One of the conditions that ensured the successful offensive of the German army in the summer of 1941 was the fact that the Wehrmacht surpassed the Red Army for a decade in the quality of army intelligence, guidance systems, communications and command and control. The Soviet leadership learned a cruel lesson in time - already when planning supplies under the Lend-Lease, much attention was paid to improving the quality of management of the Red Army. As a result, the Red Army received 177,900 telephones and 2 million kilometers of field telephone cable. Thanks to the supply of 400-watt radio stations, the army headquarters and airfields were fully provided with communications. In total, during the war years, the Soviet Union received 23777 pieces of army radio stations of various capacities. To ensure reliable communication between the Headquarters and major cities of the USSR, 200 high-frequency telephony stations were received. The supply of electronic detection systems became a particularly important direction: in total, until 1945, the USSR received 2,000 radars of various types from the allies. In fairness, it should be noted that the Soviet Union was able to independently master the serial production of the most complex equipment - the Red Army received 775 domestic radars during the war years.
Modern military art puts high-quality intelligence information, uninterrupted communications and accurate target designation at the heart of any military operation. The recent events in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya have demonstrated the correctness of this approach - NATO is creating a kind of "information dome" over the combat area, inside which it controls all movements and negotiations of adversaries, revealing their plans in advance and choosing the most important targets. The result is predictable: entire states are being erased from the face of the Earth with single losses from the Coalition. To ensure such an approach, both global satellite reconnaissance systems and local means are used, including manned and unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, electronic reconnaissance aircraft, early warning aircraft … Feedback is excellent - during the battle, an order from the Pentagon can be bring down to the individual soldier.
Such a long preamble was needed in order for you to be able to imagine how important the development of the Maritime Space Reconnaissance and Targeting System was for the Soviet Union.
Legend
In the 60s, sectoral science and industry were tasked with creating the world's first all-weather space-based system for observing surface targets throughout the entire water area of the World Ocean with data transmission directly to ground or ship command posts, called the Legend. The prerequisite for the creation of the ICRC was the search for a reliable method of target designation and guidance of cruise missiles at the American carrier strike groups, which in those years were the main enemy of the Soviet Navy. AUG, being in itself a powerful strike weapon, combining deeply echeloned air defense and anti-aircraft defense, could move 600 nautical miles (more than 1000 km) per day, which made them an extremely difficult target. The presence in the AUG of a numerous escort and a false order additionally posed the problem of target selection for our sailors. As a result, a complex problem with several unknowns was obtained, which could not be solved by the usual methods.
Despite the presence in the USSR Navy of submarines (nuclear submarines pr. 675, pr. 661 "Anchar", submarines pr. 671), missile cruisers, coastal anti-ship missile systems, a large fleet of missile boats, as well as numerous anti-ship missile systems P-6, P -35, P-70, P-500, there was no confidence in the guaranteed defeat of the AUG in the event of a similar problem. Special warheads could not correct the situation - the problem was in reliable over-the-horizon target detection, their selection and ensuring accurate target designation for incoming cruise missiles. The use of aviation for targeting anti-ship missiles did not solve the problem: the ship's helicopter had limited capabilities, moreover, it was extremely vulnerable to the carrier-based aircraft of a potential enemy. The Tu-95RTs reconnaissance aircraft, despite its excellent inclinations, was ineffective - the aircraft needed many hours to arrive in a given area of the World Ocean, and again the reconnaissance aircraft became an easy target for deck interceptors. Such an inevitable factor as weather conditions finally undermined the confidence of the Soviet military in the proposed target designation system based on a helicopter and a reconnaissance aircraft. There was only one way out - to monitor the situation in the World Ocean from the icy abyss of outer space.
The largest scientific centers and design teams of the country, in particular, the Institute of Physics and Power Engineering and the Institute of Atomic Energy named after V. I. I. V. Kurchatov. Calculations of the orbital parameters and the relative position of spacecraft were carried out with the direct participation of Academician M. V. Keldysh. The head organization responsible for the creation of the ICRC was the Design Bureau of V. N. Chelomeya. The OKB-670 team (NPO Krasnaya Zvezda) took on the development of a nuclear power plant for spacecraft.
At the beginning of 1970, the Arsenal plant (Leningrad) began producing prototypes of spacecraft. Flight design tests of a radar reconnaissance spacecraft began in 1973, and an electronic reconnaissance satellite a year later. A radar reconnaissance spacecraft was put into service in 1975, and the entire complex (with an electronic reconnaissance spacecraft) a little later - in 1978. In 1983, the last component of the system was adopted - the P-700 "Granit" supersonic anti-ship missile.
In 1982, there was a great chance to test the ICRC in action. During the Falklands War, data from space satellites allowed the command of the Soviet Navy to track the operational and tactical situation in the South Atlantic, accurately calculate the actions of the British fleet and even predict the time and place of the landing of the British landing in the Falklands with an accuracy of several hours.
Technical aspects of the program
Technically, the ICRTs is a combination of two types of spacecraft and ship stations for receiving information directly from orbit, ensuring its processing and issuing target designation to missile weapons.
