Soybean Strategic Defense Initiative Program. American SDI program or Star Wars: the main bluff of the Cold War

Year long-term program of research and development work. The main goal of SDI was to create a scientific and technical basis for the development of a large-scale missile defense (BMD) system with space-based elements, excluding or limiting the possible destruction of ground and sea targets from space. The program looked so incredible in its goals and methods of achieving them that the media (at the instigation of Senator Edward Moore Kennedy) dubbed it the “Star Wars” program, after the name of the famous science-fiction film project “Star Wars” directed by George Lucas.

Its ultimate goals are to gain dominance in space, to create a US anti-missile “shield” to reliably cover the entire territory of North America through the deployment of several echelons of strike space weapons capable of intercepting and destroying ballistic missiles and their warheads in all areas of flight.

According to some military experts, a name that more accurately conveys the essence of the program would be “strategic initiative defense,” that is, defense that involves performing independent active actions, up to and including an attack.

Description

The main elements of such a system were to be based in space. To hit a large number of targets (several thousand) within a few minutes, the missile defense system under the SDI program provided for the use of active weapons based on new physical principles, including beam, electromagnetic, kinetic, microwave, as well as a new generation of traditional missile weapons"earth-to-space", "air-to-space".

The problems of launching missile defense elements into reference orbits, recognizing targets in conditions of interference, convergence of beam energy over long distances, targeting high-speed maneuvering targets, and many others are very complex. Global macrosystems such as missile defense, which have a complex autonomous architecture and a variety of functional connections, are characterized by instability and the ability to self-excite from internal faults and external disturbing factors. Possible in this case unauthorized activation of individual elements of the space echelon of the missile defense system (for example, bringing it to increased combat readiness) can be regarded by the other side as preparation for a strike and can provoke it into preemptive actions.

Work under the SDI program is fundamentally different from the outstanding developments of the past - such as, for example, the creation of the atomic bomb (the Manhattan Project) or landing a man on the moon (the Apollo project). When solving them, the authors of the projects overcame fairly predictable problems caused only by the laws of nature. When solving problems with a promising missile defense system, the authors will also be forced to fight an intelligent adversary capable of developing unpredictable and effective countermeasures.

An analysis of the capabilities of SDI shows that such a missile defense system does not fully solve the problem of protecting US territory from ballistic missiles and is strategically inappropriate and economically wasteful. In addition, the very deployment of missile defense under the SDI program is undoubtedly capable of initiating a strategic offensive arms race by Russia/USSR and other nuclear states. In particular, the SDI project caused serious concern among the leadership of the USSR in 1983-86.

The creation of a missile defense system with space-based elements, in addition to solving a number of complex and extremely expensive scientific and technical problems, is associated with overcoming a new socio-psychological factor - the presence of powerful, all-seeing weapons in space. It was the combination of these reasons (mainly the practical impossibility of creating SDI) that led to the refusal to continue work on creating SDI in accordance with its original plan. At the same time, with the Republican administration of George W. Bush coming to power in the United States, this work was resumed as part of the creation of a missile defense system - see US Missile Defense.

Literature

Tarasov E. V. et al., “US Strategic Defense Initiative. Concepts and problems" M.: VINITI, 1986. - 109 p.
Zegveld V. Strategic Defense Initiative: Technological Breakthrough or Economic Adventure? : Per. from English. / W. Zegveld, K. Enzing; General ed. and after. I. I. Isachenko. - M.: Progress, 1989. - 302, p. ISBN 5-01-001820-9
Kireev A.P. Who will pay for Star Wars? : Econ. aspects of the imperialist. plans for the militarization of space / A. P. Kireev. - M.: International. relations, 1989. - 261, p. ISBN 5-7133-0014-5
Kokoshin A. A. SOI. 5 years are behind us. What's next? : [Translation] / Andrey Kokoshin, Alexey Arbatov, Alexey Vasiliev. - M.: Publishing house of the Novosti Press Agency, 1988. - 78, p.
Kotlyarov I. I.“Star World” versus “Star Wars”: (Political and legal problems) / I. I. Kotlyarov. - M.: International. relations, 1988. - 221, p. ISBN 5-7133-0031-5

Links

Shmygin A. I. SOI through the eyes of a Russian colonel (also review by RAS Academician V.S. Burtsev)

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See what the “Strategic Defense Initiative” is in other dictionaries:

- (SOI) a long-term program to create a missile defense system (BMD) with space-based elements, which also makes it possible to hit ground targets from space. Proclaimed by US President R. Reagan in March 1983. See Treaty on ... ... Big encyclopedic Dictionary

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- (SOI), a long-term program to create a missile defense system (BMD) with space-based elements, which also makes it possible to hit ground targets from space. Proclaimed by US President R. Reagan in March 1983. See Treaty on ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

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SKB- (Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)) 1983 AҚШ president Reagan bastagan, zhogary damygan ballisticalyk missile қorganysyn zhasauga bagyttalgan bagdarlama… Kazakh explanatory terminological dictionary on military affairs

The successful launch of the first Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile, the R-7, in August 1957, initiated a number of military programs in both powers. The United States, immediately after receiving intelligence information about the new Russian missile, began creating an aerospace defense system for the North American continent and developing the first Nike-Zeus anti-missile system, equipped with anti-missiles with nuclear warheads (I already wrote about it in Chapter 13).

The use of an anti-missile with a thermonuclear charge significantly reduced the requirement for guidance accuracy.

It was assumed that the damaging factors of a nuclear explosion of an anti-missile would make it possible to neutralize combat unit a ballistic missile, even if it is two or three kilometers away from the epicenter. In 1962, in order to determine the influence of damaging factors, the Americans conducted a series of test nuclear explosions at high altitudes, but soon work on the Nike-Zeus system was stopped.

However, in 1963, development of the next generation missile defense system, Nike-X, began. It was necessary to create an anti-missile system that would be capable of providing protection against Soviet missiles for an entire area, and not for a single object. To destroy enemy warheads at distant approaches, the Spartan missile was developed with a flight range of 650 kilometers, equipped with a nuclear warhead with a capacity of 1 megaton. A charge of such enormous power was supposed to create in space a zone of guaranteed destruction of several warheads and possible decoys.

Testing of this anti-missile began in 1968 and lasted three years. In case some of the warheads of enemy missiles penetrate the space protected by Spartan missiles, the missile defense system included complexes with shorter-range Sprint interceptor missiles. The Sprint anti-missile missile was supposed to be used as the main means of protecting a limited number of objects. It was supposed to hit targets at altitudes of up to 50 kilometers.

The authors of American missile defense projects of the 60s considered only powerful nuclear charges to be a real means of destroying enemy warheads. But the abundance of anti-missiles equipped with them did not guarantee the protection of all protected areas, and if they were used, they threatened to cause radioactive contamination of the entire US territory.

In 1967, development of the zonal limited missile defense system “Sentinel” began. Its kit included the same “Spartan”, “Sprint” and two RAS: “PAR” and “MSR”. By this time, the concept of missile defense not of cities and industrial zones, but of areas where strategic nuclear forces and the National Control Center are based, began to gain momentum in the United States. The Sentinel system was urgently renamed “Safeguard” and modified in accordance with the specifics of solving new problems.

The first complex of the new missile defense system (of the planned twelve) was deployed at the Grand Forks missile base.

However, some time later, by decision of the American Congress, this work was stopped as insufficiently effective, and the built missile defense system was mothballed.

The USSR and the USA sat down at the negotiating table on limiting missile defense systems, which led to the conclusion of the ABM Treaty in 1972 and the signing of its protocol in 1974.

It would seem that the problem is settled. But it was not there…

Star Wars: Birth of a Myth

On March 23, 1983, US President Ronald Reagan, addressing his compatriots, said:

“I know you all want peace. I want it too.[...] I appeal to the scientific community of our country, to those who gave us nuclear weapons, with an appeal to use their great talents for the benefit of humanity and world peace and to put at our disposal the means that would make nuclear weapons useless and outdated. Today, consistent with our obligations under the ABM Treaty and recognizing the need for closer consultation with our allies, I am taking an important first step.

I am directing a comprehensive and vigorous effort to define a long-term research and development program that will begin to achieve our ultimate goal of eliminating the threat from nuclear-capable strategic missiles.

This could pave the way for arms control measures that would lead to the complete destruction of the weapons themselves. We seek neither military superiority nor political advantage. Our only goal - and it is shared by the entire nation - is to find ways to reduce the danger of nuclear war."

Not everyone understood then that the president was upending the ideas that had been established for almost two decades about ways to prevent nuclear war and ensure a stable world, the symbol and basis of which was the ABM Treaty.

What happened? What changed Washington's attitude toward missile defense so dramatically?

