Russian laser sword
Since the science fiction novel by the English writer H.G. Wells, “The War of the Worlds,” was published 120 years ago, the topic of ray weapons has been of continued public interest. “Heat ray”, hyperboloid, “death rays” captured the imagination of people, because, according to the writers’ plans, they could be used equally effectively to cut enemy dreadnoughts from a distance inaccessible to ship guns, or to build tunnels in the thickness of rocks.
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For a long time, the topic of all-crushing rays remained the domain of science fiction writers, until in the second half of the 1950s scientists developed the theory and practice of sources of light and microwave radiation, which humanity knows under the sonorous terms laser and maser. The discovery was so outstanding that in 1961 the Nobel Committee awarded the physics prize to a group of pioneers: Soviet scientists Basov and Prokhorov, as well as the American Townes.
Lasers were barely born when they immediately found application in a variety of fields of science and technology. Remembering the “heat ray” of the Martians and the hyperboloid of engineer Garin, the military also became interested in the combat use of lasers.
The development of laser weapons in the USSR and the USA was spurred by the Caribbean crisis. A group of Soviet scientists sent a proposal to the CPSU Central Committee to begin developing combat lasers for the country's missile defense. Already in 1966, a government decree was issued approving the Terra-3 project. Due to the high degree of secrecy of the project, the word “laser” was never mentioned in the resolution.
Terra-3 was an ambitious project: the radiation energy required to destroy enemy missiles had to be at least 1 MJ. In addition, it was necessary to create detection and guidance systems. Initially, the development was carried out by the Vympel Design Bureau, and later they were joined by the Luch Central Design Bureau. The installation was called the Natural Experimental Complex (NEC).
All work on the creation of a combat laser was carried out at the Sary-Shagan training ground in Kazakhstan. The location for the laser test site was not chosen by chance - Sary-Shagan had clear skies almost all year round - ideal conditions for testing a combat laser.
The construction of the NEC continued until 1972. The first physical launch of the installation took place in November 1973 - a combat laser hit a stationary target located at a relatively short distance. Yes, the first small step, and not a rocket with a nuclear warhead rapidly flying in the sky, but this was enough to talk about the prospects of the Terra-3 project. A year later, in 1974, a delegation of the USSR Ministry of Defense headed by Marshal Grechko visited the site.
To demonstrate their work in recent years, scientists burned a target the size of a five-kopeck coin with a combat laser. The country's military leadership praised the installation and instructed scientists to increase its power and efficiency. Work has begun on a modification of the 5N76 laser. The laser itself, as well as the command post, were located in the same building, but a separate building had to be built to house the generators. Generators of the required power had not yet arrived, but at first they used what was available. The combat laser, improved by scientists, was used over the next decade.
In addition to the laser weapons themselves, at the Terra-3 installation, scientists were engaged in research into another promising area - laser target designation and location. Laser ranging systems, by analogy with radar, are called lidars.
How far Soviet scientists have advanced in the development of laser weapons is demonstrated by one interesting fact. USSR Minister of Defense, Marshal of the Soviet Union D.F. Ustinov proposed to the Terra-3 team to carry out a small laser impact on a space object. The object was chosen - it couldn’t have been better. On October 10, 1984, over Lake Balkhash, not far from the Sary-Shagan test site, the American space shuttle Challenger made its 6th flight (the same one that exploded a short time after launch on January 28, 1986). The ship's orbital altitude was 365 km, the slant detection and tracking range was 400 - 800 km.
So, the 5N26/LE-1 lidar (and not a combat laser) in detection mode with minimal radiation power only “illuminated” the Challenger. The laser “illumination” on the shuttle suddenly cut off communications, equipment malfunctioned, and the astronauts felt unwell. When the Americans began to figure out what happened, they came to the conclusion that the crew had been subjected to some kind of artificial influence from the USSR. An official protest was filed. Subsequently, the laser system and radio systems with high energy potential were not used to accompany the shuttles. However, there were plenty of targets for Terra-3 in space even without the shuttles - artificial satellites with an expiring service life in orbit were quite suitable for testing.
The laser incident with the Challenger has still not been officially confirmed and is even considered by some experts as American disinformation. On the other hand, domestic scientists and engineers have long designed the Shtora serial optical-electronic suppression tank complex, which disrupts aiming and deflects guided missiles away from the tank.
