Shortly before the May holidays, the leading world media, referring to each other, reported on the successful test of a hypersonic missile in our country. The fact that the development of such a particularly promising weapon is being carried out in the United States, Russia, China and, it seems, in India, has been told in many publications for several years. And in all of them, the scientific and technological difficulties of the developers of high-speed weapons that had arisen, but had not yet been overcome by anyone, were noted.
It became clear that success in this matter could be achieved only where they were able to solve a whole range of problems at the same time: they would create materials resistant to ultra-high temperatures, high-energy fuel, fundamentally new methods of controlling a hypersonic aircraft (AC) under conditions of monstrous atmospheric resistance, and so on. However, until recently, none of the named countries received official reports that such complex solutions were achieved somewhere. Although occasionally there was information about the testing of experimental hypersonic aircraft. As a rule, unsuccessful, at the same time not directly confirmed and not refuted by the military departments, acting as customers of such weapons.
And all of a sudden, many media outlets declared Russia the leader in the high-speed race. Despite the fact that the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation this time again refrained from any official comments on this matter. But something has convinced both domestic and foreign news agencies of the reality of the Russian hypersonic breakthrough?
AMERICANS HAVE CONTINUOUS PROBLEMS
Back in July 2015, I myself had a chance to hear how one of the top leaders of the Russian Armed Forces commented on the remark that Russia did not have an adequate response to the approach of American missile defense elements to its borders: “We have something to answer, and how to respond. I think that in the near future the Americans will understand the uselessness and senselessness of everything they do. " The general, with an ironic smile, then asked not to rush to replicate this information: “Let them spend a lot more,“building an “anti-missile fence” and doing absolutely unnecessary work."
Just in those days, news agencies unanimously reported on the ongoing development work in our country on the development and creation of a hypersonic aircraft, called "object 4202". It was argued that this aircraft, at a cruising speed of 5-7 times the speed of sound (5-7 Mach numbers), will be able to maneuver in pitch (vertical plane) and yaw (horizontal plane). Recall that the speed corresponding to Mach 1 will be approximately 330 m / s or 1224 km / h, that is, the speed of sound in air. With such a high speed and maneuverability, any missile defense system, even having managed, for example, to detect the device, will still not have time to react to it and even try to destroy it. True, the capabilities of "object 4202", confirmed by tests, were not reported a year ago.
And last Tuesday, the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces, Colonel-General Sergei Karakaev, already stated bluntly: “Threats to the Strategic Missile Forces from the European missile defense segment are limited and currently do not lead to a critical decrease in the combat capabilities of the Strategic Missile Forces. This is achieved both by reducing the acceleration area of ICBMs, and by new types of combat equipment with a difficult-to-predict flight trajectory."
It seems that the embarrassment that happened with the long, persistent and expensive promotion of the American missile defense project for Europe was finally realized in the United States. As the head of the Missile Defense Agency James Cyring announced a week earlier, in the near future the United States intends to spend 23 million dollars on the development of laser weapons, which are still designed to protect the country from hypersonic missiles. The shield of the global missile defense system in the current situation seems to be ineffective. Congressman Trent Franks, an active supporter of the "changing paradigm" of modern war, also expressed his extreme concern about the development of hypersonic weapons by countries such as Russia and China: “The hypersonic era is approaching. The United States must not only compete in this area, but also achieve superiority, because our enemies are serious about improving technology and effectively developing it."
But so far America cannot boast of noticeable success in its own development of hypersonic weapons. The scanty information about the tests of experimental hypersonic aircraft carried out in the USA testified to their actual failures. Since 2010, there have been three of them. And after the last test of the X-51A Waverider hypersonic missile was declared "partially successful" in 2014, all information about the continuation of work on the project was completely classified. And now only limited data are circulating in Western and Russian publications that American companies and the military have tested three HyFly missiles capable of flying at speeds exceeding Mach 6 (about 7 thousand km / h) and HTV-2 gliders accelerated seemingly up to 20 Mach numbers. In the course of this project, the developers faced the effect of shielding radio signals by a plasma film formed on the surface of the rocket body during hypersonic flight in the atmosphere and, in fact, making it uncontrollable. Radio signals cannot penetrate either to the rocket from the outside, or from it to the outside. And it seems that the Americans have not been able to solve this problem so far. As, however, and a number of others too.
