An intercontinental ballistic missile is a very impressive creation by man. Huge size, thermonuclear power, a pillar of flame, the roar of engines and a formidable roar of launch. However, all this exists only on earth and in the first minutes of launch. After their expiration, the rocket ceases to exist. Further into the flight and on the performance of the combat mission, only what remains of the rocket after acceleration - its payload - goes.
At long launch ranges, the payload of an intercontinental ballistic missile goes into space for many hundreds of kilometers. It rises into the layer of low-orbit satellites, 1000-1200 km above the Earth, and for a short time is located among them, only slightly lagging behind their general run. And then it starts to slide down along an elliptical trajectory ...
A ballistic missile consists of two main parts - the accelerating part and the other, for the sake of which the acceleration is started. The accelerating part is a pair or three of large multi-ton stages, packed to capacity with fuel and with engines from below. They give the necessary speed and direction to the movement of the other main part of the rocket - the head. The accelerating stages, replacing each other in the launch relay, accelerate this warhead in the direction of the area of its future fall.
The rocket head is a complex load of many elements. It contains a warhead (one or more), a platform on which these warheads are placed along with the rest of the economy (such as means of deceiving enemy radars and anti-missiles), and a fairing. The head also contains fuel and compressed gases. All head part will not fly to the goal. It, like the ballistic missile itself, will split into many elements and simply cease to exist as a whole. The fairing will separate from it still not far from the launch area, during the operation of the second stage, and somewhere along the road it will fall. The platform will collapse upon entering the air of the fall area. Only one type of element will reach the target through the atmosphere. Warheads.
Close up, the warhead looks like an elongated cone a meter or one and a half long, at the base as thick as a human body. The nose of the cone is pointed or slightly blunt. This cone is special aircraft, whose task is to deliver weapons to the target. We'll come back to warheads later and take a closer look at them.
The head of the "Peacekeeper", The pictures show the breeding stages of the American heavy ICBM LGM0118A Peacekeeper, also known as the MX. The missile was equipped with ten 300 kt MIRVs. The missile was removed from service in 2005.
Pull or push?
In the rocket, all the warheads are located in the so-called disengagement stage, or in the "bus". Why a bus? Because, having freed itself first from the fairing, and then from the last accelerating stage, the breeding stage carries the warheads, like passengers at specified stops, along their trajectories along which the deadly cones will disperse to their targets.
Another "bus" is called a combat stage, because its work determines the accuracy of aiming the warhead at the target point, and hence the combat effectiveness. The breeding stage and its work is one of the most big secrets in a rocket. But we will nevertheless take a slight, schematic look at this mysterious step and at its difficult dance in space.
The dilution stage has different shapes... Most often, it looks like a round stump or a wide loaf of bread, on which the warheads are mounted on top, pointed forward, each on its own spring pusher. The warheads are positioned in advance at precise separation angles (at the missile base, manually, with theodolites) and look in different directions, like a bunch of carrots, like a hedgehog's needles. The platform bristling with warheads takes a given, gyro-stabilized position in flight. And at the right moments, warheads are pushed out from it one by one. They are pushed out immediately after the end of acceleration and separation from the last acceleration stage. Until (you never know what?) Did not shoot down all this undiluted hive with an anti-missile weapon or refused something on board the breeding stage.
But this was the case before, at the dawn of multiple warheads. Breeding is now a very different picture. If earlier the warheads "stuck out" forward, now the step itself is in front, and the warheads hang from below, with their tops back, inverted like bats. The "bus" itself in some rockets also lies upside down, in a special recess in the upper stage of the rocket. Now, after separation, the breeding stage does not push, but drags the warheads behind it. Moreover, it drags, resting on the crosswise spaced four "paws" deployed in front. At the ends of these metal legs there are backward-directed traction nozzles of the stage of dilution. After separating from the acceleration stage, the "bus" very precisely, precisely sets its movement in the incipient space with the help of its own powerful guidance system. Itself takes the exact path of the next warhead - its individual path.
Then special inertialess locks are opened, holding the next detachable warhead. And not even separated, but simply now, no longer connected with the stage, the warhead remains motionless here, in complete weightlessness. The moments of her own flight began and flowed. Like one single berry next to a bunch of grapes with other warhead grapes not yet ripped off the stage by the breeding process.
Fire Ten, K-551 "Vladimir Monomakh" - Russian nuclear submarine strategic purpose(project 955 "Borey"), armed with 16 solid-propellant ICBMs "Bulava" with ten multiple warheads.
Delicate movements
Now the task of the stage is to crawl away from the warhead as delicately as possible, without disturbing its precisely set (targeted) movement by the gas jets of its nozzles. If the supersonic jet of the nozzle hits the separated warhead, it will inevitably add its own to the parameters of its motion. Over the next flight time (and this is half an hour - fifty minutes, depending on the launch range), the warhead drifts from this exhaust "slap" of the jet for half a kilometer-kilometer sideways from the target, or even further. It drifts without barriers: space is in the same place, splashed - swam, not holding on to anything. But is a kilometer to the side is accuracy today?
To avoid such effects, the four upper "legs" with motors spaced apart to the sides are just needed. The stage, as it were, is pulled forward on them so that the exhaust jets go to the sides and cannot catch the warhead separated by the belly of the stage. All thrust is split between four nozzles, which reduces the power of each individual jet. There are other features as well. For example, if on a donut-shaped stage of breeding (with a void in the middle - this hole is put on the booster stage of a rocket, as wedding ring finger) of the Trident II D5 missile, the control system detects that the separated warhead still gets under the exhaust of one of the nozzles, the control system disables this nozzle. Makes silence over the warhead.
The step is gentle, like a mother from the cradle of a sleeping child, fearing to disturb his peace, tiptoes out in space on the three remaining nozzles in low thrust mode, and the warhead remains on the targeting trajectory. Then the "donut" of the stage with the crosspiece of the thrust nozzles is rotated around the axis so that the warhead comes out from under the torch zone of the switched off nozzle. Now the stage moves away from the abandoned warhead already on all four nozzles, but so far also at low throttle. When a sufficient distance is reached, the main thrust is turned on, and the stage moves vigorously into the area of the targeting trajectory of the next warhead. There it is calculatedly slowed down and again very accurately sets the parameters of its movement, after which it separates the next warhead from itself. And so - until it lands each warhead on its trajectory. This process is fast, much faster than you read about it. In one and a half to two minutes, the combat stage removes a dozen warheads.
Abyss of mathematics
R-36M intercontinental ballistic missile Voivode Voivode,
The above is enough to understand how the warhead's own path begins. But if you open the door a little wider and look a little deeper, you will notice that today the reversal in space of the disengagement stage carrying the warhead is an area of application of the quaternion calculus, where the onboard attitude control system processes the measured parameters of its movement with continuous construction on board the attitude quaternion. Quaternion is such a complex number (over the field complex numbers lies the flat body of quaternions, as mathematicians would say in their exact language of definitions). But not with the usual two parts, real and imaginary, but with one real and three imaginary. In total, the quaternion has four parts, which, in fact, is what the Latin root quatro says.
The dilution stage does its job quite low, immediately after the booster stages are turned off. That is, at an altitude of 100-150 km. And there the influence of gravitational anomalies of the Earth's surface, heterogeneities in an even gravitational field that surrounds the Earth is also affected. Where are they from? From the uneven terrain mountain systems, occurrence of rocks of different density, oceanic troughs. Gravitational anomalies either attract the step to themselves by additional attraction, or, conversely, slightly release it from the Earth.
In such irregularities, the complex ripples of the local gravitational field, the dilution stage must deploy the warheads with precision. For this, it was necessary to create a more detailed map of the Earth's gravitational field. It is better to "explain" the features of a real field in systems of differential equations describing the exact ballistic motion. These are large, capacious (to include details) systems of several thousand differential equations, with several tens of thousands of constant numbers. And the gravitational field itself at low altitudes, in the immediate near-Earth region, is considered as the joint attraction of several hundred point masses of different "weights" located near the center of the Earth in a certain order. This is how a more accurate simulation of the real gravitational field of the Earth on the rocket flight path is achieved. And more accurate operation of the flight control system. And also ... but complete! - let's not look further and close the door; what has been said is enough for us.
Flight without warheads
Photo - start intercontinental missile Trident II (USA) from a submarine. Currently Trident ("Trident") - single family ICBMs, missiles of which are installed on American submarines... The maximum throwable weight is 2800 kg.
The stage of disengagement, dispersed by the missile in the direction of the same geographical area, where the warheads should fall, continues its flight with them. After all, she cannot lag behind, and why? After disengaging the warheads, the stage is urgently engaged in other matters. It moves away from the warheads, knowing in advance that it will fly a little differently from the warheads, and not wanting to disturb them. All of their next steps the breeding stage is also devoted to warheads. This maternal desire to protect the flight of her "children" in every possible way continues for the rest of her short life.
