Soviet power. Soviet military power
The policy of “perestroika” announced by Gorbachev at the April Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee in 1985, the implementation of which was supposed to give the USSR greater dynamism of development (“acceleration”), as well as some liberalism in the political system, subject to the preservation of communist ideology, was absolutely correctly understood by the West as the beginning of the process of collapse The Soviet Union and the entire world communist system, primarily the Warsaw Pact Organization. Naturally, “perestroika” was greeted with enthusiasm in the West.
Numerous voyages of the Soviet leader began around the world with various kinds of peace initiatives, which poured out as if from a cornucopia. The “peace initiatives” were perceived by the West as a recognition of the weakness of the Soviet political system. The most powerful military potential in the world, accumulated by the labor of all generations of Soviet people, was mediocrely reduced to the enthusiastic applause of the West. The 1987 INF Treaty became a shining example of Gorbachev's policy. Of course, it was necessary to reduce the exorbitantly bloated military machines of the USSR and the USA, but this had to be done with strict consideration of one’s own interests, primarily for the future. The momentary, mediocre policy on the INF Treaty in the style of “if there is war tomorrow,” as if the West will not start a war today, then tomorrow will start a war in Europe, perfectly illustrates the complete incompetence of Gorbachev and his associates in assessing the strategic situation in the world. “Perestroika” hit the army with such force that it still cannot recover.
Let's take 1989. This is the last year of “perestroika” in the style of Gorbachev, which was followed by a severe erosion of communist ideology, in fact, its collapse, and as a consequence, already uncontrollable centrifugal tendencies within the country, starting with the Baltic republics. Therefore, the year 1989 can be considered the last more or less “full” year of the existence of the USSR. The end of the 80s - the beginning of the decline of the Soviet superpower. The economy is almost completely collapsed, the political system is on its last legs, the card system is rampant in the country, the army is trying as best it can to fend off the attacks of the democratic “perestroika” press, accusing the country’s armed forces of all mortal sins, from Afghanistan to “hazing.” One after another, the country’s strategic positions are surrendering, the Berlin Wall is collapsing, the GDR is joining the Federal Republic of Germany (Gorbachev is the best German of the year), Eastern Europe is experiencing a season of “velvet revolutions”, the flow of parcels with “humanitarian aid” from all over the world to the USSR is increasing, including and pieces of chocolate with the teeth marks of well-fed Western children. The country, perhaps, has not experienced such humiliation since the conclusion of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918, concluded by the Bolsheviks in order to preserve their own positions in Russia torn apart by civil war. But the Soviet Army was still trying to maintain at least the appearance of combat effectiveness, which it was finding more and more difficult.
If we take the technical arsenal of the Armed Forces, then a more or less tolerable situation was observed here thanks to the huge reserves of weapons and military equipment accumulated over decades. The powerful defense potential was still afloat, despite the sharp reduction in military orders from the state and the idleness of huge production capacities for this reason. Weapons design bureaus tried to bring new types of weapons and equipment to the required standards, sometimes based only on sheer enthusiasm. What was the Soviet military machine like in the late 80s? In December 1988, at the UN General Assembly in New York, it was announced that the Soviet armed forces would be reduced by 500 thousand people, as well as by 10 thousand tanks and 8.5 thousand artillery systems during the period 1989-90. On April 7, 1989 in London, Gorbachev announced that the strength of the Soviet armed forces as of January 7, 1989 was 4258 thousand people, including 1596 thousand in the ground forces, 437.5 thousand in the Navy, the rest in the Strategic Missile Forces, Air defense troops, air force, operational and material support forces. These figures did not include the border troops of the KGB and the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which, according to American data, amount to approximately 430 thousand people. It soon became known that the USSR was spending 74.3 billion rubles on military expenditures, of which more than 32 billion were on the purchase of weapons and military equipment (previously the USSR recognized defense expenditures of approximately 17 billion rubles). However, Gorbachev’s figures do not fully reflect the true level of military expenditures, the vast majority of which were spent on completely different items (in this case, the study of methods for determining the true defense expenditures of the USSR is not pursued).
The most powerful component of the country's defense was the still powerful strategic triad - the strategic missile forces, the strategic missile submarines of the Navy and the long-range strategic aviation of the Air Force. The country maintained a powerful complex for the development and production of nuclear weapons. Quantitatively, the triad in 1989 consisted of 1,390 ICBM launchers, of which 812 were equipped with MIRVs (the total number of warheads was more than 6,000 units), 926 SLBMs on 61 RPK SN (about 3,000 warheads, of which 2,500 were equipped with MIRVs) and 162 heavy strategic bomber, of which 72 are carriers of the X-55 long-range missile launcher (approximately 1000 nuclear weapons). Thus, the total strategic potential consisted of approximately 10 thousand nuclear warheads, which ensured approximately equality with the United States in the field of strategic offensive weapons.
The 80s, thanks to the huge backlog of work in the previous decade, became the time for a huge qualitative leap in the technical equipment of strategic forces. Back in 1981, the ICBM fleet reached its highest ceiling of 1,398 missiles with 6,420 nuclear warheads, of which 308 of the world's most powerful ICBMs RS-20 (SS-18 Satan - “Satan”), each equipped with 10 individually targeted warheads with a capacity of 500 kt . The next stage in the development of the Strategic Missile Forces was the development and adoption of mobile strategic missile systems - RS-22 railway (combat railway combat complexes, or abbreviated BZHRK, 1987) and RS-12M "Topol" (RT-2PM) ground-based on powerful seven-axle transport and launchers on the MAZ-547V chassis (1985). At the end of the 80s, there were already more than 50 launchers of RS-22 missiles, with combat characteristics similar to the American MX, and more than 250 launchers of RS-12M missiles. RS-22s in several missile bases had the usual stationary deployment on highly protected silo launchers; Topols at that time were placed only on mobile launchers. The fleet of mobile ICBMs is the most modern component of the Strategic Missile Forces and to date has no analogues in the world.
In the 1980s, the naval component of the strategic forces developed intensively. Since 1980, giant nuclear submarines (heavy RPK SN) of Project 941 “Akula”, known in the West as “Typhoons,” have come into operation. The boat, 170 m long and 25 m wide, has an underwater displacement of 44,500 tons, which is a record figure in the world (the largest American SSBNs have an underwater displacement of 18,700 tons). Since 1996, the last representatives of the Project 667 SSBN series - 667BDRM "Dolphin" (NATO code - Delta-4) have been introduced into the fleet. In 1989, the Navy had six Sharks and four Dolphins, which were a worthy response to the eight American Ohio.
