The information about Russian superweapons, voiced by the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin in the course of his message to the Federal Assembly, produced the effect of an exploding bomb in the Internet space. The newest Dagger missiles, laser systems, and Avangard hypersonic units immediately became the focus of attention of military experts and many others who were not indifferent to the present of the Russian armed forces. In the proposed material, we will try to figure out what the Poseidon nuclear torpedo is, or, as it was called before, the Status-6 system.
The videos presented indicate that we are dealing with a system designed to destroy with a nuclear charge cities located on the coast, ports and naval bases of a potential enemy, but also for his ship groupings in the ocean. Let's first consider the possibility of using Poseidon as a weapon of mass destruction. Konstantin Sivkov spoke most categorically on this topic:
“You can also apply the method proposed by Academician Sakharov: these are explosions of ultra-high power (100 megatons, author's note) at calculated points along the Atlantic Ocean at great depths near the American coast. These explosions will lead to the appearance of hypertsunami 400-500 meters high, and maybe more. Naturally, everything will be washed away at a distance of thousands of kilometers. The USA will be destroyed."
The newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda" wrote about this at one time:
“Another variant of a mega-strike is the initiation of giant tsunamis. This is the idea of the late Academician Sakharov. The point is to detonate several munitions at calculated points along the Atlantic and Pacific transform faults (within 3-4 on each) at a depth of one and a half to two kilometers. As a result, according to the calculations of Sakharov and other scientists, a wave will form that will reach an altitude of 400-500 meters or more off the coast of the United States! … If explosions are made at great depths, near the bottom, where the earth's crust is thinnest at the joints of the plates … magma, having come into contact with ocean water, will multiply the force of the explosion. In this case, the tsunami height will reach more than one and a half kilometers, and the destruction zone will exceed 1500 kilometers from the coast."
The well-known historian A. B. Shirokorad. But how realistic is such a forecast? The question, of course, is an interesting one, so let's figure out what exactly Academician Sakharov proposed.
Oddly enough, history has not preserved this proposal of the academician - neither a note, nor a memorandum, nor a project, nor calculations, and in general, nothing that could shed light on the secret of the "washout of the United States" has not yet been found, and if it has been found, it has not presented to the public.
In order to understand all this, let's first study the history of the design of super torpedoes and super-powerful nuclear bombs of the Soviet Union. As you know, the test of the first atomic weapon of the USSR took place on August 29, 1949 - the RDS-1 bomb, which had a capacity of 22 kilotons (in TNT equivalent), was detonated. The tests were successful, and the USSR became the owner of atomic weapons, absolutely necessary to achieve parity with the United States.
However, it is not enough to have an atomic bomb - it still needs to be delivered to the enemy's territory, but this was not easy. In fact, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the USSR did not have the means capable of delivering atomic munitions to the United States with an acceptable probability of success. Of the available aircraft, only Tu-16 and Tu-4 bombers could carry nuclear bombs for some long distances, but their flight range was limited, and besides, it was extremely difficult to imagine that these aircraft, without the accompaniment of fighters, could hit targets in the zones dominance of the US Air Force. They thought about missile weapons, but they began preliminary studies of a ballistic missile only in 1950, and these works were crowned with success only in 1957, when the first launch of the intercontinental R-7 took place.
Under these conditions, it is not at all surprising that the USSR is thinking about an atomic torpedo. The idea was very simple - the submarine was supposed to approach the US coast and use a torpedo at its maximum range, directing it towards a port or a US naval base. But one very significant problem arose. The fact is that the atomic bombs that existed at that time and were being developed had very significant dimensions, including the diameter (the author of this article, of course, is not an atomic physicist, but assumes that the need for a large diameter stemmed from the implosive operation of the ammunition).
In addition, they were distinguished by a large mass - the weight of the RDS-3, adopted by the long-range aviation of the USSR in the early 50s, was 3,100 kg. I must say that the usual torpedo of the Soviet fleet of those years (53-39PM) had a diameter of 533 mm and a mass of 1,815 kg, and, of course, could not carry such ammunition.
