The Americans were the first to land on the moon (or maybe not), but the Soviet Union was the first to send a man into space. The technology of the two greatest powers of the twentieth century has developed at such a pace that a military clash in orbit of the planet seemed only a matter of time. None of the opponents could know what kind of weapons the other was already in possession of: they had to act ahead of the most incredible and frightening assumptions. Within this framework, one of the most secret space projects of the Soviet Union was created - a weapon capable of hitting targets right in space.
Project "War in Space"
The Cold War period was a tense confrontation between countries not only on Earth, but also in space. Representatives of the Soviet Union seriously feared for the safety of their secret satellites: the United States undoubtedly had all the means to destroy them. Around the beginning of 1960, the engineers of Alexander Nudelman's bureau were ordered to develop the latest weapons capable of working in outer space.
Station "Almaz"
Despite the abundance of satellites that the USSR launched into orbit at that time, the government did not have any real candidates for becoming a Death Star. In the shortest possible time, the Almaz manned special purpose station was developed and launched into orbit. This device had the most modern spy equipment and was supposed to become a trump card in the party's sleeve: it was assumed that the enemy would not have time to develop a similar project. It was at this station that the designers decided to install a new space gun.
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Development of
Nudelman's design bureau was chosen for a variety of reasons. The head of the bureau himself already had experience in the development of aircraft weapons: the powerful, rapid-firing NS-37 cannon, which was put into service back in 1942, allowed Soviet aircraft to gain final air supremacy. Oddly enough, the designers abandoned the idea of using their own design as a prototype for a new space weapon. Alexander Nudelman preferred to modernize the R-23 special aviation gun, which was manufactured by OKB-16 engineers under the leadership of A. A. Richter.
Air cannon R-23
In the late 1950s, the Soviet Union needed a new type of weaponry that could be installed on the Tu-22 long-range supersonic bomber. The designers were faced with a difficult task: the gun had to be light, maneuverable and very fast-firing - and be able to work during a long supersonic flight. The result of the work of engineer Richter was the R-23 air cannon, the rate of fire of which reached 2500 rounds per minute. The implemented technologies, at that time, were not used anywhere else in the world. Unfortunately, the weapon is not very reliable and terribly inaccurate: try to hit the target at a speed exceeding the speed of sound. The R-23 never entered service. But, it was on the basis of this product that Soviet engineers developed the first weapon on the planet,designed for work in open space.
R-23M "Kartech"
Nudelman's product met all the tasks set by the party. The automatic gun, indexed R-23M "Kartech", easily hit targets at a distance of four kilometers. The rate of fire of the gun reached 4500 thousand rounds per minute. The shells weighing 200 grams flew at a speed of 690 m / s. Impressive protection against any aggressor.
Real tests
Of course, the new weapon had to be “tested” in real conditions. The Almaz station was equipped with a Kartechu and sent into space - everything was done in the strictest secrecy. The results of the tests turned out to be ambiguous: the operator of the gun easily hit targets at a distance of one and a half to two kilometers, but the maneuverability of the Kartecha was clearly lacking. The fact is that for an accurate sight, the cosmonauts had to deploy the entire station, which weighed more than twenty tons, that is, when several opponents attacked, the "Kartech" became practically useless.
End of the project
The existence of the projects "Kartech" and "Almaz" became known after the collapse of the Soviet Union. According to official sources, the space gun was installed at another station, Salyut-3. The last tests of "Kartechi" took place on January 24, 1974, and soon "Salyut-3" went out of orbit. Judging by the published information, the engineers did not manage to solve one of the main problems of waging war in space: the recoil of the gun was so high that the astronauts had to turn on all engines to compensate for it.