Missile complex "Satan". "Satan" - the most powerful nuclear missile in the world

Our weapons systems tend to be abstract and neutral names, which in the case of partial information leakage little that will tell the spies of foreign intelligence services. Take, for example, the same "poplar” or “Ash”. Trees as trees. If not "Pinocchio" a fairy-tale. But there is one weapon in the West, and we call ominous: “Satan” missile system of the third generation, he 15П018, he P-36, aka SS-18, also known as RS-20B, aka “Governor”. Such a large number of names has its cause. To use the Soviet codes among experts of NATO have traditionally not accepted, they come up with their own designations for each sample of our technology, it is also usually quite harmless. So what is their fear 15П018 and what constitutes the Bane of the Americans, rocket “Satan”?

The arms Race as an instrument of aggression

The Creation of a complex of ballistic missiles – an expensive, knowledge-intensive and technologically complex. To force the Soviet Union to participate in the arms race has long been a goal of American administrations of different times, from Truman to Reagan. For various reasons, America has always been richer than the Soviet Union, and the wearing down of his excessive spending eventually secured victory in the Cold war. To a large extent, and today this policy applies to new Russia.

Our response to the Americans

Approximately 1965 power of the American Intercontinental missiles seriously increased, as well as other technical parameters, including accuracy. This created the threat of Soviet launchers, most of which at that time were stationary and were located in the mines, concentrated in the operational areas on a cluster basis. So one of us ICBMs in case of a successful hit could cover several Soviet still failed to start. Urgently needed to respond to the threat. The output was two: disperse launchers, prochnow mine, or make them mobile, while maintaining high capacity, and therefore weight and dimensions. But in the age of satellites is difficult to hide the movement of mobile launchers. Problems demanded solutions. The result was a P-36 “Satan” is the most powerful nuclear missile in the world.

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Grand sport

Academician Vladimir Fedorovich Utkin during the life of a famous person were not. But his friends, associates, colleagues and former subordinates, noting that 17 October, the birthday of his boss, without a shadow of a doubt call him a genius. And for good reason. Under the guidance of the scientist was created missile system “Satan”, rather, 15П018 (nickname devilish brainchild of academician gave the Americans). It all started with a shared vision, then it was divided into separate technical tasks, each of which was successfully accomplished.

The Missile system “Satan” - the system is very complex, every unit should work in harmony, and any failure could lead to irreparable consequences. In addition to this formidable weapon was to start from stationary mines, and on special railway platforms, disguised as ordinary cars.

How to launch a heavy rocket from the mine

The rocket Body is made of aluminum and magnesium metals are quite soft. Wall thickness – 3 mm, otherwise the shell will be too heavy. The weight of the rocket – more than 210 tons, and her need to run from deep mines. It is easy to imagine what would happen if such a heavy and fragile item will begin to bathe the heated gases escaping from the nozzle. Inside – 195 tons of fuel, not just fuel, and explosive. But that's not all. In the head part are nuclear weapons with a capacity of four hundred Hiroshima bombs.

Here is a technical task. And its Soviet engineers decided. Rocket gently and carefully removed to the surface three special powder charge, called pressure accumulators, raising tens of meters, and only after that run pre-prepared (“poddorye”) the engine starting stage.

This decision has also helped to significantly increase the combat radius of the system. At the start overcoming the gravity force spent a large amount of fuel, in this case, his savings of approximately 9 tons.

This is just one example of finesse solutions, the illustration of the genius of the great Utkin. A lot of them, the other would have gone the whole book. Perhaps the multipart.

The Terrible atomic train

No wonder the Soviet Union called the great railway power. Large distances prompted to build a rail highway at an unprecedented pace even tsarist Russia, the Soviet years had stretched the new line, cover the entire territory of our country network of paths. Day and night it compounds, among which you can never distinguish the ones under the roofs of carriages which reveal Megamart. Mobile complex “Satan” could be based on a railway platform, disguised as an ordinary train, to distinguish that from the ordinary can't the most advanced reconnaissance satellite. Of course, the weight of the launcher to 130 tons are not allowed to use a simplerolling stock so that, apart from the technical problems I had to solve and transport, and in all-Union scale. Wooden sleepers were changed to concrete, the quality and durability brought to the highest level, because any accident instantly can become a disaster. Rocket launcher “Satan” has a length of 23 meters, just under the size of a refrigerator car, but the fairing had to develop special folding design. There were other problems, but the result justified the costs. Retaliation could be caused from an unpredictable point, and therefore was guaranteed and inevitable.

