In the spring of 1983, US President Ronald Reagan notified the world of plans to place interceptor satellites in low-Earth orbit. They were intended to be destroyed at the initial stage of the flight path of Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles. The program was called the Strategic Defense Initiative, or SDI for short.
The Soviet media began to unanimously stigmatize Washington's militaristic plans, accusing it of escalating the next round of the arms race.
Meanwhile, in the USSR, active work has been carried out for several years to create space weapons, including orbital laser systems.
During the seventies and eighties, several experimental models of space laser guns were built in the Soviet Union. They were developed to destroy American interceptor satellites in Earth's orbit. All existing installations were "tied" to stationary power supply and did not meet the main requirement of military space - full autonomy. Because of this, the designers could not carry out full tests.
To test the autonomy of the cannon, or, as it was written in the documents, "a powerful power plant" (MSU), it was decided to install on a surface ship. The government assigned the task of testing the combat laser to the Navy.
Experienced vessel OS-90.
Foros theme
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In 1976, Sergei Gorshkov, commander-in-chief of the USSR Navy, for the Chernomorets Central Design Bureau approved a special assignment for the re-equipment of the Project 770 SDK-20 landing craft into an experimental vessel, which received the designation Project 10030 Foros. On "Foros" it was planned to test the laser complex "Akvilon", whose tasks included the defeat of optical-electronic means and crews of enemy ships. The conversion process dragged on for eight years, the weight and size of the Aquilon required a significant reinforcement of the ship's hull and an increase in the superstructure. And at the end of September 1984, the ship under the designation OS-90 "Foros" joined the Black Sea Fleet of the USSR.
The ship's hull has undergone really big changes. The ramps were replaced with a stem and bow section. Side boules up to 1.5 meters wide were formed. The ship's superstructure was assembled as a single module with full equipment of posts and premises, a crane with a lifting capacity of one hundred tons was installed. To reduce noise, all living quarters and service areas of the ship were treated with sound-absorbing insulation, for the same purposes, cofferdams appeared on the ship (a narrow horizontal or vertical compartment on the ship to separate adjacent rooms).
All units of the "Aquilon" complex were assembled with particular precision, especially increased requirements were imposed on the design of their supporting surfaces.
It took almost 8 years to create the components of the "powerful power plant" and rebuild the former paratrooper. Finally, in September 1984, the ship entered service with the Black Sea Fleet. And in October of the same year, the first firing of the laser "Aquilon" took place at the Feodosiya sea range. The "North-East Wind" escorted and shot down the target missile with its beam at low altitude. However, preparation for this shot, which took several seconds, required more than a day. Tests have once again confirmed that high atmospheric humidity over the sea significantly reduces the beam efficiency. Scientists had to work hard to reduce the impact of this negative factor.
But at the same time, a number of shortcomings were revealed - the attack lasted only a few seconds, but the preparation for firing took more than a day, the efficiency was very low, only five percent. An undoubted success was that during the tests, scientists managed to gain experience in the combat use of lasers, but the collapse of the USSR and the subsequent economic crisis stopped the experimental work, not allowing them to finish what they had begun.
Theme "Aydar"
Foros was not the only ship of the Soviet Navy on which laser systems were tested.
At the same time, in parallel with the re-equipment of "Foros", in Sevastopol, according to the project of the Nevsky Design Bureau, the modernization of the dry cargo ship of the auxiliary fleet began. The choice of the seamen fell on the dry cargo ship of the auxiliary fleet "Dixon". The vessel had a displacement of 5.5 thousand tons, a length of 150 meters and a speed of 12 knots. These characteristics, as well as the design features of the vessel, were excellent for the installation of new equipment and testing. In addition, the ship retained its former name and the harmless classification of the dry cargo ship. So that the West does not worry.
Work on the modernization of "Dixon" began in 1978. Simultaneously with the start of the re-equipment of the ship, the assembly of the laser installation began at the Kaluga Turbine Plant. All work on the creation of a new laser cannon was classified, it was supposed to become the most powerful Soviet combat laser installation, the project was named "Aydar".
The work on the modernization of the Dixon required a huge amount of resources and money. In addition, in the course of the work, the designers were constantly faced with scientific and technical problems. So, for example, in order to equip the ship with 400 compressed air cylinders, it was necessary to completely remove the metal sheathing from both sides. Then it turned out that the hydrogen accompanying the shooting could accumulate in confined spaces and explode inadvertently, so it was necessary to install enhanced ventilation. Especially for the laser installation, the upper deck of the ship was designed so that it could open into two parts. As a result, the hull, which had lost its strength, had to be strengthened. To strengthen the power plant of the ship, three jet engines from the Tu-154 were installed on it.