Let's go back to the 60s. This is how the famous columnist for the American Time magazine S. Talbot described the way of thinking that the American military-political leadership adhered to in those years regarding the ABM Treaty: “At that time, to some observers, the agreement reached seemed somewhat strange. Indeed, the two superpowers were making a solemn commitment not to defend themselves. In reality, however, they reduced the possibility of attacking each other. The ABM Treaty was an important achievement. […] If one of the parties is able to protect itself from the threat of a nuclear strike, it receives an incentive to spread its geopolitical weight to other areas, and the other side is forced to create new, better models of offensive weapons and at the same time improve its defense. Therefore, the proliferation of defensive weapons is as much anathema to arms control as the proliferation of offensive weapons. […] Missile defense is “destabilizing” for a number of reasons: it stimulates competition in the field of defensive weapons, with each side seeking to equal, and perhaps even surpass, the other side in the field of missile defense; it stimulates competition in the field of offensive weapons, with each side seeking to be able to “overcome” the other side’s missile defense system; Missile defense may finally lead to illusory or even real overall strategic superiority.”

Talbot was not a military specialist, otherwise he would not have missed another consideration that guided the parties when deciding to limit missile defense systems.

No matter how strong a missile defense system is, it cannot become completely impenetrable. In reality, missile defense is designed for a certain number of warheads and decoys launched by the other side. Therefore, missile defense is more effective against a retaliatory strike by the other side, when a significant, and perhaps the overwhelming majority of the enemy’s strategic nuclear forces have already been destroyed as a result of the first disarming strike. Thus, if there is large systems If the confrontation escalates, each of the opposing sides has an additional incentive to launch a nuclear attack first.

Finally, a new round of the arms race means new burdensome expenditures on resources, of which humanity is becoming increasingly scarce.

It is unlikely that those who prepared Ronald Reagan's speech on March 23, 1983, did not analyze everything Negative consequences declared program. What prompted them to such an unwise decision? They say that the initiator of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) program is the main creator of the American thermonuclear bomb, Teller, who has known Reagan since the mid-60s and has always been an opponent of the ABM Treaty and any agreements limiting the ability of the United States to build up and improve its military-strategic potential.

At the meeting with Reagan, Teller spoke not only on his own behalf. He relied on the powerful support of the US military-industrial complex. Concerns that the SDI program might initiate a similar Soviet program were dismissed: the USSR would find it difficult to accept a new American challenge, especially in the face of already emerging economic difficulties. If the Soviet Union did decide to do this, then, as Teller reasoned, it would most likely be limited, and the United States would be able to acquire the much-desired military superiority. Of course, SDI is unlikely to ensure complete impunity for the United States in the event of a Soviet retaliatory nuclear strike, but it will give Washington additional confidence when carrying out military-political actions abroad. Politicians also saw another aspect in this - the creation of new colossal loads for the USSR economy, which would further complicate the ever-increasing social problems and will reduce the attractiveness of the ideas of socialism for developing countries. The game seemed tempting.

The president's speech was timed to coincide with debates in Congress on the military budget for the next fiscal year. As Speaker of the House of Representatives O'Neill noted, it was not about national security, and the military budget. Senator Kennedy called the speech "reckless Star Wars plans." (It seems that the senator hit the nail on the head: since then, in the United States, no one has called Reagan’s speech anything other than “the Star Wars plan.” They tell of a curious incident that occurred at one of the press conferences at the Foreign Press Center at the National Press Club in Washington : The presenter, introducing Lieutenant General Abrahamson (director of the SDI Implementation Organization) to reporters, joked: “Whoever, when asking a question to the general, avoids using the words “star wars” will win a prize.”

There were no contenders for the prize - everyone preferred to say “Star Wars Program” instead of “SDI.”) Nevertheless, in early June 1983, Reagan established three expert commissions that were supposed to assess the technical feasibility of the idea he expressed. Of the materials prepared, the most famous is the report of the Fletcher Commission. She concluded that, despite major unresolved technical problems, the technological advances of the last twenty years in relation to the problem of creating missile defense look promising. The commission proposed a scheme for a layered defense system based on the latest military technologies. Each echelon of this system is designed to intercept missile warheads at various stages of their flight. The commission recommended starting a research and development program with the goal of culminating in the early 1990s with the demonstration of basic missile defense technologies.

Then, based on the results obtained, decide whether to continue or close work on creating a large-scale ballistic missile defense system.

The next step towards the implementation of SDI was Presidential Directive No. 119, which appeared at the end of 1983. It marked the beginning scientific research and developments that would answer the question of whether it is possible to create new space-based weapons systems or any other defensive means capable of repelling a nuclear attack on the United States.

SOI program

As it quickly became clear, the allocations for SDI provided for in the budget could not ensure a successful solution to the ambitious tasks assigned to the program. It is no coincidence that many experts estimated the real costs of the program over the entire period of its implementation at hundreds of billions of dollars. According to Senator Presler, SDI is a program that requires expenditures ranging from 500 billion to 1 trillion dollars (!) to complete. The American economist Perlo named an even more significant amount - 3 trillion dollars (!!!).

However, already in April 1984, the Organization for the Implementation of the Strategic Defense Initiative (OSIOI) began its activities. It represented the central apparatus of a large research project, in which, in addition to the organization of the Ministry of Defense, organizations of civilian ministries and departments, as well as educational institutions. The central office of the OOSOI employed about 100 people. As a program management body, the OOSOI was responsible for developing the goals of research programs and projects, controlled the preparation and execution of the budget, selected performers of specific work, and maintained day-to-day contacts with the US Presidential Administration, Congress, and other executive and legislative bodies.

At the first stage of work on the program, the main efforts of the OOSOI were focused on coordinating the activities of numerous participants research projects on issues divided into the following five most important groups: the creation of means of observation, acquisition and tracking of targets; creation of technical means that use the effect of directed energy for their subsequent inclusion in interception systems; creation of technical means that use the effect of kinetic energy for their further inclusion in interception systems; analysis of theoretical concepts on the basis of which specific weapon systems and means of controlling them will be created; ensuring the operation of the system and increasing its efficiency (increasing lethality, security of system components, energy supply and logistics of the entire system).

What did the SDI program look like as a first approximation?

The performance criteria after two to three years of work under the SOI program were officially formulated as follows.

First, the defense against ballistic missiles must be capable of destroying a sufficient portion of the aggressor's offensive forces to deprive him of confidence in achieving his goals.

Secondly, defensive systems must sufficiently fulfill their task even in the face of a number of serious attacks, that is, they must have sufficient survivability.

Thirdly, defensive systems should undermine the potential enemy’s confidence in the possibility of overcoming them by building up additional offensive weapons.

The strategy of the SDI program was to invest in a technological base that could support the decision to enter the full-scale development phase of the first phase of the SDI and prepare the basis for entering the conceptual development phase of the subsequent phase of the system. This staging, formulated only a few years after the promulgation of the program, was intended to create a basis for building up primary defensive capabilities with the introduction of promising technologies in the future, such as directed energy weapons, although the authors of the project initially considered it possible to implement the most exotic projects from the very beginning.

Nevertheless, in the second half of the 1980s, such elements as the space system for detecting and tracking ballistic missiles in the active part of their flight trajectory were considered as elements of the first stage system; space system for detecting and tracking warheads, warheads and decoys; ground system detection and tracking; space-based interceptors that ensure the destruction of missiles, warheads and their warheads; extra-atmospheric interception missiles (ERIS); combat control and communications system.

The following were considered as the main elements of the system at subsequent stages: space-based beam weapons based on the use of neutral particles; Upper Atmospheric Interdiction (HEDI) missiles; onboard optical system, providing detection and tracking of targets in the middle and final sections of their flight trajectories; ground-based RAS ("GBR"), considered as an additional means for detecting and tracking targets in the final section of their flight trajectory; a space-based laser installation designed to disable ballistic missiles and anti-satellite systems; ground-based cannon with projectile acceleration to hypersonic speeds ("HVG"); ground-based laser system for destroying ballistic missiles.

Those who planned the SDI structure envisioned the system as multi-tiered, capable of intercepting missiles during three stages of ballistic missile flight: during the acceleration stage (the active part of the flight path), the middle part of the flight path, which mainly accounts for the flight in space after how the warheads and decoys were separated from the missiles, and on final stage, when warheads rush towards their targets on the downward trajectory. The most important of these stages was considered the acceleration stage, during which the warheads of multi-shot ICBMs had not yet separated from the missile, and they could be disabled with a single shot. The head of the SDI Directorate, General Abrahamson, said that this is the main meaning of “Star Wars.”

Due to the fact that the US Congress, based on real assessments of the state of work, systematically cut down (reductions to 40–50% annually) the administration’s requests for project implementation, the authors of the program transferred its individual elements from the first stage to subsequent ones, work on some elements was reduced , and some disappeared completely.