The strategic air force also underwent a qualitative update, although not on such a scale. The main combat aircraft of long-range aviation continued to be the heavy turboprop bomber Tu-95, the fleet of which began to be replenished in 1984 with a new modification of the Tu-95MS, equipped, depending on the type of configuration, with 6 or 12 long-range missiles X-55 - analogues of the American AGM-86B "Tomahawk". But, undoubtedly, in the 80s, the biggest event for the long-range air force was the adoption of the latest heavy strategic missile carriers such as the Tu-160 with variable wing geometry, which became the largest combat aircraft in the entire history of world aviation. Its maximum take-off weight of 275 tons significantly exceeds the weight of its American counterpart B-1B - 180 tons, the combat load weight is 45 and 22 tons, respectively. New aircraft began to arrive in the Air Force in 1987 and were used to re-equip the heavy bomber air regiment based in Pryluky (Ukraine). The initial plan for the purchase of 100 Tu-160s in connection with the “perestroika” that swept into the country already in the mid-80s began to seem unrealistic. At the end of the 80s, the number of aircraft of this type, both experimental and combat, hardly exceeded 10-15 units, but the creation of the Tu-160 itself indicated that the Soviet Union had reached a new qualitative level in the development of its military aircraft industry.
The American triad also underwent significant qualitative changes. In 1982, the ground component was armed with 1053 ICBM launchers, of which 450 Minuteman-2 (nine squadrons), 550 Minuteman-3 (11) and 53 Titan-2 (six). The combat use of strategic offensive forces is carried out by decision of the US President, which is communicated to the Chiefs of Staff Committee (CHS), the highest governing body of the country's armed forces. The latter from its main command center (OKTs KNSh is located in the underground part of the Pentagon) or from a reserve one (ZKTs is located in the foothills of the Blue Mountains, 90-95 km from Washington) or from an air command post based on the decision of the president and the general operational plan for use armed forces gives command to the US Air Force SAC on the combat use of ICBMs and strategic aircraft. The SAC command post is located in the underground part of the SAC headquarters building at Offutt Air Force Base (Nebraska). It has an autonomous life support system and operates around the clock. The SAC air command post is deployed on special EC-135 aircraft, which are based at Offutt Air Force Base and alternately (one at a time) maintain round-the-clock duty in the air, having an operational group on board. In peacetime it is headed by the general on duty.
When creating and developing the US Air Force SAC control system, the main principles were considered: high efficiency, stability, reliability, flexibility and control secrecy. In the 80s, the ICBM fleet was replenished with new MX (Peasekeeper) missiles, the development of which in the 70s caused great concern in the USSR, especially the project of their placement on mobile launchers running in underground railway tunnels. This type of basing was excluded by the US Congress as extremely expensive and technically complex, and also as not meeting the cost/effectiveness criterion. As a result, the new missiles were placed in highly protected silo launchers, which previously housed the Minuteman-3 ICBMs. After modification, these silos could withstand the explosion of a nuclear warhead in the immediate vicinity of the launcher.
The Navy has been replenished with 8 Ohio-class SSBNs. In total, the American fleet had 40 nuclear submarines with 672 SLBM launchers, 640 of them were equipped with MIRVs. The number of warheads in the naval component of the triad reached 5,780, or 55% of the entire nuclear arsenal of American strategic forces. The Air Force received all 100 of the newest B-1B bombers (deliveries were carried out in 1984-88). The strategic aviation fleet totaled 588 aircraft, of which 161 carried AGM-86B long-range cruise missiles. The main SAC aircraft remained the B-52 (there were about 260 B-52s in combat units, the rest were mothballed, but in accordance with the calculation methodology of the SALT-1 and SALT-2 Treaties, they were recognized as combat-ready - it is not clear why the Americans agreed to be considered combat-ready aircraft from which equipment and assemblies were removed for spare parts).
As we see, the status quo was maintained in the relations between the strategic forces of the USSR and the USA due to the regulation of their quantitative and qualitative parameters by ceilings mutually agreed upon in the arms limitation negotiations. The preservation of the combat capabilities of the strategic systems of the USSR and the USA was ensured by the powerful nuclear complexes of both countries, which include design bureaus and laboratories for the development of nuclear weapons, factories for the production of weapons-grade plutonium and nuclear charges, mines and open-pit mines for the extraction of uranium ore (mining production plants), and naturally, nuclear test sites. Let us briefly consider the structure of the domestic nuclear complex of this period.
The development of nuclear weapons, as has been repeatedly noted, was carried out by the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Technical Physics (formerly LIPAN, better known as the I. Kurchatov Institute of Nuclear Energy), located in Chelyabinsk-70, and the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics (former OKB-11 of Yu.B. Khariton ), now transformed into a federal nuclear center in Arzamas-16. Uranium enrichment enterprises were located in Angarsk, Krasnoyarsk and Sverdlovsk (Verkh-Neyvinsk). The production of weapons-grade plutonium was carried out by the Mayak chemical plant in Chelyabinsk-40 and Chelyabinsk-65 (it included five industrial reactors), the Siberian Chemical Plant near Tomsk (two reactors) and the Krasnoyarsk Mining and Chemical Plant, also known as Atomgrad (three reactors). The extraction of uranium raw materials was entrusted to the Caspian Mining and Metallurgical Plant on the Mangyshlak Peninsula in Western Kazakhstan, and the Trans-Baikal Mining and Chemical Plant in Zheltye Vody near Krivoy Rog in Ukraine. The nuclear test sites in Semipalatinsk (Kazakhstan) and on Novaya Zemlya (White Sea) were living out their last days, having come under merciless fire from protests by pacifists and environmentalists around the world.
Referred to in military parlance as general purpose forces, other components of the armed forces (ground forces, air force and air defense, navy and others) also underwent significant technical modernization with new weapon systems and military equipment, the development of which began in the 70s or even earlier (as As a rule, these are weapons and equipment of the third or fourth generation, depending on the type of weapon). A huge backlog of promising developments and a powerful defense industry, despite the very sensitive blows of Gorbachev’s policies and his various peace initiatives in general, perhaps due to inertia, continued to meet the needs of the army and navy in weapons, spare parts and other material resources, but their volumes, of course , could not compare with the surge that the defense industry provided in more prosperous times. As you know, “perestroika” most significantly affected the moral climate in the army and its social position in society, which are well known.
The ground forces are the most numerous type of armed forces of any state that has an army (the exception is the United States, where since the beginning of the 90s the navy has become the most numerous type of armed forces, ahead of the ground forces). The Soviet ground forces consisted of several branches, the main ones being motorized rifle, tank and airborne divisions, army aviation units and military air defense. It has already been emphasized that the 80s coincided with the adoption of a new generation of highly effective military equipment and weapons. In particular, these are main battle tanks of the T-80B, T-64B and T-72B types, infantry fighting vehicles BMP-2 and BMP-3, airborne combat vehicles BMD-2 and BMD-3, new self-propelled artillery systems 2S5, 2S7, 2S9, 2S19, Smerch multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS), BTR-80 armored personnel carriers and others.