Short, but intense.
The payload of an intercontinental ballistic missile spends most of the flight in the mode of a space object, rising to a height three times the height of the ISS. The trajectory of enormous length must be calculated with particular accuracy.
After the separated warheads, it is the turn of other wards. The funniest things begin to fly to the sides of the step. Like a magician, she releases into space a lot of inflating balloons, some metal things that resemble open scissors, and objects of all other shapes. Durable air balloons sparkle brightly in the cosmic sun with the mercury shine of a metallized surface. They are quite large, some in shape resemble warheads flying nearby. Their aluminum-coated surface reflects the radio signal of the radar from a distance in much the same way as the body of the warhead. Enemy ground radars will perceive these inflatable warheads on a par with real ones. Of course, in the very first moments of entering the atmosphere, these balls will lag behind and burst immediately. But before that, they will distract and load the computing power of ground-based radars - both early warning and guidance anti-missile systems... In the language of ballistic missile interceptors, this is called "complicating the current ballistic situation." And all the heavenly host, inexorably moving towards the area of the fall, including warheads real and false, balloons, dipole and corner reflectors, this whole motley flock is called "multiple ballistic targets in a difficult ballistic environment."
The metal scissors open up and become electric dipole reflectors - there are many of them, and they reflect well the radio signal of the long-range anti-missile detection radar beam probing them. Instead of ten desired fat ducks, the radar sees a huge blurry flock of small sparrows, in which it is difficult to make out something. Devices of all shapes and sizes reflect different wavelengths.
In addition to all this tinsel, the stage itself can theoretically emit radio signals that interfere with the targeting of enemy anti-missiles. Or distract them to yourself. In the end, you never know what she can be busy with - after all, a whole step is flying, large and complex, why not load her with a good solo program?
The last segment
America's submarine sword, the US Ohio-class submarine, is the only type of missile carrier in service with the United States. Carries 24 Trident-II (D5) MIRVed ballistic missiles. The number of warheads (depending on power) - 8 or 16.
Aerodynamically, however, the stage is not a warhead. If that is a small and heavy narrow carrot, then the step is an empty vast bucket, with echoing empty fuel tanks, a large, non-streamlined body and a lack of orientation in the stream that begins to run on. With its wide body with decent windage, the step responds much earlier to the first blows of the oncoming stream. In addition, the warheads deploy along the stream, piercing the atmosphere with the least aerodynamic drag. The step, on the other hand, piles on the air with its vast sides and bottoms as necessary. She cannot fight the braking force of the flow. Its ballistic coefficient - a "fusion" of massiveness and compactness - is much worse than a warhead. It immediately and strongly begins to slow down and lag behind the warheads. But the forces of the flow grow inexorably, at the same time the temperature heats up the thin unprotected metal, depriving it of its strength. Fuel leftovers boil merrily in hot-water tanks. Finally, there is a loss of stability of the hull structure under the aerodynamic load that has compressed it. Overloading helps to smash the bulkheads inside. Krak! Bastard! The crumpled body is immediately covered by hypersonic shock waves tearing the step apart and scattering them. Flying a little in the thickening air, the pieces break again into smaller fragments. Residual fuel react instantly. Flying debris structural elements made of magnesium alloys, they ignite with hot air and instantly burn out with a dazzling flash, similar to the flash of a camera - it's not for nothing that magnesium was set on fire in the first flashlights!
Time does not stand still.
Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Boeing completed the first and key stage associated with the development of the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV), which is part of mega-project - a global missile defense developed by the Pentagon, based on anti-missiles, each of which is capable of carrying SEVERAL Kinetic Interception Warheads (Multiple Kill Vehicle, MKV) to destroy ICBMs with multiple, as well as "dummy" warheads
“The milestone achieved is an important part of the concept development phase,” spokeswoman Raytheon said, adding that it “is in line with MDA's plans and is the basis for further concept agreement planned for December.”
It is noted that Raytheon's this project uses the experience of creating the EKV, which has been involved in the American global missile defense system, which has been operating since 2005 - the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GBMD), which is designed to intercept intercontinental ballistic missiles and their warheads in outer space outside the Earth's atmosphere. Currently, 30 interceptor missiles have been deployed in Alaska and California to protect the continental United States, and 15 more missiles are planned to be deployed by 2017.
Transatmospheric kinetic interceptor, which will form the basis for the currently created MKV - the main striking element complex GBMD. A 64-kilogram projectile is launched by an anti-missile into outer space, where it intercepts and engages in contact with an enemy warhead thanks to an electro-optical guidance system, protected from ambient light by a special casing and automatic filters. The interceptor receives target designation from ground-based radars, establishes sensory contact with the warhead and aims at it, maneuvering in outer space using rocket engines... The defeat of the warhead is carried out by a head-on ram on a head-on course with an aggregate speed of 17 km / s: the interceptor flies at a speed of 10 km / s, the ICBM warhead - at a speed of 5-7 km / s. Kinetic energy an impact of about 1 ton in TNT is enough to completely destroy a warhead of any conceivable design, and in such a way that the warhead is completely destroyed.
In 2009, the United States suspended the development of a program to combat multiple warheads due to the extreme complexity of the production of the mechanism of rejection units. However, this year the program was revived. According to Newsader's analytical data, this is due to the increased aggression on the part of Russia and the corresponding threats to use nuclear weapon, which were repeatedly expressed by the highest officials of the Russian Federation, including by President Vladimir Putin himself, who, in his commentary on the situation with the annexation of Crimea, frankly admitted that he was allegedly ready to use nuclear weapons in a possible conflict with NATO ( latest events related to the destruction of a Russian bomber by the Turkish Air Force cast doubt on Putin's sincerity and suggest a "nuclear bluff" on his part). Meanwhile, as you know, it is Russia that is the only state in the world that presumably owns ballistic missiles with multiple nuclear warheads, including "false" (distracting).
Raytheon said that their brainchild will be able to destroy multiple objects at once using an improved sensor and other cutting-edge technologies. According to the company, during the time that elapsed between the implementation of the Standard Missile-3 and EKV projects, the developers managed to achieve record performance in intercepting training targets in space - more than 30, which exceeds the performance of competitors.
Russia is not standing still either.
According to open sources, this year the first launch of a new intercontinental ballistic missile RS-28 "Sarmat" will take place, which should replace the previous generation of missiles RS-20A, known by NATO as "Satan", we have the same as "Voyevoda" ...
The RS-20A ballistic missile (ICBM) development program was implemented as part of the "guaranteed retaliatory strike" strategy. The policy of President Ronald Reagan to exacerbate the confrontation between the USSR and the United States forced an adequate response to cool the ardor of the "hawks" from the presidential administration and the Pentagon. American strategists believed that they were quite capable of ensuring such a level of protection of their country's territory from an attack by Soviet ICBMs that one could simply not give a damn about the international agreements reached and continue to improve their own nuclear potential and anti-missile defense (ABM) systems. "Voivode" was just another "asymmetric response" to Washington's actions.
The most unpleasant surprise for the Americans was the missile's multiple warhead, which contained 10 elements, each of which carried an atomic charge with a capacity of up to 750 kilotons of TNT. On Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for example, bombs were dropped, the yield of which was "only" 18-20 kilotons. Such warheads were able to overcome the then American missile defense systems, in addition, the infrastructure for launching missiles was also improved.
The development of a new ICBM is designed to solve several problems at once: first, to replace the Voevoda, whose capabilities to overcome the modern American missile defense (ABM) have decreased; secondly, to solve the problem of addiction domestic industry from Ukrainian enterprises, since the complex was developed in Dnepropetrovsk; finally, to give an adequate answer to the continuation of the missile defense deployment program in Europe and the Aegis system.
As expected The national Interestingly, the Sarmat missile will weigh at least 100 tons, and its warhead can weigh up to 10 tons. This means, the publication continues, that the rocket will be able to carry up to 15 multiple thermonuclear warheads.
“The range of“ Sarmat ”will be at least 9500 kilometers. When it is put into service, it will be the largest rocket in world history, ”the article says.
According to reports that appeared in the press, NPO Energomash will become the head enterprise for the production of the rocket, and the engines will be supplied by the Permian Proton-PM.
The main difference between Sarmat and Voevoda is the possibility of launching warheads into a circular orbit, which sharply reduces range restrictions, with this launch method, it is possible to attack enemy territory not along the shortest trajectory, but in any and from any direction - not only through the North Pole , but also through the South.
In addition, the designers promise that the idea of maneuvering warheads will be implemented, which will counter all types of existing interceptor missiles and promising complexes using laser weapon. Anti-aircraft missiles"Patriot", which form the basis of the American missile defense system, can not yet effectively deal with actively maneuvering targets flying at speeds close to hypersound.