It was the inability of classic torpedoes to use nuclear weapons that necessitated the development of a new underwater "delivery vehicle" for them. In 1949, work began on the design of the monstrous T-15, which had a caliber of 1,550 mm and was capable of carrying more than three-ton "special warheads". Accordingly, the other dimensions of the T-15 inevitably had to be made cyclopean - its length was 24 m, its weight was about 40 tons. The first Soviet submarines of Project 627 were to be the carrier of the T-15.
It was assumed that its torpedo tubes will be dismantled, and their place will be taken by the monstrous tube for the T-15.
However, the sailors categorically did not like all this. They quite rightly noted that at the level of US anti-aircraft weapons that existed at that time, a breakthrough of a Soviet nuclear submarine by 30 km to a military base or a major port is practically unrealistic, that even if a torpedo is launched, it can be intercepted and destroyed by a fairly wide range of means, ranging from mines with remote fuses, etc. The country's leadership listened to the opinion of the Navy - not the least role in this was played by the fact that the work on the T-15 never left the pre-design state, while the creation of ballistic (R-7) and supersonic cruise missiles (X-20), capable of carrying atomic weapons, have already advanced far enough. Therefore, in 1954, the T-15 nuclear torpedo project was closed.
Contrary to popular belief, no one ever intended to put a 100-megaton warhead on the T-15. The thing is that during the development of the T-15 (1949-1953) the USSR did not develop, and, in general, did not even dream of such ammunition. During this period, the RDS-1, RDS-2 and RDS-3 bombs entered service, the maximum power of which ranged from 28-40 kilotons. In parallel with this, work was underway to create a much more powerful hydrogen bomb RDS-6s, but its rated power did not exceed 400 kilotons. In principle, work on the creation of a megaton-class hydrogen bomb (RDS-37) began in 1952-53, but you need to understand that at that time there was no understanding of how it should work (two-stage design). Even the general principles on which such a bomb was supposed to work was only formulated in 1954, and in any case it was about an ammunition with a capacity of up to 3 megatons. On tests in 1955, by the way, the RDS-37 showed only 1.6 Mt, but it cannot be ruled out that the explosion power was artificially limited.
So, the RDS-37, among other things, was a warhead of maximum power, which was planned to be installed on the T-15 torpedo until the very closure of the project in 1954.
And what was A. D. Sakharov? He worked in a group of nuclear scientists who were developing the hydrogen bomb, and in 1953 he became a doctor of physical and mathematical sciences and an academician, and in 1954 he began to develop the Tsar Bomba, an ammunition with a capacity of 100 megatons. Could the Tsar Bomba become a T-15 warhead? No, it was impossible even in principle: despite the gradual reduction in the size of nuclear ammunition, the “Tsar Bomba” in its final version (tested in 1961) had a mass of 26.5 tons and a diameter of 2,100 mm, that is, its dimensions significantly exceeded capabilities of the T-15. And what the dimensions of a 100-megaton ammunition could have seemed in 1952-1955. even hard to imagine.
All this makes one strongly doubt the common phrase that in 1950 or 1952 A. D. Sakharov turned either to Beria or to Stalin with a proposal to place 100-megaton ammunition along America in order to wash it off the face of the earth - at that time he was busy poring over 400-kiloton ammunition, perhaps slowly thinking about a three-megaton one, but I could only dream of something more during the indicated periods. And it is extremely doubtful that a young specialist, who has not yet become an academician or a doctor of science, could easily advise the same Beria about something, and solely on the basis of his own dreams.
In view of the above, we can safely state that in the first half of the 50s, no projects of "atomic torpedoes - awakening megatsunami" existed in nature. The development of the T-15 meant undermining its special warhead directly in the water area of the port or naval base, and what kind of megatsunami can be expected from a 3 megaton ammunition?