The combat capabilities of military air defense have increased sharply thanks to the arrival of such systems as the Buk air defense system, S-300V in anti-aircraft and anti-missile versions, portable Igla air defense systems, 2K22 Tunguska anti-aircraft missile and gun systems, modern means of detecting air targets and targeting them means of destruction.
The country's air force and air defense forces also switched to new generation equipment and weapons. In 1989, they included more than 500 MiG-29 fighters, about 200 Su-27s, more than 200 MiG-31s, about 250 Su-25 attack aircraft, and more than 800 Su-24 front-line bombers. Since 1984, air defense aviation has been receiving new A-50 long-range radar detection and control aircraft, developed on the basis of the Il-76 transport aircraft. The ground-based air defense component has been strengthened due to the massive arrival of new S-300P and PM air defense systems, capable of shooting down low-flying cruise missiles and high-altitude high-speed targets. According to American data, in 1989, about 1,500 S-300 launchers were already on combat duty.
The general purpose forces of the Navy were replenished with such powerful warships as heavy nuclear cruisers Project 1141 Kirov (three units), missile cruisers Project 1164 Slava (three), a new generation BOD of the Udaloy type and destroyers of the Sovremenny type. The submarine fleet continued to gain power - nuclear submarines of such types as Antey, Granit, Bars, Shchuka-B, which had very high tactical and technical characteristics, were put into operation. But the main event of the late 80s for the Soviet fleet was the sea trials of the first aircraft carrier in the history of the Russian fleet - the heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser (TAVKR) Project 1143.5 "Tbilisi" (now "Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Nikolai Kuznetsov"). In 1989, the first takeoffs and landings in the history of the Soviet Navy of shipborne versions of the MiG-29 (MiG-29K) and Su-27 (Su-33) fighters, and the Su-25 attack aircraft (Su-25UTG) took place on the deck of this aircraft carrier. The successful mastery of the TAVKR deck by naval pilots opened a new page in the history of the Russian fleet.
The defense industry of the late 80s was the most powerful sector of Soviet mechanical engineering (it accounted for 60% of physical production volume). More than 35 million people worked at the military-industrial complex. This giant “iceberg” (“Military-Industrial Complex Archipelago”) was hidden from the people by various kinds of “mailboxes” (closed cities). The arms industry structurally consisted of such powerful industries as general (space) and medium engineering (nuclear), aviation, shipbuilding, instrument making, armored vehicles, artillery and small arms, ammunition and others. The “whales” of the space industry were such giants as the Yuzhny Machine-Building Plant No. 586 (its other names are Yuzhmash, or NPO Yuzhnoye) in Dnepropetrovsk (Ukraine), which, in addition to spacecraft launch vehicles, also produced ICBMs, the plant named after. Khrunichev and Tushino Machine Plant in Moscow and a number of others, equipped with first-class technological equipment and highly qualified personnel. A powerful blow to space engineering was the curtailment of the Energia-Buran program, the implementation of which almost the entire space complex was initially aimed at (discussed below).
In the late 80s, the aviation industry reached a leading position in the world in terms of its technological level. The production of the world's best MiG-29 fighters was carried out by the Moscow Aviation Production Association (MAPO) named after. Dementyev (production of single-seat combat aircraft MiG-29A and C) and the Gorky Aviation Plant (production of two-seat combat training aircraft MiG-29UB). The latter also produced MiG-31 interceptors. Serial production of the Su-27 was established at Komsomolsk-on-Amur APO named after. Gagarin (single-seat for the Air Force and Navy), and Irkutsk APO (double combat training Su-27UB). Su-25 attack aircraft were assembled at the Tbilisi aircraft plant, Su-24 front-line bombers were assembled at the Novosibirsk APO named after. Chkalova. Tashkent APO produced heavy Il-76 transport aircraft in dozens a year. The Rostov and Arsenyevsky helicopter plants were preparing to produce new generation combat helicopters Mi-28 and Ka-50, respectively.
Shipbuilding in the USSR has traditionally been concentrated in cities such as Severodvinsk, Komsomolsk-on-Amur and Gorky (production of nuclear and diesel boats), Nikolaev - aircraft-carrying and missile cruisers, Leningrad - nuclear cruisers, BOD, destroyers, nuclear boats of some types, Vladivostok, Khabarovsk and others. The largest of them were the Northern Machine-Building Enterprise (PO Sevmash), the Black Sea Shipyard and the Plant named after. 61 communards in Nikolaev, the Amur Shipyard in Komsomolsk-on-Amur and the shipyard named after. Zhdanov (“Northern Shipyard”) in Leningrad. In the 80s, the shipbuilding industry reached the peak of its development and could annually support the construction of one TAVKR of the "Tbilisi" type, 4-5 nuclear submarines, 4-5 destroyers and BOD, and annually deliver up to 30 warships of various classes to the fleet. Wide cooperation and integration of industry factories and related enterprises was achieved. For example, almost 2,000 enterprises and organizations from 20 industries were involved in the construction of the TAVKR Tbilisi.
The development of modern weapons has reached the highest level. For the first time, the USSR created systems that, in their combat capabilities and level of technological sophistication, not only corresponded to the latest achievements of science and technology in the world, but also began to surpass the level of weapons development in the West. The design bureaus had the best scientific and engineering personnel in the country, which ensured such a high level of domestic military technology. The creation of strategic missiles in the 80s was carried out by the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering (MIT), which created such types of weapons as the RS-12M Topol ICBM, RS-22, and RSM-52 SLBMs for heavy RPKs of the Akula type. Design Bureau of the Southern Machine Plant named after. Yangel developed modifications of the world's most powerful ICBMs, the RS-20. KB named after Makeeva was developing liquid-fueled SLBMs.
The development of operational-tactical and tactical missiles of a new generation for the ground forces was carried out by the Kolomenskoye Design Bureau of Mechanical Engineering (the Oka and Tochka complexes), air-to-air guided missiles were the field of application of the forces of the Vympel Design Bureau, the Novator Design Bureau developed mobile Air defense systems for ground forces, MKB "Fakel" specialized in creating air defense systems for the country's air defense forces, and a number of others. The development of aircraft in the 80s was carried out by such world-famous organizations as the Design Bureau named after. A. Tupolev (now ASTC named after A. Tupolev), who created such aircraft as the Tu-160 and Tu-22M3, named after. Mikoyan (OKB "MiG" named after A. Mikoyan) - MiG-29 and MiG-31 fighters, named after. Sukhoi (Akhmedov "Sukhoi") - Su-27 and Su-25, named after. Yakovlev - Yak-141, Antonov - An-72, An-74, An-124 "Ruslan", An-225 "Mriya" and a number of others. The highest level of Soviet combat aircraft was convincingly demonstrated at the aviation exhibitions in Farnborough (1988) and Le Bourget (1989).