Maneuvering warheads promise to become such an effective weapon against which there are no countermeasures equal in reliability so far that the option of creating international agreement, prohibiting or significantly restricting this type of weapon.
Thus, together with sea-based missiles and mobile railway complexes Sarmat will become an additional and rather effective deterrent.
If that happens, efforts to deploy missile defense systems in Europe could be wasted, since the missile's launch trajectory is such that it is unclear exactly where the warheads will be aimed.
It is also reported that the missile silos will be equipped additional protection from close explosions of nuclear weapons, which will significantly increase the reliability of the entire system.
The first prototypes new rocket already built. Start-up tests are scheduled for the current year. If the tests are successful, serial production of Sarmat missiles will begin, and in 2018 they will enter service.
In contact with
An intercontinental ballistic missile is a very impressive creation by man. Huge size, thermonuclear power, a pillar of flame, the roar of engines and a formidable roar of launch. However, all this exists only on earth and in the first minutes of launch. After their expiration, the rocket ceases to exist. Further into the flight and on the performance of the combat mission, only what remains of the rocket after acceleration - its payload - goes.
At long launch ranges, the payload of an intercontinental ballistic missile goes into space for many hundreds of kilometers. It rises into the layer of low-orbit satellites, 1000-1200 km above the Earth, and for a short time is located among them, only slightly lagging behind their general run. And then it starts to slide down along an elliptical trajectory ...
A ballistic missile consists of two main parts - the accelerating part and the other, for the sake of which the acceleration is started. The accelerating part is a pair or three of large multi-ton stages, packed to capacity with fuel and with engines from below. They give the necessary speed and direction to the movement of the other main part of the rocket - the head. The accelerating stages, replacing each other in the launch relay, accelerate this warhead in the direction of the area of its future fall.
The rocket head is a complex load of many elements. It contains a warhead (one or more), a platform on which these warheads are placed along with the rest of the economy (such as means of deceiving enemy radars and anti-missiles), and a fairing. The head also contains fuel and compressed gases. The entire warhead will not fly to the target. It, like the ballistic missile itself, will split into many elements and simply cease to exist as a whole. The fairing will separate from it still not far from the launch area, during the operation of the second stage, and somewhere along the road it will fall. The platform will collapse upon entering the air of the fall area. Only one type of element will reach the target through the atmosphere. Warheads.
Close up, the warhead looks like an elongated cone a meter or one and a half long, at the base as thick as a human body. The nose of the cone is pointed or slightly blunt. This cone is a special aircraft whose task is to deliver weapons to the target. We'll come back to warheads later and take a closer look at them.
The head of the "Peacekeeper", The pictures show the breeding stages of the American heavy ICBM LGM0118A Peacekeeper, also known as the MX. The missile was equipped with ten 300 kt MIRVs. The missile was removed from service in 2005.
Pull or push?
In the rocket, all the warheads are located in the so-called disengagement stage, or in the "bus". Why a bus? Because, having freed itself first from the fairing, and then from the last accelerating stage, the breeding stage carries the warheads, like passengers at specified stops, along their trajectories along which the deadly cones will disperse to their targets.
Another "bus" is called a combat stage, because its work determines the accuracy of aiming the warhead at the target point, and hence the combat effectiveness. The stage and how it works is one of the biggest secrets in a rocket. But we will nevertheless take a slight, schematic look at this mysterious step and at its difficult dance in space.
The dilution stage has different forms. Most often, it looks like a round stump or a wide loaf of bread, on which the warheads are mounted on top, pointed forward, each on its own spring pusher. The warheads are positioned in advance at precise separation angles (at the missile base, manually, with theodolites) and look in different directions, like a bunch of carrots, like a hedgehog's needles. The platform bristling with warheads takes a given, gyro-stabilized position in flight. And at the right moments, warheads are pushed out from it one by one. They are pushed out immediately after the end of acceleration and separation from the last acceleration stage. Until (you never know what?) Did not shoot down all this undiluted hive with an anti-missile weapon or refused something on board the breeding stage.
But this was the case before, at the dawn of multiple warheads. Breeding is now a very different picture. If earlier the warheads "stuck out" forward, now the step itself is in front, and the warheads hang from below, with their tops back, inverted like bats. The "bus" itself in some rockets also lies upside down, in a special recess in the upper stage of the rocket. Now, after separation, the breeding stage does not push, but drags the warheads behind it. Moreover, it drags, resting on the crosswise spaced four "paws" deployed in front. At the ends of these metal legs there are backward-directed traction nozzles of the stage of dilution. After separating from the acceleration stage, the "bus" very precisely, precisely sets its movement in the incipient space with the help of its own powerful guidance system. Itself takes the exact path of the next warhead - its individual path.
Then special inertialess locks are opened, holding the next detachable warhead. And not even separated, but simply now, no longer connected with the stage, the warhead remains motionless here, in complete weightlessness. The moments of her own flight began and flowed. Like one single berry next to a bunch of grapes with other warhead grapes not yet ripped off the stage by the breeding process.
The Fiery Ten, K-551 Vladimir Monomakh is a Russian strategic nuclear submarine (Project 955 Borey) armed with 16 Bulava solid-fuel ICBMs with ten multiple warheads.
Delicate movements
Now the task of the stage is to crawl away from the warhead as delicately as possible, without disturbing its precisely set (targeted) movement by the gas jets of its nozzles. If the supersonic jet of the nozzle hits the separated warhead, it will inevitably add its own to the parameters of its motion. Over the next flight time (and this is half an hour - fifty minutes, depending on the launch range), the warhead drifts from this exhaust "slap" of the jet for half a kilometer-kilometer sideways from the target, or even further. It drifts without barriers: space is in the same place, splashed - swam, not holding on to anything. But is a kilometer to the side is accuracy today?
To avoid such effects, the four upper "legs" with motors spaced apart to the sides are just needed. The stage, as it were, is pulled forward on them so that the exhaust jets go to the sides and cannot catch the warhead separated by the belly of the stage. All thrust is split between four nozzles, which reduces the power of each individual jet. There are other features as well. For example, if at the donut-like stage of dilution (with a void in the middle - this hole is put on the accelerating stage of the rocket, like a wedding ring on a finger) of the Trident II D5 rocket, the control system determines that the separated warhead still gets under the exhaust of one of the nozzles, the control system disables this nozzle. Makes silence over the warhead.
The step is gentle, like a mother from the cradle of a sleeping child, fearing to disturb his peace, tiptoes out in space on the three remaining nozzles in low thrust mode, and the warhead remains on the targeting trajectory. Then the "donut" of the stage with the crosspiece of the thrust nozzles is rotated around the axis so that the warhead comes out from under the torch zone of the switched off nozzle. Now the stage moves away from the abandoned warhead already on all four nozzles, but so far also at low throttle. When a sufficient distance is reached, the main thrust is turned on, and the stage moves vigorously into the area of the targeting trajectory of the next warhead. There it is calculatedly slowed down and again very accurately sets the parameters of its movement, after which it separates the next warhead from itself. And so - until it lands each warhead on its trajectory. This process is fast, much faster than you read about it. In one and a half to two minutes, the combat stage removes a dozen warheads.
Abyss of mathematics
R-36M intercontinental ballistic missile Voivode Voivode,
The above is enough to understand how the warhead's own path begins. But if you open the door a little wider and look a little deeper, you will notice that today the reversal in space of the disengagement stage carrying the warhead is an area of application of the quaternion calculus, where the onboard attitude control system processes the measured parameters of its movement with continuous construction on board the attitude quaternion. A quaternion is such a complex number (over the field of complex numbers lies a flat body of quaternions, as mathematicians would say in their precise language of definitions). But not with the usual two parts, real and imaginary, but with one real and three imaginary. In total, the quaternion has four parts, which, in fact, is what the Latin root quatro says.
The dilution stage does its job quite low, immediately after the booster stages are turned off. That is, at an altitude of 100-150 km. And there the influence of gravitational anomalies of the Earth's surface, heterogeneities in an even gravitational field that surrounds the Earth is also affected. Where are they from? From the unevenness of the relief, mountain systems, bedding of rocks of different densities, oceanic troughs. Gravitational anomalies either attract the step to themselves by additional attraction, or, conversely, slightly release it from the Earth.
In such irregularities, complex ripples of the local gravitational field, the stage of disengagement should place the warheads with precision accuracy. For this, it was necessary to create a more detailed map of the Earth's gravitational field. It is better to "explain" the features of a real field in systems of differential equations describing the exact ballistic motion. These are large, capacious (to include details) systems of several thousand differential equations, with several tens of thousands of constant numbers. And the gravitational field itself at low altitudes, in the immediate near-Earth region, is considered as the joint attraction of several hundred point masses of different "weights" located near the center of the Earth in a certain order. This is how a more accurate simulation of the real gravitational field of the Earth on the rocket flight path is achieved. And more accurate operation of the flight control system. And also ... but complete! - let's not look further and close the door; what has been said is enough for us.