Among these projects are the ERIS anti-missile for hitting targets in the extra-atmospheric region, the HEDI anti-missile for short-range interception, as well as a ground-based radar, which should provide surveillance and tracking missions on the final part of the trajectory.

The least advanced projects were directed energy weapons, which combine research into four basic concepts considered promising for multi-echelon defense, including ground- and space-based lasers, space-based accelerator (beam) weapons, and directed energy nuclear weapons.

For works located almost at initial stage, projects related to a complex solution to the problem can be included.

For a number of projects, only problems that remain to be solved have been identified. This includes projects to create nuclear power plants based in space and with a capacity of 100 kW with an extension of power up to several megawatts.

The SOI program also required an inexpensive, universally applicable aircraft capable of launching a payload weighing 4,500 kilograms and a crew of two into polar orbit. OOSOI required firms to analyze three concepts: a vehicle with vertical launch and landing, a vehicle with vertical launch and horizontal landing, and a vehicle with horizontal launch and landing.

As it was announced on August 16, 1991, the winner of the competition was the design of the Delta Clipper with vertical launch and landing, proposed by McDonnell-Douglas. The layout resembled a greatly enlarged Mercury capsule.

All this work could continue indefinitely, and the longer the SDI project would be implemented, the more difficult it would be to stop it, not to mention the steadily increasing allocations for these purposes almost exponentially. On May 13, 1993, US Secretary of Defense Espin officially announced the cessation of work on the SDI project. It was one of the most serious decisions made by a Democratic administration since it came to power.

Among the most important arguments in favor of this step, the consequences of which were widely discussed by experts and the public around the world, President Bill Clinton and his entourage unanimously called the collapse Soviet Union and as a consequence, the irretrievable loss of the United States of its only worthy rival in the confrontation between the superpowers.

Apparently, this is what makes some modern authors argue that the SDI program was originally conceived as a bluff aimed at intimidating the enemy leadership. They say that Mikhail Gorbachev and his entourage took the bluff at face value, got scared, and out of fear they lost the Cold War, which led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

It is not true. Not everyone in the Soviet Union, including the country's top leadership, took on faith the information disseminated by Washington regarding SDI. As a result of research conducted by a group of Soviet scientists under the leadership of Vice-President of the USSR Academy of Sciences Velikhov, Academician Sagdeev and Doctor of Historical Sciences Kokoshin, it was concluded that the system advertised by Washington “is clearly not capable, as its supporters claim, of making nuclear weapons.” powerless and outdated,” to provide reliable cover for the territory of the United States, and even more so for its allies in Western Europe or in other areas of the world." Moreover, the Soviet Union had long been developing its own missile defense system, elements of which could be used in the Anti-SOI program.

Soviet missile defense system

In the Soviet Union, attention began to be paid to the problem of missile defense immediately after the end of World War II. In the early 50s, the first studies of the possibility of creating missile defense systems were carried out at NII-4 of the USSR Ministry of Defense and at NII-885, which were involved in the development and use of ballistic missiles. In these works, schemes were proposed for equipping anti-missile missiles with two types of guidance systems. For tele-controlled anti-missiles, a fragmentation warhead with low-speed fragments and a circular destruction field was proposed.

For homing anti-missiles, it was proposed to use a directional warhead, which, together with the missile, was supposed to turn towards the target and explode according to information from the homing head, creating the greatest density of the fragment field in the direction of the target.

One of the first projects for the country's global missile defense was proposed by Vladimir Chelomey.

In 1963, he proposed using the UR-100 intercontinental missiles developed at his OKB-52 to create the Taran missile defense system. The proposal was approved and by a resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR dated May 3, 1963, the development of a project for the Taran missile defense system was set for intercepting ballistic missiles in the transatmospheric section of the trajectory.

The system was supposed to use the UR-100 (8K84) missile in the anti-missile version with a super-powerful thermonuclear warhead with a yield of at least 10 megatons.

Its dimensions: length - 16.8 meters, diameter - 2 meters, launch weight - 42.3 tons, weight of the head part - 800 kilograms.

The anti-missile missile would be able to hit targets at altitudes of about 700 kilometers, the range of hitting the target would be up to 2,000 thousand kilometers. Probably, to guarantee the destruction of all targets, it was necessary to deploy several hundred launchers with anti-missile systems of the Taran system.

A feature of the system was the lack of correction of the UR-100 anti-missile missile during flight, which would be ensured by accurate target designation of the radar.

The new system was to use radar equipment of the Danube-3 system, as well as the TsSO-S multi-channel radar, located 500 kilometers from Moscow towards Leningrad. According to the data of this radar, operating in the wavelength range from 30 to 40 centimeters, it was supposed to detect enemy missiles and prolong the coordinates of interception points and the moment of target arrival at these points. The TsSO-S station was turned on by signals from the missile attack warning system nodes RO-1 (city of Murmansk) and RO-2 (city of Riga).

In 1964, work on the Taran system was stopped - the resignation of Nikita Khrushchev played a significant role in the history of the creation of this system. However, Vladimir Chelomey himself later admitted that he abandoned the Taran system due to the vulnerability of the long-range radar detection system, which was a key link in his system.

In addition, the anti-missile missile required a launch accelerator - a similar ballistic missile is not suitable as an anti-missile missile due to limitations in speed and maneuverability with a strict time limit for intercepting a target.

Others have achieved success. In 1955, Grigory Vasilyevich Kisunko, chief designer of SKB-30 (a structural unit of a large organization for SB-1 missile systems), prepared proposals for the test site experimental missile defense system “A”.

Calculations of the effectiveness of anti-missiles carried out in SB-1 showed that with the existing guidance accuracy, the defeat of one ballistic missile is ensured by the use of 8-10 anti-missiles, which made the system ineffective.

Therefore, Kisunko suggested using new way determining the coordinates of a high-speed ballistic target and an anti-missile missile - triangulation, that is, determining the coordinates of an object by measuring the distance to it from radars spaced at a large distance from each other and located in the corners of an equilateral triangle.

In March 1956, SKB-30 produced a preliminary design of the “A” anti-missile system.

The system included the following elements: Danube-2 radars with a target detection range of 1200 kilometers, three radars for precise guidance of anti-missile missiles at the target, a launch site with launchers of two-stage anti-missile missiles "V-1000", the main command and computing center of the system with a lamp computer "M-40" and radio relay communication lines between all means of the system.

The decision to build the tenth state test site for the needs of the country's air defense was made on April 1, 1956, and in May a State Commission was created under the leadership of Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky to select its location, and already in June, military builders began creating a test site in the Betpak desert. Dala.

The first operation of the “A” system to intercept the R-5 ballistic missile with an anti-missile missile was successful on November 24, 1960, while the anti-missile was not equipped with a warhead. Then followed a whole series of tests, some of which ended unsuccessfully.

The main test took place on March 4, 1961. On that day, an anti-missile with a high-explosive fragmentation warhead successfully intercepted and destroyed at an altitude of 25 kilometers the head of an R-12 ballistic missile launched from the State Central Test Site. The anti-missile warhead consisted of 16 thousand balls with a tungsten carbide core, TNT filling and a steel shell.

Successful test results of the “A” system made it possible by June 1961 to complete the development of the preliminary design of the “A-35” missile defense combat system, designed to protect Moscow from American intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The combat system was supposed to include a command post, eight sectoral RAS "Danube-3" and 32 firing systems. It was planned to complete the deployment of the system by 1967 - the 50th anniversary October revolution.

Subsequently, the project underwent changes, but in 1966 the system was still almost completely ready for combat duty.

In 1973, general designer Grigory Kisunko substantiated the main technical solutions for a modernized system capable of hitting complex ballistic targets. The A-35 system was given a combat mission to intercept a single, but complex multi-element target, containing, along with warheads, light (inflatable) and heavy decoys, which required significant modifications to the system’s computer center.

This was the last refinement and modernization of the A-35 system, which ended in 1977 with the presentation to the State Commission of the new A-35M missile defense system.

The A-35M system was withdrawn from service in 1983, although its capabilities allowed it to carry out combat duty until 2004.

Project "Terra-3"

In addition to the creation of traditional missile defense systems, the Soviet Union conducted research on the development of a completely new type of missile defense systems. Many of these developments are still not completed and are already the property of modern Russia.

Among them, the Terra-3 project stands out first, aimed at creating a powerful ground-based laser system capable of destroying enemy objects at orbital and suborbital altitudes. Work on the project was carried out by the Vympel Design Bureau, and from the late 60s a special testing position was built at the Sary-Shagan test site.

The experimental laser installation consisted of the lasers themselves (ruby and gas), a beam guidance and retention system, an information complex designed to ensure the functioning of the guidance system, as well as a high-precision laser locator "LE-1", designed to accurately determine the coordinates of the target. The capabilities of the LE-1 made it possible not only to determine the range to the target, but also to obtain accurate characteristics of its trajectory, object shape and size.

