The rocket complex "Satan". "Satan" - the most powerful nuclear missile in the world

As a rule, our weapons systems have abstract neutral names, which, in the event of a partial leak of information, will not say much to intelligence agents of foreign special services. Take, for example, the same "Poplar" or "Ash". Trees are like trees. And even at all "Pinocchio" some fabulous. But there is one weapon that is ominous in the West and in our country: "Satan" is a missile system of the third generation, it is also 15P018, it is also P-36, it is SS-18, it is also RS-20B, it is also " Voevod ". Such a large number of names has its own cause. To use Soviet codes among NATO experts is traditionally not accepted, they come up with their own designations for each model of our technology, usually also quite innocuous. So what are they so scared of 15P018 and what is this thunderstorm of Americans - the rocket "Satan"?

Arms race as an instrument of aggression

The creation of a complex of ballistic missiles is an expensive matter, science-intensive and technologically complex. Forced the USSR to participate in the arms race for a long time was the goal of US administrations of different times, from Truman to Reagan. For various reasons, America has always been richer than the Soviet Union, and exhausting it with excessive expenditure ultimately ensured victory in the Cold War. In no small measure and today this policy is applied to the new Russia.

Our response to the Americans

Approximately by 1965, the power of American intercontinental missiles increased significantly, as well as other technical parameters, including accuracy of hitting. This posed a threat to Soviet launchers, most of which were stationary at that time and were located in mines concentrated in operational regions on a group basis. Thus, one American ICBM, in case of a successful hit, could cover several Soviet, not yet in time to start. Urgently needed to respond to the threat. There were two outlets: to disperse launchers, strengthening the mines, or to make them mobile, while retaining high power, which means, weight and size. But in the age of satellites it is difficult to conceal the movement of mobile launchers. Problems demanded solutions. As a result, the R-36 Satan appeared, the most powerful nuclear missile in the world.

Great Utkin

Academician Vladimir Fedorovich Utkin was not a famous person during his lifetime. But his friends, like-minded colleagues, and former subordinates, celebrating the birthday of their boss on October 17, call him genius without a shadow of doubt. And for this there are grounds. Under the leadership of this scientist was created a rocket complex "Satan", or rather, 15P018 (the diabolical nickname for the brainchild of the academician was given by the Americans). It all started with a general concept, then it was divided into separate technical tasks, each of which was successfully solved.

The Satan missile system is a very complex system, each of its units must work in concert, and any failure can lead to irreparable consequences. In addition, a formidable weapon was to be launched both from stationary mines and from special railway platforms disguised as ordinary wagons.

How to launch a heavy rocket from a mine

The rocket body is made of aluminum and magnesium - metals are rather soft. The wall thickness is 3 mm, otherwise the shell will turn out to be too heavy. The rocket weight is more than 210 tons, and it needs to be launched from a deep mine. It is easy to imagine what will happen if such a heavy and fragile object begins to be washed by hot gasses escaping from the nozzles. Inside - 195 tons of fuel, not just fuel, but explosive. But that's not all. In the head part there are nuclear munitions with a capacity of four hundred Hiroshima.

This is the technical task. And her Soviet engineers decided. The rocket is gently and gently extracted to the surface by three special powder charges, called pressure accumulators, lifted by tens of meters, and only then the pre-prepared ("blown") engines of the starting stage are launched.

This solution also significantly increased the combat radius of the system. At the initial overcoming of the gravitational force, a large amount of fuel was consumed, in this case its saving is about 9 tons.

This is just one example of the elegance of solutions, an illustration of the genius of the great Utkin. There are a lot of them, a whole book would have gone to describe the others. Perhaps a multivolume one.

Scary Atomic Train

The Soviet Union was not for nothing called a great railway power. Long distances prompted the construction of railroads at an unprecedented pace yet tsarist Russia, while in the Soviet years new lines were stretched that covered the entire territory of our country with a network of paths. Day and night on them are the trains, among which one can never distinguish those under the roofs of the cars where many mega-deaths lurk. The mobile complex "Satan" could be based on a railway platform disguised as an ordinary train, which can not be distinguished from the usual by the most perfect reconnaissance satellite. Of course, the weight of the launcher of 130 tons did not allow the use of a simple rolling stock, so, in addition to technical tasks, it was necessary to solve transport, and on an all-Union scale. Wooden sleepers were changed to reinforced concrete, the quality and strength of the canvas was brought to the highest level, because any accident could instantly turn into a catastrophe. The rocket launcher "Satan" has a length of 23 meters, just under the size of a refrigerator car, but the head fairing had to develop a special - a folding structure. There were other problems, but the result justified the costs. A retaliatory blow could be inflicted from an unpredictable point, and therefore, it was guaranteed and inevitable.