The second version of the version about “washing out the USA under the leadership of A. D. Sakharov”refers already to 1961, when the“Tsar Bomba”was tested - an ammunition with a capacity of 100 megatons was specially weakened during testing and showed only 58 megatons. Nevertheless, the tests showed the correctness of the concept and there was no doubt that the USSR was capable of creating 100-megaton bombs. And then - a word to A. D. Sakharov:
“To put an end to the theme of the 'big' product, I will tell here a kind of remaining 'on the colloquial level' story - although it happened somewhat later. … After testing the "large" product, I was worried that there was no good carrier for it (bombers do not count, they are easy to shoot down) - that is, in a military sense, we were working in vain. I decided that such a carrier could be a large torpedo launched from a submarine. I fantasized that a ramjet water-steam atomic jet engine could be developed for such a torpedo. The target of an attack from a distance of several hundred kilometers should be the ports of the enemy. The war at sea is lost if the ports are destroyed - the sailors assure us of this. The body of such a torpedo can be made very durable, it will not be afraid of mines and barrage nets. Of course, the destruction of ports - both by a surface explosion of a torpedo with a 100-megaton charge "jumped out" of the water, and by an underwater explosion - inevitably involves very large human casualties. One of the first people with whom I discussed this project was Rear Admiral F. Fomin.
He was shocked by the "cannibalistic" nature of the project, noticed in a conversation with me that naval sailors are used to fighting an armed enemy in open combat and that the very idea of such a mass murder is disgusting for him. I was ashamed and never discussed my project with anyone again."
In other words, A. D. Sakharov does not write anything about some kind of megatsunami. The point is that history repeated itself, because there was no worthy carrier for the Tsar Bomba - a warhead of 29.5 tons could not be installed on a ballistic missile even in principle, hence, in fact, the idea of a super-powerful torpedo arose again. At the same time, A. D. Sakharov, apparently recalling the admirals' remarks regarding the short range of the T-15, is thinking about equipping it with a nuclear engine. But the most important thing is different. HELL. Sakharov emphasizes that:
1. No serious study of a nuclear torpedo with a warhead of 100 megatons was carried out, everything remained at the level of conversations;
2. Even conversations about this weapon took place later than the Tsar Bomba tests, that is, there were no proposals to “wash America away” in the early 50s of A. D. Sakharov did not;
3. It was precisely about the direct destruction of American ports or naval bases by detonating a powerful nuclear charge in their water area, and by no means about megatsunami or the use of this torpedo as a tectonic weapon.
No less interesting is the characterization of A. D. Sakharov of similar weapons, which he gave right there, but which for some reason are constantly hesitant to quote publications telling about “America's washer named after A. D. Sakharov . There she is:
“I am now writing about all this without fear that someone will grab hold of these ideas - they are too fantastic, obviously require exorbitant expenses and the use of large scientific and technical potential for their implementation and do not correspond to modern flexible military doctrines, in general, they are of little interest. … It is especially important that, given the state of the art, such a torpedo is easy to detect and destroy on the way (for example, with an atomic mine)"
It clearly follows from the last statement that A. D. Sakharov did not intend to use such a torpedo to "stir up" tectonic faults located off the coast of the United States. They are extremely large, and it is obviously impossible to cover them with atomic minefields.
There is one more important nuance. Without a doubt, A. D. Sakharov was one of the greatest nuclear physicists of his time (alas, we cannot say the same about A. D. Sakharov as a human being), but he was neither a geologist nor a geophysicist and could hardly independently carry out the necessary research and calculations of the consequences detonation of ultra-high-yield nuclear weapons in areas of tectonic faults. This, in general, is not at all his profile. Therefore, even if A. D. Sakharov once made such a statement, it would have been largely unfounded. However, the humor of the situation lies in the fact that there are no documents indicating that A. D. Sakharov once came up with a similar initiative!
True, there is evidence of a person of that era - but are they trustworthy, that is the question? V. Falin, a diplomat of the Khrushchev era, spoke about the tsunami as a striking factor. But here's the bad luck - in his stories, the wave height was only 40-60 meters, and here, supposedly, A. D. Sakharov threatened to "wash away America" … It is sad to say about it, but V. Falin is a man, shall we say, of very broad views. For example, in the same interview he spoke very favorably about the book "Black Sun of the Third Reich" with a description of Hitler's flying saucers and secret bases in Antarctica … And he gave his interview in 2011, at the age of 85. In general, there is a persistent feeling that in this case V. Falin was not talking about what he himself witnessed, but about some rumors that reached him through unknown hands.