Soviet tank building continued to remain at the forefront. The design bureaus for the development of modern tanks were located in Leningrad (design bureau of the Kirov plant - T-80), Nizhny Tagil (T-72), Kharkov (T-64). The development and production of infantry fighting vehicles was carried out by the Kurgan Machine-Building Plant, which in the 80s was awarded the Order of the Red Star for great production success (it produced up to 2000 infantry fighting vehicles per year). The creation of other types of land weapons also met the highest world standards. The design of surface ships was mainly entrusted to the Severnoe and Nevsky design bureaus (Leningrad), and nuclear submarines to such organizations as TsKB-18 "Rubin", SKB-143 "Malachite", TsKB-112 "Lazurit". In general, the level of Soviet naval weapons was also raised to a very high level. “Perestroika” did not have time to cripple the rise of domestic military technologies that had begun.
Despite lagging behind the West in such areas as the development of modern electronic equipment, especially digital, communication and control systems, the Soviet military-industrial complex successfully compensated for the weaknesses of its developments with better productivity of technical solutions and a higher degree of consideration than in the West of real combat conditions in which these systems had to be applied. And the lag in detection, communication and control systems was not as great as they tried to imagine in the West.
In order not to be considered unfounded, it is enough to cite the following facts. The USSR was not at all behind in the guidance accuracy of its strategic missiles (the technological level of domestic MIRVs was at the level of American ones). The MiG-31 became the world's first combat aircraft equipped with a phased array radar with electronic beam control, which is currently equipped only with the newest American B-2B Spirit bomber (production aircraft shown). In air defense systems, the Soviet S-300P, S-300V, “Tor” and “Buk” air defense systems were almost head and shoulders superior to their Western opponents or had no analogues in the world at all. For the first time, Soviet diesel and nuclear submarines of the latest projects were not inferior to American submarines in terms of such a factor as noise level.
An experienced reader probably remembers the scandal surrounding the Japanese company Toshiba, which sold the USSR high-precision grinding machines for precise processing of large workpieces, which, as the United States claimed, were used specifically for processing propellers of new types of Soviet submarines, including seven-bladed ones, which sharply reduced their noise level. “Perestroika,” fortunately, was not able to completely destroy the domestic military-industrial complex - it was so well created over the past decades. But it hit the latest developments in the military-industrial complex of the second half of the 80s, as a result of which the scientific and technical level of our weapons is currently essentially kept at the level of the 70s. But military technology, like any other branch of technology, is constantly being improved. What is now quite modern and meets the latest requirements due to continuous modernization, tomorrow will exhaust its constructive resource and become obsolete. Entire military programs that were of a strategic nature to ensure the defense capability of the state were ruined. A striking example of this is the failure of the development of the fifth generation fighter, but more on that later.
This patriotic motivator pushed me to this idea:
In the photograph, a Soviet soldier who returned home from the war hugs his son. The house is destroyed, the son has no shoes, and all the soldier’s property is in one duffel bag. And below the signature - “Through 16 years, the Soviet people will conquer space."
In 1961, 16 years after the Victory, the first man flew into space.
But this is not conquest at all. This is a continuation of conquest. The next stage. And this conquest continued and continues now. The conquest of space took place 4 years earlier in 1957. Then the Soviet people launched the first artificial Earth satellite.
So, the Soviet people will conquer space not in 16 years, but in 12 years. A difference of 4 years is very very very VERY long. It's not 25% earlier. A difference of 4 years must be compared with the difference in a fraction of a second when setting a world record in running, for example, or with every centimeter in the high or long jump. Every fraction of a second or centimeter is worth several years of training for an athlete, a coach and an entire team. And here Not just one person, but an entire country is trying to achieve a world record. Almost 200 million people at once!!! Moreover, the record is not ordinary, but the most significant in the entire history of mankind. There will never be anything like this again.
So, the conquest of space occurred not 16 years after the war, but 12. 4 years before Gagarin’s flight there were still many gigantic steps of Soviet space high-tech, the scope of which cannot be compared with modern computer high-tech.
12 years after the most destructive war in human history, the most destroyed country conquers space. The first artificial Earth satellite was launched. A Soviet rocket accelerated it to its first escape velocity, which is almost 30 times higher than the speed of modern passenger aircraft.
But that's not all.
13.5 years after the Victory, 2.5 years before Gagarin’s flight, on January 2, 1959, the Vostok-L launch vehicle was launched, which launched the Luna-1 Automatic Interplanetary Station onto the flight path to the Moon. Luna-1 became the world's first spacecraft to reach the second escape velocity, overcome the Earth's gravity and become an artificial satellite of the Sun.
But that's not all.
14 years after the Victory, almost 2 years before Gagarin’s flight, on September 14, 1959, the Luna-2 station reached surface of the moon. A pennant depicting the coat of arms of the USSR was delivered to the surface of the Moon.
But that's not all.
On October 4, 1959, almost a year and a half before Gagarin’s flight, the Luna-3 spacecraft was launched and For the first time in the world, he photographed the side of the Moon invisible from Earth. Also during the flight For the first time in the world, a gravity maneuver was carried out in practice. The resulting images provided the Soviet Union with priority in naming objects on the surface of the Moon; the craters Giordano Bruno, Jules Verne, Hertz, Kurchatov, Lobachevsky, Maxwell, Mendeleev, Pasteur, Popov, Sklodowska-Curie, Tzu Chun-Zhi and Edison, the lunar Sea, appeared on the map Moscow. Once again, the USSR's primacy in the space race was demonstrated
But that's not all.
2 months before Gagarin’s flight, on February 12, 1961 at 5 hours 9 minutes Moscow time, an automatic interplanetary station "Venera-1"(product 1VA No. 2). Then, with the help of the upper stage, the Venera-1 spacecraft was transferred to the flight path towards the planet Venus. IN For the first time in the world, a spacecraft was launched from low-Earth orbit to another planet. The spent upper stage retained the name “heavy satellite 02” (“Sputnik-8”). From the Venera-1 station, measurement data of the parameters of the solar wind and cosmic rays in the vicinity of the Earth, as well as at a distance of 1.9 million kilometers from the Earth, were transmitted. After the discovery of the solar wind by the Luna-1 station, the Venera-1 station confirmed the presence of solar wind plasma in interplanetary space. The last communication session with Venera 1 took place on February 19, 1961. After 7 days, when the station was at a distance of about 2 million kilometers from the Earth, contact with the Venera-1 station was lost. On May 19 and 20, 1961, the Venera 1 probe passed at a distance of approximately 100,000 km from the planet Venus and entered a heliocentric orbit.