In the mid-1980s, laser weapons were tested at the Terra-3 complex, which also involved shooting at flying targets. Unfortunately, these experiments showed that the laser beam was not powerful enough to destroy ballistic missile warheads.

In 1981, the United States launched the first space shuttle, the Space Shuttle. Naturally, this attracted the attention of the USSR government and the leadership of the Ministry of Defense. In the fall of 1983, Marshal Dmitry Ustinov proposed to the commander of the Missile Defense Forces, Votintsev, to use a laser system to accompany the Shuttle. And on October 10, 1984, during the thirteenth flight of the Challenger shuttle, when its orbits passed in the area of test site “A”, the experiment took place with the laser system operating in detection mode with minimal radiation power. The altitude of the spacecraft's orbit at that time was 365 kilometers. As the Challenger crew later reported, while flying over the Balkhash region, the ship’s communications suddenly went out, malfunctions occurred in the equipment, and the astronauts themselves felt unwell. The Americans began to figure it out. They soon realized that the crew had been subjected to some kind of artificial influence from the USSR, and they filed an official protest.

Currently, the Terra-3 complex is abandoned and rusting - Kazakhstan was unable to raise this object.

Background program

In the early 70s, research and development work was carried out in the USSR under the “Fon” program with the aim of creating a promising missile defense system. The essence of the program was to create a system that would make it possible to keep all American nuclear warheads on target, including even those based on submarines and bombers. The system was supposed to be based in space and hit nuclear missiles Americans before they start.

Work on the technical project was carried out at the direction of Marshal Dmitry Ustinov at NPO Kometa.

At the end of the 70s, the Fon-1 program was launched, providing for the creation various types beam weapons, electromagnetic guns, anti-missiles, including multi-shot ones with submunitions, systems volley fire. However, soon many designers at one of the meetings decided to curtail the work, since, in their opinion, the program had no prospects: at the Kometa Central Research Institute, as a result of work on the Fon program, they came to the conclusion that destroying the entire US nuclear potential at all types of carriers (10 thousand charges) in 20–25 minutes of flight time is impossible.

Since 1983, the implementation of the Fon-2 program was launched. The program provided for in-depth research into the use of alternative means capable of neutralizing American SDI with “non-lethal weapons”: an electromagnetic pulse that instantly disrupts the operation of electronic equipment, the impact of lasers, powerful microwave field changes, and so on. As a result, some quite interesting developments have emerged.

Airborne missile defense system

From 1983 to 1987, as part of the Terra-3 project, tests were carried out of a laser system weighing about 60 tons, installed on the Il-76MD (A-60) USSR-86879 flying laboratory.

To power the laser and related equipment, additional turbogenerators were installed in the fairings on the sides of the fuselage, as on the Il-76PP.

The standard weather radar was replaced with a bulb-shaped fairing on a special adapter, to which a smaller oblong fairing was attached below. Obviously, there was an antenna for the aiming system, which turned in any direction, catching the target. From the extensive glazing of the navigation cabin, only two windows on each side remained.

In order not to spoil the aerodynamics of the aircraft with another fairing, the optical head of the laser was made retractable.

The top of the fuselage between the wing and fin was cut out and replaced with huge doors consisting of several segments.

They were removed inside the fuselage, and then a turret with a cannon climbed up.

Behind the wing there were fairings protruding beyond the contour of the fuselage with a profile similar to that of the wing. The cargo ramp was retained, but the cargo hatch doors were removed and the hatch was sealed with metal.

The modification of the aircraft was carried out by the Taganrog Aviation Scientific and Technical Complex named after Beriev and the Taganrog Machine-Building Plant named after Georgiy Dimitrov, which produced the A-50 and Tu-142 anti-submarine aircraft. Nothing is known about the progress of tests of the domestic combat laser, since they remain top secret.

After the testing program, the A-60 laboratory was located at the Chkalovsky airfield, where it burned down in the early 1990s. Nevertheless, this project can be revived if the need suddenly arises...

Ground-based laser missile defense

A mobile laser complex for destroying enemy satellites and ballistic missiles was created through the efforts of the design team of the Troitsk Institute of Innovation and Thermonuclear Research (Moscow region).

The basis of the complex is a carbon laser with a power of 1 MW. The complex is based on two platform modules created from serial trailers from the Chelyabinsk plant. The first platform houses a laser radiation generator, which includes an optical resonator unit and a gas-discharge chamber. The beam formation and guidance system is also installed here. Nearby there is a control cabin, from where software or manual guidance and focusing is carried out. On the second platform there are elements of the gas-dynamic path: the R29-300 aviation turbojet engine, which has exhausted its flight life, but is still capable of serving as an energy source; ejectors, exhaust and noise suppression devices, a container for liquefied carbon dioxide, a fuel tank with aviation kerosene.

Each platform is equipped with its own KrAZ tractor and is transported to almost any place where it can go.

When it became clear that this complex would not be used as a weapon, a team of specialists from the Trinity Institute, together with colleagues from NPO Almaz, the Efremov Scientific Research Institute of Electrophysical Equipment and the State Implementation Small Enterprise Conversion, developed on its basis the laser technological complex MLTK-50 " This complex showed excellent results when extinguishing a fire at a gas well in Karachaevsk, breaking up a rock mass, decontaminating the surface of concrete at a nuclear power plant using the peeling method, burning off an oil film on the surface of a water area, and even destroying hordes of locusts.

Plasma missile defense system

Another interesting development is related to the creation of plasma missile defense capable of hitting targets at altitudes of up to 50 kilometers.

The operation of this system is based on a long-known effect.

It turns out that plasma can be accelerated along two, usually quite long, busbars - current conductors, which are parallel wires or plates.

The plasma clot closes the electrical circuit between the conductors, and an external magnetic field acts perpendicular to the bus plane. The plasma accelerates and flows from the ends of the tires in the same way as a metal conductor sliding along the tires would accelerate. Depending on the conditions, the outflow can occur in different ways: in the form of a strongly expanding torch, jets, or in the form of successive plasma toroid rings - the so-called plasmoids.

The accelerator is called in this case a plasmoid gun; Plasma is typically formed from consumable electrode material. Plasmoids resemble smoke rings released by skilled smokers, but they fly in the air not flat, but sideways, at speeds of tens and hundreds of kilometers per second. Each plasmoid is a ring of plasma contracted by a magnetic field with a current flowing in it and is formed as a result of the expansion of a current loop under the influence of its own magnetic field, sometimes amplified by jumpers - metal plates in an electrical circuit.

The first plasma gun in our country was built by the Leningrad professor Babat back in 1941. Currently, research in this area is being conducted at the Research Institute of Radio Instrumentation under the leadership of Academician Rimilius Avramenko. Plasma weapons have practically been created there, capable of hitting any targets at altitudes up to 50 kilometers.

According to the academician, plasma missile defense weapons will not only cost several orders of magnitude cheaper than the American missile defense system, but will also be much easier to create and operate.

A plasmoid, directed by ground-based missile defense systems, creates an ionized area in front of the flying warhead and completely disrupts the aerodynamics of the object’s flight, after which the target leaves the trajectory and is destroyed by monstrous overloads. In this case, the damaging factor is delivered to the target at the speed of light.

In 1995, specialists from the Research Institute of Radio Instrumentation developed the concept of the international experiment “Trust” for testing plasma weapons jointly with the United States at the American Kwajelein anti-missile test site.

Project "Trust" consisted of conducting an experiment with a plasma weapon that could hit any object moving in the Earth's atmosphere. This is done on the basis of an already existing technological base, without launching any components into space. The cost of the experiment is estimated at $300 million.

US National Missile Defense System (NMD)

The ABM Treaty no longer exists. On December 13, 2001, US President George W. Bush notified the President Russian Federation Vladimir Putin on unilateral withdrawal from the 1972 ABM Treaty. The decision was related to the Pentagon's plans to conduct new tests of the National Missile Defense (NMD) system no later than six months later in order to protect against attacks from the so-called “rogue countries.” Before that, the Pentagon had already conducted five successful tests of a new anti-missile missile capable of hitting Minuteman-2 class intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The days of SDI are back. America is once again sacrificing its reputation on the world stage and spending colossal amounts of money in pursuit of the illusory hope of obtaining a missile defense “umbrella” that will protect it from threats from the sky. The pointlessness of this idea is obvious. After all, the same claims can be made against NMD systems as against SDI systems. They do not provide a 100% guarantee of security, but they can create the illusion of it.

And there is nothing more dangerous to health and life itself than the illusion of safety...

The US NMD system, according to the plans of its creators, will include several elements: ground-based missile interceptors (“Ground leased Interceptor”), a combat management system (“Battle Management/Command, Control, Communication”), high-frequency missile defense radars (“Ground Based”) Radiolocator"), missile attack warning system radar (MAWS), high-frequency missile defense radars ("Brilliant Eyes") and a constellation of SBIRS satellites.

