March 16, 2010 at 11:10Perfection of "Satan"
In connection with the interest shown by readers in the article on the Strategic Missile Forces Museum to strategic offensive weapons in the "face" of long-range heavy ballistic missiles, I would like to separately talk about one of the most advanced (in my opinion :) weapons that humanity has ever created - R-36M intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) (index 15A14, START code RS-20A), also known in the NATO classification as: SS-18 “Satan” , as well as its direct “successor” R-36M2 (START code RS -20V - "Governor").
Heavy missiles RS-20 - according to the NATO classification SS-18 "Satan" - are intercontinental missiles that were put into service on December 30, 1975. The missile is 34 meters long, has two stages and can carry up to 16 charges at a distance of 10 thousand kilometers. Individual guidance warheads with a total charge power of 1,200 bombs dropped on Hiroshima. The RS-20 can destroy targets of a potential enemy on an area of up to 500 square kilometers (for example, the area of the city of Washington , a little less than 200 square kilometers). It was created in the early 1970s by the NPO Yuzhne (Dnepropetrovsk).
On September 2, 1969, a government decree was issued on the development of the R-36M, MR-UR-100 and UR-100N missile systems equipped with the IH (Separate Head Parts) IN (Individual Guidance), the advantages of which were mainly due to the fact that it allowed to best distribute existing warheads by targets, increase capabilities and provide flexibility in planning nuclear missile attacks.
The development of the R-36M and MR-UR-100 was started at Yuzhnoye Design Bureau under the leadership of Mikhail Yangel, who suggested using a mortar launch, "tested" on the RT-20P rocket. The concept of a heavy rocket with a cold (mortar) launch was developed by Mikhail Yangel in 1969. Mortar launch allowed to improve the energy capabilities of missiles without increasing the starting mass. The chief designer of TsKB-34 Yevgeny Rudyak did not agree with this concept, considering it impossible to develop a mortar launch system for a rocket weighing more than two hundred tons. After Rudyak left in December 1970, the Design Bureau of Special Engineering (formerly KB-1 of the Leningrad Central Design Bureau-34) was headed by Vladimir Stepanov, who reacted positively to the idea of "cold" launching heavy missiles using a powder pressure accumulator (PAD).
In the photo below, UR-100 (SS-17), which is located in the courtyard of the Cosmonautics Museum inDnepropetrovsk National Aerospace Center .
The main problem was the amortization of the rocket in the mine. Huge metal springs used to be shock absorbers, but the weight of the R-36M did not allow them to be used. It was decided to use compressed gas as shock absorbers. Gas could hold more weight, but the problem arose: how to hold high-pressure gas itself throughout the life of the rocket? The Spetsmash design team managed to solve this problem and refine the R-36 mines for new heavier missiles. The production of unique shock absorbers began Volgograd plant "Barricades".
In parallel with KBSM Stepanov, the Moscow KBTM under the leadership of Vsevolod Solovyov was engaged in the finalization of the silos for rockets. To amortize the rocket located in the transport and launch container, KBTM proposed a fundamentally new compact pendulum suspension system for the rocket in the mine. The preliminary design was developed in 1970; in May of the same year, the project was successfully defended in the Ministry of General Affairs.
The final version adopted the modified silo launcher of Vladimir Stepanov.
In December 1969, the R-36M missile project was developed with four types of military equipment - a monoblock light warhead, a monoblock heavy warhead, a divided warhead and maneuvering warhead.
In March 1970, a missile project was developed with a simultaneous increase in the security of silos.
In August 1970, the USSR Defense Council approved the proposal of Yuzhnoye Design Bureau on the modernization of the R-36 and the creation of the R-36M missile system with high-security silos.
