On May 22, 2007, Boris Vasilyevich Bunkin, a Soviet and Russian scientist, designer and organizer of the production of anti-aircraft missile systems for the country's air defense system, passed away. From 1968 to 1998, Boris Vasilyevich was the general designer of NPO Almaz, and from 1998 to 2007. - Scientific director of the enterprise, which carried out the development and serial production of anti-aircraft missile systems, which formed the basis of the domestic air defense forces: S-75, S-125, S-300, S-400. For his successes, he was awarded numerous awards, was a laureate of the Lenin Prize and twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1958, 1982).
Boris Bunkin was born on July 16, 1922 in the village of Aksinino-Znamenskoye, Khimki District, Moscow Region. His father, Bunkin Vasily Fedorovich, was a surveyor engineer, a participant in the First World War. The mother of the future designer Bunkin Antonina Sergeevna was an accountant. In total, the Bunkin family had three children - Boris, Valentina and Fedor. Boris was the eldest child in the family. In Khovrin, he graduated from elementary school, then continued his studies in Likhobory, every day measuring three kilometers back and forth to school. On the way, the students whiled away the time discussing a variety of ideas. In 1936, Boris's father, who became an engineer, was provided with housing in the capital, the family moved to Moscow. A year before the start of the Great Patriotic War, Boris Bunkin graduated from secondary school №471. Passion for radio business and mathematics led the future designer in 1940 to the instrument-making department of the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI).
The day of passing the last exam for the 1st year fell on June 22, 1941. The students immediately rushed to the recruiting offices, and many of those who were not taken to the front, including Boris Bunkin, were sent to work at aircraft factories. Boris was offered to work at the oldest aircraft engine plant in the city - plant number 24 (today the Moscow machine-building production association "Salyut"). In October 1941, when the capital of the country passed into a state of siege, Bunkin was evacuated with the last group of students and teachers of the Moscow Aviation Institute to Alma-Ata, where he graduated from the 2nd year of the institute and again made an attempt to get to the front in order to fight the Nazi invaders, but he is again denied. In the summer of 1943, together with the institute, Bunkin returned to Moscow. At the same time, the family of the future designer was in poverty, a seriously ill father dies: the concussion that he received on the fronts of the First World War affects. And after another 4 years, Boris's mother will also die.
In 1944, the institute announced a recruitment for a new faculty - radar. Boris Bunkin submits an application and with the loss of a year (since the old training programs are hopelessly outdated) he begins to master modern sciences and new knowledge. In 1947, Bunkin completed his studies, according to the results of his studies, he was recommended to enter graduate school. Simultaneously with his postgraduate studies, he worked at the 108th Central Scientific Research Institute - the main USSR institute for radar, here he worked as a senior engineer. Already at that time, the institute had experienced workers and design personnel. It was during his work at TsNII-108 that Boris Vasilyevich Bunkin met his love - MAI graduate student Tatyana Fenicheva. In July 1949, the young people got married. Soon the firstborn appeared in the young family - the son Sergei (in total there were two children in the family, daughter Tatyana was born in 1955). This important event in their lives coincided with the adoption of very important decisions at the highest state level. After completing his postgraduate studies, Bunkin is sent to work in a special bureau SB-1. This appointment was fateful for him, determining the further fate of the scientist, the creator of numerous complexes and systems of air defense missile weapons.
Very important government decisions, about which Boris Bunkin, of course, could not know anything at that time, consisted in the fact that Joseph Stalin formulated the task of developing a reliable air defense system in the shortest possible time to leading Soviet scientists and military personnel. Soviet intelligence reported to the capital that new carriers of nuclear weapons were being developed overseas, and that the United States was about to acquire strategic bombers with a long range. Therefore, the Soviet Union needed new and adequate means of protection. It was during this period, in October 1950, that Boris Bunkin got a job at Design Bureau No. 1. Here, under the leadership of outstanding Soviet scientists - Semyon Alekseevich Lavochkin, Alexander Andreevich Raspletin and Vladimir Pavlovich Barmin - the first anti-aircraft missile system in the USSR was developed. It was Boris Vasilyevich who, as part of the four specialists who worked at TsNII-108, was chosen by A. A. Raspletin and A. N. Shchukin to work in KB-1. Later, recalling this time, Bunkin wrote: “How we worked! A frantic pace almost all the time, like during the war, they worked 11-12 hours a day! Documentation along with technology was sent to the head plant located in Kuntsevo ….
