The emergence of new historical data indicating incidents between the superpowers shows that the Cold War almost turned hot.
Fingers were already reaching for the nuclear button, the launch codes were already activated when the US military and secret services learned that the American Shuttle had been attacked by a Soviet superweapon
President Ronald Reagan, after consultations, was preparing to order a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the Soviets when it became clear that the Space Shuttle Challenger had been fired upon by a high-tech Soviet laser weapon system.
Challenger, during its mission 41-G, was allegedly supposed to carry out espionage activities using the equipment that was on board
It was also equipped with a specially modified high resolution format camera (LFC)
The National Reconnaissance Bureau suspected that a large complex of new missile defense system was being built in Soviet Tajikistan, some agencies believed that the Soviets were building a large beam plant or laser particle beam generator
what she could have looked like Soviet laser system Terra-3
..
. the crew and the ship return to Earth safely three days after Terra-3 attacks.
Unfortunately, several years after the Soviet attack, the space shuttle Challenger exploded after launch on January 28, 1986, killing everyone on board.
modern installation
Project “Terra-3”
In 1981, the United States launched the first space shuttle, the Space Shuttle. Naturally, this attracted the attention of the USSR government and the leadership of the Ministry of Defense. In the fall of 1983, Marshal Dmitry Ustinov proposed to the commander of the Missile Defense Forces, Votintsev, to use a laser system to accompany the Shuttle. And on October 10, 1984, during the thirteenth flight of the Challenger shuttle, when its orbits passed in the area of test site “A”, the experiment took place with the laser system operating in detection mode with minimal radiation power. The altitude of the spacecraft's orbit at that time was 365 kilometers. As the Challenger crew later reported, while flying over the Balkhash region, the ship’s communications suddenly went out, malfunctions occurred in the equipment, and the astronauts themselves felt unwell. The Americans began to figure it out. They soon realized that the crew had been subjected to some kind of artificial influence from the USSR, and they filed an official protest.
Currently, the Terra-3 complex is abandoned and rusting - Kazakhstan was unable to raise this object.
http://astrotek.ru/proekt-terra-3/
P.S. a comment
In 1969, the Central Design Bureau "Luch" was founded to create high-power lasers various types and purposes. In 1978, the Central Design Bureau was transformed into the NPO Astrophysics» as the country's leading specialized organization for the development of weapon systems and complexes using lasers in the interests of all branches of the Armed Forces.
Among the most important areas of development of technologies and equipment, in which NPO Astrophysics plays the role of a leading organization, are:
1. Laser complexes, including:
for strength and functional suppression;
automated complexes for chemical and bacteriological remote reconnaissance;
laser optical locators;
space control complexes.
2. Powerful lasers of various types.
3. Precision laser beam guidance systems.
4. Large-scale telescope construction.
5. Laser and optoelectronic base.
The company has created a number of laser complexes, including:
-laser space control complex;
-mobile complex for remote chemical reconnaissance;
-a mobile laser environmental monitoring system is being developed.
NPO Astrophysics, along with experience in creating laser devices, has a unique experience for Russia in integrating laser and other high technologies to create systems and complexes capable of solving complex and large-scale problems in various areas of human activity.
As part of NPO Astrophysics, large scientific schools in the field of high-power lasers, nonlinear optics, optical information processing, and the interaction of light with matter have been preserved and are actively working.
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FSUE NPO Astrophysics, within whose walls this impressive installation was developed, refused to give any comments about its design, principle of operation, tactical tasks and technical characteristics.
Meanwhile, our interest was not caused by contempt for state secrets. We saw and freely photographed the SLK “Compression” at the Military Technical Museum, which recently opened in the village of Ivanovskoye, Moscow region. There, a rare exhibit is also displayed without an annotation. They say that a decommissioned copy in a very depressing condition was given to the museum by a certain military unit near Kolomna. The local soldiers did not tell us about the purpose of the apparatus: not because it was secret, but because they themselves had somehow not thought about it. Otherwise they wouldn't have given it away.
We tried to figure out why the “laser tank” needs sixteen “eyes” and how secret is what is put on public display under the heading of secrecy.