At the manufacturing plant, the missiles were placed in a transport and launch container, on which all the equipment necessary for launching was placed, after which all the necessary checks were carried out at the factory test and test bench. When replacing old R-36s with new R-36Ms, a metal power cup with a depreciation system and PU equipment was inserted into the mine, and the entire enlarged assembly at the training ground, simplified, was reduced to only three (since the launcher consisted of three parts) with additional welds at the zero mark of the launch pad. At the same time, gas exhaust channels and gratings that were unnecessary during mortar launch were thrown out of the launcher design. As a result, the security of the mine has increased markedly.
The first launch of the R-36M flight test program in 1972 at the Baikonur training ground was unsuccessful. After leaving the mine, she took to the air and suddenly fell right on the launch pad, destroying the launcher. The second and third launches were emergency. The first successful test launch of the R-36M, equipped with a monoblock warhead, was carried out on February 21, 1973.
In September 1973, the R-36M variant equipped with the RGCh IN with ten warheads was tested (the press provides data on the variant of the missile equipped with the RGM IN with eight warheads).
The Americans closely monitored the tests of our first ICBMs equipped with the RFID. “The US Navy ship Arnold was off the coast of the Kamchatka training ground during missile launches. Over the same area, the four-engine B-52 aircraft laboratory, equipped with telemetry and other equipment, was constantly barraging. As soon as the plane flew off for refueling, a rocket was launched at the training ground. If it was not possible to start during such a “window”, then they waited until the next “window” or applied technical measures to close the information leakage channels. ” It was completely impossible to close these channels. For example, before launching missiles, Kamchatka warned by radio communication of its civilian pilots about the inadmissibility of flights in a certain period of time. By intercepting
In October 1973, a decree of the Government of the Design Bureau entrusted the development of a self-guided warhead "Mayak-1" (15F678) with a gas balloon remote control for the R-36M missile. In April 1975, a preliminary design of a homing warhead was developed. In July 1978, flight tests began. In August 1980, tests of the homing guided warhead 15F678 with two variants of terrain sighting equipment on the R-36M rocket were completed.
In October 1974, a government decree was issued to reduce the types of combat equipment of the R-36M and MR-UR-100 systems. In October 1975, the flight design tests of the R-36M in three types of combat equipment and the RGCh 15F143 were completed.
Development of warheads continued. On November 20, 1978, a government decree adopted the monoblock warhead 15B86 as part of the R-36M complex. November 29, 1979 adopted by the RGCh 15F143U complex R-36M.
In 1974, the Southern Machine-Building Plant in Dnepropetrovsk began mass production of R-36M, head parts and first-stage engines. Serial production of warheads 15F144 and 15F147 was mastered at the Perm Chemical Equipment Plant (PZHO).
On December 25, 1974, a missile regiment near the village of Dombarovsky, Orenburg Region, took up combat duty.
The R-36M missile system was adopted by a government decree of December 30, 1975. The same decree adopted the MR-UR-100 and UR-100N ICBMs. For all ICBMs, a unified automated combat command and control system (ASBU) of the Leningrad NPO Impuls was created and first used . A monoblock version of the R-36M missile was put into service on November 20, 1978. A variant with a multiple warhead was put into service on November 29, 1979. The first missile regiment with the R-36M ICBM went on combat duty on December 25, 1974
. 15A14 missiles on combat duty were re-equipped without retrieval from the silos by the advanced homing missiles designed for the 15A18 missile. The missiles continued combat duty under the designation 15A18-1.
In 1982, the R-36M ICBMs were withdrawn from combat duty and replaced by the R-36M UTTX missiles (index 15A18, START code RS-20B).
The development of the third-generation strategic missile system 15P018 (R-36M UTX) with the 15A18 missile, equipped with a 10-block multiple warhead, began on August 16, 1976. On September 18, 1979, three missile regiments began to be on alert at the new missile system. As of 1987, 308 ICBMs R-36M UTX were deployed as part of five missile divisions. As of May 2006, the Strategic Rocket Forces included 74 mine launchers with ICBMs R-36M UTTKh and R-36M2 (index 15A18M, START code RS-20V), each equipped with 10 warheads.
