The first stage is denial
German expert in the field of rocketry, Robert Schmucker, considered V. Putin's statements completely implausible. “I cannot imagine that the Russians can create a small flying reactor,” the expert said in an interview with Deutsche Welle.
They can, Herr Schmucker. Just imagine.
The first domestic satellite with a nuclear power plant (Kosmos-367) was launched from Baikonur back in 1970. 37 fuel assemblies of the small-sized BES-5 Buk reactor, containing 30 kg of uranium, at a temperature in the primary loop of 700 ° C and a heat release of 100 kW, provided an electric power of the installation of 3 kW. The mass of the reactor is less than one ton, the estimated operating time is 120-130 days.
Experts will express doubt: the power of this nuclear "battery" is too low … But! Look at the date: it was half a century ago.
Low efficiency is a consequence of thermionic conversion. With other forms of energy transmission, the indicators are much higher, for example, for nuclear power plants, the efficiency value is in the range of 32-38%. In this sense, the thermal power of the “space” reactor is of particular interest. 100 kW is a serious claim to win.
It should be noted that BES-5 Buk does not belong to the RTG family. Radioisotope thermoelectric generators convert the energy of natural decay of atoms of radioactive elements and have negligible power. At the same time, the Buk is a real reactor with a controlled chain reaction.
The next generation of Soviet small-sized reactors, which appeared in the late 1980s, were even smaller and more energy-efficient. This was the unique "Topaz": in comparison with the "Buk", the amount of uranium in the reactor was reduced by three times (to 11, 5 kg). The thermal power increased by 50% and amounted to 150 kW, the time of continuous operation reached 11 months (the reactor of this type was installed on board the Kosmos-1867 reconnaissance satellite).
In 1992, the two remaining small Topaz reactors were sold in the United States for $ 13 million.
The main question is: is there enough power for such installations to be used as rocket engines? By passing the working fluid (air) through the hot core of the reactor and obtaining thrust at the outlet according to the law of conservation of momentum.
The answer is no. Buk and Topaz are compact nuclear power plants. Other means are needed to create a NRM. But the general trend is visible to the naked eye. Compact NPPs have long been created and exist in practice.
What power should a nuclear power plant have to be used as a cruise missile cruise engine similar in size to the Kh-101?
Can't find a job? Multiply time with power!
(A collection of universal tips.)
Finding the power is also not difficult. N = F × V.
According to official data, the X-101 cruise missiles, like the KR of the “Caliber” family, are equipped with a short-life turbojet engine-50, which develops a thrust of 450 kgf (≈ 4400 N). Cruise missile cruising speed - 0.8M, or 270 m / s. The ideal design efficiency of a by-pass turbojet engine is 30%.
In this case, the required power of the cruise missile engine is only 25 times higher than the thermal power of the Topaz series reactor.
Despite the doubts of the German expert, the creation of a nuclear turbojet (or ramjet) rocket engine is a realistic task that meets the requirements of our time.
Rocket from hell
“This is all a surprise - a nuclear powered cruise missile,” said Douglas Barry, senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. "This idea is not new, it was talked about in the 60s, but it faced a lot of obstacles."
This was not only talked about. On tests in 1964, a nuclear ramjet engine "Tori-IIS" developed a thrust of 16 tons with a thermal power of the reactor of 513 MW. Simulating a supersonic flight, the installation used up 450 tons of compressed air in five minutes. The reactor was designed to be very “hot” - the operating temperature in the core reached 1600 ° C. The design had very narrow tolerances: in a number of areas the permissible temperature was only 150-200 ° C lower than the temperature at which the rocket elements melted and collapsed.
Were these indicators enough for the use of a nuclear jet engine as an engine in practice? The answer is obvious.
The nuclear ramjet engine developed more (!) Thrust than the turbo-ramjet engine of the SR-71 “Blackbird” three-flight reconnaissance aircraft.
Experimental installations "Tory-IIA" and "-IIC" - prototypes of the nuclear engine of the SLAM cruise missile.
Devilish invention, capable, according to calculations, to pierce 160,000 km of space at a minimum height with a speed of 3M. Literally “mowing down” everyone who met on her mournful path with a shock wave and a thunderous roll of 162 dB (fatal value for humans).
The combat aircraft reactor did not have any biological protection. Eardrums ruptured after the SLAM flight would have seemed an insignificant circumstance against the background of radioactive emissions from the rocket nozzle. The flying monster left behind a trail more than a kilometer wide with a radiation dose of 200-300 rad. In one hour of flight, the SLAM was estimated to contaminate 1,800 square miles of lethal radiation.
According to calculations, the length of the aircraft could reach 26 meters. The launch weight is 27 tons. Combat load - thermonuclear charges, which had to be sequentially dropped on several Soviet cities, along the route of the rocket's flight. After completing the main task, SLAM was supposed to circle over the territory of the USSR for several more days, contaminating everything around with radioactive emissions.
Perhaps the most deadly weapon of all that man has tried to create. Fortunately, it did not come to real launches.
The project, code-named Pluto, was canceled on July 1, 1964. At the same time, according to one of the developers of SLAM, J. Craven, none of the US military and political leadership regretted the decision.
