Recently Kiev conducted another missile test. This time, the new Ukrainian cruise missile "Neptune". At the same time, the opinion of the "experts" was divided. Kiev "experts" write that the new missile can fly almost de Moscow, while the Russian basically agree that this is all a bluff. As usual, both are wrong.
On the ruins of the USSR
Indeed, why deny the obvious. There is a rocket and it flies. We'll talk about where and how, below, but for now let's remember that Kiev has almost everything to create it. And this "almost everything" got from the "accursed scoop", which in Ukraine today is customary only to scold officially.
Nowhere now you will not hear from Oleksandr Turchynov that the “Ukrainian dvigun” of the Neptune is the good old Soviet turbojet engine-50, used in the Soviet counterparts of the Tomahawk, the Kh-55. And it was produced before the collapse of this very Union in Zaporozhye.
Also, the most important state secret of Ukraine is the manufacturer of the transport and launch container (TPK) for the new missile. In fact, this is also an open secret. A long time ago, for the Zhulyansky machine-building plant "Vizar" in Austria, a huge, half-shop-occupied mill for bending aluminum sheets was purchased. It was also once purchased by the "damned scoop" for the assembly of the first TPK for S-300 missiles. Later, their production was moved to Russia, and the mill remained.
True, there were some problems here. The fact is that the diameter of the TPK X-35 is smaller than the diameter of the TPK S-300, but the Austrian mill is not capable of bending sheets with a smaller diameter, and therefore the Ukrainian designers had to go out of their way to properly place the Neptune in a container that was too spacious for it. This really pisses off Ukrainian developers of warships today (more on that below).
And no one will ever tell you from the leadership in Kiev that the turbojet engine-50 was used in the creation of the Soviet anti-ship missile Kh-35 "Uran", the tests of which were completed after the collapse of the USSR in Russia, and that the new "Neptune" is so similar on their Russian counterpart, that an uninitiated person will confuse them in 50% of cases.
Someone will immediately determine who is who? If not, then I suggest that on the lower picture is the start of the Russian "Uranus", and on the top - the Ukrainian "Neptune".
I blinded him from what was. New rocket problems
As we can see, the backlog of the Ukrainian rocket engineers was solid thanks to the “damned communist past”. But there were also problems.
Ukraine did not have its own suitable inertial flight control systems. And without them, the missile cannot be brought into a given square, where the homing head should be turned on. Not that it was an insoluble task, but there was a problem. Let's see how effectively it was solved. But this is actually not the most important thing. There are more serious problems.
Kiev had to tinker with the first accelerating stage. She came out not very beautiful and not quite normal. The fact is, there is some misalignment of the launch and sustainer stages of the rocket, which at the start causes the pitching effect. I think you noticed this in the video:
We saw how the rocket nodded a little, and then went along the trajectory. This is just caused by this misalignment. To remove the problem, Ukrainian designers had to slightly lower the nozzle of the first stage engine (by 2 degrees), and now they are struggling to remove this effect completely.
There is one more problem, which, if not solved, can negate the whole "change". According to the TK, the new product, in order not to be inferior to the Russian analogue, which was put into service 20 years ago, had to be able to fly at an altitude of 5 meters above sea level. But instruments (radio altimeters), which would ensure the required flight accuracy, were not made in Ukraine. To be honest, while I have no information, the problem is solved or not. And if so, how. The tests conducted so far also cannot answer this question. Therefore, we are waiting for the continuation.
Another problem is the homing head. Ukraine has never made purely anti-ship heads, and therefore it was decided to use an "improved" head from a missile defense system for this. I do not know what the Ukrainian media meant when they said that parts from the S-200 missile were used in the new missile, but it is possible that this is what they are talking about.
So, as we can see, the new rocket also has problems, there are enough of them, but they are all solvable.
Shipbuilding program of Kiev
And now let's link the passed tests to … Kiev's shipbuilding program. In fact, the connection here is the most direct. The fact is that Poroshenko, when he announced plans to build corvettes of the "Vladimir the Great" type, assumed that almost all weapons systems on it would be imported. But the greed of the Ukrainian oligarchs overwhelmed, and therefore it was decided that the corvettes would be equipped to the maximum with Ukrainian weapons systems.
And just the PRK "Neptune" should become the main caliber of the new ships.
As well as new missile boats, which will be designed on the basis of the Lan artillery boat.
Actually, it was the delay in the development of the complex that made the Nikolaev shipbuilders abandon the skeleton of the head Ukrainian corvette for several years.
True, the designers of the new Ukrainian ships themselves are not delighted with such a decision. The fact is that the large dimensions of the complex and the "subtleties" when launching missiles for them became a real headache and the reason for half of the obscene words uttered within the walls of the design bureau. The cumbersome rotary launchers of the RCC are already the last century, and the inability to reduce them to the optimal size is generally a separate stream of obscene language. But why can't you do it so that everything on the item is Ukrainian …
Summing up
As we have seen, the Russian "Uranus" and the Ukrainian "Neptune" have a common parent and will be very similar in characteristics. Of course, the new Ukrainian missile will not reach Moscow, and it is not intended for this (for this, Kiev is developing the Korshun missile launcher). Also, as the tests progresses, we will observe how the Ukrainian designers managed to solve certain problems associated with the absence of this or that node in the legacy of the "accursed scoop."
Now you understand why I cannot help smiling when some (Russian) "experts" say that "this will not fly" (when it is already flying), and their Ukrainian colleagues claim that it will fly much better than the Russian counterpart. Really funny, well, just like children. “Uranus” and “Neptune” are in many ways the same as the Russians and the Ukrainians, and therefore, if you want to understand what the characteristics of the Ukrainian “Neptune” will be, look at the Russian “Uranus”. True, as I said above, if Ukrainian designers managed to design something that they did not get from the "damned Soviet past" …