Ground-based missile interceptors or anti-missile defenses are the main missile defense weapons. They destroy ballistic missile warheads outside earth's atmosphere.

The combat control system is a kind of brain of the missile defense system. In the event of missiles being launched across the United States, it will be the one that will control the interception.

Ground-based high-frequency missile defense radars track the flight path of the missile and warhead. They send the received information to the combat control system. The latter, in turn, gives commands to the interceptors.

The SBIRS satellite constellation is a two-echelon satellite system that will play a key role in the control system of the NMD complex. The upper echelon - space - in the project includes 4-6 satellites for the missile attack warning system. The low-altitude echelon consists of 24 satellites located at a distance of 800-1200 kilometers.

These satellites are equipped with optical range sensors that detect and determine the movement parameters of targets.

According to the Pentagon, the initial stage in the creation of a national missile defense system should be the construction of a radar station on Shemiya Island (Aleutian Islands). The location for the start of the deployment of the NMD system was not chosen by chance.

It is through Alaska, according to experts, that most of the flight trajectories of missiles that can reach US territory pass through. Therefore, it is planned to deploy about 100 interceptor missiles there. By the way, this radar, which is still in the project, completes the creation of a tracking ring around the United States, which includes the radar in Thule (Greenland), the Flaindales radar in the UK and three radars in the United States - Cape Cod, Claire and "Bill". All of them have been operating for about 30 years and will be modernized during the creation of the NMD system.

In addition, similar tasks (monitoring missile launches and warning of missile attacks) will be performed by the radar in Varde (Norway), located just 40 kilometers from the Russian border.

The first test of the anti-missile missile took place on July 15, 2001. It cost the American taxpayer $100 million, but Pentagon specialists successfully destroyed an intercontinental ballistic missile 144 miles above the Earth's surface.

The one-and-a-half-meter-long destructive element of an interceptor missile launched from Kwajelein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, approaching the Minuteman ICBM launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, hit it with a direct hit, resulting in a blindingly bright flash in the sky that caused the jubilation of the American military and technical specialists shaking their fists in admiration.

“According to initial assessments, everything worked as it should,” said Lieutenant General Ronald Kadish, head of the US Department of Defense’s Missile Defense Agency. “We hit it very accurately... We will insist on conducting the next test as soon as possible.”

Since money for NMD is being allocated without delay, American military experts have launched a flurry of activity. Development is carried out in a number of directions at once, and the creation of anti-missile missiles is not yet the most complex element in a programme.

A space-based laser has already been tested. This happened on December 8, 2000. Comprehensive testing of the Alpha HEL hydrogen fluoride laser, manufactured by TRW, and the optical beam control system, created by Lockheed Martin, were carried out as part of the SBL-IFX program ( "Space Based Laser Integrated Flight Experiment" - Demonstrator for integrated flight testing of a space-based laser) at the Capistrano test site (San Clemente, California).

The beam guidance system included an optical unit (telescope) with a system of “LAMP” mirrors using adaptive optics technology (“soft mirrors”).

The primary mirror has a diameter of 4 meters. In addition, the beam control system included the detection, tracking and targeting system "ATP" ("ATR"). Both the laser and the beam control system were placed in a vacuum chamber during testing.

The purpose of the tests was to determine the ability of the telescope's metrology systems to maintain the required direction to the target and provide control of the primary and secondary optics during high-energy laser radiation. The tests were a complete success: the ATP system worked with even greater accuracy than required.

According to official information, the launch of the SBL-IFX demonstrator into orbit is scheduled for 2012, and its tests on launching intercontinental missiles - for 2013. And by 2020, an operational group of spacecraft with high-energy lasers on board may be deployed.

Then, as experts estimate, instead of 250 interceptor missiles in Alaska and North Dakota, it is enough to deploy a group of 12–20 spacecraft based on SBL technologies in orbits with an inclination of 40°. It will take only 1 to 10 seconds to destroy one missile, depending on the target’s flight altitude. Reconfiguring to a new target will take only half a second. The system, consisting of 20 satellites, should provide almost complete prevention of the missile threat.

The NMD program also plans to use an airborne laser system developed under the ABL project (short for Airborne Laser).

Back in September 1992, Boeing and Lockheed received contracts to determine the most suitable existing aircraft for the ABL project. Both teams came to the same conclusion and recommended that the US Air Force use the Boeing 747 as its platform.

In November 1996, the US Air Force entered into a $1.1 billion contract with Boeing, Lockheed and TRV for the development and flight testing of a weapon system under the ABL program. On August 10, 1999, assembly of the first 747–400 Freighter aircraft for ABL began. On January 6, 2001, the YAL-1A aircraft made its first flight from the Everett airfield. A combat test of the weapon system is scheduled for 2003, during which an operational-tactical missile should be shot down. It is planned to destroy missiles during the active stage of their flight.

The basis of the weapon system is the iodine-oxygen chemical laser developed by TRV. The High Energy Laser (“HEL”) is modular in design and makes extensive use of advanced plastics, composites and titanium alloys to reduce weight. The laser, which has record chemical efficiency, uses a closed circuit with recirculation of reagents.

The laser is installed in section 46 on the main deck of the aircraft. To provide strength, thermal and chemical resistance, two titanium skin panels on the lower fuselage are installed under the laser. The beam is transmitted to the nose turret through a special pipe running along the top of the fuselage through all bulkheads. Firing is carried out from a bow turret weighing about 6.3 tons. It can rotate 150° around a horizontal axis to track a target. The beam is focused on the target by a 1.5-meter mirror with an azimuth viewing sector of 120°.

If the tests are successful, it is planned to produce three such aircraft by 2005, and by 2008 the air defense system should be fully ready. A fleet of seven aircraft will be able to localize a threat anywhere within 24 hours the globe.

And that's not all. Information is constantly leaking into the press about testing high-power ground-based lasers, about the revival of air-launched kinetic systems such as "ASAT", about new projects to create hypersonic bombers, about the upcoming update of the satellite early warning system. Who is this all against? Is it really against Iraq? North Korea who still cannot build a functional intercontinental missile?..

Frankly, such provocative activity of American military specialists in the field of creating NMD is frightening.

I’m afraid we are entering a phase of human development after which flights to the Moon, Mars and the creation of orbital cities will simply become impossible...

On March 23, 1983, President R. Reagan made a televised address to the country from his office in the White House, in which he outlined a breathtakingly fantastic plan for space defense of the US territory from nuclear attacks from the enemy - at that time the Soviet Union. The next day, the New York Post reported what Reagan had said in an article headlined: “ star Wars will destroy the red missiles,” and since then the announced program of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) has become known in the world also as "Star Wars"- after the name of the popular film, the third film of which was released in May 1983.

The essence of Reagan’s speech was that it was necessary to abandon mutually assured destruction and move to a new format for ensuring national and world security - placing defense systems in space.

Reagan's speech was a surprise to everyone– for the Americans, for the American allies, for Moscow, and in general for the whole world. Moreover, it came as a surprise even to Reagan's own cabinet, including Secretary of State Shultz and the leadership of the Department of Defense. This entire topic of space defense was not previously considered by the American government and its departments. It was not the military and diplomats who imposed this topic on Reagan, but on the contrary, he imposed it on them.

According to his closest collaborators, Reagan for many years, even before becoming president, saw a threat to US national security in the very presence of nuclear weapons and looked for options to reduce dependence on them and even eliminate them completely. In particular, he was greatly impressed by his visit to the Joint Aerospace Defense Command Center in 1979 as part of the election campaign. North America NORAD in Colorado Springs. During the orientation tour, Reagan asked what would happen to Cheyenne Mountain, where the Center was located, if it was hit by a heavy Soviet missile, to which the general accompanying him replied: “It will blow it to hell.” Reagan was then struck by the discrepancy between the scale and level of sophistication of military technology and the level of protection of the country from nuclear destruction - it was not protected, everything rested on the supposed agreement of both parties - the USA and the USSR - that they would both refrain from a nuclear strike, fearing retaliatory destruction. But it was just a concept, nothing more - not formally approved by anyone and never discussed at any negotiations.

Having already become president, Reagan since January 1982 began with his questions and his interest to stimulate discussion of previously disparate military-technical ideas and options. He began discussing with military and scientific and technical specialists the idea of destroying ballistic missiles after they were launched from launch positions on almost any part of their flight path. Reagan asked the question: if it is possible to detect the launch of a rocket from a satellite, is it really impossible to destroy it within a short time of the launch field? The answer was to place anti-missile systems in space and supplement them with ground and air systems. Many of these systems were based on the use of fundamentally new technical solutions, such as electromagnetic and laser guns. It was also planned to place many new satellites, optical reflectors, and interceptors in space.