The Rocket

The delivery of the head, which houses nuclear warheads, is a two-stage Intercontinental missile, the range of which has an area of 300 thousand square kilometers. She is able to overcome the boundaries of high-performance and future missile defense systems and hit ten different targets multiple components of the total capacity of the equivalent of eight megatons of TNT. To neutralize its effect after running almost impossible, for which she received such a resounding name - “Satan”. The missile system is equipped with thousands of objects, simulating a nuclear warhead. Ten of them have a mass close to the real charge, and the rest is made of metallized plastic and take the form of warheads, swelling in the stratospheric vacuum. None of the anti-missile system cannot cope with the number of targets.

Electronic brain

The Development of the control system was engaged the Deputy General designer Vladimir Sergeyev. It is built on the inertial principle, has three channels and stacked majoritarian. This means that the system checks itself, producing a self-test. In the event of any discrepancy between the results, the management assumes the channel has successfully passed the test. Interface cable, and is assumed to be perfectly reliable, failure of communication lines there was not a once for all time during which the missile system R-36M “Satan” is in service.

The Irritation of Americans

The Program, launched in the US and called the strategic defense initiative, was aimed at the creation of a global “umbrella”, which could protect the country “free world”, and primarily the United States, the consequences of retaliatory thermonuclear strike in the event of world conflict. Strategic missile complex 15П018 (“Satan”) took this idea make sense. No missile defense systems, even with expensive space-based elements, would be unable to guarantee the safe destruction of such objects on the territory of the USSR, the us “the Pershing”. Needless to say, this caused frustration among the inhabitants of the White house and the Capitol. To retire these systems, the Soviet leadership was not in a hurry, believing that they provide a reliable nuclear shield. But the case moved from the dead point after the coming to power of a “hunch” and the beginning of perestroika.

How is crushed “Satan”

Every other rocket launcher “Satan” was destroyed under the terms of the start-1 Treaty, signed by the Secretary General of the CPSU Central Committee Mikhail Gorbachev. After disintegration of the USSR it was continued by the President of the Russian Federation B. N. Yeltsin. In fairness it should be noted the fact that the decommissioning and subsequent disposal of multi-charged missiles were made not so much because of pressure from the American side or national betrayal (a sentiment too exalted Patriotic citizens). The reasons were much more prosaic and was of an economic nature. The country's budget could not withstand such a high level of military expenditures, which include spending on the maintenance of the mentioned railway tracks. And without them could happen another Chernobyl, only much more scary. The missile system “Satan” became a victim of the General chaos that accompanied the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Peaceful

Once on the site of the once indestructible Soviet Union, a young state, suddenly discovered that all of the industrial, scientific and experimental forces that created the complex, are exclusively Ukrainian. Further development and production of powerful defense system has become impossible, at least in the short term.

The decommissioning threat for Americans, the rockets did not mean the prohibition on its use for other purposes, than not slow to take advantage of the latest instances. As in the case with the famous “East”, the media was converted, it was used to launch commercial and scientific goods, including foreign. What to do? When the country needs money in the course of going and “Satan”. Intercontinental ballistic missile in the period from 1999 to 2010, according to the program «Dnepr» put into orbit four dozen artificial satellites. Launches took place on the 14th, one of them was unsuccessful.

“Governor”

In the late eighties was modernized missile R-36M with a view to enhancing its resilience to the impacts of possiblenuclear attack and improve the performance in terms of accuracy. In addition, required revision to reflect new capabilities of the latest American missile defense systems. KB «South» (Dnepropetrovsk) has successfully coped with the task, the result is a product 15А18М called “Governor”. When drafting the text of the Treaty start-1 was the designation code “RS-20B" and in essence it was the same missile, “Satan”, only modernized.

The Changing international situation, expressed in the desire of the leadership of the NATO countries, and primarily the United States, to describe their bases as close to Russia's borders, led to revise the terms of contract SNV-2, which failed to pass ratification, that part of it which deals with multi-warhead ICBM. 15А18М missiles (armed with candy bars), standing on duty at the present time, will be replaced by the new Russian complexes “triumph”, capable of carrying multiple warheads. But the story has been different…