Rocket

The means of delivery of the head part, in which the nuclear charges are located, is an intercontinental two-stage missile, the reach zone of which has an area of 300,000 square kilometers. It is able to overcome the boundaries of highly effective and promising missile defense systems and hit ten different targets with separating components with a total capacity equivalent to eight megatons of TNT. Neutralize its effect after the launch is almost impossible, for which she received such a sonorous name - "Satan". The missile complex is equipped with thousands of facilities simulating nuclear warheads. Ten of them have a mass close to the actual charge, the rest are made of metallized plastic and take the form of combat blocks, swelling in a stratospheric vacuum. No anti-missile system can cope with so many targets.

Electronic Brain

The development of the management system was carried out by Deputy General Designer Vladimir Sergeev. It is built on an inertial principle, has three channels and a multi-level majorization. This means that the system checks itself, performing a self-test. If there is any discrepancy between the results, the control is assumed by the channel that passed the test successfully. The cable interface, and is considered to be perfectly reliable, the failure of communication lines has not been recorded once during all the time during which the R-36M "Satan" missile complex is armed.

Irritation of Americans

The program, which was launched in the United States and was named the strategic defense initiative, was aimed at creating a global "umbrella" that would protect the countries of the "free world", primarily the United States, from the consequences of a retaliatory thermonuclear strike in the event of a world conflict. The strategic missile complex 15P018 ("Satan") completely deprived this idea of the idea. No missile defense means, even with expensive space-based elements, could guarantee the safe destruction of objects on the territory of the USSR by American "Pershingami". Needless to say, this caused annoyance among the inhabitants of the White House and the Capitol. The Soviet leadership was not in a hurry to remove these complexes from the arsenals, rightly believing that they provide a reliable nuclear shield. But the matter got off the ground after the Gorbi came to power and the beginning of perestroika.

How they crushed Satan

Each second rocket "Satan" was destroyed under the terms of the START-1 treaty, signed by the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Mikhail S. Gorbachev. After the collapse of the USSR, the case was continued by President of the Russian Federation Boris N. Yeltsin. For the sake of justice, it should be noted that the removal from the arsenal and the subsequent disposal of multiply-charged missiles were made not so much because of the pressure of the American side or national betrayal (insisted on by exaggerated patriotically inclined citizens). The reasons were much more prosaic and of an economic nature. The budget of the country did not withstand such a high level of military spending, which can be attributed and spending on maintaining these railroad tracks. And without them, there could be another Chernobyl, only a far more terrible one. The rocket complex "Satan" was the victim of the general devastation, which was accompanied by the collapse of the Soviet Union.

For peaceful purposes

After the emergence of young states in the territory of the once inviolable USSR, it was suddenly discovered that all the production, scientific and experimental forces that created the complex are exclusively Ukrainian. Further improvement and production of a powerful defense system has become impossible, at least in the short term.

Withdrawal of a rocket dangerous to Americans did not mean a ban on its use for other purposes than the owners of the last specimens did not hesitate to take advantage of. As in the case of the glorified "East", the medium was converted, it was used to put commercial and scientific cargoes, including foreign ones, into orbit. What to do? When the country needs money, the "Satan" will also be used. Intercontinental ballistic missile during the period from 1999 to 2010 under the program "Dnepr" put into orbit four dozen artificial satellites. There were 14 launches, one of them was unsuccessful.

"Voevoda"

In the late eighties, the R-36M missile was upgraded to improve its resistance to the consequences of a possible nuclear strike and improve the accuracy characteristics. In addition, it was necessary to refine, taking into account the new capabilities of the newest American missile defense systems. KB "Yuzhnoye" (Dnepropetrovsk) successfully coped with the task, the result of the work was the product 15A18M, called "Voevode." When drafting the text of the START-1 treaty, it was designated by the code "РС-20Б", and in its essence it was all the same missile system "Satan", only modernized.

The change in the international situation, expressed in the desire of the leadership of the NATO countries, and especially the United States, to place their bases as close as possible to the borders of Russia, prompted a review of the terms of the START II treaty, which never went through ratification, insofar as it relates to multi-charge ICBMs. The 15A18M missiles (armed with monoblocks), currently on alert, are planned to be replaced by new Russian Sarmat complexes capable of carrying separating warheads. But about them the story is different ...