of course, the destruction of the ports, both with a surface explosion of a torpedo with a 100 megaton charge that jumped out of the water, and an underwater explosion, is inevitably associated with very large human casualties.” But everything was spoiled by the “Tsar Bomb”, or rather its weight and size characteristics. Indeed, in those days there were no technologies of high-power and at the same time compact thermonuclear warheads. The bomb weighed 26,6 T. The charge did not fit not only in the T-15, but also in a very rather big Tu-95 bomber. He transported AN602 to the dumping site at the Sukhoi Nos launch site with an open bomb bay as the ammunition simply did not fit in its womb.
As a result, the project turned. And because of the impossibility of its implementation, and in connection with the emergence of new carriers of nuclear weapons - intercontinental ballistic missiles. The K-3 - the head submarine of the 627 project, later called the Leninsky Komsomol, was completed as a torpedo.
The layout of the "Tsar-bomb" AN602.
"SPILIT" - "SKIF" - "STATUS-6"
However, let us return to the self-propelled underwater vehicle of the ocean multi-purpose system “Status-6”. Actually, this SPA was known for a long time. Work on the topic of research and development “Spilit” was quite successfully carried out by the Makeyev State Rocket Center together with Leningrad underwater shipbuilding “Rubin” design bureaus in 1988-1990 in Soviet times. After the collapse of the USSR, activity in this area slowed down, but was not stopped. Already at the dawn of the post-Soviet era - at the beginning of the 1990-s, the SRC Makeev began the full-scale development of the ROC Skif commissioned by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. A little later, the head organization for the creation of the product and the Skif complex was identified by the Rubin Central Design Bureau. Somewhere around 2008, the production of prototypes of the product began. And in the autumn of the same year, the tests of the first prototypes of the new weapons started.
Academician Andrei Sakharov was the ideologue and creator of the most powerful thermonuclear weapons.
Year by year they intensified. As it appears from the presentation booklet, an experimental diesel-electric submarine B-90 “Sarov” (the name of this submarine suggests that the Russian Federal Nuclear Center’s Sarov’s Russian Federal Nuclear Center’s 20120 project, the rescue the towing ship "Zvezdochka" of the 20180 project developed by the Almaz Central Marine Design Bureau and the non-self-propelled floating test complex (PIK) of the 20210 project. All of them are capable of launching new underwater weapons. However, asterisk and PIK are engaged in lifting the product after testing on the surface. In the bow of the diesel-electric submarine Sarov there is a torpedo apparatus-launcher of a large caliber of the original design. It is through him that Skif Spa is fired.
In connection with the above, some media claim that the status-6 is a kind of bluff, with the help of which Russia wants to “take on the bluff” of the West and, above all, the United States, are surprising. No, the product completes the test cycle and will appear to be ready for deployment by 2019-2023. As its carriers, it is supposed to use, as is clear from the same booklet, nuclear submarines of special purpose Belgorod of the 09852 project and Khabarovsk of the 09851 project currently under construction on Sevmash.
A torpedo tube with a single T-15 occupied more than a quarter of the length of the submarine hull of the 627 project.
Still, there is a lot of ambiguity with Status 6. In May, 2013 was discussed in the Russian media as to how Skif would hit enemy territory. At that time, it was suggested that the SPA could for a long time be in standby mode on the sea or ocean floor off the coast of the enemy, and then on command from the ultra-low-frequency ZEVS transmitter operating on super-long waves capable of passing through water and land, hit targets. In other words, a spa is a kind of self-propelled mine that explodes at a signal. A version was also expressed that the Skiff was an uninhabited underwater vehicle, transporting to the launch site a ballistic or cruise missile attacking a coastal target from a pistol distance when the anti-aircraft defense systems could no longer intercept it. This option is also possible. Let's not forget that the “Status-6” is called the ocean multi-purpose system, that is, it is designed to perform different tasks.
Layout of Skif Spa before loading onto the carrier vessel.
In September of this year, a wave of publications swept through foreign media, initiated by an article by Bill Hertz in The Washington Free Beacon and The Washington Times about the new Russian underwater weapons, which received the code name Kanyon in the Pentagon, which means our Skiff. They noted that Kanyon does not fit into the Russian-US agreements on strategic nuclear weapons and therefore there are no restrictions on its deployment, and the system itself is "another example of Russia's aggressive and innovative approach to the development of military potential." It was also noted, with reference to representatives of American intelligence, that such a torpedo was "impossible to intercept." In this connection, the statement by some Russian publications about the creation in the USA of an "unmanned submarine" under the program ACTUV (Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel), which, allegedly, is specially developed to combat SPA, is surprising. But note that the ACTUV is not an uninhabited underwater vehicle, but an unmanaged surface. His task is to conduct hydroacoustic observation in the designated area and to detect, if possible, submarines. And nothing more. Since, for the above reasons, detecting the movement of a high-speed, deep-sea Skif is extremely difficult, if not impossible, then the ACTUV will be as useful as a fly swatter when hunting an elephant to fight SPA.
Experimental diesel-electric submarines B-90 “Sarov” of the 20120 project is intended for testing SPA.
The XTNUMX Zvezdochka rescue tugboat provides SPA testing.
Invulnerability and all the crushing power of the Status-6 cause in the West quite understandable fear and horror. The ocean multipurpose system is often called an “anti-humane” weapon, as if a weapon is humane. Yes, this is the “Doomsday Machine”, when all other means in the war will be exhausted or will not bring a deterrent effect. Of course, these weapons can be the subject of discussion in negotiations with Western countries, subject to their refusal to deploy a global and regional missile defense system.
Screenshot of the report on the meeting in Sochi. Seen a fragment of the presentation booklet on the "Status-6".
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