The first type of satellite US-P (Controlled Satellite - Passive, index GRAU 17F17) is an electronic reconnaissance complex designed for the detection and direction finding of objects with electromagnetic radiation. The spacecraft has a high-precision three-axis orientation and stabilization system in space. The power source is a solar battery combined with a chemical battery. The multifunctional liquid-propellant rocket launcher provides stabilization of the spacecraft and correction of its orbit altitude. To launch the spacecraft into near-earth orbit, the Cyclone launch vehicle is used. The mass of the spacecraft is 3300 kg, the average value of the working orbit height is 400 km, and the orbital inclination is 65 °.
The second type of satellite US-A (Controlled Sputnik - Active, index GRAU 17F16) was equipped with a two-way side-scan radar, providing all-weather and all-day detection of surface targets. The low working orbit (which excluded the use of bulky solar panels) and the need for a powerful and uninterrupted energy source (solar batteries could not work on the shadow side of the Earth) determined the type of onboard power source - the BES-5 Buk nuclear reactor, with a thermal power of 100 kW (electric power - 3 kW, estimated operating time - 1080 hours).
The mass of the spacecraft is more than 4 tons, of which 1250 kg fell on the reactor. US-A had a cylindrical shape 10 meters long and 1.3 meters in diameter. On one side of the hull there was a reactor, on the other - a radar. The reactor was protected only by the radar, so the hellish satellite was a constant source of radiation. After the end of the working life, a special upper stage put the reactor into a "burial orbit" at an altitude of 750 … 1000 km from the Earth's surface, the rest of the satellite burned up when falling in the atmosphere. According to calculations, the time spent by objects in such orbits is at least 250 years.
Russian roulette
On September 18, 1977, the Kosmos-954 spacecraft was successfully launched from Baikonur, which is nothing more than an active satellite of the Legend ICRC. Orbit parameters: perigee - 259 km, apogee - 277 km, orbital inclination - 65 degrees.
For a whole month, "Kosmos-954" vigilantly kept watch in space orbit, paired with its twin "Kosmos-252". On October 28, 1977, the satellite suddenly ceased to be monitored by ground control services. The reason is still unclear, most likely there was a failure in the software of the corrective propulsion system. All attempts to co-ordinate the satellite were unsuccessful. It was also not possible to bring it into the "burial orbit".
In early January 1978, the instrument compartment of the spacecraft was depressurized, Kosmos-954 was completely out of order and stopped responding to requests from the Earth. An uncontrolled descent of a satellite with a nuclear reactor on board began.
The Western world gazed in horror at the dark night sky, expecting to see the shooting star of death. Back in November, the Joint Air Defense Command of the North American continent NORAD made a statement that the Soviet spacecraft had lost its orbit and posed a potential threat due to a possible fall to Earth. In January 1978, world tabloids came out with the headlines "Soviet spy satellite with a nuclear reactor on board is in uncontrolled orbit and continues to descend." Everyone was discussing when and where the flying reactor would fall. Russian Roulette has started.
In the early morning of January 24, Kosmos-954 collapsed over Canadian territory, filling the province of Alberta with radioactive debris.
The search operation "Morning Light" began (in honor of such a bright end of the satellite's career). The first object, which is the remnant of the reactor core, was found on January 26. In total, the Canadians found more than 100 fragments with a total weight of 65 kg in the form of rods, discs, tubes and smaller parts, the radioactivity of which was up to 200 roentgens / hour.
Luckily for Canadians, Alberta is a northern, sparsely populated province, with no local population harmed.
Of course, there was an international scandal, the Americans shouted loudest of all, the USSR paid symbolic compensation and for the next 3 years refused to launch US-A, improving the design of the satellite.
Nevertheless, in 1982 a similar accident was repeated aboard the Kosmos-1402 satellite. This time, the spacecraft safely drowned in the waves of the Atlantic. According to experts, if the fall began 20 minutes earlier, "Cosmos-1402" would have landed in Switzerland.
Fortunately, no more serious accidents with "Russian flying reactors" were recorded. In the event of emergency situations, the reactors were separated and transferred to the "disposal orbit" without incident.
Results of the program
In total, 39 launches (including test) of US-A radar reconnaissance satellites with nuclear reactors on board were carried out under the Marine Space Reconnaissance and Targeting System program, of which 27 were successful. Of course, numerous new, not yet tested, often too innovative solutions in the creation of this technology could not but affect the reliability of spacecraft. Nevertheless, US-A in the 80s reliably controlled the surface situation in the World Ocean. The last launch of a spacecraft of this type took place on March 14, 1988.
At the moment, the space constellation of the Russian Federation includes only US-P electronic reconnaissance satellites. The last of them, Cosmos-2421, was launched on June 25, 2006. According to official information, there were minor problems on board due to incomplete disclosure of solar panels. Then the story with "Cosmos-2421" became the source of American slander. Despite numerous statements from the Russian side that everything is in order with the spacecraft, it is in normal orbit and is in contact with it, NORAD representatives claim that on March 14, 2007, Cosmos-2421 ceased to exist and collapsed into 300 fragments.
One of the US-P satellites, Kosmos-2326, in addition to specific tasks in the interests of the country's security, performed a purely peaceful function - with the help of the Konus-A module, it investigated cosmic gamma-ray bursts.
In general, the ICRC "Legend" has become one of the visiting cards of the Soviet cosmonautics. Many of its components still have no analogues in the world. And most importantly, unlike all the advertised SDI programs, it was put into service.