How else to explain the fact that a month ago the American edition of Aviation Week reported that the US Air Force Research Laboratory will soon launch a new project, the main task of which will be to study the behavior of aircraft at hypersonic speed. The project will be called HyRAX (Hypersonic Routine and Affordable Experimentation - regular and affordable experimentation with hypersonic). The project will study materials and aircraft design suitable for hypersonic flight, controllability and engines.
At the first stage of the project, the laboratory intends to conclude at least two contracts with American companies for the development of an aircraft that would be capable of long flights at hypersonic speeds. The second phase of the project will provide for the construction and flight tests of a hypersonic vehicle. The apparatus itself should be relatively cheap and reusable. With HyRAX, researchers expect to have enough data to successfully design hypersonic aircraft. So far, there is no talk of the progress achieved in the design.
WE MADE IT
And in Russia, as we can see, the situation with hypersound is exactly the opposite. On April 21, Interfax, citing a source familiar with the situation, disseminated information about the successful testing of a prototype of a hypersonic aircraft designed to equip existing and future intercontinental ballistic missiles. From the Dombarovskiy training ground in the Orenburg region, an RS-18 ICBM (according to the western classification - "Stilet") was launched, equipped with a working model of a warhead in the form of a hypersonic aircraft. The tests were deemed successful.
The Ministry of Defense, as usual in such cases, did not comment on these messages. In the rocket and space industry, in turn, the information about the launch was not confirmed or denied. However, the former secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Andrei Kokoshin, who had been dealing with armament issues directly at the Ministry of Defense for a long time, said in connection with the launch: 30 years or more. So far, this is a demonstration of technical capability, which is also very important for ensuring strategic stability. The stage of mass deployment of these means will come later."
The Americans have already tried to launch their hypersonic missiles from an airplane. These launches were considered “partially successful”. Photo from the site www.af.mil
Two days later, the authoritative National Interest magazine published an article claiming that Russia is conducting state tests of a hypersonic missile called the Zircon. The publication emphasizes that the work carried out in the United States on hypersonic missile technologies has not yet even come close to the serial production of such aircraft. At the same time, in an article of the National Interest, analyst Dave Majumbar, referring to the Russian media, notes that serial hypersonic missiles, which are part of the 3K22 Zircon complex, will be deployed for the first time on the Admiral Nakhimov (project 1144 "Orlan"). This ship should return to the combat strength of the fleet in 2018. In addition, after the completion of the modernization in 2022, another nuclear-powered cruiser, Project 1144 Peter the Great, will also be equipped with these missiles. The fact that "Zircon" is ready for testing was announced in mid-March 2016.
These data are very much compatible with the statement made by the Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, General of the Army Dmitry Bulgakov in mid-February of this year. He announced the adoption of Decilin-M fuel for the supply of the RF Armed Forces, which will be used in jet engines of new hypersonic strategic missiles. Tell me, is it necessary to finance, produce and start delivering such fuel to the troops, if hypersonic missiles have not yet been created and will not be mass-produced in the near future?
Again, the engine for hypersonic aircraft … In the Serpukhov branch of the Strategic Missile Forces Military Academy named after Peter the Great, a power plant was created for a promising aerospace aircraft, which will be used both in the Russian Armed Forces and in the civilian sphere. A representative of the academy told reporters about this last year at the exhibition "Innovation Day of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation - 2015". According to him, NPO Molniya is currently developing research and development work on a hypersonic aerospace aircraft, but they do not yet have their own propulsion system, and the academy has offered the production workers to work together. But not only in these two organizations are piling over the power plant of a high-speed aircraft.
Scientists at the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI) have developed a combustion chamber for a hypersonic engine. This was also reported in 2015 by the Dean of the Faculty of Engines of the Moscow Aviation Institute Alexei Agulnik at the scientific and practical conference "Aerodynamics, thermodynamics, combustion in a gas turbine engine and ramjet engine" held in Novosibirsk. Agulnik said the following: “The combustion chamber is made of carbon materials, for the first time in the world for such materials - rectangular, not round. The fact that after 110 seconds, after testing the camera, we did not see any serious damage to it, gives me great hope."
Well, according to official information received by the media from the LII them. MM. Gromov, there, on the basis of the Il-76 transport aircraft, a flying laboratory is being created to conduct experiments with a hypersonic aircraft detachable from the carrier aircraft. According to LII General Director Pavel Vlasov, "the GLL-AP hypersonic flying laboratory is being developed to create an experimental base for flight research of a demonstration high-speed ramjet engine integrated with an experimental hypersonic aircraft (EGLA)." A demonstrator of a hypersonic air-jet engine (GPVRD) is created by specialists from the Central Institute of Aviation Motor Engineering (CIAM) named after V. I. P. I. Baranova.