"Stiletto": dead souls
The second half of the 20th century can rightfully be called the era of laser euphoria. The theoretical advantages of laser weapons, hitting a target at direct fire at the speed of light, regardless of wind and ballistics, were obvious not only to science fiction writers. The first working prototype of the laser was created in 1960, and already in 1963, a group of specialists from the Vympel design bureau began developing an experimental laser locator LE-1. It was then that the main core of scientists of the future NPO Astrophysics was formed. In the early 1970s, the specialized laser design bureau finally took shape as a separate enterprise and received its own production facilities and bench testing facilities. An interdepartmental research center of OKB "Raduga" was created, hidden from prying eyes and ears in the numbered city of Vladimir-30.
In 1978, the NPO Astrophysics was formed, the post of general designer of which was taken by Nikolai Dmitrievich Ustinov, the son of the USSR Minister of Defense Dmitry Ustinov. It is difficult to say whether this affected the already successful developments of NPOs in the field of military lasers. One way or another, already in 1982, the first self-propelled laser complex 1K11 “Stilet” was put into service with the Soviet army.
The Stiletto was designed to disable the optical-electronic guidance systems of enemy weapons. Its potential targets include tanks, self-propelled artillery, and even low-flying helicopters. Having detected the target using radar, the Stiletto carried out laser probing, trying to detect optical equipment using glare lenses. Having precisely localized the “electronic eye,” the device hit it with a powerful laser pulse, blinding or burning out the sensitive element (photocell, photosensitive matrix, or even the retina of the aiming soldier’s eye).
The combat laser was aimed horizontally by turning the turret, and vertically by using a system of precisely positioned large-sized mirrors. The aiming accuracy of the Stiletto is beyond doubt. To get an idea of it, it is enough to remember that the LE-1 laser locator, with which NPO Astrophysics began, was capable of directing 196 laser beams into the space of a target in a fraction of a second - a ballistic missile flying at a speed of 4-5 km/s.
The 1K11 laser system was mounted on the GMZ (tracked minelayer) chassis of the Sverdlovsk Uraltransmash plant. Only two machines were manufactured, differing from each other: during the testing process, the laser part of the complex was refined and changed.
Formally, the Stiletto SLK is still in service with the Russian Army and, as the historical brochure of the NPO Astrophysics says, meets modern requirements for conducting defense-tactical operations. But sources at Uraltransmash claim that 1K11 copies, except for two prototypes, were not assembled at the plant. A couple of decades later, both machines were discovered disassembled, with the laser part removed. One is being disposed of in the settling tank of the 61st BTRZ near St. Petersburg, the second is at a tank repair plant in Kharkov.
"Sanguin": at its zenith
The development of laser weapons at NPO Astrophysics proceeded at a Stakhanov pace, and already in 1983 the Sanguin SLK was put into service. Its main difference from the Stiletto was that the combat laser was aimed at the target without the use of large mirrors. Simplification of the optical design had a positive effect on the lethality of the weapon. But the most important improvement was the increased mobility of the laser in the vertical plane. "Sangguin" was intended to destroy optical-electronic systems of air targets.
A shot resolution system specially developed for the complex allowed it to successfully shoot at moving targets. During testing, the Sanguin SLK demonstrated the ability to reliably detect and engage helicopter optical systems at ranges of more than 10 km. At close distances (up to 8 km), the device completely disables enemy sights, and at extreme ranges it blinds them for tens of minutes.
The Sanguina laser complex was installed on the chassis of the Shilka self-propelled anti-aircraft gun. In addition to the combat laser, a low-power probing laser and a guidance system receiving device were mounted on the turret, which recorded reflections of the probe beam from a glare object.
Three years after the Sanguin, the arsenal of the Soviet army was replenished with the Aquilon shipborne laser complex with a principle of operation similar to the ground-based SLC. Sea-based has an important advantage over land-based: the power system of a warship can provide significantly more electricity to pump the laser. This means you can increase the power and rate of fire of the gun. The Aquilon complex was intended to destroy the optical-electronic systems of the enemy coast guard.
"Squeeze": Laser Rainbow
SLK 1K17 “Compression” was put into service in 1992 and was much more advanced than the “Stiletto”. The first difference that catches your eye is the use of a multi-channel laser. Each of the 12 optical channels (upper and lower rows of lenses) had an individual guidance system. The multi-channel scheme made it possible to make the laser installation multi-band. To counter such systems, the enemy could protect their optics with light filters that block radiation of a certain frequency. But the filter is powerless against simultaneous damage by rays of different wavelengths.
The lenses in the middle row are aimed systems. The small and large lenses on the right are the probing laser and the receiving channel of the automatic guidance system. The same pair of lenses on the left are optical sights: a small day one and a large night one. The night sight was equipped with two laser rangefinders. In the stowed position, the optics of the guidance systems and the emitters were covered with armored shields.