This was the first apparatus designed for planetary exploration. For the first time, the technique of orientation along the three axes of a spacecraft along the Sun and the star Canopus was used. For the first time, a parabolic antenna was used to transmit telemetric information.
In general, until those very “16 years later” not only space was conquered, the Moon and Venus were conquered.
So, even Soviet patriots underestimate the power and greatness of the Soviet Union.
Millions of Soviet people were born and raised when there were no cars, airplanes, radios, televisions, telephones, etc. And during their lifetime they saw the flight of a Soviet robot to the planet Venus.
Few people understand that the USSR is not just a great country on Earth, it is the representative of the Earth in the universe. It must be assessed not by limited earthly standards, but by unlimited universal ones.
If a developed alien civilization exists and observes our civilization, then, from its point of view, only the USSR existed on Earth. Or at least the Soviet Union was the "capital" of the Earth.
Although, according to Hollywood, aliens see the Earth differently. They always land in the USA:
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| Wernher Von Braun |
Here we must take into account that all this could have happened 20 years earlier. The constant threat of attack on the USSR forced the Soviet people to develop the military industry instead of the space industry. In addition to simply logistical and technical limitations, a much greater slowdown in space exploration was made by the fact that many talented scientists for decades were forced to invest their brains not in space, but, again, in the military.
And the war dealt an even bigger blow to Soviet space. Simply, thousands of failed space scientists died.
The United States did not have all these obstacles. Moreover, the Americans lured away the best German rocket designer, Wernher von Braun. And even with him they could not get around the Russians. Although the Soviet missiles were still based on the ideas and developments of Von Braun.
Americans don't have that spirit. Primitivism of thinking and down-to-earthness. Focus on the money, not the spiritual.
Moreover, in those days in the USA they still could not decide - are blacks people or monkeys?
Racial segregation was abolished by law in 1964. There were still establishments for blacks and for whites.
I looked at Wikipedia and this is what I read about what Americans lived in 1961, the year of the first Soviet man in space and the first Soviet robot near Venus:
In 1961, in Albany, Georgia, local black residents began a campaign to desegregate public places. Martin Luther King arrived to help local activists and organized peaceful protests. In response, city authorities resorted to mass arrests, closing parks, libraries and stopping buses to maintain segregation. About 5% of the city's black population has been in prison. The Albany campaign was unsuccessful.
The Soviet Union is already on Mars and Venus, and the Americans are still delving into the anthropology of blacks and whites. What kind of space is this? As they say, I wouldn’t live to be fat. Savages, sir!
Why did the Soviet Union rush forward so much? Because the cult of knowledge, science, generosity, equal opportunities in a scientific career for everyone due to free education, etc. was cultivated. After the revolution, Jewish brains, of whom there were many in the space program, also joined the infinitely talented Russian people. The tsarist regime, for example, infringed on the rights and humiliated Jews.
And even more important is that the Soviet country is a country of romantics. The most difficult thing was not the technical implementation of the tasks set by the Party, but... the very desire and determination of the Party to set a task that was insane in its impossibility. But the task is great. The greatness of the task for communists outweighs the difficulty of its implementation.
This space exploration took place 12 years later. And the decision to conquer was much earlier. When the war had just ended, the entire huge country was in ruins. It's as if a simple homeless man from Honduras decided to become the king of England in 5 years.
The power of the Soviet Union can only be compared with the power of the great European Bandera. But until recently, the curses of the Muscovites did not allow the national identity of the Banderas to manifest themselves during the Euromaidan crisis. What great embroidered shirts! And the power of traditional pictures with gleikas on fences has no analogues in history! Correctly their verse says “You are huge, we are great.”
- The great ancient European people dry poop for heating instead of unnecessary coal from the downbass http://levhudoi.blogspot.com/2016/02/kakashki.html
Yes, if the cruel Putin had not dropped atomic bombs twice on the great European cyborgs, Bandera would already be in Lugansk!
The policy of “perestroika” announced by Gorbachev at the April Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee in 1985, the implementation of which was supposed to give the USSR greater dynamism of development (“acceleration”), as well as some liberalism in the political system, subject to the preservation of communist ideology, was absolutely correctly understood by the West as the beginning of the process of collapse The Soviet Union and the entire world communist system, primarily the Warsaw Pact Organization. Naturally, “perestroika” was greeted with a bang in the West.
Numerous voyages of the Soviet leader began around the world with various kinds of peace initiatives, which poured out as if from a cornucopia. The “peace initiatives” were perceived by the West as a recognition of the weakness of the Soviet political system. The most powerful military potential in the world, accumulated by the labor of all generations of Soviet people, was mediocrely reduced to the enthusiastic applause of the West. The 1987 INF Treaty became a shining example of Gorbachev's policy. Of course, it was necessary to reduce the exorbitantly bloated military machines of the USSR and the USA, but this had to be done with strict consideration of one’s own interests, primarily for the future. The momentary, mediocre policy on the INF Treaty in the style of “if there is war tomorrow,” as if the West will not start a war today, then tomorrow will start a war in Europe, perfectly illustrates the complete incompetence of Gorbachev and his associates in assessing the strategic situation in the world. “Perestroika” hit the army with such force that it still cannot recover.
Let's take 1989. This is the last year of “perestroika” in the style of Gorbachev, which was followed by a severe erosion of communist ideology, in fact, its collapse, and as a consequence, already uncontrollable centrifugal tendencies within the country, starting with the Baltic republics. Therefore, the year 1989 can be considered the last more or less “full” year of the existence of the USSR. The end of the 80s - the beginning of the decline of the Soviet superpower. The economy is almost completely collapsed, the political system is on its last legs, the card system is rampant in the country, the army is trying as best it can to fend off the attacks of the democratic “perestroika” press, accusing the country’s armed forces of all mortal sins, from Afghanistan to “hazing.” One after another, the country’s strategic positions are surrendering, the Berlin Wall is collapsing, the GDR is joining the Federal Republic of Germany (Gorbachev is the best German of the year), Eastern Europe is experiencing a season of “velvet revolutions”, the flow of parcels with “humanitarian aid” from all over the world to the USSR is increasing, including and pieces of chocolate with the teeth marks of well-fed Western children. The country, perhaps, has not experienced such humiliation since the conclusion of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918, concluded by the Bolsheviks in order to preserve their own positions in Russia torn apart by civil war. But the Soviet Army was still trying to maintain at least the appearance of combat effectiveness, which it was finding more and more difficult.