Flight without warheads
The photo shows the launch of an intercontinental missile Trident II (USA) from a submarine. Trident is currently the only ICBM family to be deployed on American submarines. The maximum throwable weight is 2800 kg.
The stage of disengagement, dispersed by the missile in the direction of the same geographical area, where the warheads should fall, continues its flight with them. After all, she cannot lag behind, and why? After disengaging the warheads, the stage is urgently engaged in other matters. It moves away from the warheads, knowing in advance that it will fly a little differently from the warheads, and not wanting to disturb them. The breeding stage also devotes all its further actions to warheads. This maternal desire to protect the flight of her "children" in every possible way continues for the rest of her short life.
Short, but intense.
The payload of an intercontinental ballistic missile spends most of the flight in the mode of a space object, rising to a height three times the height of the ISS. The trajectory of enormous length must be calculated with particular accuracy.
After the separated warheads, it is the turn of other wards. The funniest things begin to fly to the sides of the step. Like a magician, she releases into space a lot of inflating balloons, some metal things that resemble open scissors, and objects of all other shapes. Durable balloons sparkle brightly in the cosmic sun with the mercury shine of a metallized surface. They are quite large, some in shape resemble warheads flying nearby. Their aluminum-coated surface reflects the radio signal of the radar from a distance in much the same way as the body of the warhead. Enemy ground radars will perceive these inflatable warheads on a par with real ones. Of course, in the very first moments of entering the atmosphere, these balls will lag behind and burst immediately. But before that, they will distract and load the computing power of ground-based radars - both early warning and guidance of anti-missile systems. In the language of ballistic missile interceptors, this is called "complicating the current ballistic situation." And all the heavenly army, inexorably moving towards the area of the fall, including real and false warheads, balloons, dipole and corner reflectors, this whole motley flock is called "multiple ballistic targets in a complicated ballistic environment."
The metal scissors open up and become electric dipole reflectors - there are many of them, and they reflect well the radio signal of the long-range anti-missile detection radar beam probing them. Instead of ten desired fat ducks, the radar sees a huge blurry flock of small sparrows, in which it is difficult to make out something. Devices of all shapes and sizes reflect different wavelengths.
In addition to all this tinsel, the stage itself can theoretically emit radio signals that interfere with the targeting of enemy anti-missiles. Or distract them to yourself. In the end, you never know what she can be busy with - after all, a whole step is flying, large and complex, why not load her with a good solo program?
The last segment
America's submarine sword, the US Ohio-class submarine, is the only type of missile carrier in service with the United States. Carries 24 Trident-II (D5) MIRVed ballistic missiles. The number of warheads (depending on power) - 8 or 16.
Aerodynamically, however, the stage is not a warhead. If that is a small and heavy narrow carrot, then the step is an empty vast bucket, with echoing empty fuel tanks, a large, non-streamlined body and a lack of orientation in the stream that begins to run on. With its wide body with decent windage, the step responds much earlier to the first blows of the oncoming stream. In addition, the warheads deploy along the stream, piercing the atmosphere with the least aerodynamic drag. The step, on the other hand, piles on the air with its vast sides and bottoms as necessary. She cannot fight the braking force of the flow. Its ballistic coefficient - a "fusion" of massiveness and compactness - is much worse than a warhead. It immediately and strongly begins to slow down and lag behind the warheads. But the forces of the flow grow inexorably, at the same time the temperature heats up the thin unprotected metal, depriving it of its strength. Fuel leftovers boil merrily in hot-water tanks. Finally, there is a loss of stability of the hull structure under the aerodynamic load that has compressed it. Overloading helps to smash the bulkheads inside. Krak! Bastard! The crumpled body is immediately engulfed by hypersonic shock waves, tearing the stage into pieces and scattering them. Flying a little in the thickening air, the pieces break again into smaller fragments. Residual fuel react instantly. Flying fragments of structural elements made of magnesium alloys are ignited by hot air and instantly burn out with a dazzling flash, similar to the flash of a camera - it was not for nothing that magnesium was set on fire in the first flashbulbs!
Time does not stand still.
Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Boeing have completed the first and key milestone in the development of the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV), which is part of the mega-project of the Pentagon's global missile defense, based on anti-missiles, each of which is capable of carry MULTIPLE Kill Vehicle (MKV) warheads to destroy ICBMs with multiple, as well as "dummy" warheads
"The milestone achieved is an important part of the concept phase," said Raytheon's press service, adding that it "is in line with MDA's plans and is the basis for further concept agreement planned for December."
It is noted that Raytheon in this project uses the experience of creating EKV, which has been involved in the American global missile defense system, which has been operating since 2005 - the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GBMD), which is designed to intercept intercontinental ballistic missiles and their warheads in outer space outside the Earth's atmosphere. Currently, 30 interceptor missiles have been deployed in Alaska and California to protect the continental United States, and 15 more missiles are planned to be deployed by 2017.
The transatmospheric kinetic interceptor, which will become the basis for the MKV currently being created, is the main striking element of the GBMD complex. A 64-kilogram projectile is launched by an anti-missile into outer space, where it intercepts and engages in contact with an enemy warhead thanks to an electro-optical guidance system, protected from ambient light by a special casing and automatic filters. The interceptor receives target designation from ground-based radars, establishes sensory contact with the warhead and aims at it, maneuvering in outer space using rocket engines. The defeat of the warhead is carried out by a head-on ram on a head-on course with an aggregate speed of 17 km / s: the interceptor flies at a speed of 10 km / s, the ICBM warhead - at a speed of 5-7 km / s. The kinetic energy of the impact, amounting to about 1 ton in TNT equivalent, is enough to completely destroy a warhead of any conceivable design, and in such a way that the warhead is completely destroyed.
In 2009, the United States suspended the development of a program to combat multiple warheads due to the extreme complexity of the production of the mechanism of rejection units. However, this year the program was revived. According to Newsader's analytical data, this is due to the increased aggression on the part of Russia and the corresponding threats to use nuclear weapons, which have been repeatedly expressed by top officials of the Russian Federation, including President Vladimir Putin himself, who, in a commentary on the situation with the annexation of Crimea, frankly admitted that he allegedly was ready to use nuclear weapons in a possible conflict with NATO (recent events related to the destruction of a Russian bomber by the Turkish Air Force cast doubt on Putin's sincerity and suggest a "nuclear bluff" on his part). Meanwhile, as you know, it is Russia that is the only state in the world that supposedly owns ballistic missiles with multiple nuclear warheads, including "false" (distracting) ones.
Raytheon said that their brainchild will be able to destroy multiple objects at once using an improved sensor and other cutting-edge technologies. According to the company, during the time that elapsed between the implementation of the Standard Missile-3 and EKV projects, the developers managed to achieve record performance in intercepting training targets in space - more than 30, which exceeds the performance of competitors.
Russia is not standing still either.
According to open sources, this year the first launch of the new RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile will take place, which should replace the previous generation of RS-20A missiles, known under NATO's classification as Satan, in our country as Voevoda. ...
The RS-20A ballistic missile (ICBM) development program was implemented as part of the "guaranteed retaliatory strike" strategy. The policy of President Ronald Reagan to exacerbate the confrontation between the USSR and the United States forced an adequate response to cool the ardor of the "hawks" from the presidential administration and the Pentagon. American strategists believed that they were quite capable of ensuring such a level of protection of their country's territory from an attack by Soviet ICBMs that one could simply not give a damn about the international agreements reached and continue to improve their own nuclear potential and anti-missile defense (ABM) systems. "Voivoda" was just another "asymmetric response" to Washington's actions.
The most unpleasant surprise for the Americans was the missile's multiple warhead, which contained 10 elements, each of which carried an atomic charge with a capacity of up to 750 kilotons of TNT. On Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for example, bombs were dropped, the yield of which was "only" 18-20 kilotons. Such warheads were able to overcome the then American missile defense systems, in addition, the infrastructure for launching missiles was also improved.
The development of a new ICBM is designed to solve several problems at once: first, to replace the Voevoda, whose capabilities to overcome the modern American missile defense (ABM) have decreased; secondly, to solve the problem of dependence of the domestic industry on Ukrainian enterprises, since the complex was developed in Dnepropetrovsk; finally, to give an adequate answer to the continuation of the missile defense deployment program in Europe and the Aegis system.
According to The National Interest's expectations, the Sarmat missile will weigh at least 100 tons, and its warhead may weigh up to 10 tons. This means, the publication continues, that the rocket will be able to carry up to 15 multiple thermonuclear warheads.
"The range of the Sarmat will be at least 9500 kilometers. When it is put into service, it will be the largest missile in world history," the article says.