The missile control system is autonomous, inertial. Her work was provided by an onboard digital computer complex. All the main elements of the computing complex had redundancy. The use of the BTsVK made it possible to achieve high firing accuracy - the probable circular deviation of warheads was 430 m.
General characteristics of ICBMs
Schematic diagrams of missiles and control systems are developed on the basis of the possibility of using three options for warheads:
All missile warheads were equipped with an advanced range of missile defense systems. For the complex of means to overcome missile defense missile 15A14, quasi-heavy false targets were first created. Thanks to the use of a special solid-fuel acceleration engine, the progressively increasing thrust of which compensates for the aerodynamic drag of a false target, it was possible to simulate the characteristics of warheads by almost all selectable attributes on an extra-atmospheric part of the trajectory and a significant part of the atmospheric.
After the death of Yangel in 1971, the chief designer of the Design Bureau "Southern"Vladimir Utkin was appointed. The R-36M ICBM control system was developed under the leadership of Vladimir Sergeev, chief designer of the Kharkov NII-692 (NPO Hartron). A range of missile defense systems was developed at TsNIRTI. Solid propellant charges of powder pressure accumulators were developed at LNPO Soyuz under the leadership of Boris Zhukov. The unified command post of increased security of the mine type was developed at the Central Design Bureau of TM under the leadership of Nikolai Krivoshein and Boris Aksyutin. The initial warranty period for storing the rocket was 10 years, then 15 years.
A great achievement of the new systems was the ability to remotely retarget before launching a rocket. For such a strategic weapon, this innovation was of great importance.
LRE rockets operated on a high boiling two-component self-igniting fuel. As a fuel, asymmetric dimethylhydrazine ( UDMH ) was used, and nitrogen tetraoxide ( AT ) was used as an oxidizing agent . All tanks were pressurized by the combustion products of the main fuel components. The applied design solutions ensured a high degree of tightness of the fuel systems, which made it possible to satisfy the requirements for seven-year storage of the rocket in the filled state. The use of these components made it possible to maintain the combat readiness of the missile system for many years.
The R-36M rocket is equipped with a first-stage mid-flight engine developed at Energomash Design Bureau under the guidance of Valentin Glushko. Designers assembled the first stage of the R-36M rocket as a part of six single-chamber engines, and the second stage - from one single-chamber engine, which was most unified with the engine of the first stage - the differences were only in the high-altitude nozzle of the chamber. Everything is as before, but ... But Yangel decided to involve Konopatov KBHA in the development of the engine for the R-36M ... New design solutions, modern technologies, an improved LRE fine-tuning technique, modernized stands and updated technological equipment - all this could be put by Energomash Design Bureau on the scales, offering to participate in the development of R-36M and MR-UR-100 systems ... Glushko proposed four single-chamber engines for the first stage of the R-36M rocket, working according to the scheme with oxidizing generator gas afterburning, each with a thrust of 100 tf, a pressure in the combustion chamber of 200 atm, a specific impulse of thrust at the ground of 293 kgf / kg, control of the thrust vector by deflecting the engine. According to the classification of KB Energomash, the engine received the designation RD-264 (four RD-263 engines on a common frame ... Glushko's proposals were accepted, KBHA was entrusted with the development of a second-stage engine for the R-36M. A preliminary design of the RD-264 engine was completed in 1969. KBHA was entrusted with the development of a second-stage engine for the R-36M. The preliminary design of the RD-264 engine was completed in 1969. KBHA was entrusted with the development of a second-stage engine for the R-36M. The preliminary design of the RD-264 engine was completed in 1969.
The challenge was to ensure reliable start-up of the first stage engines with a mortar launch. Fire tests of engines at the stand began in April 1970. In 1971, design documentation was transferred to the Southern Machine-Building Plant for the preparation of mass production. Engine tests were conducted from December 1972 to January 1973. During flight tests of the R-36M rocket, the need for boosting the first-stage engine by 5 percent was revealed. Test development of the forced engine was completed in September 1973, and flight tests of the rocket continued.