If we take the technical arsenal of the Armed Forces, then a more or less tolerable situation was observed here thanks to the huge reserves of weapons and military equipment accumulated over decades. The powerful defense potential was still afloat, despite the sharp reduction in military orders from the state and the idleness of huge production capacities for this reason. Weapons design bureaus tried to bring new types of weapons and equipment to the required standards, sometimes based only on sheer enthusiasm. What was the Soviet military machine like in the late 80s? In December 1988, at the UN General Assembly in New York, it was announced that the Soviet armed forces would be reduced by 500 thousand people, as well as by 10 thousand tanks and 8.5 thousand artillery systems during the period 1989-90. On April 7, 1989 in London, Gorbachev announced that the strength of the Soviet armed forces as of January 7, 1989 was 4258 thousand people, including 1596 thousand in the ground forces, 437.5 thousand in the Navy, the rest in the Strategic Missile Forces, Air defense troops, air force, operational and material support forces. These figures did not include the border troops of the KGB and the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which, according to American data, amount to approximately 430 thousand people. It soon became known that the USSR was spending 74.3 billion rubles on military expenditures, of which more than 32 billion were on the purchase of weapons and military equipment (previously the USSR recognized defense expenditures of approximately 17 billion rubles). However, Gorbachev’s figures do not fully reflect the true level of military expenditures, the vast majority of which were spent on completely different items (this publication does not pursue the study of methods for determining the true defense expenditures of the USSR. - L.N.).
The most powerful component of the country's defense was the still powerful strategic triad - the strategic missile forces, the strategic missile submarines of the Navy and the long-range strategic aviation of the Air Force. The country maintained a powerful complex for the development and production of nuclear weapons. Quantitatively, the triad in 1989 consisted of 1,390 ICBM launchers, of which 812 were equipped with MIRVs (the total number of warheads was more than 6,000 units), 926 SLBMs on 61 RPK SN (about 3,000 warheads, of which 2,500 were equipped with MIRVs) and 162 heavy strategic bomber, of which 72 are carriers of the X-55 long-range missile launcher (approximately 1000 nuclear weapons). Thus, the total strategic potential consisted of approximately 10 thousand nuclear warheads, which ensured approximately equality with the United States in the field of strategic offensive weapons.
The 80s, thanks to the huge backlog of work in the previous decade, became the time for a huge qualitative leap in the technical equipment of strategic forces. Back in 1981, the ICBM fleet reached its highest ceiling of 1,398 missiles with 6,420 nuclear warheads, of which 308 were the world’s most powerful RS-20 ICBMs (SS-18 Satan), each equipped with 10 individually targeted warheads with a capacity of 500 kt. The next stage in the development of the Strategic Missile Forces was the development and adoption of mobile strategic missile systems - RS-22 railway (combat railway combat complexes, or abbreviated BZHRK, 1987) and RS-12M "Topol" (RT-2PM) ground-based on powerful seven-axle transport and launchers on the MAZ-547V chassis (1985). At the end of the 80s, there were already more than 50 launchers of RS-22 missiles, with combat characteristics similar to the American MX, and more than 250 launchers of RS-12M missiles. RS-22s in several missile bases had the usual stationary deployment on highly protected silo launchers; Topols at that time were placed only on mobile launchers. The fleet of mobile ICBMs is the most modern component of the Strategic Missile Forces and to date has no analogues in the world.
In the 1980s, the naval component of the strategic forces developed intensively. Since 1980, giant nuclear submarines (heavy RPK SN) of Project 941 “Akula”, known in the West as “Typhoons,” have come into operation. The boat, 170 m long and 25 m wide, has an underwater displacement of 44,500 tons, which is a record figure in the world (the largest American SSBNs have an underwater displacement of 18,700 tons). Since 1996, the last representatives of the Project 667 SSBN series - 667BDRM "Dolphin" (NATO code - Delta-4) have been introduced into the fleet. In 1989, the Navy had six Sharks and four Dolphins, which were a worthy response to the eight American Ohio.
The strategic air force also underwent a qualitative update, although not on such a scale. The main combat aircraft of long-range aviation continued to be the heavy turboprop bomber Tu-95, the fleet of which began to be replenished in 1984 with a new modification of the Tu-95MS, equipped, depending on the type of configuration, with 6 or 12 long-range missiles X-55 - analogues of the American AGM-86B "Tomahawk". But, undoubtedly, in the 80s, the biggest event for the long-range air force was the adoption of the latest heavy strategic missile carriers such as the Tu-160 with variable wing geometry, which became the largest combat aircraft in the entire history of world aviation. Its maximum take-off weight of 275 tons significantly exceeds the weight of its American counterpart B-1B - 180 tons, the combat load weight is 45 and 22 tons, respectively. New aircraft began to arrive in the Air Force in 1987 and were used to re-equip the heavy bomber air regiment based in Pryluky (Ukraine). The initial plan for the purchase of 100 Tu-160s in connection with the “perestroika” that swept into the country already in the mid-80s began to seem unrealistic. At the end of the 80s, the number of aircraft of this type, both experimental and combat, hardly exceeded 10-15 units, but the creation of the Tu-160 itself indicated that the Soviet Union had reached a new qualitative level in the development of its military aircraft industry.
The American triad also underwent significant qualitative changes. In 1982, the ground component was armed with 1053 ICBM launchers, of which 450 Minuteman-2 (nine squadrons), 550 Minuteman-3 (11) and 53 Titan-2 (six). The combat use of strategic offensive forces is carried out by decision of the US President, which is communicated to the Chiefs of Staff Committee (CHS), the highest governing body of the country's armed forces. The latter from its main command center (OKTs KNSh is located in the underground part of the Pentagon) or from a reserve one (ZKTs is located in the foothills of the Blue Mountains, 90-95 km from Washington) or from an air command post based on the decision of the president and the general operational plan for use armed forces gives command to the US Air Force SAC on the combat use of ICBMs and strategic aircraft. The SAC command post is located in the underground part of the SAC headquarters building at Offutt Air Force Base (Nebraska). It has an autonomous life support system and operates around the clock. The SAC air command post is deployed on special EC-135 aircraft, which are based at Offutt Air Force Base and alternately (one at a time) maintain round-the-clock duty in the air, having an operational group on board. In peacetime it is headed by the general on duty.
When creating and developing the US Air Force SAC control system, the main principles were considered: high efficiency, stability, reliability, flexibility and control secrecy. In the 80s, the ICBM fleet was replenished with new MX (Peasekeeper) missiles, the development of which in the 70s caused great concern in the USSR, especially the project of their placement on mobile launchers running in underground railway tunnels. This type of basing was excluded by the US Congress as extremely expensive and technically complex, and also as not meeting the cost/effectiveness criterion. As a result, the new missiles were placed in highly protected silo launchers, which previously housed the Minuteman-3 ICBMs. After modification, these silos could withstand the explosion of a nuclear warhead in the immediate vicinity of the launcher.