According to reports that appeared in the press, NPO Energomash will become the head enterprise for the production of the rocket, and the engines will be supplied by the Permian Proton-PM.
The main difference between Sarmat and Voyevoda is the possibility of launching warheads into a circular orbit, which sharply reduces range restrictions; with this launch method, it is possible to attack enemy territory not along the shortest trajectory, but in any and from any direction - not only through the North Pole , but also through the South.
In addition, the designers promise that the idea of maneuvering warheads will be implemented, which will counter all types of existing interceptor missiles and promising complexes using laser weapons. The Patriot anti-aircraft missiles, which form the basis of the American missile defense system, cannot yet effectively deal with actively maneuvering targets flying at speeds close to hypersound.
Maneuvering warheads promise to become such an effective weapon against which there are no countermeasures equal in terms of reliability, that the option of creating an international agreement prohibiting or significantly limiting this type of weapon is not ruled out.
Thus, together with sea-based missiles and mobile railway complexes, Sarmat will become an additional and rather effective deterrent.
If that happens, efforts to deploy missile defense systems in Europe could be wasted, since the missile's launch trajectory is such that it is unclear exactly where the warheads will be aimed.
It is also reported that the missile silos will be equipped with additional protection against nearby explosions of nuclear weapons, which will significantly increase the reliability of the entire system.
The first prototypes of the new rocket have already been built. Start-up tests are scheduled for the current year. If the tests are successful, serial production of Sarmat missiles will begin, and in 2018 they will enter service.
An intercontinental ballistic missile is an impressive creation by man. Huge size, thermonuclear power, a pillar of flame, the roar of engines and a formidable roar of launch ... However, all this exists only on the ground and in the first minutes of launch. After their expiration, the rocket ceases to exist. Further into the flight and on the performance of the combat mission, only what remains of the rocket after acceleration - its payload - goes.
At long launch ranges, the payload of an intercontinental ballistic missile goes into space for many hundreds of kilometers. It rises into the layer of low-orbit satellites, 1000-1200 km above the Earth, and for a short time is located among them, only slightly lagging behind their general run. And then it starts to slide down along an elliptical trajectory ...
What is this load actually?
A ballistic missile consists of two main parts - the accelerating part and the other, for the sake of which the acceleration is started. The accelerating part is a pair or three of large multi-ton stages, packed to capacity with fuel and with engines from below. They give the necessary speed and direction to the movement of the other main part of the rocket - the head. The accelerating stages, replacing each other in the launch relay, accelerate this warhead in the direction of the area of its future fall.
The rocket head is a complex load of many elements. It contains a warhead (one or more), a platform on which these warheads are placed along with the rest of the economy (such as means of deceiving enemy radars and anti-missiles), and a fairing. The head also contains fuel and compressed gases. The entire warhead will not fly to the target. It, like the ballistic missile itself, will split into many elements and simply cease to exist as a whole. The fairing will separate from it still not far from the launch area, during the operation of the second stage, and somewhere along the road it will fall. The platform will collapse upon entering the air of the fall area. Only one type of element will reach the target through the atmosphere. Warheads.
Close up, the warhead looks like an elongated cone a meter or one and a half long, at the base as thick as a human body. The nose of the cone is pointed or slightly blunt. This cone is a special aircraft whose task is to deliver weapons to the target. We'll come back to warheads later and take a closer look at them.
The head of the "Peacemaker"
The pictures show the breeding stages of the American heavy ICBM LGM0118A Peacekeeper, also known as MX. The missile was equipped with ten 300 kt MIRVs. The missile was removed from service in 2005.
Pull or push?
In the rocket, all the warheads are located in the so-called disengagement stage, or in the "bus". Why a bus? Because, having freed itself first from the fairing, and then from the last accelerating stage, the breeding stage carries the warheads, like passengers at specified stops, along their trajectories along which the deadly cones will disperse to their targets.
Another "bus" is called a combat stage, because its work determines the accuracy of aiming the warhead at the target point, and hence the combat effectiveness. The stage and how it works is one of the biggest secrets in a rocket. But we will nevertheless take a slight, schematic look at this mysterious step and at its difficult dance in space.
The dilution stage has different forms. Most often, it looks like a round stump or a wide loaf of bread, on which the warheads are mounted on top, pointed forward, each on its own spring pusher. The warheads are positioned in advance at precise separation angles (at the missile base, manually, with theodolites) and look in different directions, like a bunch of carrots, like a hedgehog's needles. The platform bristling with warheads takes a given, gyro-stabilized position in flight. And at the right moments, warheads are pushed out from it one by one. They are pushed out immediately after the end of acceleration and separation from the last acceleration stage. Until (you never know what?) Did not shoot down all this undiluted hive with an anti-missile weapon or refused something on board the breeding stage.
But this was the case before, at the dawn of multiple warheads. Breeding is now a very different picture. If earlier the warheads "stuck out" forward, now the step itself is in front, and the warheads hang from below, with their tops back, inverted like bats. The "bus" itself in some rockets also lies upside down, in a special recess in the upper stage of the rocket. Now, after separation, the breeding stage does not push, but drags the warheads behind it. Moreover, it drags, resting on the crosswise spaced four "paws" deployed in front. At the ends of these metal legs there are backward-directed traction nozzles of the stage of dilution. After separating from the acceleration stage, the "bus" very precisely, precisely sets its movement in the incipient space with the help of its own powerful guidance system. Itself takes the exact path of the next warhead - its individual path.
Then special inertialess locks are opened, holding the next detachable warhead. And not even separated, but simply now, no longer connected with the stage, the warhead remains motionless here, in complete weightlessness. The moments of her own flight began and flowed. Like one single berry next to a bunch of grapes with other warhead grapes not yet ripped off the stage by the breeding process.
Fiery Ten
K-551 Vladimir Monomakh is a Russian strategic nuclear submarine (Project 955 Borey), armed with 16 Bulava solid-fuel ICBMs with ten multiple warheads.
Delicate movements
Now the task of the stage is to crawl away from the warhead as delicately as possible, without disturbing its precisely set (targeted) movement by the gas jets of its nozzles. If the supersonic jet of the nozzle hits the separated warhead, it will inevitably add its own to the parameters of its motion. Over the next flight time (and this is half an hour - fifty minutes, depending on the launch range), the warhead drifts from this exhaust "slap" of the jet for half a kilometer-kilometer sideways from the target, or even further. It drifts without barriers: space is in the same place, splashed - swam, not holding on to anything. But is a kilometer to the side is accuracy today?
To avoid such effects, the four upper "legs" with motors spaced apart to the sides are just needed. The stage, as it were, is pulled forward on them so that the exhaust jets go to the sides and cannot catch the warhead separated by the belly of the stage. All thrust is split between four nozzles, which reduces the power of each individual jet. There are other features as well. For example, if at the donut-like stage of dilution (with a void in the middle - this hole is put on the accelerating stage of the rocket, like a wedding ring on a finger) of the Trident II D5 rocket, the control system determines that the separated warhead still gets under the exhaust of one of the nozzles, the control system disables this nozzle. Makes silence over the warhead.
The step is gentle, like a mother from the cradle of a sleeping child, fearing to disturb his peace, tiptoes out in space on the three remaining nozzles in low thrust mode, and the warhead remains on the targeting trajectory. Then the "donut" of the stage with the crosspiece of the thrust nozzles is rotated around the axis so that the warhead comes out from under the torch zone of the switched off nozzle. Now the stage moves away from the abandoned warhead already on all four nozzles, but so far also at low throttle. When a sufficient distance is reached, the main thrust is turned on, and the stage moves vigorously into the area of the targeting trajectory of the next warhead. There it is calculatedly slowed down and again very accurately sets the parameters of its movement, after which it separates the next warhead from itself. And so - until it lands each warhead on its trajectory. This process is fast, much faster than you read about it. In one and a half to two minutes, the combat stage removes a dozen warheads.
Abyss of mathematics
The above is enough to understand how the warhead's own path begins. But if you open the door a little wider and look a little deeper, you will notice that today the reversal in space of the disengagement stage carrying the warhead is an area of application of the quaternion calculus, where the onboard attitude control system processes the measured parameters of its movement with continuous construction on board the attitude quaternion. A quaternion is such a complex number (over the field of complex numbers lies a flat body of quaternions, as mathematicians would say in their precise language of definitions). But not with the usual two parts, real and imaginary, but with one real and three imaginary. In total, the quaternion has four parts, which, in fact, is what the Latin root quatro says.
The dilution stage does its job quite low, immediately after the booster stages are turned off. That is, at an altitude of 100-150 km. And there the influence of gravitational anomalies of the Earth's surface, heterogeneities in an even gravitational field that surrounds the Earth is also affected. Where are they from? From the unevenness of the relief, mountain systems, bedding of rocks of different densities, oceanic troughs. Gravitational anomalies either attract the step to themselves by additional attraction, or, conversely, slightly release it from the Earth.