In the USSR, 308 R-36M2 were deployed, of which a third were in Kazakhstan. After the collapse of the USSR, Kazakh missiles were withdrawn from combat duty, and the manufacturer and design bureau were outside of Russia.
As an experienced hunter periodically checks his old cartridges, so the old man “Voevodu” is periodically released exclusively to check his resources, the performance of the main units and weapons. Testers with this launch each try to answer the question: have the tactical and technical characteristics and safety indicators laid down by the designers survived after two decades of standing on combat duty? Although, as the military says, a complex of scientific and technical research is carried out annually.
That's how the last test launches of Voevoda showed that further extension of the operational life of the Voyevoda missile system to 25 years will increase the service life of these missiles by 10 years beyond the original warranty period of operation - 15 years. That is, from these words with a simple arithmetic action we can conclude: "Voivode", who managed to build and put on combat duty in the year of the collapse of the USSR - that is, in 1991, now marks 19 years, and they will defend another seven years the borders of the Russian Federation - until 2016 ...
However, this time the high ranks promised that "... in order to ensure nuclear safety, the previous modification of the RS-20 missile under the letter" B ", whose operational life is ending, will be removed from combat duty in the near future "
Not so long ago, another high rank declared that Russia by the end of 2016 was planning to create a new heavy liquid-fuel intercontinental missile to replace Voevoda. According to him, the emphasis in building a promising Strategic Missile Forces attack group will be made on a qualitative transformation so that by the end of 2016 missile systems with extended RS-20 life will remain no more than 20 percent, and 80 percent that will be freed up should be occupied by new missile systems.
Well ... let's hope further that the possible terms of operation of the nuclear potential of the USSR will be extended for a long time ...
By the nature of my basic training, I was fortunate enough to get acquainted with some samples of those famous weapons that scared the commanders of the "probable enemy." Regarding the R-36M, I had the opportunity to get acquainted with the design of only the second stage ... I can note that the structural solutions that were used in the design can be called technical "art" :) In particular, the decision to place the propulsion system in the second stage is impressive. The situation was such that a fairly dense arrangement of elements was used, and the working elements of the remote control had to be placed in the working environment of the tanks, i.e. engine elements operate in an aggressive environment of rocket fuel. In my opinion, such a solution could not be implemented not on one of the existing then (and probably now) ICBMs.
Naturally, it was impossible to achieve such outstanding product characteristics without the technological base, which was created on the basis of the Southern Machine-Building Plant. What are the machines for the manufacture of “waffle” tanks, which are huge machines 4-5 meters tall and which had no analogues then in the world ...
By the way, about the “black” coloring of ICBMs, which so interested readers in an article about the Strategic Missile Forces Museum - in fact, this is not a color, but a special coating, a heat-insulating coating, which acts as one of the protection against nuclear explosion factors. By the way, in the Yuzhniy Design Bureau itself they said with bitterness that when the disposal of ICBMs deployed in Ukraine occurred (with the help of American leaders), then this coating could not be cut even with the help of diamond tools, which of course was very surprising for American specialists :)
I would also like to note the means of overcoming the probable enemy’s missile defense, which combined the option of separating warheads that are so diverse and progressive for their the time that any attempts by a probable adversary to create at least some line of defense against the R-36M (2) product turned out to be a failure, and while such products are in service, such missile defense systems will be useless for a long time to come.
So, these unique products were created at the height of the military scientific and technological progress of the huge red country - the USSR ... The
material was prepared thanks to:
If the article turns out to be interesting, then I think it makes sense to talk about another unique project that has no analogues in the world, a model of which is located near St. Petersburg, on one of the spare colony - BZDRK Molodets (RS-22V), called in the West "Scalpel".