Autumn 1982 the leaders of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (analogous to the Soviet General Staff) presented the president with a review report on space defense, which brought together previously expressed ideas and proposals. But the Committee could not have imagined that the President would soon publicly announce space defense military-political priority of his administration.

The emergence of such weapons systems broke the logic of the concept of mutually assured destruction on which the post-war world was based. Reagan himself viewed SDI as a defensive program in nature and, moreover, was ready to later involve the Soviet Union in participation in it, thereby forcing it to eliminate its nuclear potential.

However, theoretically, it was possible to strike at the enemy and then repel his retaliatory strike, which violated the existing security system in the world. By the way, this is precisely why, having begun negotiations on strategic arms limitation (SALT) in 1971, the United States and the USSR simultaneously limited missile defense systems - missile defense - that could repel or mitigate a retaliatory nuclear strike.

To work on the program, the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization was created within the US Department of Defense.

Despite all the authority of Reagan, his the SDI program met with strong resistance from the very beginning in Washington itself, which, in the end, buried this program. Democratic progressives (in particular, Senators T. Kennedy and J. Kerry, who became Secretary of State under Obama) pointed out the danger of undermining the concept of mutual assured destruction, which, according to them, only increased the threat of a nuclear conflict. The US State Department and Department of Defense believed that this program was technically unrealizable, and in addition violated the ABM Treaty with the USSR and the Outer Space Treaty. US allies feared that if implemented, SDI would “disconnect” the joint defense system of the United States and Western Europe.

The Soviet Union immediately accused Washington in attempts to create for themselves unilaterally a strategic advantage and achieve military superiority over the USSR. Initially, Moscow's reaction was mainly of a propaganda nature - everything that came from Washington was condemned. Moscow believed that the SDI program was designed to intimidate the Soviet Union and put pressure on it in disarmament negotiations, which by that time had reached a dead end. It is also important that Reagan made the announcement of the start of the SDI program just 2 weeks after he called the USSR in a conversation with American evangelical preachers "evil empire".

However, after some time, as the Americans began to methodically work on SDI, Soviet assessments of the prospects for this program became increasingly alarmist - the USSR understood that America has the scientific, technical, production and financial potential to implement everything that what was stated. Likewise, the USSR understood that they would not be able to oppose the United States with anything similar, although they themselves carried out certain developments on placing weapons in space. In Moscow, SDI generally began to be presented in an even more fantastic form than its authors themselves - they say, the Americans are planning to deploy battle stations in space similar to those depicted in “Star Wars” for attacks on the USSR.

The total costs of SDI deployment were estimated at approximately $150 billion ($400 billion in 2017 prices).

With Reagan's resignation from the presidency in early 1989, the SDI program gradually faded away., and in May 1993 B. Clinton actually closed it, although some promising scientific and technical work continued. The United States spent about $40 billion on it from 1984 to 1993 ($100 billion in 2017).

It is quite difficult to present the SDI program as whole system in military-technical terms

it's more like a sketch possible solutions. There were various variants of SOI depending on the degree of development of its various component systems.

The influence of this program on Soviet-American relations should neither be underestimated nor, at the same time, overestimated. SDI convinced the Soviet military-political leadership of the futility of the arms race - the USSR (even before Gorbachev) returned to the table of disarmament negotiations interrupted by Andropov, and began to discuss the option of a real reduction, and not limitation, as before, of nuclear weapons. Having come to power in March 1985, Gorbachev made no secret of the fact that he did not believe in the feasibility of SDI, and called on the Soviet military not to frighten themselves with this program. He considered it necessary to normalize Soviet-American relations and reduce armaments even without SDI However, in subsequent negotiations he linked the reductions to the US abandonment of SDI.

The Cold War was not only the largest geopolitical event of the 20th century, but also became the strongest catalyst for scientific breakthroughs in the field of military technology. The rivalry between the two superpowers gave rise to a spiral of arms race, which resulted in a mass of breakthrough technologies and concepts.

A striking military concept was the program put forward by then US President Ronald Reagan, the Strategic Defense Initiative. Also, such a program received a bright name in the press - SDI’s “Star Wars Program”.

Strategic Defense Initiative

The US Strategic Defense Initiative program provided for the active use of weapons in outer space. The Earth's near-Earth orbit has not been actively used for military purposes (except for the use of spy satellites).

The United States was the first to think about launching a weapons system into orbit.

To practice an attack or defense against an attack from the USSR. In addition, not only the military, but also private companies associated with space had high hopes for the Star Wars program, as it promised multi-billion dollar contracts.

The essence of the program was to destroy enemy nuclear warheads in low-Earth orbit, thereby creating a reliable missile defense system along the perimeter of the entire territory.

The US nuclear doctrine is calculated and involves the first delivery of a nuclear strike of both limited and full power in the event of a threat to national interests even outside its own territory.

Soviet doctrine assumed a massive retaliatory strike.

The desire to completely secure the territory of the entire country also had many political benefits for the presidential administration. First of all, the Star Wars program is related to the fact that the presence of such a defense system would allow the United States to confidently dictate its will not only to the Soviet Union, but to the entire world, which would mean world hegemony.

After detente between the USSR and the USA in the 70s, another round of hostile confrontation and even greater armament of both countries began. The Americans, developing plans to strike the territory of the USSR, were only afraid of retaliatory actions, since a retaliatory strike with nuclear weapons from the USSR would with 100% probability completely destroy the United States as a state. That is why the United States began to take steps to create a guaranteed means of protection.

The project assumed the presence of a number of means of destroying warheads.

The development of the SDI program in the United States began at the end of the 70s, naturally, in strict secrecy. Reagan, announcing in his famous speech about the evil empire and the Star Wars program, was only making a publicity stunt - a concept neither then nor now can be realized at the current level of technology development.

The development also took place in high secrecy throughout the 80s and required funding of several tens of billions of dollars.

The political leadership in the person of Reagan hurried scientists and work on the Star Wars program went in several alternative directions at once. Electromagnetic, laser and weapons based on other physical principles were tested.

All defense enterprises were working on American SDI.

The ultimate goal of the project was to completely cover the territory of North America and minimize damage as much as possible.

It was planned to complete the production and implementation of the complex by the end of the 90s, at which time the missile defense system covers most of the country's territory. However, the developers of the SDI program in 1983 faced a lot of problems that did not allow them to ultimately implement the project.

These problems were both financial in nature and purely applied - the impossibility of implementing certain stages of SDI in the United States at the level of technological development. The result was a complete fiasco of the Star Wars program.

Development of the program ended in the late 80s. According to some reports, about $100 billion was spent on it. However, despite the failure of the implementation of this system, the developments were successfully applied in other defense areas. The current missile defense system located in Europe is only a small part of the Americans' unrealized plans.

SOI Components

Reagan's Star Wars SDI program was a combination of several components, which included:

The ground part constituted the framework of the system.

The automated processes of targeting and destroying warheads are controlled from the ground. These processes are controlled by the systems of the US missile defense system - NORAD. This control center coordinates the actions of space objects, monitors the threat in the form of single or massive launches of enemy missiles and makes the final decision on a retaliatory strike and the use of a missile defense system.

After receiving a signal from space or ground-based radars about the start of a mass launch, the missile defense system activates ground-based launch silos with nuclear warheads using the signal and prepares the missiles for launch.

The threat signal was sent to all authorities and military units.

In addition, the signal was also received by satellites in orbit, which were supposed to relay the signal to the orbital elements of the missile defense system to destroy incoming ballistic missiles. Orbital elements must be carried out in a certain way (electromagnetic, laser, wave, or interceptor missiles located on orbital combat platforms).

The ground-based interception system was supposed to become the second and final echelon of destruction of enemy missiles, after their passage of space missile defense.

The system, under an agreement between the USA and the USSR, covers the operational areas - Washington and the base on Cheyenne Mountain (NORAD). In reality, only the second missile defense system is functioning.

Some of them are launchers with specialized missiles that are capable of intercepting carriers at low altitude. Such ammunition is itself equipped with a nuclear charge (since the interception accuracy at the enormous speed of the warhead is low and area coverage is required for reliable interception).

The main component was to be a grouping of spacecraft of different operating principles.

The devices were supposed to be divided into two main types: satellites that signal the beginning of a nuclear attack and devices that should disable incoming warheads in low-Earth orbit using a certain type of radiation.

The type of destruction of nuclear weapons remained open on the agenda - various experiments were carried out with laser weapons, radiation of electromagnetic waves and others. As a result, none of the types guaranteed 100% destruction of the warhead, which was the main reason for the cancellation of the entire program.

None of the types guaranteed 100% destruction of the warhead.

Satellites must shoot down missiles while still approaching, without causing significant damage to US territory.