At the end of 1979, "Dixon" was transferred to Crimea, Feodosia, on the Black Sea. Here, at the Ordzhonikidze shipyard, the ship was equipped with a laser cannon and control systems. Here the crew settled on the ship.
The choice of the seamen fell on the dry cargo ship of the auxiliary fleet "Dixon". The vessel had a displacement of 5.5 thousand tons, a length of 150 meters and a speed of 12 knots. These characteristics, as well as the design features of the vessel, were excellent for the installation of new equipment and testing. In addition, the ship retained its former name and the harmless classification of the dry cargo ship. So that the West does not worry.
In early 1978, the Dixon arrived at the shipyard in Leningrad. The work on its re-equipment was carried out under the direction of the Nevskoye design bureau. In parallel, the assembly of the laser cannon began at the Kaluga Turbine Plant. It was supposed to become the most powerful combat laser system existing in the USSR. All works were classified and received the title "Theme" Aydar ".
gold fish
The direct participants of this project told the Versiya correspondent about the history of the unique laser ship. The specialists participating in the work on the system have dubbed "Dixon" a "goldfish". The project cost a lot of money - the bill went to hundreds of millions of Soviet rubles.
But the work constantly stumbled over serious technical and scientific problems. For example, to install 400 compressed air cylinders on a ship, shipbuilders had to completely remove the metal sheathing from both sides.
Later it turned out that the hydrogen accompanying the firing could inadvertently explode on the ship. It tends to accumulate in confined spaces, so we decided to mount enhanced ventilation. The upper deck of the ship was designed so that it could open into two parts. As a result, the hull lost its strength and had to be strengthened.
The lasers calculated that the ship's power plant could not give the gun the required energy of 50 megawatts. They proposed to strengthen ship diesel engines with three jet engines from the Tu-154 aircraft. The ship had to make holes again and change the layout of the hold.
No less colossal funds were devoured by the work on the gun itself. For example, the development of an adaptive reflector (such a "copper basin" with a diameter of 30 centimeters, which was supposed to direct a laser beam to a target) cost about 2 million Soviet rubles. A whole production association in the city of Podolsk near Moscow spent six months on its manufacture. The required ideal surface was achieved by special grinding. Day after day the reflector was hand-worked by the workers of the enterprise. Then the reflector was equipped with a computer specially designed for it. The computer monitored the surface of the reflector with micron precision. If the computer detected distortions, it instantly issued a command, and 48 “cams” attached to the bottom of the reflector began to thresh on the “basin” and straighten its surface. Again, to the nearest micron. And to prevent the reflector from overheating after contact with the beam, a special lining was attached to it. It was made from priceless beryllium. In the lining, the thinnest capillaries were drilled through which, to the delight of the sailors, a forty-degree solution of alcohol was pumped. One test shot took 400 liters. However, as the project participants say, after the lecture on the topic "The effect of beryllium on the human body" the amount of alcohol consumed at the "Dixon" has decreased.after the lecture on the topic "The effect of beryllium on the human body" the amount of alcohol consumed at "Dixon" decreased.after the lecture on the topic "The effect of beryllium on the human body" the amount of alcohol consumed at "Dixon" decreased.
At the end of 1979, "Dixon" moved to the Black Sea, in Feodosia. In Crimea, at the Ordzhonikidze shipyard, the final installation of the gun and control systems was carried out. There, a permanent crew - sailors and six KGB officers - settled on the ship.
Of special importance
Contrary to the old maritime tradition, the new base - Sevastopol met "Dixon" without an orchestra and a feast. The dry cargo ship was placed apart from the warships on the 12th berth of the Northern Bay. A few days earlier, the approaches to the pier were surrounded by a concrete fence four meters high. They pulled up the wire. They started up the current. Established the strictest access control.
They took a "nondisclosure" signature from the sailors and civilian specialists. Just in case: if anyone is interested, the subscription expired in 1992.
Voroshilov arrows
Dixon fired its first laser salvo in the summer of 1980. They shot from a distance of 4 kilometers at a special target position located on the shore. The target was struck the first time, however, no one saw the beam as such and the destruction of the target from the shore. The hit along with the temperature jump was recorded by a heat sensor installed on the target. As it turned out, the beam efficiency was only 5 percent. All the energy of the beam was "eaten" by moisture evaporation from the sea surface. Nevertheless, the shooting results were excellent. After all, the system was developed for space, where, as you know, there is a complete vacuum.