Intro
Heavy missiles RS-20 - according to the NATO classification SS-18 "Satan" - are intercontinental missiles that were put into service on December 30, 1975. The missile is 34 meters long, has two stages and can carry up to 16 charges at a distance of 10 thousand kilometers. Individual guidance warheads with a total charge power of 1,200 bombs dropped on Hiroshima. The RS-20 can destroy targets of a potential enemy on an area of up to 500 square kilometers (for example, the area of the city of Washington , a little less than 200 square kilometers). It was created in the early 1970s by the NPO Yuzhne (Dnepropetrovsk).
A bit of history
On September 2, 1969, a government decree was issued on the development of the R-36M, MR-UR-100 and UR-100N missile systems equipped with the IH (Separate Head Parts) IN (Individual Guidance), the advantages of which were mainly due to the fact that it allowed to best distribute existing warheads by targets, increase capabilities and provide flexibility in planning nuclear missile attacks.
The development of the R-36M and MR-UR-100 was started at Yuzhnoye Design Bureau under the leadership of Mikhail Yangel, who suggested using a mortar launch, "tested" on the RT-20P rocket. The concept of a heavy rocket with a cold (mortar) launch was developed by Mikhail Yangel in 1969. Mortar launch allowed to improve the energy capabilities of missiles without increasing the starting mass. The chief designer of TsKB-34 Yevgeny Rudyak did not agree with this concept, considering it impossible to develop a mortar launch system for a rocket weighing more than two hundred tons. After Rudyak left in December 1970, the Design Bureau of Special Engineering (formerly KB-1 of the Leningrad Central Design Bureau-34) was headed by Vladimir Stepanov, who reacted positively to the idea of "cold" launching heavy missiles using a powder pressure accumulator (PAD).
In the photo below, UR-100 (SS-17), which is located in the courtyard of the Cosmonautics Museum inDnepropetrovsk National Aerospace Center .
The main problem was the amortization of the rocket in the mine. Huge metal springs used to be shock absorbers, but the weight of the R-36M did not allow them to be used. It was decided to use compressed gas as shock absorbers. Gas could hold more weight, but the problem arose: how to hold high-pressure gas itself throughout the life of the rocket? The Spetsmash design team managed to solve this problem and refine the R-36 mines for new heavier missiles. The production of unique shock absorbers began Volgograd plant "Barricades".
In parallel with KBSM Stepanov, the Moscow KBTM under the leadership of Vsevolod Solovyov was engaged in the finalization of the silos for rockets. To amortize the rocket located in the transport and launch container, KBTM proposed a fundamentally new compact pendulum suspension system for the rocket in the mine. The preliminary design was developed in 1970; in May of the same year, the project was successfully defended in the Ministry of General Affairs.
The final version adopted the modified silo launcher of Vladimir Stepanov.
In December 1969, the R-36M missile project was developed with four types of military equipment - a monoblock light warhead, a monoblock heavy warhead, a divided warhead and maneuvering warhead.
In March 1970, a missile project was developed with a simultaneous increase in the security of silos.
In August 1970, the USSR Defense Council approved the proposal of Yuzhnoye Design Bureau on the modernization of the R-36 and the creation of the R-36M missile system with high-security silos.
At the manufacturing plant, the missiles were placed in a transport and launch container, on which all the equipment necessary for launching was placed, after which all the necessary checks were carried out at the factory test and test bench. When replacing old R-36s with new R-36Ms, a metal power cup with a depreciation system and PU equipment was inserted into the mine, and the entire enlarged assembly at the training ground, simplified, was reduced to only three (since the launcher consisted of three parts) with additional welds at the zero mark of the launch pad. At the same time, gas exhaust channels and gratings that were unnecessary during mortar launch were thrown out of the launcher design. As a result, the security of the mine has increased markedly.
Testing and adoption
The first launch of the R-36M flight test program in 1972 at the Baikonur training ground was unsuccessful. After leaving the mine, she took to the air and suddenly fell right on the launch pad, destroying the launcher. The second and third launches were emergency. The first successful test launch of the R-36M, equipped with a monoblock warhead, was carried out on February 21, 1973.