In general, the following should be stated - we still do not have solid evidence that A. D. Sakharov, or someone else in the USSR, was seriously developing mechanisms for "flushing the United States" by detonating nuclear charges of increased power. And, frankly, there is a strong feeling that the "washing away of America" is just a liberal myth, designed to show what a long way the dissident and human rights activist A. D. Sakharov, who began with the "cannibalistic" plans to "wash off America" and ended up fighting the "bloody regime" for human rights in the USSR (by the way, the letter of A. D. in order to compel the latter's leadership to respect human rights is usually not mentioned).
And if so, then we can state that the Status-6 torpedo, or Poseidon, is not some kind of reincarnation of the tectonic weapon proposed by A. D. Sakharov, for the simple reason that A. D. Sakharov did not offer anything of the kind. But then - what tasks is Poseidon intended to solve?
Let's first ask ourselves a question - can the energy of a 100-megaton ammunition independently create megatsunami? In fact, the answer to this question does not exist today, since scientists (at least in open publications) do not have a consensus on this issue. But if you take a fairly detailed book on nuclear underwater explosions "Water Waves Generated by Underwater Explosions", it turns out that under ideal conditions for the formation of mega- or hypertsunami, its height can reach:
At 9, 25 km from the epicenter - 202-457 m.
At 18, 5 km from the epicenter - 101 … 228 m.
d = 92.5 km, - 20 … 46 m.
d = 185 km, - 10, 1 … 22 m.
At the same time, it should be understood that the detonation directly off the coast of the tsunami effect will not give, since the formation of a tsunami requires detonation of ammunition at a depth comparable to the wave height that we want to receive, and the kilometer depths off the coast of American cities do not start so close. And even in the most "ideal" case, no "megatsunami" will be observed 100 km from the explosion site. Although, of course, a wave with a height of 20-46 m can also do nightmares, but obviously, it cannot come to the "washout of America". And the most important thing is that an ordinary, surface explosion of a 100-megaton nuclear warhead has quite similar capabilities, and taking into account the radioactive contamination, it may even be large.
There is another important aspect. The issue of "tsunami formation" has not been worked out and, most certainly, has not been tested in practice, and in this case, an error in the calculations can lead to the fact that the mighty 300-meter wave that sweeps away everything in its path will turn out to be thirty centimeters. Therefore, there is simply no deep sense in such a use of high-yield nuclear weapons.
Accordingly, we can assume that Poseidon is intended for direct destruction of port cities and naval bases by detonating its special warhead directly in the water area of a port or base. Although it is possible that for some specific geographic places where the formation of megatsunami is really possible, provided that the Poseidon is really equipped with a super-powerful nuclear weapon, it can be used to create a tidal wave 50-200 meters high. True, in this case, of course, we will not talk about "washing out America", but about the destruction of a particular city or naval base - no more, but no less.
How effective can Poseidon be at destroying enemy ports and bases?
The first thing to take into account: despite the declared speed of 185 km / h, it is clear that the cruising speed of the Poseidon is much lower. The fact is that it is, of course, possible to ensure such super-speed when using a small-sized nuclear power plant, but a low-noise mode is not in any case (expert opinion of the Leksin brothers, the most famous scientists-specialists of the Navy in hydroacoustics). In other words, "Poseidon" goes in the depths of the sea no faster (and most likely, even much slower) than a conventional torpedo. High-speed mode "Poseidon" is needed, most likely, to evade counter-torpedoes.
A diving depth of up to 1000 m for Poseidon is quite possible, and indeed, it will provide not only stealth, but also almost one hundred percent invulnerability. However, it is worth remembering that the depths near the American coast are by no means such, and the Poseidon is clearly not equipped with the means for digging tunnels along the ocean floor. In other words, if the depths in the port area reach 300-400 meters, then at a kilometer depth Poseidon will not get to such a port - and here it becomes vulnerable to opposition.
