According to the Lokheed Martin Space Systems website, on April 14 and 16, 2012, the US Navy successfully conducted a series of paired launches of Trident submarine-launched ballistic missiles. These were the 139th, 140th, 141st and 142nd successively successful launches of the Trident-II D5 SLBM. All missile launches were carried out from the submerged SSBN738 "Maryland" SSBN in the Atlantic Ocean. Once again, the world record for reliability was set among long-range ballistic missiles and spacecraft launch vehicles.
Melanie A. Sloane, Vice President of Marine Ballistic Missile Programs at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, said in an official statement: “… Trident missiles continue to demonstrate high operational reliability. such an effective combat system hinders the aggressive plans of opponents. The stealth and mobility of the Trident submarine system gives it unique capabilities as the most tenacious component of the strategic triad, which ensures the security of our country from threats from any potential adversary."
But while the "Trident" (and this is how the word Trident is translated) is setting records, many questions have accumulated for its creators related to the real combat value of the American missile.
In today's review I will try to touch upon the most interesting features of the Trident system, as well as, to the best of my competence, dispel some myths and share with readers a variety of facts from the field of underwater ballistic missiles. Everything is learned by comparison, so we will often refer to Soviet / Russian SLBMs.
Because we are not going to divulge anyone's state secrets, all our further conversation will be based on data taken from open sources. This complicates the situation - and ours. and the US military is juggling the facts so that nasty details never surface. But we will certainly be able to restore some of the "blank spots" in this tangled story, using the "deductive method" of Sherlock Holmes and the most common logic.
So, what do we reliably know about Trident:
UGM-133A Trident II (D5) three-stage solid-propellant submarine-launched ballistic missile. It was adopted by the US Navy in 1990 as a replacement for the first generation Trident missile. At present, Trident-2 is armed with 14 nuclear-powered missile-carrying submarines of the US Navy "Ohio" and 4 British SSBN "Vanguard".
Basic performance characteristics:
Length - 13.42 m
Diameter - 2, 11 m
Maximum launch weight - 59 tons
Maximum flight range - up to 11,300 km
Throw weight - 2800 kilograms (14 W76 warheads or 8 more powerful W88 warheads).
Agree, it all sounds very solid.
The most surprising thing is that each of these parameters causes heated debate. The assessments range from enthusiastic to sharply negative. Well, let's talk in essence:
Liquid or solid rocket engine?
LRE or TTRD? Two different design schools, two different approaches to solving the most serious problem of rocketry. Which engine is better?
Soviet rocket scientists traditionally preferred liquid fuel and achieved great success in this area. And for good reason: liquid-propellant rocket engines have a fundamental advantage: liquid-propellant rockets always outperform rockets with turbojet engines in terms of energy and mass perfection - the value of the throw weight referred to the launch weight of the rocket.
Trident-2, as well as the new modification R-29RMU2 Sineva, have the same throw weight - 2800 kg, while the starting weight of Sineva is one third less: 40 tons versus 58 for Trident-2. That's it!
And then complications begin: a liquid engine is overly complex, there are many moving parts (pumps, valves, turbines) in its design, and, as you know, mechanics is a critical element of any system. But there is also a positive moment here: by controlling the fuel supply, you can easily solve the problems of control and maneuvering.
A solid-propellant rocket is structurally simpler, respectively, easier and safer to operate (in fact, its engine burns like a large smoke bomb). Obviously, talking about security is not a simple philosophy, it was the R-27 liquid-propellant missile that ditched the K-219 nuclear submarine in October 1986.
TTRD makes high demands on production technology: the required thrust parameters are achieved by varying the chemical composition of the fuel and the geometry of the combustion chamber. Any deviations in the chemical composition of the components are excluded - even the presence of air bubbles in the fuel will cause an uncontrolled change in thrust. Nevertheless, this condition did not prevent the United States from creating one of the best underwater missile systems in the world.
There are also purely design drawbacks of liquid-propellant rockets: for example, Trident uses a “dry start” - the rocket is ejected from the mine by a steam-gas mixture, then the first stage engines are turned on at a height of 10-30 meters above the water. On the contrary, our rockets chose a “wet start” - the missile silo is pre-filled with seawater before launching. Not only does this unmask the boat, the characteristic pump noise clearly indicates what it is going to do.
The Americans, without any doubt, chose solid-propellant missiles to arm their submarine missile carriers. Still, the simplicity of the solution is the key to success. The development of solid-propellant missiles has deep traditions in the United States - the first SLBM Polaris A-1, created in 1958, flew on solid fuel.