The anti-aircraft missile system being developed at KB-1 will be called "Berkut". Boris Vasilyevich Bunkin, Candidate of Technical Sciences, appointed as the leading engineer of the KB-1 thematic laboratory, found himself at the epicenter of all the main events associated with this system. The air defense missile system received the C-25 code, in May 1955 it was officially put into service. The soul of this ambitious project was the future academician A. A. Raspletin, whom Bunkin rightly considered his main teacher.
After the development of the S-25 stationary anti-aircraft missile system, the leadership of the Soviet Union faced the task of creating an air defense system that would protect not only the country's capital, but also the territory of the rest of the USSR. This task was dictated by the actions of the Americans, who "terrorized" the country from the air, making numerous reconnaissance flights. Their provocations forced the Soviet government to retaliate, one of such steps was the development of a mobile air defense system S-75, which could be easily deployed near any strategically important facility in the country like "nomadic" artillery batteries at the front. In order to create such a complex, a fundamentally new approach to the issues of maneuverability, to the design of the system was required. At the end of 1953, a young candidate of technical sciences BV Bunkin, on behalf of AA Raspletin, began developing the first mobile anti-aircraft guided missile system, which went down in history under the designation S-75 "Dvina". By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR ("closed") dated July 25, 1958, for outstanding services in the field of creating new means of special equipment (for the creation of the S-75 air defense system), Bunkin was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the award of the Order of Lenin and the gold medal "Sickle and Hammer".
But work on the S-75 complex was only the beginning of a long journey. Already in the spring of 1958, chief designer A. A. Raspletin set the task of creating a new air defense system, the so-called "long arm", which could hit large-sized air targets at long ranges. The preliminary study of the future anti-aircraft missile system was entrusted to a team led by Boris Bunkin. In July 1958, the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union adopted a resolution on the creation of the S-200 anti-aircraft missile system, capable of striking carrier aircraft at long ranges, and unmanned means of attack of a potential enemy in the near zone. The thematic department leading on this system was headed by Bunkin.
At the end of December 1961, A. A. Raspletin was appointed the responsible manager and general designer of KB-1, and the Raspletin design bureau was transferred under the leadership of Bunkin. Under his direct leadership, the modernization of the S-75 and S-25 air defense systems was launched, as well as the large-scale production of the new S-125 Neva anti-aircraft missile system, capable of destroying enemy aircraft at low altitudes.
In the same period, the country was developing a long-range system called the S-200 "Angara" with the B-860 missile on a wide front. Also, work begins on the creation of the "Azov" system and the modification of the "Angara" (the S-200 system with the B-880 missile), work is underway in new directions. On February 22, 1967, the S-200 system was officially adopted by the Air Defense Forces of the Soviet Union. For the creation of this system, Boris Vasilyevich was awarded the Order of Lenin. The S-200 anti-aircraft missile system was subsequently subjected to repeated modernization. For this work, Boris Bunkin was awarded the State Prize.
After the death of A. A. Raspletin, on April 30, 1968, Bunkin, who worked under his direct supervision for almost 17 years and occupied a special, important place in his scientific school, became the successor of his mentor as the general designer of Almaz. In the autumn of the same year, he was elected a Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. At this time, Bunkin is closely engaged in the implementation of the idea left by A. A. Raspletin as his testament. The idea of the ingenious designer was to develop a new anti-aircraft missile system S-300P - a multi-channel medium-range anti-aircraft missile system designed to defeat various air attack weapons at all flight altitudes, including extremely low altitudes, as well as having a minimum time to bring to full combat readiness … But, perhaps, the most important feature of the complex was to be its maximum unification for all types and branches of the USSR Armed Forces.