The Navy has been replenished with 8 Ohio-class SSBNs. In total, the American fleet had 40 nuclear submarines with 672 SLBM launchers, 640 of them were equipped with MIRVs. The number of warheads in the naval component of the triad reached 5,780, or 55% of the entire nuclear arsenal of the American strategic forces. The Air Force received all 100 of the newest B-1B bombers (deliveries were carried out in 1984-88). The strategic aviation fleet totaled 588 aircraft, of which 161 carried AGM-86B long-range cruise missiles. The main SAC aircraft remained the B-52 (there were about 260 B-52s in combat units, the rest were mothballed, but in accordance with the calculation methods of the SALT-1 and SALT-2 Treaties, they were recognized as combat-ready - it is not clear why the Amenikans agreed to be considered combat-ready aircraft from which equipment and assemblies were removed for spare parts).
As we see, the status quo was maintained in the relations between the strategic forces of the USSR and the USA due to the regulation of their quantitative and qualitative parameters by ceilings mutually agreed upon in the arms limitation negotiations. The preservation of the combat capabilities of the strategic systems of the USSR and the USA was ensured by the powerful nuclear complexes of both countries, which include design bureaus and laboratories for the development of nuclear weapons, factories for the production of weapons-grade plutonium and nuclear charges, mines and open-pit mines for the extraction of uranium ore (mining production plants), and naturally, nuclear test sites. Let us briefly consider the structure of the domestic nuclear complex of this period.
The development of nuclear weapons, as has been repeatedly noted, was carried out by the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Technical Physics (formerly LIPAN, better known as the I. Kurchatov Institute of Nuclear Energy), located in Chelyabinsk-70, and the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics (former OKB-11 of Yu.B. Khariton ), now transformed into a federal nuclear center in Arzamas-16. Uranium enrichment enterprises were located in Angarsk, Krasnoyarsk and Sverdlovsk (Verkh-Neyvinsk). The production of weapons-grade plutonium was carried out by the Mayak chemical plant in Chelyabinsk-40 and Chelyabinsk-65 (it included five industrial reactors), the Siberian Chemical Plant near Tomsk (two reactors) and the Krasnoyarsk Mining and Chemical Plant, also known as Atomgrad (three reactors). The extraction of uranium raw materials was entrusted to the Caspian Mining and Metallurgical Plant on the Mangyshlak Peninsula in Western Kazakhstan, and the Trans-Baikal Mining and Chemical Plant in Zheltye Vody near Krivoy Rog in Ukraine. The nuclear test sites in Semipalatinsk (Kazakhstan) and on Novaya Zemlya (White Sea) were living out their last days, having come under merciless fire from protests by pacifists and environmentalists around the world.
Referred to in military parlance as general purpose forces, other components of the armed forces (ground forces, air force and air defense, navy and others) also underwent significant technical modernization with new weapon systems and military equipment, the development of which began in the 70s or even earlier (as As a rule, these are weapons and equipment of the third or fourth generation, depending on the type of weapon). A huge backlog of promising developments and a powerful defense industry, despite the very sensitive blows of Gorbachev’s policies and his various peace initiatives in general, perhaps due to inertia, continued to meet the needs of the army and navy in weapons, spare parts and other material resources, but their volumes, of course , could not compare with the surge that the defense industry provided in more prosperous times. As you know, “perestroika” most significantly affected the moral climate in the army and its social position in society, which are well known.
The ground forces are the most numerous type of armed forces of any state that has an army (the exception is the United States, where since the beginning of the 90s the navy has become the most numerous type of armed forces, ahead of the ground forces). The Soviet ground forces consisted of several branches, the main ones being motorized rifle, tank and airborne divisions, army aviation units and military air defense. It has already been emphasized that the 80s coincided with the adoption of a new generation of highly effective military equipment and weapons. In particular, these are main battle tanks of the T-80B, T-64B and T-72B types, infantry fighting vehicles BMP-2 and BMP-3, airborne combat vehicles BMD-2 and BMD-3, new self-propelled artillery systems 2S5, 2S7, 2S9, 2S19, Smerch multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS), BTR-80 armored personnel carriers and others.
The combat capabilities of military air defense have increased sharply thanks to the arrival of such systems as the Buk air defense system, S-300V in anti-aircraft and anti-missile versions, portable Igla air defense systems, 2K22 Tunguska anti-aircraft missile and gun systems, modern means of detecting air targets and targeting them means of destruction.
The country's air force and air defense forces also switched to new generation equipment and weapons. In 1989, they included more than 500 MiG-29 fighters, about 200 Su-27s, more than 200 MiG-31s, about 250 Su-25 attack aircraft, and more than 800 Su-24 front-line bombers. Since 1984, air defense aviation has been receiving new A-50 long-range radar detection and control aircraft, developed on the basis of the Il-76 transport aircraft. The ground-based air defense component has been strengthened due to the massive arrival of new S-300P and PM air defense systems, capable of shooting down low-flying cruise missiles and high-altitude high-speed targets. According to American data, in 1989, about 1,500 S-300 launchers were already on combat duty.
The general purpose forces of the Navy were replenished with such powerful warships as heavy nuclear cruisers Project 1141 Kirov (three units), missile cruisers Project 1164 Slava (three), a new generation BOD of the Udaloy type and destroyers of the Sovremenny type. The submarine fleet continued to gain power - nuclear submarines of such types as Antey, Granit, Bars, Shchuka-B, which had very high tactical and technical characteristics, were put into operation. But the main event of the late 80s for the Soviet fleet was the sea trials of the first aircraft carrier in the history of the Russian fleet - the heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser (TAVKR) Project 1143.5 "Tbilisi" (now "Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Nikolai Kuznetsov"). In 1989, the first takeoffs and landings in the history of the Soviet Navy of shipborne versions of the MiG-29 (MiG-29K) and Su-27 (Su-33) fighters, and the Su-25 attack aircraft (Su-25UTG) took place on the deck of this aircraft carrier. The successful mastery of the TAVKR deck by naval pilots opened a new page in the history of the Russian fleet.
The defense industry of the late 80s was the most powerful sector of Soviet mechanical engineering (it accounted for 60% of physical production volume). More than 35 million people worked at the military-industrial complex. This giant “iceberg” (“Military-Industrial Complex Archipelago”) was hidden from the people by various kinds of “mailboxes” (closed cities). The arms industry structurally consisted of such powerful industries as general (space) and medium engineering (nuclear), aviation, shipbuilding, instrument making, armored vehicles, artillery and small arms, ammunition and others. The “whales” of the space industry were such giants as the Yuzhny Machine-Building Plant No. 586 (its other names are Yuzhmash, or NPO Yuzhnoye) in Dnepropetrovsk (Ukraine), which, in addition to spacecraft launch vehicles, also produced ICBMs, the plant named after. Khrunichev and Tushino Machine Plant in Moscow and a number of others, equipped with first-class technological equipment and highly qualified personnel. A powerful blow to space engineering was the curtailment of the Energia-Buran program, the implementation of which almost the entire space complex was initially aimed at (discussed below).