The USSR followed the development of foreign rocketry with close attention and after a while also realized the need for missiles equipped with a turbojet engine. In 1984, the R-39 solid-propellant rocket was put into service - an absolutely fierce product of the Soviet military-industrial complex. At that time, it was not possible to find effective components of solid fuel - the launch weight of the R-39 reached an incredible 90 tons, while the throw weight was less than that of the Trident-2. For the overgrown missile, they created a special carrier - a heavy strategic nuclear submarine, pr.941 "Akula" (according to NATO classification - "Typhoon"). Engineers of TsKBMT "Rubin" designed a unique submarine with two robust hulls and a 40% buoyancy margin. In the submerged position "Typhoon" dragged 15 thousand tons of ballast water, for which he received the destructive nickname "water carrier" in the fleet. But, despite all the reproaches, the insane construction of the Typhoon, by its very appearance, terrified the entire Western world. Q. E. D.
And then came SHE - a rocket that threw the general designer from the chair, but never reached the "potential enemy". SLBM "Bulava". In my opinion, Yuri Solomonov succeeded in the impossible - in conditions of severe financial constraints, lack of bench tests and experience in the development of ballistic missiles for submarines, the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering managed to create a rocket that FLIES. Technically, the Bulava SLBM is an original hybrid, the first stage in the second stage is fueled by solid fuel, the third stage is liquid propellant.
In terms of energy and mass perfection, the Bulava is somewhat inferior to the Trident of the first generation: the starting mass of the Bulava is 36.8 tons, the throw weight is 1150 kilograms. The "Trident-1" has a launch weight of 32 tons, a throw-weight of 1360 kg. But there is a nuance here: the capabilities of the missiles depend not only on the throwing weight, but also on the launch range and accuracy (in other words, on the CEP - the circular probable deviation). In the era of missile defense development, it became necessary to take into account such an important indicator as the duration of the active section of the trajectory. By all these indicators, the Bulava is a fairly promising missile.
Range of flight
A very controversial point that serves as a rich topic for discussion. The creators of Trident 2 proudly declare that their SLBMs fly at a range of 11,300 kilometers. Usually below, in small letters, there is a clarification: with a reduced number of warheads. Aha! And how much does Trident-2 give out at a full load of 2, 8 tons? Lokheed Martin specialists are reluctant to give an answer: 7800 kilometers. In principle, both figures are quite realistic and there is reason to trust them.
As for the Bulava, the figure is often 9,300 kilometers. This sly value is obtained with a payload of 2 warheads. What is the maximum flight range of the Bulava at a full load of 1, 15 tons? The answer is about 8000 kilometers. Fine.
A record flight range among SLBMs was set by the Russian R-29RMU2 Sineva. 11547 kilometers. Empty, of course.
Another interesting point - the light SLBM "Bulava", logically, should accelerate faster and have a shorter active section of the trajectory. The same is confirmed by the general designer Yuri Solomonov: “the rocket engines operate in an active mode for about 3 minutes.” Comparison of this statement with the official data on the Trident gives an unexpected result: the operating time of all three stages of the Trident-2 is … 3 minutes. Perhaps the whole secret of the Bulava is in the steepness of the trajectory, its flatness, but there are no reliable data on this issue.
Timeline of launches
Trident-2 is a record holder for reliability. 159 successful launches, 4 failures, one more launch was declared partially unsuccessful. On December 6, 1989, a continuous series of 142 successful launches began, and so far not a single accident. The result is, of course, phenomenal.
There is one tricky point here related to the methodology for testing SLBMs in the US Navy. You will not come across the phrase “the missile warheads have successfully arrived in the area of the Kwajalein test site” in the messages about the Trident-2 launches. The Trident 2 warheads did not arrive anywhere. They self-destructed in near-earth space. That is exactly how - by detonating a ballistic missile after a certain period of time, test launches of American SLBMs end.
There is no doubt that sometimes American sailors carry out tests in a full cycle - with the development of the separation of individual guidance warheads in orbit and their subsequent landing (splashdown) in a given ocean area. But in the 2000s, preference is given to the forced interruption of missile flight. according to the official explanation - "Trident-2" has already proven its efficiency dozens of times during tests; now training launches pursue another goal - crew training. Another official explanation for the premature self-destruction of SLBMs is that the ships of the measuring complex of the "probable enemy" could not determine the flight parameters of the warheads in the final segment of the trajectory.
In principle, this is a completely standard situation - it is enough to recall the operation "Begemot", when on August 6, 1991, the Soviet submarine missile carrier K-407 "Novomoskovsk" fired with full ammunition. Of the 16 launched R-29 SLBMs, only 2 reached the test site in Kamchatka, the remaining 14 were blown up in the stratosphere a few seconds after the launch. The Americans themselves produced a maximum of 4 Trident-2s at a time.