SDI is a system for destroying targets by combat spacecraft

After the destruction of the warheads, it was planned to destroy strategic objects on the territory of the USSR with a direct strike, or in the case of striking first and repelling the residual strike of the Soviet army. Also, these devices were supposed to disable the Soviet space orbital group, thereby blinding the enemy.

After Reagan's announcement in 1983 that work on the Star Wars project had begun, the Soviet leadership became greatly concerned about the threat of neutralizing a nuclear retaliatory strike and decided to develop countermeasures. Well-known defense design bureaus of the country participated in the creation of this system.

The changes concerned the development of a new type intercontinental missiles, capable of overcoming most missile defense components. Improvements have also been made to the troop control system in the event of the main control units failing.

this year a new missile under the designation r-36M “Voevoda” was put into service

Such work was crowned with complete success. By 1985, a new missile was put into service under the designation R-36M “Voevoda”, which received the name “Satan” in the West, modernized since its introduction in 1970. Nuclear ammunition is endowed with high speed characteristics.

The missile is based in a silo and during launch has a mortar type of ejection, which allows it to reach a launch speed of 230 km/h (thanks to the design of the engines, the missile launches even in a nuclear cloud).

After acceleration, the rocket enters low-Earth orbit and shoots off heat traps (the Americans were unable to solve the problem of combating false targets). Descending in orbit, the warhead is divided into 10 warheads, each of which carries a charge with a power of 1 megaton (the equivalent of TNT is enough to destroy a city of a million people).

A strategic weapons control system has also been developed, called “Perimeter”, and in the west “Dead Hand”. The principle of its operation was as follows: two missiles with hardware that signal the launch of missiles from enemy territory are patrolling in orbit in a constant monitoring mode.

The missiles are equipped with sensors that constantly monitor the situation for changes atmospheric pressure, weather conditions, changes in the magnetic field and other parameters that indicate the beginning of a massive nuclear attack. The information is transmitted to the control center.

Also, in the absence of a response from the center (if command posts are destroyed by the enemy), the elements of the complex themselves send warhead launch codes to silos, strategic bombers and nuclear submarines, where the launch is carried out either with the help of crews or automatically.

The principle of operation is the inevitability of a retaliatory strike even without human participation, which is why the American side, after the end of the Cold War, insisted on the abolition of the Perimeter complex.

As history shows, the adoption of the SDI program in fact turned out to be an operation to disinform the enemy in order to involve the USSR in the arms race. The Cold War inflicted a crushing defeat on the mighty power, destroying its economy and country.

“A long time ago, in a galaxy very far away...” - this is the title that began the world-famous film by George Lucas “Star Wars”. Over time, this phrase became so commonly used that no one was surprised when it began to refer to very real programs for creating space-based armed forces.

The book you are holding in your hands is dedicated to the history of “Star Wars,” but not the fictional ones raging in a distant galaxy, but the real ones, which began here on Earth, in the quiet of design bureaus and computer centers. You will read about the rocket planes of the Luftwaffe, the Red Army and the US Air Force, about space bombers and orbital interceptors, about the missile defense program and ways to overcome it.

And at present, the history of military astronautics has not yet reached an end. We are experiencing another episode of Star Wars, and it is not yet clear who will emerge victorious from the eternal battle between good and evil.

SOI program

Sections of this page:

SOI program

The successful launch of the first Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile, the R-7, in August 1957, initiated a number of military programs in both powers.

The United States, immediately after receiving intelligence data about the new Russian missile, began creating an aerospace defense system for the North American continent and developing the first Nike-Zeus anti-missile system, equipped with anti-missiles with nuclear warheads.

The use of an anti-missile with a thermonuclear charge significantly reduced the requirement for guidance accuracy. It was assumed that the damaging factors of a nuclear explosion of an anti-missile would make it possible to neutralize the warhead of a ballistic missile, even if it was 2–3 km away from the epicenter.

In 1963, development began on the next generation missile defense system - Nike-X. It was necessary to create an anti-missile system that was capable of providing protection from Soviet missiles to an entire area, and not a single object. To destroy enemy warheads at distant approaches, the Spartan missile was developed with a flight range of 650 km, equipped with a nuclear warhead with a yield of 1 megaton. Its explosion was supposed to create in space a zone of guaranteed destruction of several warheads and possible false targets. Testing of this anti-missile began in 1968 and lasted three years.

In case some of the warheads of enemy missiles penetrate the space protected by Spartan missiles, the missile defense system included complexes with shorter-range Sprint interceptor missiles. The Sprint anti-missile missile was supposed to be used as the main means of protecting a limited number of objects. It was supposed to hit targets at altitudes up to 50 km.

The authors of American missile defense projects in the sixties considered only powerful nuclear charges to be a real means of destroying enemy warheads. But the abundance of anti-missiles equipped with them did not guarantee the protection of all protected areas, and if they were used, they threatened to cause radioactive contamination of the entire US territory.

In 1967, development of the zonal limited missile defense system “Sentinel” began. Its kit included the same “Spartan”, “Sprint” and two radars: “PAR” and “MSR”. By this time, the concept of missile defense not of cities and industrial zones, but of areas where strategic nuclear forces and the National Control Center are based, began to gain momentum in the United States. The Sentinel system was urgently renamed “Safeguard” and modified in accordance with the specifics of solving new problems.

The first complex of the new missile defense system (of the planned twelve) was deployed at the Grand Forks missile base.

However, some time later, by decision of the American Congress, this work was stopped as insufficiently effective, and the built missile defense system was mothballed. and the United States sat down at the negotiating table on limiting missile defense systems, which led to the conclusion of the ABM Treaty in 1972 and the signing of its protocol in 1974.

It would seem that the problem is settled. But it was not there…

* * *

On March 23, 1983, US President Ronald Reagan, addressing his compatriots, said:

“I know that you all want peace, I want it too.<…>I appeal to the scientific community of our country, to those who gave us nuclear weapons, to use their great talents for the benefit of mankind and world peace and to put at our disposal the means that would render nuclear weapons useless and obsolete. Today, consistent with our obligations under the ABM Treaty and recognizing the need for closer consultation with our allies, I am taking an important first step. I am directing a comprehensive and vigorous effort to define a long-term research and development program that will begin to achieve our ultimate goal of eliminating the threat from nuclear-capable strategic missiles. This could pave the way for arms control measures that would lead to the complete destruction of the weapons themselves. We seek neither military superiority nor political advantage. Our only goal - and it is shared by the entire nation - is to find ways to reduce the danger of nuclear war."

What happened? What changed Washington's attitude toward missile defense so dramatically?

Let's go back to the sixties. This is how a well-known columnist for the American Time magazine described the way of thinking that the American military-political leadership adhered to in those years regarding the ABM Treaty:

“At the time, some observers thought the agreement reached was somewhat strange. Indeed, the two superpowers were making a solemn commitment not to defend themselves. In reality, however, they reduced the possibility of attacking each other. The ABM Treaty was an important achievement.<… >If one side is able to protect itself from the threat of a nuclear strike, it receives an incentive to spread its geopolitical weight to other areas, and the other side is forced to create new, better models of offensive weapons and at the same time improve its defense. Therefore, the proliferation of defensive weapons is as much anathema to arms control as the proliferation of offensive weapons.<…>Missile defense is “destabilizing” for a number of reasons: it stimulates competition in the field of defensive weapons, with each side seeking to equal, and perhaps even surpass, the other side in the field of missile defense; it stimulates competition in the field of offensive weapons, with each side seeking to be able to “overcome” the other side’s missile defense system; Missile defense may finally lead to illusory or even real overall strategic superiority.”

This observer was not a military specialist, otherwise he would not have missed another consideration that guided the parties when deciding to limit missile defense systems.

No matter how strong a missile defense system is, it cannot become completely impenetrable. In reality, missile defense is designed for a certain number of warheads and decoys launched by the other side. Therefore, missile defense is more effective against a retaliatory strike by the other side, when a significant, and perhaps the overwhelming majority of the enemy’s strategic nuclear forces have already been destroyed as a result of the first disarming strike. Thus, with the presence of large missile defense systems, each of the opposing sides, in the event of a confrontation that heats up, has an additional incentive to launch a nuclear attack first.

Finally, a new round of the arms race means new burdensome expenditures on resources, of which humanity is becoming increasingly scarce.

It is unlikely that those who prepared Ronald Reagan's speech on March 23, 1983, did not analyze all the negative consequences of the stated program. What prompted them to such an unwise decision?

They say that the initiator of the Strategic Defense Initiative program (SDI, Strategic Defense Initiative) is one of the creators of the American thermonuclear bomb, Edward Teller, who knew Reagan since the mid-1960s and always opposed the ABM Treaty and any agreements limiting the US ability to build up and improve its military-strategic potential.