But the tests of the laser cannon cooled the ambitions of the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Admiral of the Soviet Union Fleet Gorshkov, who dreamed of installing "hyperboloids" on almost every ship. In addition to low combat characteristics, the system was cumbersome and difficult to operate. It took more than a day to prepare the gun for a shot, the shot itself lasted 0.9 seconds. To combat the atmosphere that absorbs laser radiation, scientists have come up with the idea of sending a combat beam inside the so-called beam of enlightenment. As a result, it was possible to slightly increase the combat power of the laser, which could already burn through the skin of the aircraft, but at a distance of only 400 meters.
Laser tests were completed by 1985.
Double-sided bluff
Despite the fact that the tests were successfully completed, the designers and the military looked at their brainchild with skepticism. Everybody understood perfectly well that it would not be possible to put such a system into orbit in the next 20-30 years. The country's top party leadership was also aware of this. The management was not satisfied with the deadlines and the impending prospect of huge expenses. The designers offered more economical designs. For example, launching into orbit the so-called unmanned satellites - kamikaze. In the event of war, they, according to the plan of scientists, were supposed to approach the American interceptors and explode. The most likely idea was to create special orbital systems that spray coal dust in orbit. Clouds of such dust should have blocked the enemy's combat lasers. But all this, despite the apparent simplicity,again demanded enormous material costs.
Overseas faced the same problems. The outcome of the failed space arms race was the Defense and Space negotiations, which started in March 1985. They served as an impetus for a bilateral curtailment of military space programs.
Test ship Dixon on the Black Sea. In front of the navigating bridge, a large platform is clearly visible on which the MSU laser installation stood.
It is believed that in fact, no one was going to put combat satellites into orbit. While developing space weapons, Moscow and Washington were simply bluffing to undermine each other's economies. For greater credibility, they did not skimp on high costs.
After negotiations, as proof of good intentions, the Soviet Union demonstratively stopped work on several space programs at once. In 1985, the "Aydar" theme was also dropped. The Dixon was forgotten.
The editors have no official data on the further fate of this unique ship. But according to the latest reports, during the division of the Black Sea Fleet, the Dikson laser ship went to Ukraine.
From the editors of the Courage website: according to the Typhoon almanac, the Project 59610 experimental ship Dixon, on which the naval laser weapon was successfully tested, was suspiciously quickly written off by Ukraine. The general confusion of the 1990s, which came with the collapse of the USSR, became the cause of numerous frauds, including at the highest level. When the ship was decommissioned, a "quiet" scandal occurred: the top-secret documentation on the testing disappeared without a trace (!!!), although one can easily guess who got the fruits of many years of work. Moreover, the ship itself was in excellent technical condition, had five serviceable diesel generators, but was sold to a private company in India for the price of scrap metal! Such cases are practically out of the question without a sanction from above, and our country suffered damage, possibly in the billions of dollars.
The ship (MAK-11 pr.12081) was not written off, it was transferred to the MCHPV. Moreover, now he is the only living project 1208 (since 1995 it bears the name Blizzard).
A reduced and simplified version of the "Aquilon" was installed on the small artillery ship MAK-11 "Vyuga" of project 12081. Its laser emitter is designed to disable optoelectronic devices and damage the eyes of the enemy anti-amphibious defense personnel.
The era of perestroika and the collapse of the Soviet Union that followed soon closed the topic of creating laser weapons in our country. In the 90s of the last century, "Dixon" and OS-90, inherited after the division of the Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine, were sent for scrap. According to a number of sources, some of the metal was then bought by the Pentagon. Among other things, the Americans discovered "powerful generators, special rotary mechanisms, high-power refrigeration units and other equipment, which suggested the use of this vessel as part of a laser weapons test program." But perhaps this information is just a myth, albeit with some kind of "ground" under it.
Now, according to media reports, research on laser weapons has resumed in Russia. The Beriev Aircraft Company is modernizing the A-60 flying laboratory on the basis of the Il-76 transport aircraft, which was used before the collapse of the USSR to develop military laser technologies. Obviously, we should return to similar ship systems. Otherwise, we can lag behind, and forever.
American developments in the field of ship lasers
In the near future, the American navy may receive combat lasers. According to a report by the US Congress Research Service, ready-to-use high-energy laser weapons will be ready for operation in the coming years. At the first stage, combat lasers will be able to destroy aircraft, missiles and small ships at a distance of up to 1.5-2 km. Gradually, the radius of their destruction will grow to 15-20 km. In turn, Rear Admiral Matthew Klander, the head of the US Navy's Office of Naval Research, recently clarified that laser weapons will appear on warships in 2 years. Moreover, these will not be experimental models, but prototypes of combat lasers, on the basis of which the production of serial samples will soon begin. According to Matthew Clander,American scientists are ready to create a laser cannon by integrating existing technologies that are sophisticated enough to be used on warships.
LaWS installation at the landfill.