In such irregularities, complex ripples of the local gravitational field, the stage of disengagement should place the warheads with precision accuracy. For this, it was necessary to create a more detailed map of the Earth's gravitational field. It is better to "explain" the features of a real field in systems of differential equations describing the exact ballistic motion. These are large, capacious (to include details) systems of several thousand differential equations, with several tens of thousands of constant numbers. And the gravitational field itself at low altitudes, in the immediate near-Earth region, is considered as the joint attraction of several hundred point masses of different "weights" located near the center of the Earth in a certain order. This is how a more accurate simulation of the real gravitational field of the Earth on the rocket flight path is achieved. And more accurate operation of the flight control system. And also ... but complete! - let's not look further and close the door; what has been said is enough for us.
Flight without warheads
The stage of disengagement, dispersed by the missile in the direction of the same geographical area, where the warheads should fall, continues its flight with them. After all, she cannot lag behind, and why? After disengaging the warheads, the stage is urgently engaged in other matters. It moves away from the warheads, knowing in advance that it will fly a little differently from the warheads, and not wanting to disturb them. The breeding stage also devotes all its further actions to warheads. This maternal desire to protect the flight of her "children" in every possible way continues for the rest of her short life.
Short, but intense.
Space for a little while
The payload of an intercontinental ballistic missile spends most of the flight in the mode of a space object, rising to a height three times the height of the ISS. The trajectory of enormous length must be calculated with particular accuracy.
After the separated warheads, it is the turn of other wards. The funniest things begin to fly to the sides of the step. Like a magician, she releases into space a lot of inflating balloons, some metal things that resemble open scissors, and objects of all other shapes. Durable balloons sparkle brightly in the cosmic sun with the mercury shine of a metallized surface. They are quite large, some in shape resemble warheads flying nearby. Their aluminum-coated surface reflects the radio signal of the radar from a distance in much the same way as the body of the warhead. Enemy ground radars will perceive these inflatable warheads on a par with real ones. Of course, in the very first moments of entering the atmosphere, these balls will lag behind and burst immediately. But before that, they will distract and load the computing power of ground-based radars - both early warning and guidance of anti-missile systems. In the language of ballistic missile interceptors, this is called "complicating the current ballistic situation." And all the heavenly army, inexorably moving towards the area of the fall, including real and false warheads, balloons, dipole and corner reflectors, this whole motley flock is called "multiple ballistic targets in a complicated ballistic environment."
The metal scissors open up and become electric dipole reflectors - there are many of them, and they reflect well the radio signal of the long-range anti-missile detection radar beam probing them. Instead of ten desired fat ducks, the radar sees a huge blurry flock of small sparrows, in which it is difficult to make out something. Devices of all shapes and sizes reflect different wavelengths.
In addition to all this tinsel, the stage itself can theoretically emit radio signals that interfere with the targeting of enemy anti-missiles. Or distract them to yourself. In the end, you never know what she can be busy with - after all, a whole step is flying, large and complex, why not load her with a good solo program?
House for "Bulava"
Project 955 Borey submarines are a series of Russian nuclear-powered submarines of the fourth generation strategic missile submarine class. Initially, the project was created for the Bark missile, it was replaced by the Bulava.
The last segment
Aerodynamically, however, the stage is not a warhead. If that is a small and heavy narrow carrot, then the step is an empty vast bucket, with echoing empty fuel tanks, a large, non-streamlined body and a lack of orientation in the stream that begins to run on. With its wide body with decent windage, the step responds much earlier to the first blows of the oncoming stream. In addition, the warheads deploy along the stream, piercing the atmosphere with the least aerodynamic drag. The step, on the other hand, piles on the air with its vast sides and bottoms as necessary. She cannot fight the braking force of the flow. Its ballistic coefficient - a "fusion" of massiveness and compactness - is much worse than a warhead. It immediately and strongly begins to slow down and lag behind the warheads. But the forces of the flow grow inexorably, at the same time the temperature heats up the thin unprotected metal, depriving it of its strength. Fuel leftovers boil merrily in hot-water tanks. Finally, there is a loss of stability of the hull structure under the aerodynamic load that has compressed it. Overloading helps to smash the bulkheads inside. Krak! Bastard! The crumpled body is immediately engulfed by hypersonic shock waves, tearing the stage into pieces and scattering them. Flying a little in the thickening air, the pieces break again into smaller fragments. Residual fuel react instantly. Flying fragments of structural elements made of magnesium alloys are ignited by hot air and instantly burn out with a dazzling flash, similar to the flash of a camera - it was not for nothing that magnesium was set on fire in the first flashbulbs!
America's Submarine Sword
American Ohio-class submarines are the only type of missile carrier in service with the United States. Carries 24 Trident-II (D5) MIRVed ballistic missiles. The number of warheads (depending on power) - 8 or 16.
Everything is now on fire, everything is covered with red-hot plasma and shines well around with orange coals from the fire. The denser parts go to slow down forward, the lighter and sail ones are blown away into a tail stretching across the sky. All burning components give dense smoke plumes, although at such speeds these densest plumes cannot be due to the monstrous dilution by the flow. But from a distance you can see them perfectly. The ejected smoke particles are stretched along the trail of the flight of this caravan of pieces and pieces, filling the atmosphere with a wide white trail. Impact ionization gives rise to the greenish night glow of this plume. Because of irregular shape fragments, their deceleration is rapid: everything that has not burned out quickly loses speed, and with it the intoxicating effect of air. Supersonic is the strongest brake! Having become in the sky, like a train collapsing on the tracks, and immediately cooled down by the high-altitude frosty sound, the strip of fragments becomes visually indistinguishable, loses its shape and structure and turns into a long, twenty minutes, quiet chaotic dispersion in the air. If you find yourself in the right place, you can hear a small charred piece of duralumin softly clinking against a birch trunk. So you have arrived. Goodbye breeding stage!
Sea trident
The photo shows the launch of an intercontinental missile Trident II (USA) from a submarine. Trident is currently the only ICBM family to be deployed on American submarines. The maximum throwable weight is 2800 kg.
The comparative assessment was carried out according to the following parameters:
firepower(the number of warheads (BB), the total power of the BB, maximum range shooting, accuracy - KVO)
design perfection (launch mass of the rocket, overall characteristics, relative density of the rocket - the ratio of the launch mass of the rocket to the volume of the transport and launch container (TPK))
operation (basing method - a mobile-soil missile system (PGRK) or placement in a silo launcher (silo), the time of the interregulation period, the possibility of extending the warranty period)
The sum of points in all parameters gave overall assessment compared ICBM. At the same time, it was taken into account that each ICBM taken from a statistical sample, when compared with other ICBMs, was estimated based on technical requirements of its time.
Diversity of ICBMs ground-based so large that the sample includes only ICBMs that are currently in service and have a range of more than 5,500 km. on submarines).
Intercontinental ballistic missiles
According to the number of points scored, the first four places were taken by:
1. Russian ICBM R-36M2 "Voyevoda" (15A18M, START code - RS-20V, according to NATO classification - SS-18 Satan (Russian "Satan"))
Introduced into service, year - 1988
Fuel - liquid
Number of accelerating stages - 2
Length, m - 34.3
Maximum diameter, m - 3.0
Launch weight, t - 211.4
Start - mortar (for silos)
Throwing weight, kg - 8 800
Flight range, km -11 000 - 16 000
The number of BB, power, kt -10X550-800
KVO, m - 400 - 500
28.5
The most powerful land-based ICBM is the 15A18M missile of the R-36M2 Voevoda complex (designation Strategic Missile Forces RS-20V, NATO designation SS-18mod4 "Satan." The R-36M2 complex has no equal in terms of technological level and combat capabilities.
15A18M is capable of carrying platforms with several dozen (from 20 to 36) nuclear MIRVs of individual guidance, as well as maneuvering warheads. It is equipped with a PCB missile defense system, which makes it possible to break through an echeloned missile defense system using weapons based on new physical principles. R-36M2 are on duty in super-protected mine launchers with resistance to shock waves of about 50 MPa (500 kg / sq. cm).
The design of the R-36M2 includes the ability to launch directly during the period of massive nuclear impact by the enemy on the positional area and blocking the positional area with high-altitude nuclear explosions. The missile has the highest resistance to ICBM damaging factors I'M IN.
The rocket is covered with a dark heat-shielding coating to facilitate the passage of the cloud. nuclear explosion... It is equipped with a system of sensors, sensors measuring neutron and gamma radiation, registering a dangerous level and turning off the control system for the time the missile passes through the cloud of a nuclear explosion, which remains stabilized until the missile leaves danger zone, after which the control system turns on and corrects the trajectory.