In September 1973, the R-36M variant equipped with the RGCh IN with ten warheads was tested (the press provides data on the variant of the missile equipped with the RGM IN with eight warheads).
The Americans closely monitored the tests of our first ICBMs equipped with the RFID. “The US Navy ship Arnold was off the coast of the Kamchatka training ground during missile launches. Over the same area, the four-engine B-52 aircraft laboratory, equipped with telemetry and other equipment, was constantly barraging. As soon as the plane flew off for refueling, a rocket was launched at the training ground. If it was not possible to start during such a “window”, then they waited until the next “window” or applied technical measures to close the information leakage channels. ” It was completely impossible to close these channels. For example, before launching missiles, Kamchatka warned by radio communication of its civilian pilots about the inadmissibility of flights in a certain period of time. By intercepting
In October 1973, a decree of the Government of the Design Bureau entrusted the development of a self-guided warhead "Mayak-1" (15F678) with a gas balloon remote control for the R-36M missile. In April 1975, a preliminary design of a homing warhead was developed. In July 1978, flight tests began. In August 1980, tests of the homing guided warhead 15F678 with two variants of terrain sighting equipment on the R-36M rocket were completed.
In October 1974, a government decree was issued to reduce the types of combat equipment of the R-36M and MR-UR-100 systems. In October 1975, the flight design tests of the R-36M in three types of combat equipment and the RGCh 15F143 were completed.
Development of warheads continued. On November 20, 1978, a government decree adopted the monoblock warhead 15B86 as part of the R-36M complex. November 29, 1979 adopted by the RGCh 15F143U complex R-36M.
In 1974, the Southern Machine-Building Plant in Dnepropetrovsk began mass production of R-36M, head parts and first-stage engines. Serial production of warheads 15F144 and 15F147 was mastered at the Perm Chemical Equipment Plant (PZHO).
On December 25, 1974, a missile regiment near the village of Dombarovsky, Orenburg Region, took up combat duty.
The R-36M missile system was adopted by a government decree of December 30, 1975. The same decree adopted the MR-UR-100 and UR-100N ICBMs. For all ICBMs, a unified automated combat command and control system (ASBU) of the Leningrad NPO Impuls was created and first used . A monoblock version of the R-36M missile was put into service on November 20, 1978. A variant with a multiple warhead was put into service on November 29, 1979. The first missile regiment with the R-36M ICBM went on combat duty on December 25, 1974
. 15A14 missiles on combat duty were re-equipped without retrieval from the silos by the advanced homing missiles designed for the 15A18 missile. The missiles continued combat duty under the designation 15A18-1.
In 1982, the R-36M ICBMs were withdrawn from combat duty and replaced by the R-36M UTTX missiles (index 15A18, START code RS-20B).
The development of the third-generation strategic missile system 15P018 (R-36M UTX) with the 15A18 missile, equipped with a 10-block multiple warhead, began on August 16, 1976. On September 18, 1979, three missile regiments began to be on alert at the new missile system. As of 1987, 308 ICBMs R-36M UTX were deployed as part of five missile divisions. As of May 2006, the Strategic Rocket Forces included 74 mine launchers with ICBMs R-36M UTTKh and R-36M2 (index 15A18M, START code RS-20V), each equipped with 10 warheads.
TTX
The missile control system is autonomous, inertial. Her work was provided by an onboard digital computer complex. All the main elements of the computing complex had redundancy. The use of the BTsVK made it possible to achieve high firing accuracy - the probable circular deviation of warheads was 430 m.