It is planned to dismantle one D-30KP engine (internal on the left wing console) on the Il-76MD LL aircraft, and instead of it, an experimental hypersonic aircraft (EGLA) will be installed on the external sling. During the test flight, EGLA will separate from the IL-76 and go into an independent flight.
If, to the listed developments, we add information from reliable sources in the defense industry that Russia has found a way to use a plasma film around hypersonic aircraft as a radar, then we can safely say: the problems of controllability of flights at speeds above Mach 5, the creation of high-energy fuel, are being successfully solved. materials for the manufacture of special engines. This fact is confirmed, for example, by Boris Obnosov, General Director of the Tactical Missile Armament Corporation (KTRV). According to him, KTRV, ensuring the coordination of work in the field of hypersound, closely cooperates with the Moscow Institute of Heat Engineering, the State Rocket Center named after V. I. V. P. Makeev (Miass, Chelyabinsk region), the Raduga enterprise, the Mashinostroenie NPO, many academic institutes and other organizations. A powerful scientific and industrial cooperation has emerged, capable of achieving truly breakthrough solutions. “We have good progress on hypersonic topics,” Obnosov stated.
WHO HAS MORE OPPORTUNITIES
And indeed, progress in the development of Russian hypersonic weapons has turned out to be noticeable.
Thus, the first test launch of the newest heavy liquid-propellant missile "Sarmat" from a silo is planned to be carried out in the second half of 2016. And the launch of the Sarmat ICBM series is planned until 2020. "Roughly serial deliveries will begin in 2018–2019," Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov told reporters. As you know, ICBM RS-28 "Sarmat" developed by the State Missile Center. V. P. Makeev and the production of the Krasnoyarsk Machine-Building Plant should completely replace the heavy ICBMs of the Ukrainian production R-36M "Voyevoda" (according to NATO classification - SS-18 "Satan").
Former head of the 4th Central Research Institute of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Major General Vladimir Vasilenko, noted that the development of a new heavy liquid-propellant strategic missile in Russia would restrain US plans to deploy a global missile defense system. According to the expert, such a property of a heavy ICBM, as the multidirectional azimuths of approach to the target, forces the opposing side to provide a circular missile defense system. “And it is much more difficult to organize, especially in terms of finance, than a sector missile defense system. This is a very strong factor, - said Vasilenko. "In addition, a huge supply of payload on a heavy ICBM allows it to be equipped with various means of overcoming missile defense, which ultimately oversaturate any missile defense - both its information means and shock ones." And one of these means of overcoming, as many experts now point out, will be a hypersonic warhead. Actually for this, a test launch of the RS-18 ICBM with hypersonic equipment was carried out on the eve of the May holidays.
It is planned to equip the RS-24 Yars mobile ground-based missile systems (PGRK) with the same "object 4202", which are now being consistently re-equipped one Strategic Missile Forces unit after another. That is, the Strategic Rocket Forces will be able to launch hypersonic warheads both from mines and from PGRK.
And also "objects 4202" will be launched in the layout of the "Zircon" missiles from the nuclear submarines "Husky". The development of these promising nuclear submarines is planned to be completed in 2018, said Igor Ponomarev, USC vice president for military shipbuilding.
Will be able to carry hypersonic warheads and R-30 "Bulava" - the newest Russian three-stage solid-propellant missile, designed to arm promising nuclear submarine strategic missile carriers of Project 955 "Borey". Each Bulava will be able to carry up to ten hypersonic maneuvering nuclear blocks of individual guidance and hit targets within a radius of up to 8 thousand km.
And of course, air-launched cruise missiles on the Tu-160M and Tu-95M strategic bombers will also be equipped with "4202 objects" …
In recent years, the United States has so self-confidently threatened the world with its concept of a global lightning strike, which assumes that high-precision weapons should be capable of massively hitting objects in any country declared an enemy of America within an hour. The development of hypersonic missiles is one of the cornerstones of this concept. Only now it was not the United States that turned out to be the leader in acquiring real opportunities for a global lightning strike.
"The US hypersonic glider program is modest," said former Pentagon analyst Mark Schneider. “I'd be surprised if we deploy at least one. And even if we do, it will probably be non-nuclear. Russian hypersonic vehicles will most likely be able to carry a nuclear charge, as this is the norm for Russia. " The expert claims that the American hypersonic program is inferior to the Russian one both in scale and technological characteristics.