According to the memoirs of Boris Bunkin, the development of the S-300 air defense system was accompanied by overcoming numerous engineering and scientific problems. The designers had to, without exaggeration, once again stir up all sectors of the Soviet industry: since the S-300 used new technologies and materials, digital technology and electronic integrated circuits, the main combat functions of the system were automated, the guidance of missiles at the target, in turn, was based on completely different methods. The complex initially included the ability to fire simultaneously 6 different targets with guidance to each of them up to 2 missiles. Moreover, the defeatability of air targets was ensured at all flight altitudes, starting from 25 meters. It was also important that, thanks to the vertical launch of missiles, the S-300 could fire at air targets approaching from any direction, without turning the launchers, unlike American air defense systems.
Much attention was paid to the designers and the issue of mobility and survivability of the complex. All the components of the S-300 air defense system were mounted on self-propelled chassis of high cross-country ability, and not on trailers, as was the case with the Americans. In a combat position, the complex could be easily deployed on any chosen site in literally 5 minutes, in the same time the complex could be folded. Especially for the S-300, a unique 5V55 rocket was created, and for the first time for this type of missile, the so-called vertical catapult launch from a transport and launch container (TPK) was used. In the design of the 5V55 rocket, and also for the first time, the principle of guaranteed reliability was incorporated - the rocket could be in the TPK for more than ten years without carrying out any checks, after which it could be used for its intended purpose.
In 1970, Boris Vasilyevich Bunkin became the first laureate of the Gold Medal named after Academician A. A. Raspletin with the wording “For outstanding work in the field of radio engineering control systems”. On July 22, 1982, Bunkin was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor for the second time. He was awarded for outstanding services in the field of creating new means of special equipment (for the creation of the S-300 air defense system) and in connection with the 60th anniversary of his birth. In addition, Boris Vasilievich was awarded four Orders of Lenin, Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, the October Revolution, Friendship of Peoples, "For Services to the Fatherland" IV degree, the Medal of the Ministry of Defense of Russia "For Strengthening the Combat Commonwealth", the Badge "Honorary Radio Operator", the Gold Medal named after Academician V. F. Utkin, the golden breastplate named after Academician A. I. Berg. The name of the designer was entered in the Great Soviet, and then in the Russian Encyclopedia. He was a full member of the Academy of Natural Sciences (1992), the Academy of Engineering Sciences named after AM Prokhorov (1996), the Academy of Military Sciences, the Academy of Cryptography, the International Academy of Communications, and was also an honorary member (academician) of the Russian Academy of Missile and Artillery Sciences (1997 year).
Over the years of his work, Bunkin took part in the creation and modernization of the S-25 air defense system, was the chief designer of the S-75 air defense system, the S-200 air defense system, and also the general designer of the S-300PMU and S-300PMU1 air defense systems. Under his direct supervision, the main scientific and technical solutions for the most modern air defense system S-400 "Triumph" were developed. Bunkin also created scientific schools for the development of modern anti-aircraft missile systems, automated methods for the design and manufacture of large integrated circuits and electronic equipment. The scientific results obtained by him were published in more than 400 scientific and technical works, as well as 33 patents for inventions and copyright certificates.
Boris Vasilyevich Bunkin passed away ten years ago on May 22, 2007, and was buried at the Troekurovsky cemetery in the Russian capital. The most modern anti-aircraft missile system S-400 "Triumph" conceived by him became the best memory of the general designer, academician Boris Vasilyevich Bunkin after his death. Bunkin's life became one of the brightest pages in the history of the development of domestic science and technology in the interests of ensuring the country's defense capability.