General characteristics of ICBMs
| Diameter of BR, m | 3 |
| Starting weight, t | 209.6 - 210 |
| Fuel mass, t | 185 |
| Maximum firing range, km | 16000 |
| Minimum firing range, km | 9250 |
| BR length, m | 35 |
| Payload mass, kg | 7200 |
| Flight reliability | 0.965 |
| The coefficient of energy-weight perfection Gпг / Go, kgf / tf | 40.1 |
| Firing accuracy (at a range of 10,000 km), km | ± 0.65 |
| Generalized Reliability | 0.93 |
| Start-up time from full alert, sec | 62 |
| Resistance of a rocket to the damaging factors of nuclear explosives in flight | 1st level |
| Initially established warranty period of storage, years | fifteen |
Schematic diagrams of missiles and control systems are developed on the basis of the possibility of using three options for warheads:
- Light monoblock with a charge of 8 Mt and a flight range of 16,000 km
- Heavy monoblock with a charge of 25 Mt with a range of 11,200 km
- Separating warhead (warhead) of 8 warheads with a capacity of 1 MT
All missile warheads were equipped with an advanced range of missile defense systems. For the complex of means to overcome missile defense missile 15A14, quasi-heavy false targets were first created. Thanks to the use of a special solid-fuel acceleration engine, the progressively increasing thrust of which compensates for the aerodynamic drag of a false target, it was possible to simulate the characteristics of warheads by almost all selectable attributes on an extra-atmospheric part of the trajectory and a significant part of the atmospheric.
After the death of Yangel in 1971, the chief designer of the Design Bureau "Southern"Vladimir Utkin was appointed. The R-36M ICBM control system was developed under the leadership of Vladimir Sergeev, chief designer of the Kharkov NII-692 (NPO Hartron). A range of missile defense systems was developed at TsNIRTI. Solid propellant charges of powder pressure accumulators were developed at LNPO Soyuz under the leadership of Boris Zhukov. The unified command post of increased security of the mine type was developed at the Central Design Bureau of TM under the leadership of Nikolai Krivoshein and Boris Aksyutin. The initial warranty period for storing the rocket was 10 years, then 15 years.
A great achievement of the new systems was the ability to remotely retarget before launching a rocket. For such a strategic weapon, this innovation was of great importance.
Missile Propulsion Systems (RDU)
LRE rockets operated on a high boiling two-component self-igniting fuel. As a fuel, asymmetric dimethylhydrazine ( UDMH ) was used, and nitrogen tetraoxide ( AT ) was used as an oxidizing agent . All tanks were pressurized by the combustion products of the main fuel components. The applied design solutions ensured a high degree of tightness of the fuel systems, which made it possible to satisfy the requirements for seven-year storage of the rocket in the filled state. The use of these components made it possible to maintain the combat readiness of the missile system for many years.
The R-36M rocket is equipped with a first-stage mid-flight engine developed at Energomash Design Bureau under the guidance of Valentin Glushko. Designers assembled the first stage of the R-36M rocket as a part of six single-chamber engines, and the second stage - from one single-chamber engine, which was most unified with the engine of the first stage - the differences were only in the high-altitude nozzle of the chamber. Everything is as before, but ... But Yangel decided to involve Konopatov KBHA in the development of the engine for the R-36M ... New design solutions, modern technologies, an improved LRE fine-tuning technique, modernized stands and updated technological equipment - all this could be put by Energomash Design Bureau on the scales, offering to participate in the development of R-36M and MR-UR-100 systems ... Glushko proposed four single-chamber engines for the first stage of the R-36M rocket, working according to the scheme with oxidizing generator gas afterburning, each with a thrust of 100 tf, a pressure in the combustion chamber of 200 atm, a specific impulse of thrust at the ground of 293 kgf / kg, control of the thrust vector by deflecting the engine. According to the classification of KB Energomash, the engine received the designation RD-264 (four RD-263 engines on a common frame ... Glushko's proposals were accepted, KBHA was entrusted with the development of a second-stage engine for the R-36M. A preliminary design of the RD-264 engine was completed in 1969. KBHA was entrusted with the development of a second-stage engine for the R-36M. The preliminary design of the RD-264 engine was completed in 1969. KBHA was entrusted with the development of a second-stage engine for the R-36M. The preliminary design of the RD-264 engine was completed in 1969.
