The Peresvet laser complex has been on alert since December 2019, Chief of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov told the foreign military attaché not long ago. The general of the army was stingy with details. He only noted that the "Peresvet" service will be held in one of the "positional areas of mobile ground missile systems", and its task will include "covering their maneuvering actions."
However, this is enough for specialists. After all, it turns out that, firstly, the product is not a propaganda fake (as many foreign media wrote) and, secondly, it is the world's first combat laser system put into service.
Not a cartoon
The existence of "Peresvet" was revealed by Vladimir Putin in his annual address to the Federal Assembly in 2018. Already this year in Sochi, he noted that laser systems will determine the potential of the army and navy for the entire 21st century. They are developed using domestic optics and highly sensitive optoelectronics, the head of state emphasized.
There is no need to doubt these words. Of several demonstration videos with the latest Russian developments (the hypersonic maneuvering Avangard, the deadly Dagger and Zircon, the atomic self-propelled vehicles Petrel and Poseidon), only in the plot with Peresvet was a real one, not a cartoon Technics. Although Avangard has already been shown to the Americans, and the photographs of the Dagger have gone around the media, it means that it is not a cartoon either.
Nevertheless, there is plenty of excitement around Peresvet even without documentary footage. An American under the nickname rambo54, who dug up maps with satellite images of objects very similar to those shown to the Russian Defense Ministry, also added fuel to the fire. One of them is the position of the missile base in the village of Teykovo, Ivanovo region, the second is the Strategic Missile Forces division in Novosibirsk.
According to the site "Strategic Nuclear Weapons of Russia", as of the beginning of 2017, mobile, or, as they are also called, mobile, ground-based strategic missile systems Topol-M and Yars were deployed in the first and second. There are 354 of them in the Strategic Missile Forces in total. Actually, it was Valery Gerasimov who spoke about the "cover" or "protection" of these complexes from space and air attacks, speaking about the tasks that Peresvet should solve.
Promotional video:
Out of sight
Under the START-2 treaty, the Russian Federation and the United States exchanged the coordinates of all our missile silos and the bases of mobile launchers. You don't have to be an expert to realize that they are being targeted by strategic missiles from NATO allies that support the American Prompt Global Strike strategy. It is assumed that as part of this plan, the US military will be able to deliver pinpoint strikes on any region of the world within 60 minutes. They want to do this with the help of ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missiles. For this, several thousand machines can be used at once.
Mobile complexes "Topol-M" and "Yars" are one of the ways to counter these plans. The point is that, unlike "silo" missiles, they do not carry out combat service in any one specific place. The areas of their patrolling are the "environs" of the deployment base, and during the special period - entire Russian regions. And they will go in them not on public roads, but on the very forests and swamps.
As a result, it will be possible to detect them, which means that it will be possible to direct the missiles of the first "disarming" strike only with the help of satellites. To somehow counteract the enemy satellites in such a situation is a possible vocation of the Russian military laser.
No longer exotic
“This is not exotic, not experimental or experimental products - we have already adopted certain samples of laser weapons,” said the now former Deputy Minister of Defense in charge of the Defense Industrial Complex, Yuri Borisov at a solemn meeting dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Russian Federal Nuclear center in Sarov, in August 2016.
The media reported that work was in full swing in the country on the long-forgotten 1A2 aviation laser complex, created on the basis of the Il-76 military transport aircraft. It was also reported that the research and production association "Astrophysics" (part of the "Shvabe" holding of the state corporation "Rostec") brought back to life the forgotten project 1K17 "Compression" - a laser complex built on the basis of a tank and designed to counteract optical-electronic devices, missile homing heads and enemy precision ammunition. If in Soviet times it was located on the base of a tank, now it fits in the "body" of the "Tiger" armored car.