A strike of 8-10 15A18M missiles (in full configuration) ensured the destruction of 80% of the industrial potential of the United States and most of the population.
2. ICBM USA LGM-118A "Peacekeeper" - MX
Basic tactics specifications(TTX):
Introduced into service, - 1986
Fuel - solid
Number of accelerating stages - 3
Length, m - 21.61
Maximum diameter, m - 2.34
Launch weight, t - 88.443
Start - mortar (for silos)
Throwing weight, kg - 3 800
Flight range, km - 9 600
The number of BB, power, kt - 10X300
KVO, m - 90 - 120
The sum of points for all parameters - 19.5
The most powerful and sophisticated American ICBM, the MX three-stage solid-propellant missile, was equipped with ten with a yield of 300 kt. It possessed increased resistance to the impact of the PFNV and had the ability to overcome the existing missile defense, limited by an international treaty.
MX had the greatest capabilities among ICBMs in terms of accuracy and ability to hit a highly protected target. At the same time, the MX themselves were based only in the improved silos of the Minuteman ICBMs, which were inferior in protection to the Russian silos. Estimated American specialists, MX 6 - 8 times superior in combat capabilities "Minuteman-3".
A total of 50 MX missiles were deployed, which were on alert in a state of 30-second readiness for launch. Removed from service in 2005, missiles and all equipment of the positional area are on storage. Variants of using the MX for delivering high-precision non-nuclear strikes are being considered.
3. ICBM of Russia PC-24 "Yars" - Russian solid-propellant intercontinental ballistic missile mobile-based with multiple warhead
Basic tactical and technical characteristics (TTX):
Introduced into service, year - 2009
Fuel - solid
Number of accelerating stages - 3
Length, m - 22.0
Maximum diameter, m - 1.58
Launch weight, t - 47.1
Start - mortar
Throwing weight, kg - 1 200
Flight range, km - 11 000
The number of BB, power, kt - 4X300
KVO, m - 150
The sum of points for all parameters - 17.7
Structurally, the RS-24 is similar to the Topol-M, and has three stages. Differs from RS-12M2 "Topol-M":
new platform for breeding blocks with warheads
retrofitting of some part of the missile control system
increased payload
The rocket enters service in the factory transport and launch container (TPK), in which it conducts its entire service. The body of the missile product is coated with special compounds to reduce the effects of a nuclear explosion. Probably, the composition was additionally applied according to the "stealth" technology.
The guidance and control system (SNU) is an autonomous inertial control system with an on-board digital computer (BCVM), astrocorrection is probably used. Presumable developer of the control system Moscow Scientific and Production Center of Instrumentation and Automation.
The use of the active section of the trajectory was reduced. To improve the speed characteristics at the end of the third stage, it is possible to use a turn with the direction of zero increment in the distance to complete the last stage fuel reserve.
The instrumentation compartment is completely sealed. The rocket is able to overcome the cloud of a nuclear explosion at the start and make a programmed maneuver. For testing, the missile is likely to be equipped with a telemetry system - the T-737 Triada receiver.
To counteract the means of missile defense, the missile is equipped with a countermeasures complex. From November 2005 to December 2010, tests were carried out of anti-missile defense systems using the Topol and K65M-R missiles.
4. ICBM of Russia UR-100N UTTH (GRAU index - 15A35, START code - RS-18B, according to NATO classification - SS-19 Stiletto)
Basic tactical and technical characteristics (TTX):
Introduced into service, - 1979
Fuel - liquid
Number of accelerating stages - 2
Length, m - 24.3
Maximum diameter, m - 2.5
Launch weight, t - 105.6
Start - gas dynamic
Throwing weight, kg - 4 350
Flight range, km - 10,000
The number of BB, power, kt - 6X550
KVO, m - 380
The sum of points for all parameters - 16.6
ICBM 15A35 is a two-stage intercontinental ballistic missile, made according to the "tandem" scheme with sequential separation of stages. The rocket has a very dense layout and virtually no dry compartments. According to official data, as of July 2009, the Strategic Missile Forces of the Russian Federation had 70 deployed 15A35 ICBMs.
The last division was previously in the process of liquidation, however, by the decision of the President of the Russian Federation D.A. Medvedev in November 2008, the liquidation process was terminated. The division will continue to be on duty with 15A35 ICBMs until re-equipping with "new missile systems" (most likely, either Topol-M or RS-24).
Apparently, in the near future, the number of 15A35 missiles on alert will continue to decrease until stabilization at a level of about 20-30 units, taking into account the purchased missiles. Missile complex The UR-100N UTTH is extremely reliable - 165 test and combat training launches were carried out, of which only three were unsuccessful.
The American magazine "Association of Air Force Missiles" called the UR-100N UTTH missile "one of the most outstanding technical developments." Cold War". The first complex, even with UR-100N missiles, was put on alert in 1975 with a guaranteed service life of 10 years. All the best design solutions worked out on previous generations of" hundredths "were implemented during its creation.
The high reliability indicators of the missile and the complex as a whole, achieved during the operation of the improved complex with the UR-100N UTTKh ICBMs, allowed the military-political leadership of the country to set before the RF Ministry of Defense, the General Staff, the Strategic Missile Forces command and the lead developer, NPO Mashinostroyenia, the task of gradually extending the service life of the complex with 10 to 15, then to 20, 25 and finally to 30 years and beyond.
An intercontinental ballistic missile is a very impressive creation by man. Huge size, thermonuclear power, a pillar of flame, the roar of engines and a formidable roar of launch ... However, all this exists only on the ground and in the first minutes of launch. After their expiration, the rocket ceases to exist. Further into the flight and on the performance of the combat mission, only what remains of the rocket after acceleration - its payload - goes.At long launch ranges, the payload of an intercontinental ballistic missile goes into space for many hundreds of kilometers. It rises into the layer of low-orbit satellites, 1000-1200 km above the Earth, and for a short time is located among them, only slightly lagging behind their general run. And then it starts to slide down along an elliptical trajectory ...
A ballistic missile consists of two main parts - the accelerating part and the other, for the sake of which the acceleration is started. The accelerating part is a pair or three of large multi-ton stages, packed to capacity with fuel and with engines from below. They give the necessary speed and direction to the movement of the other main part of the rocket - the head. The accelerating stages, replacing each other in the launch relay, accelerate this warhead in the direction of the area of its future fall.
The rocket head is a complex load of many elements. It contains a warhead (one or more), a platform on which these warheads are placed along with the rest of the economy (such as means of deceiving enemy radars and anti-missiles), and a fairing. The head also contains fuel and compressed gases. The entire warhead will not fly to the target. It, like the ballistic missile itself, will split into many elements and simply cease to exist as a whole. The fairing will separate from it still not far from the launch area, during the operation of the second stage, and somewhere along the road it will fall. The platform will collapse upon entering the air of the fall area. Only one type of element will reach the target through the atmosphere. Warheads.
Close up, the warhead looks like an elongated cone a meter or one and a half long, at the base as thick as a human body. The nose of the cone is pointed or slightly blunt. This cone is a special aircraft whose task is to deliver weapons to the target. We'll come back to warheads later and take a closer look at them.
Pull or push?
In the rocket, all the warheads are located in the so-called disengagement stage, or in the "bus". Why a bus? Because, having freed itself first from the fairing, and then from the last accelerating stage, the breeding stage carries the warheads, like passengers at specified stops, along their trajectories along which the deadly cones will disperse to their targets.
Another "bus" is called a combat stage, because its work determines the accuracy of aiming the warhead at the target point, and hence the combat effectiveness. The stage and how it works is one of the biggest secrets in a rocket. But we will nevertheless take a slight, schematic look at this mysterious step and at its difficult dance in space.
The dilution stage has different forms. Most often, it looks like a round stump or a wide loaf of bread, on which the warheads are mounted on top, pointed forward, each on its own spring pusher. The warheads are positioned in advance at precise separation angles (at the missile base, manually, with theodolites) and look in different directions, like a bunch of carrots, like a hedgehog's needles. The platform bristling with warheads takes a given, gyro-stabilized position in flight. And at the right moments, warheads are pushed out from it one by one. They are pushed out immediately after the end of acceleration and separation from the last acceleration stage. Until (you never know what?) Did not shoot down all this undiluted hive with an anti-missile weapon or refused something on board the breeding stage.
But this was the case before, at the dawn of multiple warheads. Breeding is now a very different picture. If earlier the warheads "stuck out" forward, now the step itself is in front, and the warheads hang from below, with their tops back, inverted like bats. The "bus" itself in some rockets also lies upside down, in a special recess in the upper stage of the rocket. Now, after separation, the breeding stage does not push, but drags the warheads behind it. Moreover, it drags, resting on the crosswise spaced four "paws" deployed in front. At the ends of these metal legs there are backward-directed traction nozzles of the stage of dilution. After separating from the acceleration stage, the "bus" very precisely, precisely sets its movement in the incipient space with the help of its own powerful guidance system. Itself takes the exact path of the next warhead - its individual path.
