The Cold War years gave the world a large number of images of nuclear weapons. This is not only about strategic offensive weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles. During the confrontation between the United States and the USSR, a huge number of samples of tactical nuclear weapons were developed in the two countries, from conventional aerial bombs and artillery shells to nuclear depth bombs designed to combat enemy submarines. In the Soviet Union, the nuclear anti-submarine complex, which included the Be-12 amphibious aircraft, received the sonorous name "Scalp" and was put into service 55 years ago - in 1964.
American depth charges
In the arms race, one of the parties has always tried to catch up with the other, developing similar or even more advanced models of weapons and military equipment. Created in 1964 in the USSR, the first domestic nuclear depth charge, which became part of the air-anti-submarine complex, was a response to the development of the American defense industry. The American military received its deep-sea atomic bomb in the 1950s, launching another round of the arms race between countries.
At the same time, the interest of the Americans in the creation of such weapons was fully justified. The Soviet Union made a conscious stake on the creation and development of a powerful submarine fleet. Soviet submarines, which received the first ballistic or cruise missiles, including those equipped with nuclear warheads, became a real threat to the coastal cities of the United States and Washington's European allies. In these conditions, the Americans considered any possible means of guaranteed destruction of Soviet submarines and quickly came up with the idea of creating a deep-seated aerial bomb with a nuclear warhead.
A distinctive feature of the entire line of American nuclear depth charges were female names. The world's first anti-submarine aerial bomb, which received a nuclear charge of the W-7 type with a capacity of approximately 5-10 kt, received the beautiful female name Betty. Aircraft of various types could use such ammunition, including outdated machines, which at that time included the A-1 Skyraider piston attack aircraft and the S-2 Tracker deck anti-submarine aircraft. For the same purposes, the American P6M Seamaster amphibious turbojet aircraft could be used, which the US military assessed as not the most successful aircraft in their class. The first American depth charges did not last long in service; they decided to abandon them by 1960. It is believed that over the course of production 225 Betty nuclear bombs have been assembled.
Despite Betty's abandonment, interest in nuclear deep-sea bombs did not disappear, on the contrary, the threat from the Soviet submarine fleet only increased every year, and the naval command considered submarines with nuclear weapons on board as a real strategic threat. The Betty bomb was replaced by the American army with a much more advanced and powerful bomb, which received another female name Lulu. The Mark 101 Lulu aircraft depth charge received a W34 nuclear warhead with a capacity of approximately 11 kt. This ammunition was produced in five different versions and remained in service with the US Navy from 1958 to 1971. New weapons were stored not only at American bases, bombs of this type were actively supplied to the US allies in the NATO bloc. It is known that the Lulu bombs were stored at the British airbase Cornwall, they could be armed with the Avro Shackleton aircraft of the RAF.
The Mark 101 Lulu deep-sea nuclear bomb reached a length of 229 cm, its diameter was 46 cm, and such a bomb weighed 540 kg. The carriers of weapons dangerous for any enemy submarine were not only basic patrol aircraft, which included the P-2 Neptune and P-3 Orion models, but also the A-3 Skywarrior and A-4 Skyhawk assault aircraft and even helicopters, for example SH-3 Sea King. At the same time, specialized patrol aircraft could take on board a couple of such bombs, which increased their capabilities to combat enemy submarines.
The main disadvantages of the Lulu bombs, which the Americans themselves recognized, were the lack of sensors for recording free fall. In simple terms, the bomb was missing an important element of the safety device, which would activate the operation only after being dropped from an aircraft and free falling from a certain height. For this reason, the bombs were quite dangerous to handle. If such an ammunition, brought into a firing position, rolled off the deck of an aircraft carrier and fell into the water, the bomb would simply explode upon reaching a given depth.
Soviet answer. Nuclear depth charge SK-1 "Scalp"
The Soviet response to the creation of nuclear depth charges by the Americans was the Soviet SK-1 bomb, product 5F48, also known as "Scalp". For the first time, the task of creating a complex consisting of a bomb and an aircraft that could effectively fight enemy submarines was formulated in the USSR in 1960, at the same time the first performance characteristics of the future project, approved by the command of the Navy, were released. By that time, the Soviet military already knew that the enemy had such weapons. At the same time, the Soviet nuclear depth charge was also developed as a response to the emergence of new atomic missile strategic submarines of the "George Washington" type armed with ballistic missiles from the Americans. Such boats posed a huge threat to the fleet and infrastructure of the USSR in the event of the transition of the war from the cold stage to the hot one.
Work on the creation of a new weapon was carried out quite quickly and already in 1961 the first samples of new depth charges were handed over for factory tests. Tests of new ammunition without nuclear charges on board were carried out at a special naval test site located near the Crimea. The Soviet designers were going to use the new bomb together with the successful Be-12 "Chaika" turboprop flying boat, created by the specialists of the Beriev Design Bureau. A special modification of the seaplane received the designation Be-12SK. In 1964, joint tests of a nuclear depth charge and a Be-12 aircraft were completed, and the ammunition was officially adopted. The new anti-submarine anti-submarine complex "Scalp" temporarily became the most powerful anti-submarine weapon of the Soviet naval aviation. In 1965-1970, the complex was equipped with three long-range anti-submarine aviation regiments, as well as two naval anti-submarine squadrons.
The employees of VNII-1011 of the Ministry of Medium Machine Building were directly responsible for the creation of the bomb (today it is the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Technical Physics named after Academician Zababakhin in Snezhinsk). The company, which is part of the State Atomic Energy Corporation "Rosatom", and today specializes in the creation of various models of nuclear weapons. It is not known how much the name of the work "Scalp" was associated with the project, but it is safe to say that the Soviet deep-sea bomb SK-1 could "scalp" any submarine of a potential enemy, effectively dealing with both the light and durable hull of the boat …
The SK-1 bomb weighed about 1600 kg, another 78 kg was the weight of a special beam holder, which was installed in the cargo compartment of the Be-12. At the same time, the approximate power of the ammunition was estimated at 10 kt. The Be-12SK flying boat could take on board only one such bomb, while the aircraft retained the ability to carry conventional bombs, torpedoes and buoys. The SK-1 (5F48) bomb was intended for use from heights of 2 to 8 kilometers, and the detonation of the ammunition took place at a depth of 200 to 400 meters. At the same time, there were no air and contact fuses on the bomb. To defeat submarines in shallow water, a time delay was provided in addition to the already existing values (20, 4 and 44 seconds, respectively), equal to about 100 seconds from the moment the ammunition landed. This time was enough for the carrier plane to leave the danger zone. One of the features of the nuclear depth charge and the complex was the need to maintain the air temperature in the compartment at a level of 16-23 degrees Celsius, this was an important condition for the reliable operation of the nuclear charge. According to the results of the tests carried out, the "Scalp" could hit any submarine, which turned out to be at a distance of 600-700 meters from the place of the bomb detonation.
Over time, new deep-sea nuclear weapons began to replace the Scalps. Already by 1970, the USSR managed to organize the production of a new weapon - the Ryu-2 (8F59) bomb, which went down in history as the "Skat" or, as it was also affectionately called in the Navy - "Rushka". The advantage of the new bomb was that it could be used not only from the Be-12 seaplanes, but also from other domestic anti-submarine vehicles - Il-38 and Tu-142, and in the future also anti-submarine helicopters.