It is pertinent to mention that the specialists of the Krylov Research Center FSUE, an institute without whose decision no ship project will be implemented in metal, say that the country has created new nuclear reactors for promising ships and vessels RITM 200, producing 175 megawatts of power. Their appearance made it possible to lay down a series of the largest and strongest new generation icebreakers of Project 22220 "Arktika", and in the future they should be equipped with the new generation destroyers of Project 23560 "Leader". In the case of the latter, the Krylovites openly say that laser and electromagnetic cannons can be deployed on them.
Spear of light
Laser weapons are not something extraordinary for our scientists and industry. Its development began back in the 1960s and by the 1990s had come out on specific samples. For example, in 1995, after the division of the Black Sea Fleet, Ukraine sold the auxiliary fleet tanker Dixon to the United States. The unremarkable ship went to the buyer at the price of scrap metal. When viewed in the holds, there were 35-megawatt power generators, special rotary mechanisms, high-power refrigeration units and much other equipment, which clearly indicated that the ship was carrying a laser cannon on board.
The developers of the first combat hyperboloid recalled that it required at least 50 megawatts of electricity to operate. Therefore, three jet engines from the Tu-154 passenger aircraft were additionally "attached" to the marine diesels. The product several times participated in practical tests, burned coastal objects and even cruise missiles.
Just a few seconds of impact on a flying object - and a small burnt hole led to the complete destruction of the missile or warhead. The success was so inspiring that the leadership of the Navy, prior to obtaining any concrete practical results, provided for the placement of laser cannons on a series of aircraft carrying cruisers of the Kiev type under construction. This is 20 years before the advent of weapons.
However, the euphoria quickly gave way to disappointment. During the tests, the laser cannon, although it demonstrated its effectiveness, turned out to be so gluttonous that only a couple of volleys completely de-energized the ship, depriving it of its progress. The most "energy efficient" was the laser in the Kazakh Sary-Shagan. Complex "Terra-3" confidently shot down attacking warheads. With one caveat - its work was provided by a nuclear power plant.
Actually, the problem with compact and efficient power sources put an end to the development of Soviet and American lasers. The appearance of Peresvet, the Burevestnik nuclear missile of unlimited flight time, or the Poseidon underwater drone suggests that Russian scientists have made a fundamental breakthrough in the creation of small-sized autonomous - atomic - energy sources.
In secret to the whole world
And yet what tasks does Peresvet solve? Does it burn attack warheads and cruise missiles, or does it only blind the optical devices of satellites, making them unable to see targets? The answer to this question is still a "military secret", but certain assumptions can be made. At least by the example of the military-technical forum "Army" in Kubinka near Moscow.
This annual event of the Ministry of Defense is interesting not only for its demonstration program at the test site, the abundance of scientific and practical conferences, the opportunity to approach the developer of the tank and find out all the "secrets" without "approval" with the press service of the enterprise. But also the fact that among the equipment displayed on a static site can modestly, without additional advertising, stand promising weapons that determine the development of a kind or type of armed forces.
This year, the Strategic Rocket Forces put up two KamAZ trucks, under the tents of the bodies of which the Veresk optical-electronic stations were hiding. Outwardly, they are one to one similar to the “white” block leaving the “green” container of the “Peresvet” complex.
The information leaflet said that the installations are intended "for high-precision measurements of the parameters of the trajectories of moving air objects with their preliminary radar detection at a great distance and automatic tracking." Airplanes, helicopters, missiles, shells, and even satellites can fall under this definition.
Assuming that "Veresk" is working in tandem with "Peresvet", one can come to the conclusion that the task of the latter may be to disable missiles, warheads, as well as reconnaissance satellites and early warning systems for a missile attack. In any case, "Peresvet" was repeatedly mentioned in the context of the 15th Army of the Aerospace Forces (special purpose), which is responsible for warning about a missile attack, reconnaissance of the space situation and control of orbital groupings.
However, this is an assumption. All the same remains important - energy sources have been created in Russia, allowing the development of weapons on new physical principles: laser, electromagnetic and kinetic. And it burns, destroys or only blinds electronics - the second thing.
Author: Dmitry LITOVKIN