Then special inertialess locks are opened, holding the next detachable warhead. And not even separated, but simply now, no longer connected with the stage, the warhead remains motionless here, in complete weightlessness. The moments of her own flight began and flowed. Like one single berry next to a bunch of grapes with other warhead grapes not yet ripped off the stage by the breeding process.
Delicate movements
Now the task of the stage is to crawl away from the warhead as delicately as possible, without disturbing its precisely set (targeted) movement by the gas jets of its nozzles. If the supersonic jet of the nozzle hits the separated warhead, it will inevitably add its own to the parameters of its motion. Over the next flight time (and this is half an hour - fifty minutes, depending on the launch range), the warhead drifts from this exhaust "slap" of the jet for half a kilometer-kilometer sideways from the target, or even further. It drifts without barriers: space is in the same place, splashed - swam, not holding on to anything. But is a kilometer to the side is accuracy today?
To avoid such effects, the four upper "legs" with motors spaced apart to the sides are just needed. The stage, as it were, is pulled forward on them so that the exhaust jets go to the sides and cannot catch the warhead separated by the belly of the stage. All thrust is split between four nozzles, which reduces the power of each individual jet. There are other features as well. For example, if at the donut-like stage of dilution (with a void in the middle - this hole is put on the accelerating stage of the rocket, like a wedding ring on a finger) of the Trident II D5 rocket, the control system determines that the separated warhead still gets under the exhaust of one of the nozzles, the control system disables this nozzle. Makes silence over the warhead.
The step is gentle, like a mother from the cradle of a sleeping child, fearing to disturb his peace, tiptoes out in space on the three remaining nozzles in low thrust mode, and the warhead remains on the targeting trajectory. Then the "donut" of the stage with the crosspiece of the thrust nozzles is rotated around the axis so that the warhead comes out from under the torch zone of the switched off nozzle. Now the stage moves away from the abandoned warhead already on all four nozzles, but so far also at low throttle. When a sufficient distance is reached, the main thrust is turned on, and the stage moves vigorously into the area of the targeting trajectory of the next warhead. There it is calculatedly slowed down and again very accurately sets the parameters of its movement, after which it separates the next warhead from itself. And so - until it lands each warhead on its trajectory. This process is fast, much faster than you read about it. In one and a half to two minutes, the combat stage removes a dozen warheads.
Test launch of the Peacekeeper ICBM. Long exposure image shows traces of multiple warheads
Abyss of mathematics
The above is enough to understand how the warhead's own path begins. But if you open the door a little wider and look a little deeper, you will notice that today the reversal in space of the disengagement stage carrying the warhead is an area of application of the quaternion calculus, where the onboard attitude control system processes the measured parameters of its movement with continuous construction on board the attitude quaternion. A quaternion is such a complex number (over the field of complex numbers lies a flat body of quaternions, as mathematicians would say in their precise language of definitions). But not with the usual two parts, real and imaginary, but with one real and three imaginary. In total, the quaternion has four parts, which, in fact, is what the Latin root quatro says.
The dilution stage does its job quite low, immediately after the booster stages are turned off. That is, at an altitude of 100-150 km. And there the influence of gravitational anomalies of the Earth's surface, heterogeneities in an even gravitational field that surrounds the Earth is also affected. Where are they from? From the unevenness of the relief, mountain systems, bedding of rocks of different densities, oceanic troughs. Gravitational anomalies either attract the step to themselves by additional attraction, or, conversely, slightly release it from the Earth.
In such irregularities, complex ripples of the local gravitational field, the stage of disengagement should place the warheads with precision accuracy. For this, it was necessary to create a more detailed map of the Earth's gravitational field. It is better to "explain" the features of a real field in systems of differential equations describing the exact ballistic motion. These are large, capacious (to include details) systems of several thousand differential equations, with several tens of thousands of constant numbers. And the gravitational field itself at low altitudes, in the immediate near-Earth region, is considered as the joint attraction of several hundred point masses of different "weights" located near the center of the Earth in a certain order. This is how a more accurate simulation of the real gravitational field of the Earth on the rocket flight path is achieved. And more accurate operation of the flight control system. And also ... but complete! - let's not look further and close the door; what has been said is enough for us.
Flight without warheads
The stage of disengagement, dispersed by the missile in the direction of the same geographical area, where the warheads should fall, continues its flight with them. After all, she cannot lag behind, and why? After disengaging the warheads, the stage is urgently engaged in other matters. It moves away from the warheads, knowing in advance that it will fly a little differently from the warheads, and not wanting to disturb them. The breeding stage also devotes all its further actions to warheads. This maternal desire to protect the flight of her "children" in every possible way continues for the rest of her short life.
Short, but intense.
After the separated warheads, it is the turn of other wards. The funniest things begin to fly to the sides of the step. Like a magician, she releases into space a lot of inflating balloons, some metal things that resemble open scissors, and objects of all other shapes. Durable balloons sparkle brightly in the cosmic sun with the mercury shine of a metallized surface. They are quite large, some in shape resemble warheads flying nearby. Their aluminum-coated surface reflects the radio signal of the radar from a distance in much the same way as the body of the warhead. Enemy ground radars will perceive these inflatable warheads on a par with real ones. Of course, in the very first moments of entering the atmosphere, these balls will lag behind and burst immediately. But before that, they will distract and load the computing power of ground-based radars - both early warning and guidance of anti-missile systems. In the language of ballistic missile interceptors, this is called "complicating the current ballistic situation." And all the heavenly army, inexorably moving towards the area of the fall, including real and false warheads, balloons, dipole and corner reflectors, this whole motley flock is called "multiple ballistic targets in a complicated ballistic environment."
The metal scissors open up and become electric dipole reflectors - there are many of them, and they reflect well the radio signal of the long-range anti-missile detection radar beam probing them. Instead of ten desired fat ducks, the radar sees a huge blurry flock of small sparrows, in which it is difficult to make out something. Devices of all shapes and sizes reflect different wavelengths.
In addition to all this tinsel, the stage itself can theoretically emit radio signals that interfere with the targeting of enemy anti-missiles. Or distract them to yourself. In the end, you never know what she can be busy with - after all, a whole step is flying, large and complex, why not load her with a good solo program?
The last segment
Aerodynamically, however, the stage is not a warhead. If that is a small and heavy narrow carrot, then the step is an empty vast bucket, with echoing empty fuel tanks, a large, non-streamlined body and a lack of orientation in the stream that begins to run on. With its wide body with decent windage, the step responds much earlier to the first blows of the oncoming stream. In addition, the warheads deploy along the stream, piercing the atmosphere with the least aerodynamic drag. The step, on the other hand, piles on the air with its vast sides and bottoms as necessary. She cannot fight the braking force of the flow. Its ballistic coefficient - a "fusion" of massiveness and compactness - is much worse than a warhead. It immediately and strongly begins to slow down and lag behind the warheads. But the forces of the flow grow inexorably, at the same time the temperature heats up the thin unprotected metal, depriving it of its strength. Fuel leftovers boil merrily in hot-water tanks. Finally, there is a loss of stability of the hull structure under the aerodynamic load that has compressed it. Overloading helps to smash the bulkheads inside. Krak! Bastard! The crumpled body is immediately engulfed by hypersonic shock waves, tearing the stage into pieces and scattering them. Flying a little in the thickening air, the pieces break again into smaller fragments. Residual fuel react instantly. Flying fragments of structural elements made of magnesium alloys are ignited by hot air and instantly burn out with a dazzling flash, similar to the flash of a camera - it was not for nothing that magnesium was set on fire in the first flashbulbs!
Everything is now on fire, everything is covered with red-hot plasma and shines well around with orange coals from the fire. The denser parts go to slow down forward, the lighter and sail ones are blown away into a tail stretching across the sky. All burning components give dense smoke plumes, although at such speeds these densest plumes cannot be due to the monstrous dilution by the flow. But from a distance you can see them perfectly. The ejected smoke particles are stretched along the trail of the flight of this caravan of pieces and pieces, filling the atmosphere with a wide white trail. Impact ionization gives rise to the greenish night glow of this plume. Due to the irregular shape of the fragments, their deceleration is rapid: everything that has not burned out quickly loses its speed, and with it the intoxicating effect of air. Supersonic is the strongest brake! Having become in the sky, like a train collapsing on the tracks, and immediately cooled down by the high-altitude frosty sound, the strip of fragments becomes visually indistinguishable, loses its shape and structure and turns into a long, twenty minutes, quiet chaotic dispersion in the air. If you find yourself in the right place, you can hear a small charred piece of duralumin softly clinking against the birch trunk. So you have arrived. Goodbye breeding stage!
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