Dedicated to all compatriots who fought for the good and prosperity of our Motherland - Russia!
It all started with politics
The idea of writing this article arose after reading another news about the next report announced by the US Congress (2018-15-11 reported by TASS), about the alleged military threat from Russia and China. And that the United States should increase military allocations in order to exert military pressure on these countries, and in the event of an open confrontation, deal with both at once. That is, a country like the United States of America, not only does not want to, but is not going to live peacefully and pursue a peaceful policy. And here, like any sane person who understands that this colossus, in addition to conventional weapons, is ready to use weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, chemical, bacteriological and binary (otherwise what is the point in his threats?)), There was a desire to voice ideas that can contain and bring to mind such boisterous turkeys. And given that modern weapons are now expensive, I will announce the answer to the US military machine in the form of asymmetric and inexpensive-to-manufacture means, which have long been known to most citizens interested in a military topic and capable of leveling the odds. And I'll make a reservation right away that these solutions have already been massively applied. That is why they belong to the category of proven and inexpensive, because these technologies have already been worked out. So, let's try to save the world from madmen with a nuclear club.
Russian civilian ekranoplan project. Photo from the magazine "Popular Science".
Combat ekranoplanes
As you know, an ekranoplan is a high-speed aircraft flying within the range of an aerodynamic screen (the effect of a sharp increase in lift when there is a shielding surface). That is, at a relatively low altitude, within ten meters. At first glance, a very dubious design in terms of combat. After all, it is extremely difficult to use it over forests, houses in villages and cities, in the mountains. It turns out that the restrictions are so great that coastal waters remain. Today it is, this is a tool for border guards and customs officers, and the military is not really considering it very seriously. And I must say in vain.
This material can be illustrated in different ways. But in this case, it seems that VO readers will be interested to look at … the covers of the American magazine Popular Science, which for many years placed images of the most fantastic machines and mechanisms on them. Most never went beyond the covers. But … some have embodied (although not always successfully!) In metal. In any case, it was a great training for the mind. For example, here is a project of a high-speed glider, the hull shape of which is such that at a certain speed it comes out of the water and glides along the crests of the waves.
Let's start with that very “sharp increase in lift”. That is, the payload of these aircraft can be significantly higher than that of airplanes. In addition, some designs of ekranoplanes are capable of switching to airplane mode, and they are usually called ekranoplanes. But the main thing is that this is an apparatus capable of moving at the speed of an aircraft near the surface (water, earth, swamp, etc.), carrying more payload than an aircraft or a rocket. Or, conversely, to have smaller dimensions, to move the same payload as aircraft and missiles (in this case, we mean winged, flying, bending around the earth's surface, so hiding from the radar serif). But this applies to ground and ship radar stations, which, somewhere from 20 meters and below to the surface, see nothing and cannot detect anything. By the way, the Israeli Air Force still often uses this trick of avoiding the all-seeing eye of the radar to suddenly attack its Middle Eastern targets. The Argentine Air Force used low-level flight to attack the British fleet using top-mast bombing. And I must admit, they attacked quite successfully. According to official sources, Argentine pilots damaged about 30 ships of Her Majesty's army in the Falklands War. Now let's get back to the issue of invisibility in front of the radar means. Where they do not see ground-based radar observation posts, they will see the air ones. And by the way, the same USA has plenty of AWACS radar aircraft (the Russian analogue of AWACS). That is, it is not so easy to get close to coastal bases or aircraft carrier groups, cruise missiles or ekranoplanes. Moreover, the Israelis today still use a highly raised radar on a balloon. She guards their nuclear power plant. Well, so that the same craftsmen, like Israeli pilots, or cruise missiles could not suddenly attack that very nuclear power plant. And it seems to be a dead end. But, as we remember, science does not stand still and, fleeing detection with the help of radar, the same Americans became the pioneers in the development of STEALS technologies (in Russia these are low-visibility technologies, or TMZ). It is logical that if these technologies can be applied to large-sized aircraft and ships, then they can be used all the more in the creation of rockets and ekranoplanes. And in this case, it is significant that their wingspan is often less than that of aircraft, with the same payload.