The most delicious thing about the Challenger incident was that at that very time the so-called Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) project, referred to in the media as the “Star Wars program”, was launched in the United States and was accompanied by enormous ideological pumping. honor of the famous film trilogy. US President Reagan and his administration spared no effort in spinning up the Star Wars flywheel. The theme of SDI and a guaranteed US victory over the USSR by a strike from space was filled with films, television and even computer games. And in the midst of the propaganda campaign, the Russians blind the Challenger with laser illumination from the ground. Instead of a thousand words. The blow was devastating - not only experts, but also ordinary people were disappointed in the effectiveness of Star Wars. The SDI frenzy gradually began to subside and finally came to naught by the end of Reagan's presidency.
The Motherland should know its heroes: the development of laser anti-satellite weapons and missile defense, laser thermonuclear fusion, was led by the outstanding Soviet physicist, director of the country's main physical institute (FIAN), academician Nikolai Gennadievich Basov. The Terra-3 project gave Soviet science a lot of valuable scientific and technical information, but most importantly, it proved: the American SDI program is a grandiose bluff designed to push the USSR to fight ghosts and make senseless military and scientific expenses. As Academician Basov said, summing up the results of the project: “Well, we have firmly established that no one will be able to shoot down the warhead of a ballistic missile with a laser beam. A negative result is also a result. And we have made great progress in lasers.”
After the curtailment of the SDI program in the USA, the USSR also gradually began to lose interest in laser weapons on a global scale. The development of combat lasers was focused on laser ranging, the cosmonaut's "light blaster", blinding the electro-optical systems of military equipment, and intercepting small aircraft in the air.
In the 90s, all work at the test sites was curtailed, the equipment was transported to Russian territory, and some of the facilities were blown up. However, the experience gained as a result of the program was not lost. From the beginning of the XNUMXs, the commissioning of new complexes began: “Okno” - Mount Sanglok (Nurek in Tajikistan), and “Okno-S” - Mount Lysaya (Spassk-Dalniy in the Far East), “Krona” complexes in North Caucasus and "Krona-N" - also in the Far East. The functions of the complexes sound like the cooing of a pigeon - “control and measurement optical-electronic complexes for tracking space objects.”
Another impressive example of the use of laser weapons, but for conversion and for peaceful purposes.
On July 17, 2011, a fire started at the West-Tarkosalinskoye oil and gas condensate field in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The metal structures of the drilling rig prevented the hundred-meter columns of flame from being knocked down. A similar fire at well No. 321 of the Karachaganak oil and gas condensate field on June 21, 1991 was extinguished for more than three months using a tank - the combat vehicle shot massive metal supports from a gun at close range. And she didn't succeed. It took only 30 hours to eliminate metal structures and extinguish the fire at the West Tarkosalinskoye field. Thick beams and pipes were cut using a 20 kW Mobile Laser Technological Complex (MLTK-20).
An even more powerful version of this system, MLTK-50, capable of cutting 120 mm thick steel at a distance of 30 m, was shown back in 2003 at the MAKS air show. The complex was an installation mounted on a truck and a trailer: on one there was the laser itself, on the second there was an aircraft engine that fed the laser with energy. Western experts scratched their heads thoughtfully, experiencing déjà vu at the sight of MLTK-50. Actually, no one particularly hid the true origin of the unit. The creator of the “technological complex for emergency response,” which was offered to anyone for $2 million, was the Almaz-Antey concern, famous for its air defense systems. Among the promotional materials there was an interesting video showing a laser beam shooting down a drone. The document entitled “Tests of the effects of laser radiation on an aerodynamic target” is dated 1976.
In the 1980s, a combat laser was tested in Crimea (Feodosia) on board the experimental ship “Dickson” (in the Navy it was often called “Admiral Gorshkov’s hyperboloid”). The Aquilon shipborne laser complex was supposed to hit coastal targets. However, during tests in the summer of 1980, it turned out that most of the energy of the beam was “eaten” by the evaporation of moisture from the sea surface, which is why the efficiency was only 5%. And, despite the fact that the laser managed to heat a coastal target at a distance of about 4 km, the program was curtailed, moving on to more (as it seemed then) promising projects - beam weapons and railguns.
In general, the topic of laser weapons of the USSR and Russia has a rich history and represents the most interesting factual material, from which it follows that our country quietly occupied a leading position in defense laser technologies. The United States has long been a catching up party, and even today a number of experts note that the United States, by creating the next laser wunderwaffe, is just trying to repeat the Soviet achievements of 30–40 years ago.
How far has Russia advanced since the Yeltsinoids destroyed the Soviet legacy? Hard to say. Responsible persons from the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation do not reveal all their cards and get off with restrained comments “work is in progress.” In any case, the Almaz-Antey concern is still capable of perplexing foreign observers, from time to time rolling out copies of dual-use laser technology. Time will tell how it will be further.
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