American corporations Northrop Grumman and Raytheon specialize in the creation of solid-state lasers. These companies have achieved significant success. On April 6, 2011, an experienced American ship (former destroyer Paul F. Foster of the Spruance class), equipped with a Northrop Grumman laser cannon, successfully set fire to a small boat during testing, which was located one mile (1853 m) from the ship. In 2012, a beam from another combat laser from the same company successfully hit the head of the BQM-74, an unmanned target that mimicked an anti-ship missile.
In 2012, a prototype combat laser created by Raytheon was also tested, it was mounted on board the latest Dewey missile destroyer (DDG 105), an Arleigh Burke class. A fairly large laser gun LaWS - Laser Weapon System, with a power of 33 kW, together with electric generators in special containers, was installed on the destroyer's helipad. Thus, the destroyer Dewey became the first warship from the US Navy, which was equipped with laser weapons, albeit experimental, while the ship lost the ability to receive helicopters on board. Previously, the LaWS installation was tested on the island of St. Nicholas and at the White Sands test site, where it successfully hit the target unmanned aerial vehicles, nothing was reported about its sea tests.
Raytheon, along with L-3 Communications and IPG Photonics, as well as the US Navy's Directed Energy Weapons Administration and the Pennsylvania State Electro-Optical Center, are currently developing a laser combat launcher based on LaWS, which is designed to repel attacks from small vessels, as well as anti-ship missiles at the close range of defense. Today, several different options for installing a laser gun are being worked out, for example, it can be mounted in the tower of a six-barreled 20-mm anti-aircraft artillery mount Mk 15 Phalanx. In addition, the option of a paired placement of a laser installation with this artillery installation is being considered.
LaWS installation on the helipad of the destroyer Dewey.
At the same time, Boeing Corporation is ready to use a 25-mm gun mount Mk 38 Mod 2 manufactured by BAE Systems to install its own laser system. Moreover, its installation on free electrons will have more power of the order of 100 kW, which means that its firing range will be higher. But, if there should be no problems with the supply of energy on nuclear aircraft carriers, then on ordinary ships they can manifest themselves. That is why the US Navy is actively working on the development of a hybrid power plant designed for destroyers.
Currently, work on the creation of their own combat laser installations is underway in Western Europe, China and Israel. So in France, Thales and Nexter are carrying out a long-term program to develop radiation weapons. At the first stage, they are going to create a solid-state laser system with a power of up to 10 kW, which will have to hit small targets at a distance of up to 5 kilometers. At the second stage, create a laser with a power of 100-150 kW to destroy objects such as a rocket, a boat at a distance of 5-10 kilometers. By 2020, France hopes to create a 300-kW laser, which can be installed on ships of the frigate and destroyer class, to perform defensive and shock work with a range of 10-15 kilometers.
Modern lasers in Russia
In 2020, Russia is going to launch the world's most powerful laser installation. It will be installed in the Sarov Technopark. According to Sergei Garanin, General Designer for Laser Systems at the All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics, the installation under the UFL-2m index will have 192 laser channels, its area will be about 2 football fields, and at the highest point its height will be comparable to 10 storey building. It is assumed that with the help of this unique equipment it will be possible to carry out fundamental research of high-temperature dense plasma, while not only Russian, but also foreign scientists will be able to work at the complex.
The laser installation will be mounted on the territory of the Sarov Technopark, which is located not far from the Federal Nuclear Center and the city of nuclear scientists. The development of the control system for the laser installation will be carried out by the Nizhny Novgorod enterprise NIIIS named after V. I. Sedakova. In addition, it is planned to create a national center for laser systems and technologies in the Sarov Technopark. In the 1st quarter of 2013, work on the design of this center will be completed, in which, in addition to fundamental research, it is planned to develop prototypes of products and produce them in series.
According to Garanin, the center will create about 360 high-tech jobs for young Russian scientists. The center expects to receive the first products at the end of 2014. The cost of construction of the most powerful laser installation in the Sarov Technopark is estimated at 45 billion rubles (1.16 billion euros). It is reported that the length of the powerful laser complex will be 360 meters, the height - more than 30 meters, the power - 2.8 MJ. When creating this complex, only domestic technologies will be used, while the laser power will surpass the installation, which is being built by international forces in France (its power will be about 2 MJ).
The laser built in Sarov will be used for thermonuclear fusion. The beams of all the lasers used will converge at one point, where the process of creating a plasma will take place. Over the past 40 years, the necessary scientific base for the development of high-power lasers has been created in the city of Sarov. This direction has become one of the core ones for the Sarov Technopark formed in 2004. At present, more than 30 resident companies have already deployed their high-tech production on its territory with a total area of 60 hectares.