The reason for the rejection of the "low-flying nuclear missile" was the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Capable of inflicting the necessary damage in less time with incomparable risks for the military themselves. As the authors of the publication in the Air & Space magazine rightly noted: ICBMs, at least, did not kill everyone who was near the launcher.
It is still unknown who, where and how planned to conduct tests of the fiend of hell. And who would answer if SLAM went off course and flew over Los Angeles. One of the crazy proposals was to tie the rocket to the cable and drive in a circle over uninhabited areas of the piece. Nevada. However, another question immediately arose: what to do with the rocket when the last remnants of the fuel burned out in the reactor? The place where the SLAM "lands" will not be approached for centuries.
Life or death. Final choice
In contrast to the mystical "Pluto" from the 1950s, the project of a modern nuclear missile, voiced by V. Putin, offers the creation of an effective means for breaking through the American missile defense system. The means of assured mutual destruction is the most important criterion for nuclear deterrence.
The transformation of the classic "nuclear triad" into a devilish "pentagram" - with the inclusion of a new generation of delivery vehicles (nuclear cruise missiles of unlimited range and strategic nuclear torpedoes "status-6"), coupled with the modernization of ICBM warheads (maneuvering "Vanguard") is reasonable response to the emergence of new threats. Washington's missile defense policy leaves Moscow no other choice.
“You are developing your anti-missile systems. The range of anti-missiles is increasing, the accuracy is increasing, this weapon is being improved. Therefore, we need to adequately respond to this so that we can overcome the system not only today, but also tomorrow, when you have a new weapon.”
Declassified details of the experiments on the SLAM / Pluto program convincingly prove that the creation of a nuclear cruise missile was possible (technically feasible) six decades ago. Modern technology allows you to bring an idea to a new technical level.
The sword rusts with promises
Despite the mass of obvious facts explaining the reasons for the emergence of the "president's superweapon" and dispelling any doubts about the "impossibility" of creating such systems, there are many skeptics in Russia, as well as abroad. "All of these weapons are just a means of information warfare." And then - a variety of proposals.
Probably, you should not take caricatured "experts" such as I. Moiseev seriously. The head of the Institute for Space Policy (?), Who told The Insider: “You can't put a nuclear engine on a cruise missile. And there are no such engines”.
Attempts to "expose" the president's statements are being made at a more serious analytical level. Such "investigations" are immediately popular among the liberal-minded public. Skeptics make the following arguments.
All the sounded complexes refer to strategic top-secret weapons, the existence of which is not possible to verify or deny. (The message to the Federal Assembly itself showed computer graphics and launch footage indistinguishable from tests of other types of cruise missiles.) At the same time, no one talks, for example, about the creation of a heavy attack drone or a destroyer-class warship. A weapon that would soon have to be clearly demonstrated to the whole world.
According to some "whistleblowers", the highly strategic, "secret" context of the messages may indicate their implausible nature. Well, if this is the main argument, then what is the dispute with these people about?
There is also another point of view. The shocking news about nuclear missiles and unmanned 100-node submarines comes against the backdrop of the obvious military-industrial complex problems encountered in the implementation of simpler projects of "traditional" weapons. Claims about missiles that have surpassed all existing weapons at once stand in sharp contrast to the well-known situation with rocketry. Skeptics cite as an example the mass failures of the Bulava launches or the creation of the Angara launch vehicle that took two decades. The story itself began in 1995; speaking in November 2017, Deputy Prime Minister D. Rogozin promised to resume the launches of Angara from the Vostochny cosmodrome only in … 2021.
And, by the way, why was “Zircon”, the main naval sensation of the previous year, left without attention? A hypersonic missile capable of canceling out all existing naval combat concepts.
The news of the arrival of laser systems in the troops attracted the attention of manufacturers of laser installations. The existing models of directed energy weapons were created on the basis of an extensive research and development base of high-tech equipment for the civilian market. For example, the American shipborne installation AN / SEQ-3 LaWS represents a "pack" of six welding lasers with a total power of 33 kW.
The announcement of the creation of a super-powerful combat laser contrasts with a very weak laser industry: Russia is not among the world's largest manufacturers of laser equipment (Coherent, IPG Photonics or China's Han 'Laser Technology). Therefore, the sudden appearance of samples of high-power laser weapons arouses genuine interest among specialists.
There are always more questions than answers. The devil is in the details, but official sources give an extremely poor idea of the latest weapons. It is often not even clear whether the system is already ready for adoption, or its development is at a certain stage. Known precedents associated with the creation of such weapons in the past indicate that the problems arising in this case cannot be solved with a snap of the fingers. Fans of technical innovations are worried about the choice of a place for testing nuclear-powered missile launchers. Or the methods of communication with the underwater drone "Status-6" (fundamental problem: radio communication does not work under water, during communication sessions the submarines are forced to rise to the surface). It would be interesting to hear an explanation about how to use it: compared to traditional ICBMs and SLBMs, which can start and end a war within an hour, Status-6 will take several days to reach the US coast. When there is no one else there!
The last battle is over.
Is there anyone alive?
In response - only the howl of the wind …