The Compression SLK used a solid-state laser with fluorescent pump lamps. Such lasers are compact and reliable enough for use in self-propelled units. This is also evidenced by foreign experience: in the American ZEUS system, installed on a Humvee all-terrain vehicle and designed to “set fire” to enemy mines at a distance, a laser with a solid working fluid was predominantly used.
In amateur circles there is a story about a 30-kilogram ruby crystal grown specifically for “Squeeze”. In fact, ruby lasers became obsolete almost immediately after their birth. Nowadays, they are used only to create holograms and tattoos. The working fluid in 1Q17 could well have been yttrium aluminum garnet with neodymium additives. So-called YAG lasers in pulsed mode are capable of developing impressive power.
Generation in YAG occurs at a wavelength of 1064 nm. This is infrared radiation, which in difficult weather conditions is subject to dispersion to a lesser extent than visible light. Thanks to the high power of a YAG laser on a nonlinear crystal, it is possible to obtain harmonics - pulses with a wavelength two, three, four times shorter than the original one. In this way, multi-band radiation is formed.
The main problem of any laser is its extremely low efficiency. Even in the most modern and complex gas lasers, the ratio of radiation energy to pump energy does not exceed 20%. Pump lamps require a lot of electricity. Powerful generators and an auxiliary power unit occupied most of the enlarged wheelhouse of the 2S19 Msta-S self-propelled artillery mount (already quite large), on the basis of which the Szhatiye SLK was built.
The generators charge a battery of capacitors, which, in turn, gives a powerful pulse discharge to the lamps. It takes time to “refuel” the capacitors. The rate of fire of the Compression SLK is perhaps one of its most mysterious parameters and, perhaps, one of the main tactical shortcomings.
Secretly around the world
The most important advantage of laser weapons is direct fire. Independence from the vagaries of the wind and a simple aiming scheme without ballistic corrections means shooting accuracy inaccessible to conventional artillery. If you believe the official brochure of the NPO Astrophysics, which claims that the Sanguine could hit targets at a distance of over 10 km, the Compression range is at least twice the firing range of, say, a modern tank. This means that if a hypothetical tank approaches 1K17 in an open area, it will be disabled before it opens fire. Sounds tempting.
However, direct fire is both the main advantage and the main disadvantage of laser weapons. It requires direct line of sight to operate. Even if you fight in the desert, the 10-kilometer mark will disappear beyond the horizon. To greet guests with blinding light, a self-propelled laser must be placed on the mountain for everyone to see. In real conditions, such tactics are contraindicated. In addition, the vast majority of theaters of military operations have at least some relief.
And when the same hypothetical tanks come within shooting distance of the SLC, they immediately gain advantages in the form of rate of fire. “Compression” can neutralize one tank, but while the capacitors are charged again, the second one will be able to avenge its blinded comrade. In addition, there are weapons that have much longer range than artillery. For example, a Maverick missile with a radar (non-dazzle) guidance system is launched from a distance of 25 km, and the SLC on the mountain overlooking the surrounding area is an excellent target for it.
Do not forget that dust, fog, precipitation, smoke screens, if they do not negate the effect of an infrared laser, then at least significantly reduce its range. So the self-propelled laser system has, to put it mildly, a very narrow area of tactical application.
Why were SLK “Compression” and its predecessors born? There are many opinions on this matter. Perhaps these devices were considered as test benches for testing future military and military space technologies. Perhaps the country's military leadership was ready to invest in technologies, the effectiveness of which at that moment seemed doubtful, in the hope of experimentally discovering the superweapon of the future. Or maybe the three mysterious cars starting with the letter “C” were born because Ustinov was the general designer. More precisely, Ustinov’s son (Minister of Arms, and then Minister of Defense).
There is a version that the SLAK “Compression” is a weapon of psychological action. The mere possibility of the presence of such a vehicle on the battlefield makes gunners, observers, and snipers wary of optics for fear of losing their sight. Contrary to popular belief, Compression is not covered by the UN Protocol prohibiting the use of blinding weapons, as it is intended to defeat electro-optical systems, not personnel. The use of weapons for which blinding is a possible side effect is not prohibited.
This version partly explains the fact that news about the creation of highly classified weapons in the USSR, including the Stiletto and Compression, promptly appeared in the free American press, in particular in the Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine.
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