The challenge was to ensure reliable start-up of the first stage engines with a mortar launch. Fire tests of engines at the stand began in April 1970. In 1971, design documentation was transferred to the Southern Machine-Building Plant for the preparation of mass production. Engine tests were conducted from December 1972 to January 1973. During flight tests of the R-36M rocket, the need for boosting the first-stage engine by 5 percent was revealed. Test development of the forced engine was completed in September 1973, and flight tests of the rocket continued.
Future and present
In the USSR, 308 R-36M2 were deployed, of which a third were in Kazakhstan. After the collapse of the USSR, Kazakh missiles were withdrawn from combat duty, and the manufacturer and design bureau were outside of Russia.
As an experienced hunter periodically checks his old cartridges, so the old man “Voevodu” is periodically released exclusively to check his resources, the performance of the main units and weapons. Testers with this launch each try to answer the question: have the tactical and technical characteristics and safety indicators laid down by the designers survived after two decades of standing on combat duty? Although, as the military says, a complex of scientific and technical research is carried out annually.
That's how the last test launches of Voevoda showed that further extension of the operational life of the Voyevoda missile system to 25 years will increase the service life of these missiles by 10 years beyond the original warranty period of operation - 15 years. That is, from these words with a simple arithmetic action we can conclude: "Voivode", who managed to build and put on combat duty in the year of the collapse of the USSR - that is, in 1991, now marks 19 years, and they will defend another seven years the borders of the Russian Federation - until 2016 ...
However, this time the high ranks promised that "... in order to ensure nuclear safety, the previous modification of the RS-20 missile under the letter" B ", whose operational life is ending, will be removed from combat duty in the near future "
Not so long ago, another high rank declared that Russia by the end of 2016 was planning to create a new heavy liquid-fuel intercontinental missile to replace Voevoda. According to him, the emphasis in building a promising Strategic Missile Forces attack group will be made on a qualitative transformation so that by the end of 2016 missile systems with extended RS-20 life will remain no more than 20 percent, and 80 percent that will be freed up should be occupied by new missile systems.
Well ... let's hope further that the possible terms of operation of the nuclear potential of the USSR will be extended for a long time ...
Afterword ...
By the nature of my basic training, I was fortunate enough to get acquainted with some samples of those famous weapons that scared the commanders of the "probable enemy." Regarding the R-36M, I had the opportunity to get acquainted with the design of only the second stage ... I can note that the structural solutions that were used in the design can be called technical "art" :) In particular, the decision to place the propulsion system in the second stage is impressive. The situation was such that a fairly dense arrangement of elements was used, and the working elements of the remote control had to be placed in the working environment of the tanks, i.e. engine elements operate in an aggressive environment of rocket fuel. In my opinion, such a solution could not be implemented not on one of the existing then (and probably now) ICBMs.
Naturally, it was impossible to achieve such outstanding product characteristics without the technological base, which was created on the basis of the Southern Machine-Building Plant. What are the machines for the manufacture of “waffle” tanks, which are huge machines 4-5 meters tall and which had no analogues then in the world ...
By the way, about the “black” coloring of ICBMs, which so interested readers in an article about the Strategic Missile Forces Museum - in fact, this is not a color, but a special coating, a heat-insulating coating, which acts as one of the protection against nuclear explosion factors. By the way, in the Yuzhniy Design Bureau itself they said with bitterness that when the disposal of ICBMs deployed in Ukraine occurred (
I would also like to note the means of overcoming the probable enemy’s missile defense, which combined the option of separating warheads that are so diverse and progressive for their the time that any attempts by a probable adversary to create at least some line of defense against the R-36M (2) product turned out to be a failure, and while such products are in service, such missile defense systems will be useless for a long time to come.
So, these unique products were created at the height of the military scientific and technological progress of the huge red country - the USSR ... The
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If the article turns out to be interesting, then I think it makes sense to talk about another unique project that has no analogues in the world, a model of which is located near St. Petersburg, on one of the spare colony - BZDRK Molodets (RS-22V), called in the West "Scalpel".