Circular deviation probability
It’s generally dark. The data are so contradictory that there is no way to draw any conclusions. In theory, everything looks like this:
KVO "Trident-2" - 90 … 120 meters
90 meters - for the W88 warhead with GPS correction
120 meters - using astro correction
For comparison, the official data on domestic SLBMs:
KVO R-29RMU2 "Sineva" - 250 … 550 meters
KVO "Bulava" - 350 meters.
The following phrase is usually heard in the news: "warheads have arrived at the Kura training ground." The fact that the warheads hit targets is out of the question. Maybe the extreme secrecy regime does not allow to proudly announce that the KVO of the Bulava warheads is measured in a few centimeters?
The same is observed with the "Trident". What 90 meters are we talking about if warheads have not been tested for the last 10 years?
One more point - talks about equipping the Bulava with maneuvering warheads raise some doubts. With a maximum throw weight of 1150 kg, the Bulava is unlikely to lift more than one block.
KVO is by no means a harmless parameter, given the nature of the targets on the territory of the "potential enemy". To destroy protected targets on the territory of a "potential enemy", an overpressure of about 100 atmospheres is required, and for highly protected targets such as the R-36M2 mine - 200 atmospheres. Many years ago, experimentally, it was found that with a charge power of 100 kilotons, to destroy an underground bunker or mine-based ICBMs, it is required to detonate no further than 100 meters from the target.
Super weapon for super hero
For Trident-2, the most advanced MIRV was created - the W88 thermonuclear warhead. Power - 475 kilotons.
The design of the W88 was a closely guarded US secret until a package with documents arrived from China. In 1995, a Chinese defector archivist contacted the CIA station, whose testimony clearly indicated that the PRC secret services had taken possession of the secrets of W88. The Chinese knew exactly the size of the "trigger" - 115 millimeters, the size of a grapefruit. It was known that the primary nuclear charge was "aspherical with two points." The Chinese document accurately specified the radius of the circular secondary charge as 172 mm, and that, unlike other nuclear warheads, the W-88's primary charge was housed in a tapered warhead casing before the secondary, another secret of the warhead's design.
In principle, we did not learn anything special - and so it is clear that the W88 has a complex design and is saturated to the limit with electronics. But the Chinese managed to learn something more interesting - when creating the W88, American engineers saved a lot on the thermal protection of the warhead, moreover, the initiating charges are made from ordinary explosives, and not from heat-resistant explosives, as is customary throughout the world. The data leaked to the press (well, it is impossible to keep secrets in America, what can you do) - there was a scandal, there was a Congress meeting, at which the developers justified themselves by the fact that the placement of warheads around the third stage of Trident-2 makes any thermal protection meaningless - in case the crash of the launch vehicle will happen the guaranteed Apocalypse. The measures taken are quite enough to prevent a strong heating of the warheads during flight in dense layers of the atmosphere. More is not required. But all the same, by decision of Congress, all 384 W88 warheads were modernized, designed to increase their thermal resistance.
As we can see, out of 1,728 warheads deployed on American missile carriers, only 384 are relatively new W88s. The remaining 1,344 are W76 warheads with a capacity of 100 kilotons, produced between 1975 and 1985. Of course, their technical condition is strictly monitored and the warheads have gone through more than one stage of modernization, but the average age of 30 says a lot …
60 years on alert
The US Navy has 14 Ohio-class submarine missile carriers. The underwater displacement is 18,000 tons. Armament - 24 launchers. The Mark-98 fire control system allows all missiles to be put on alert within 15 minutes. The interval of Trident-2 launches is 15 … 20 seconds.
The boats, created during the Cold War, are still in the combat composition of the fleet, spending 60% of the time on combat patrols. It is expected that the development of a new carrier and a new submarine-launched ballistic missile to replace the Trident will begin no earlier than 2020. The Ohio-Trident-2 complex is planned to be finally removed from service no earlier than 2040.
Her Majesty's Royal Navy is armed with 4 Vanguard-class submarines, each armed with 16 Trident-2 SLBMs. British "Tridents" have some differences from the "Americans". The British missile warheads are designed for 8 warheads with a capacity of 150 kilotons (based on the W76 warhead). Unlike the American "Ohio", "Vanguards" have a 2 times lower coefficient of operational tension: at any given time there is only one submarine on combat patrol.
Perspectives
As for the production of "Trident-2", then, despite the version about the termination of the release of the rocket 20 years ago, in the period from 1989 to 2007, Lokheed Martin collected 425 "Tridents" for the US Navy at its factories. Another 58 missiles were delivered to Great Britain. Currently, within the framework of the LEP (Life Extention Program), talks are underway about the purchase of another 115 Trident-2. The new rockets will receive more efficient engines and a new inertial control system with a star sensor. In the future, the engineers hope to create a new warhead with correction in the atmospheric sector according to GPS data, which will allow for incredible accuracy: the CEP is less than 9 meters.