In the late 80s, the aviation industry reached a leading position in the world in terms of its technological level. The production of the world's best MiG-29 fighters was carried out by the Moscow Aviation Production Association (MAPO) named after. Dementyev (production of single-seat combat aircraft MiG-29A and C) and the Gorky Aviation Plant (production of two-seat combat training aircraft MiG-29UB). The latter also produced MiG-31 interceptors. Serial production of the Su-27 was established at Komsomolsk-on-Amur APO named after. Gagarin (single-seat for the Air Force and Navy), and Irkutsk APO (double combat training Su-27UB). Su-25 attack aircraft were assembled at the Tbilisi aircraft plant, Su-24 front-line bombers were assembled at the Novosibirsk APO named after. Chkalova. Tashkent APO produced heavy Il-76 transport aircraft in dozens a year. The Rostov and Arsenyevsky helicopter plants were preparing to produce new generation combat helicopters Mi-28 and Ka-50, respectively.
Shipbuilding in the USSR has traditionally been concentrated in cities such as Severodvinsk, Komsomolsk-on-Amur and Gorky (production of nuclear and diesel boats), Nikolaev - aircraft-carrying and missile cruisers, Leningrad - nuclear cruisers, BOD, destroyers, nuclear boats of some types, Vladivostok, Khabarovsk and others. The largest of them were the Northern Machine-Building Enterprise (PO "Sevmash"), the Black Sea Fiber Plant and the plant named after. 61 communards in Nikolaev, the Amur Shipyard in Komsomolsk-on-Amur and the shipyard named after. Zhdanov (“Northern Shipyard”) in Leningrad. In the 80s, the shipbuilding industry reached the peak of its development and could annually support the construction of one TAVKR of the "Tbilisi" type, 4-5 nuclear submarines, 4-5 destroyers and BOD, and annually deliver up to 30 combat ships of various classes to the fleet. Wide cooperation and integration of industry factories and related enterprises was achieved. For example, almost 2,000 enterprises and organizations from 20 industries were involved in the construction of the TAVKR Tbilisi.
The development of modern weapons has reached the highest level. For the first time, the USSR created systems that, in their combat capabilities and level of technological sophistication, not only corresponded to the latest achievements of science and technology in the world, but also began to surpass the level of weapons development in the West. The design bureaus had the best scientific and engineering personnel in the country, which ensured such a high level of domestic military technology. The creation of strategic missiles in the 80s was carried out by the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering (MIT), which created such types of weapons as the RS-12M Topol ICBM, RS-22, and RSM-52 SLBMs for heavy RPKs of the Akula type. Design Bureau of the Southern Machine Plant named after. Yangel developed modifications of the world's most powerful ICBMs, the RS-20. KB named after Makeeva was developing liquid-fueled SLBMs.
The development of operational-tactical and tactical missiles of a new generation for the ground forces was carried out by the Kolomenskoye Design Bureau of Mechanical Engineering (the Oka and Tochka complexes), air-to-air guided missiles were the field of application of the forces of the Vympel Design Bureau, the Novator Design Bureau developed mobile Air defense systems for ground forces, MKB "Fakel" specialized in creating air defense systems for the country's air defense forces, and a number of others. The development of aircraft in the 80s was carried out by such world-famous organizations as the Design Bureau named after. A. Tupolev (now ASTC named after A. Tupolev), who created such aircraft as the Tu-160 and Tu-22M3, named after. Mikoyan (OKB "MiG" named after A. Mikoyan) - MiG-29 and MiG-31 fighters, named after. Sukhoi (Akhmedov "Sukhoi") - Su-27 and Su-25, named after. Yakovlev - Yak-141, Antonov - An-72, An-74, An-124 "Ruslan", An-225 "Mriya" and a number of others. The highest level of Soviet combat aircraft was convincingly demonstrated at the aviation exhibitions in Farnborough (1988) and Le Bourget (1989).
Soviet tank building continued to remain at the forefront. The design bureaus for the development of modern tanks were located in Leningrad (design bureau of the Kirov plant - T-80), Nizhny Tagil (T-72), Kharkov (T-64). The development and production of infantry fighting vehicles was carried out by the Kurgan Machine-Building Plant, which in the 80s was awarded the Order of the Red Star for great production success (it produced up to 2000 infantry fighting vehicles per year). The creation of other types of land weapons also met the highest world standards. The design of surface ships was mainly entrusted to the Severnoe and Nevsky design bureaus (Leningrad), and nuclear submarines to such organizations as TsKB-18 "Rubin", SKB-143 "Malachite", TsKB-112 "Lazurit". In general, the level of Soviet naval weapons was also raised to a very high level. “Perestroika” did not have time to cripple the rise of domestic military technologies that had begun.
Despite lagging behind the West in such areas as the development of modern electronic equipment, especially digital, communication and control systems, the Soviet military-industrial complex successfully compensated for the weaknesses of its developments with better productivity of technical solutions and a higher degree of consideration than in the West of real combat conditions in which these systems had to be applied. And the lag in detection, communication and control systems was not as great as they tried to imagine in the West.
In order not to be considered unfounded, it is enough to cite the following facts. The USSR was not at all behind in the guidance accuracy of its strategic missiles (the technological level of domestic MIRVs was at the level of American ones). The MiG-31 became the world's first combat aircraft equipped with a phased array radar with electronic beam control, which is currently equipped only with the newest American B-2B Spirit bomber (production aircraft shown). In air defense systems, the Soviet S-300P, S-300V, “Tor” and “Buk” air defense systems were almost head and shoulders superior to their Western opponents or had no analogues in the world at all. For the first time, Soviet diesel and nuclear submarines of the latest projects were not inferior to American submarines in terms of such a factor as noise level.
An experienced reader probably remembers the scandal surrounding the Japanese company Toshiba, which sold the USSR high-precision grinding machines for precise processing of large workpieces, which, as the United States claimed, were used specifically for processing propellers of new types of Soviet submarines, including seven-bladed ones, which sharply reduced their noise level. “Perestroika,” fortunately, was not able to completely destroy the domestic military-industrial complex - it was so well created over the past decades. But it hit the latest developments in the military-industrial complex of the second half of the 80s, as a result of which the scientific and technical level of our weapons is currently essentially kept at the level of the 70s. But military technology, like any other branch of technology, is constantly being improved. What is now quite modern and meets the latest requirements due to continuous modernization, tomorrow will exhaust its constructive resource and become obsolete. Entire military programs that were of a strategic nature to ensure the defense capability of the state were ruined. A striking example of this is the failure of the development of the fifth generation fighter, but more on that later.
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