At the meeting with Reagan, Teller spoke not only on his own behalf. He relied on the powerful support of the US military-industrial complex. Concerns that the SDI program might initiate a similar Soviet program were dismissed: the USSR would find it difficult to accept a new American challenge, especially in the face of already emerging economic difficulties. If the Soviet Union did decide to do this, then, as Teller reasoned, it would most likely be limited, and the United States would be able to acquire the much-desired military superiority. Of course, SDI is unlikely to ensure complete impunity for the United States in the event of a Soviet nuclear retaliatory strike, but it will give Washington additional confidence when carrying out military-political actions abroad.

Politicians also saw another aspect in this - the creation of new colossal loads for the USSR economy, which would further complicate the growing social problems and reduce the attractiveness of the ideas of socialism for developing countries. The game seemed tempting.

The president's speech was timed to coincide with debates in Congress on the military budget for the next fiscal year. As Speaker of the House of Representatives O’Neill noted, it was not about national security at all, but about the military budget. Senator Kennedy called the speech "reckless Star Wars plans."

Since then, no one has called Reagan’s speech anything other than a “Star Wars plan.” They talk about a curious incident that occurred at one of the press conferences at the National Press Club in Washington. The presenter, who introduced Lieutenant General Abrahamson (director of the SDI Implementation Organization) to reporters, joked: “Whoever, when asking the general a question, avoids using the words “star wars” will win a prize.” There were no contenders for the prize - everyone preferred to say “Star Wars Program” instead of “SDI.”

Nevertheless, in early June 1983, Reagan established three expert commissions that were supposed to assess the technical feasibility of his idea. Of the materials prepared, the most famous is the report of the Fletcher Commission. She concluded that, despite major unresolved technical problems, the technological advances of the last twenty years in relation to the problem of creating missile defense look promising. The commission proposed a scheme for a layered defense system based on the latest military technologies. Each echelon of this system is designed to intercept missile warheads at various stages of their flight. The commission recommended starting a research and development program with the goal of culminating in the early 1990s with the demonstration of core missile defense technologies. Then, based on the results obtained, decide whether to continue or close work on creating a large-scale ballistic missile defense system.

The next step towards the implementation of SDI was Presidential Directive No. 119, which appeared at the end of 1983. It marked the beginning of scientific research and development that would answer the question of whether it was possible to create new space-based weapons systems or any other defensive means capable of repelling nuclear attack on the USA.

* * *

It quickly became clear that the allocations for SDI provided for in the budget could not ensure a successful solution to the ambitious tasks assigned to the program. It is no coincidence that many experts estimated the real costs of the program over the entire period of its implementation at hundreds of billions of dollars. According to Senator Presler, SDI is a program that requires expenditures ranging from 500 billion to 1 trillion dollars (!) to complete. The American economist Perlo named an even more significant amount - 3 trillion dollars (!!!).

However, already in April 1984, the Organization for the Implementation of the Strategic Defense Initiative (OSIOI) began its activities. It represented the central apparatus of a large research project, in which, in addition to the organization of the Ministry of Defense, organizations of civilian ministries and departments, as well as educational institutions, participated. The central office of the OOSOI employed about 100 people. As a program management body, the OOSOI was responsible for developing the goals of research programs and projects, controlled the preparation and execution of the budget, selected performers of specific work, and maintained day-to-day contacts with the US Presidential Administration, Congress, and other executive and legislative bodies.

At the first stage of work on the program, the main efforts of the OOSOI were focused on coordinating the activities of numerous participants in research projects on issues divided into the following five most important groups: the creation of means of observation, acquisition and tracking of targets; creation of technical means that use the effect of directed energy for their subsequent inclusion in interception systems; creation of technical means that use the effect of kinetic energy for their further inclusion in interception systems; analysis of theoretical concepts on the basis of which specific weapon systems and means of controlling them will be created; ensuring the operation of the system and increasing its efficiency (increasing the lethality, security of system components, energy supply and logistics of the entire system).

What did the SDI program look like as a first approximation?

The performance criteria after two to three years of work under the SOI program were officially formulated as follows.

First, the defense against ballistic missiles must be capable of destroying a sufficient portion of the aggressor's offensive forces to deprive him of confidence in achieving his goals.

Secondly, defensive systems must sufficiently fulfill their task even in the face of a number of serious attacks, that is, they must have sufficient survivability.

Thirdly, defensive systems should undermine the potential enemy’s confidence in the possibility of overcoming them by building up additional offensive weapons.

The SOI program strategy included investment in a technology base that could support the decision to enter the full-scale development phase of the first phase of SOI and prepare the basis for entering the conceptual development phase of the subsequent phase of the system. This staging, formulated only a few years after the promulgation of the program, was intended to create a basis for building up primary defensive capabilities with the introduction of promising technologies in the future, such as directed energy weapons, although the authors of the project initially considered it possible to implement the most exotic projects from the very beginning.

Nevertheless, in the second half of the 1980s, such elements as the space system for detecting and tracking ballistic missiles in the active part of their flight trajectory were considered as elements of the first stage system; space system for detecting and tracking warheads, warheads and decoys; ground detection and tracking system; space-based interceptors that ensure the destruction of missiles, warheads and their warheads; extra-atmospheric interception missiles (ERIS); combat control and communications system.

The following were considered as the main elements of the system at subsequent stages: space-based beam weapons based on the use of neutral particles; Upper Atmospheric Interdiction (HEDI) missiles; an on-board optical system that provides detection and tracking of targets in the middle and final sections of their flight trajectories; ground-based radar (“GBR”), considered as an additional means for detecting and tracking targets on the final part of their flight path; a space-based laser installation designed to disable ballistic missiles and anti-satellite systems; ground-based cannon with projectile acceleration to hypersonic speeds ("HVG"); ground-based laser system for destroying ballistic missiles.

Those who planned the structure of SDI thought of the system as multi-tiered, capable of intercepting missiles during three stages of ballistic missile flight: during the acceleration stage (the active part of the flight path), the middle part of the flight path, which mainly accounts for flight in space after how the warheads and decoys are separated from the missiles, and in the final stage, when the warheads rush towards their targets on the downward trajectory. The most important of these stages was considered the acceleration stage, during which the warheads had not yet separated from the missile and could be disabled with a single shot. The head of the SDI Directorate, General Abrahamson, said that this is the main meaning of “Star Wars”.

Due to the fact that the US Congress, based on real assessments of the state of work, systematically cut back (reductions up to 40-50% annually) the administration’s requests for projects, the authors of the program transferred some of its elements from the first stage to subsequent ones, work on some elements was reduced, and some disappeared altogether.

Nevertheless, the most developed among other projects of the SDI program were ground-based and space-based non-nuclear missile defenses, which allows us to consider them as candidates for the first stage of the currently created missile defense of the country's territory. Among these projects are the ERIS anti-missile for hitting targets in the extra-atmospheric region, the HEDI anti-missile for short-range interception, as well as a ground-based radar, which should provide surveillance and tracking missions at the final part of the trajectory.

Projects related to a complex solution to a problem can be classified as work that is almost at the initial stage.

The SDI program also needed an inexpensive, versatile aircraft capable of launching a payload of 4,500 kg and a crew of two into polar orbit. OOSOI required firms to analyze three concepts: a vehicle with vertical launch and landing, a vehicle with vertical launch and horizontal landing, and a vehicle with horizontal launch and landing.

As announced on August 16, 1991, the winner of the competition was the project of the device "Delta Clipper" ("Delta Clipper") with a vertical launch and landing, proposed by McDonnell-Douglas.

On May 13, 1993, US Secretary of Defense Espin officially announced the termination of work on the SDI project. It was one of the most serious decisions made by a Democratic administration since it came to power. Among the most important arguments in favor of this step, the consequences of which were widely discussed by experts and the public around the world, President Bill Clinton and his entourage unanimously named the collapse of the Soviet Union and, as a result, the irretrievable loss of the United States of its only worthy rival in the confrontation between the superpowers.

Apparently, this is what makes some modern authors argue that the SDI program was originally conceived as a bluff aimed at intimidating the enemy leadership. They say that Mikhail Gorbachev and his entourage took the bluff at face value, got scared, and lost the cold war because of fear, which led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

It is not true. Not everyone in the Soviet Union, including the country's top leadership, took on faith the information disseminated by Washington regarding SDI. As a result of research conducted by a group of Soviet scientists under the leadership of Vice-President of the USSR Academy of Sciences Velikhov, Academician Sagdeev and Doctor of Historical Sciences Kokoshin, it was concluded that the system advertised by Washington “is clearly not capable, as its supporters claim, of making nuclear weapons.” powerless and outdated,” to provide reliable cover for the territory of the United States, and even more so for its allies in Western Europe or in other areas of the world.” Moreover, the Soviet Union had long been developing its own missile defense system, elements of which could be used in the Anti-SOI program.

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Soybean Strategic Defense Initiative Program. American SDI program or Star Wars: the main bluff of the Cold War

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