Of course, it should be noted that Poseidon is far from the easiest target for enemy anti-submarine defense. Following at speeds up to 55 km per hour (up to 30 knots), it can be "heard" by passive means at a distance of no more than 2-3 km (Leksin's estimate), while identifying Poseidon as a torpedo will be extremely difficult. At the same time, the use of hydroacoustic systems in active mode or magnetometers will make it possible to detect Poseidon quite reliably, but even in this case it will not be so easy to hit it - the ability to accelerate to 185 km / h, that is, to almost 100 knots makes it an extremely difficult target for any NATO torpedo (it is impossible to catch up with Poseidon, and it is not so easy to hit “on the countercourse” either). Thus, the probability of successful penetration into the port / water area of a military base should be regarded as quite high.
But the anti-ship capabilities of the Poseidon are extremely limited. The fact is that the geometrical dimensions of our super torpedo do not allow placing on it a hydroacoustic complex, at least somewhat comparable to those possessed by submarines. Obviously, the capabilities of its acoustics are much closer to those of conventional torpedoes, and they, frankly, do not boggle the imagination at all.
How does a modern torpedo work? It may seem funny, but the principles of targeting it are the same as those used by anti-aircraft missiles. It looks like this - the submarine launches a torpedo "on a string", that is, the torpedo reaching the target is connected to the submarine by a control cable. The submarine monitors target noises, calculates its displacement and corrects the direction of movement of the torpedo, transmitting commands through this cable. This happens until the torpedo and the target ship come close to the capture distance of the torpedo's sonar homing head - it is aimed at the target by the noise of the propellers. Capture parameters are transmitted to the submarine. And only when the submarine is convinced that the seeker of the torpedo has captured the target, they stop transmitting corrective commands to the torpedo through the cable. The torpedo switches to self-control and hits the target.
All this very cumbersome method is necessary due to the fact that the capabilities of the GOS torpedo are extremely limited, the range of reliable target acquisition is measured in kilometers, no more. And without pre-aiming by cable, launching a torpedo “somewhere in that direction” at a distance of 15-20 km no longer makes much sense - the chances of capture of an enemy ship's torpedo by the seeker and its successful attack are extremely small.
Accordingly, an attempt to attack a ship's order by Poseidon from a long distance requires a downright visionary gift - it is necessary to guess the location of enemy ships with an accuracy of several kilometers after many hours after launch. The task is not that non-trivial, but frankly unsolvable - given the fact that it will take Poseidon about four hours to intercept the same AUG at a distance of 200 km to reach the given area … and where will the AUG be in four hours?
It is possible, of course, to assume that Poseidon, somewhere in conventional points, floats to the surface to obtain information clarifying the initial target designation, but, firstly, this will strongly unmask the super torpedo. And secondly, the enemy naval grouping is a very difficult target: the problem of target designation obsolescence exists even for supersonic anti-ship missiles, what can we say about a torpedo with its “parade” 30 nodes of a “silent” course?
But even if a miracle happened, and "Poseidon" managed to get into the area where the warrant is located, you need to remember that the acoustics of a single torpedo is relatively easy and deceived using the same simulator traps. As a matter of fact, it is enough to have something that will move away from the AUG, while simulating its noises - that's all. This is even provided that the torpedo does not mistakenly aim at some completely peaceful transport of a third country not participating in the conflict (and this option is quite possible, automatic selection is capable of making such mistakes).
In general, let's face it: Poseidon's anti-ship capabilities are frankly dubious, even taking into account the super-powerful warhead … which, it seems, no one is going to install on it. At least the publications of July 17 of this year claim that there are no 100-megaton warheads on the "super torpedo", and its limit is 2 megatons.
And this means that the idea of megatsunami is dying in the bud. In order to strike at the same New York, "Poseidon will have to" break in "almost to the very coastline, well, at least to the island of Manhattan. This is probably possible, but it is very difficult and we can safely say that a classic intercontinental ballistic missile (or, say, the newest Avangard) is much better suited for such work - it has much more chances of hitting a target with its warheads than that of " Poseidon ".
So what do we end up with? The fleet lacks literally everything: aviation, submarines, means of monitoring the underwater and surface situations, minesweepers, ships of the ocean zone. And with all this, the Ministry of Defense has invested large sums of money in a new weapons system (torpedo + carrier boat for it), which, in terms of the efficiency of delivering nuclear weapons, outright loses to a ballistic missile and is unable to effectively deal with enemy ship groups.
What for?