Steam airplane! Original, isn't it?
And now we come to the most important thing. Any state that has coastal waters through which an attack can be carried out is able to build and use ekranoplan-projectiles made according to TMZ technologies. Moreover, stealth from all angles will not have to be achieved, because under the ekranoplan there will most often be waves that perfectly absorb radio emissions. The radio wave reflected into the water from the stealth aircraft will not return to the reconnaissance aircraft. And this significantly reduces the cost of the construction and operation of such devices, according to the principle of application, similar to cruise missiles.
Airship-aircraft carrier. Even two were built: Akron and Mekon.
Now let's remember the flight range. Probably, it will be superfluous to remind that the ekranoplan is able to glide along the surface as far as airplanes and missiles. And this means that any ship, naval and coastal base within a radius of a thousand nautical miles from the launch point (almost 2 thousand kilometers) is in the affected area of such an inconspicuous ekranoplan-projectile. And here it is curious to remember that ramjet rocket engines, which you do not often see on modern military equipment, are quite suitable for movement with the use of a screen effect. This type of engine is much simpler and cheaper to manufacture, which is important for a disposable aircraft. For the same cruise missiles, it is of little use, but here it will do quite well in order to create a screen effect and move an inconspicuous aircraft to the point of attack with sufficient speed.
But such a "flying aircraft carrier" remained in the project …
At this point, someone might notice that most modern warships are equipped with close-range defenses - rapid-fire cannons and machine guns. They are capable of shooting down approaching planes and missiles with the fire of guns and machine guns. But this is in the event that they spotted them and see them on the devices. The same device flies slightly above the waves and, as previously determined, it is better to design it using STEALTH technology. That is, the devices will not help. But today, video surveillance systems can be used, which include an object recognition program (similar to that used in shopping centers, face recognition) and the usual observation of watchmen through binoculars and pipes, with instant notification. Yes, but let's turn to Soviet military history. Back in 1937, "mirror aircraft" were tested in the USSR. Someone from the designers proposed the idea of covering the plane with mirrored surfaces, and then it will reflect the surrounding sky, which will make it invisible to observers from the ground and inconspicuous to enemy fighter pilots. Such a property would be very useful for Soviet bombers. No sooner said than done. Instead of aluminum and thin plywood, they used plexiglass, which was chemically treated on the inside by deposition of a silver mirror. And from the first flights of these several prototypes, it was found that, having risen to a height of more than two hundred meters, the plane visually simply disappears. The solution seemed ingenious. But he also had significant shortcomings. First of all, the planes were very glare in the sun. And it soon became clear that the plexiglass of those years in the process of intensive use under the influence of weather conditions quickly loses its transparency and begins to grow cloudy. And this immediately makes the plane noticeable. Then this technical problem could not be solved, but with modern coatings it is quite possible to get rid of sun glare and reduce visual visibility up to hundreds of meters, when it is too late to notify and grab a machine gun. Moreover, when approaching the object of attack at 3-4 kilometers, solid-fuel boosters can be launched, increasing the flight speed to 500 meters per second. And this means that 4 km of such an ekranoplan projectile will fly in 8 seconds. Considering these factors of stealth, it is too late to react to it.
Again something watery and, in principle, very high-speed …
It is quite possible to disperse such an aircraft with the help of a mobile catapult and conventional powder boosters, which are soon dropped. As a result, an aircraft is quite inexpensive by modern standards (when compared with modern missiles, in terms of the high cost of their components and production in general), capable of attacking a naval base, missile cruiser or aircraft carrier at a considerable distance from its shores. And in order to resist such a threat, it will be necessary to start urgently developing new means of detecting and re-equipping the entire army on them. And as you can imagine, even a superpower's economic trousers will come off very quickly from such requests. And if you rearm as slowly as modern Russia, you lose your technical superiority over the enemy. Which at all times gave the most significant contribution to the victory over the enemy. Moreover, instead of 500 kg of explosives, such an inconspicuous ekranolet can carry a small nuclear charge. And here the United States of America and their naval allies in the person of Great Britain, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Australia feel completely sad. For the launch of just one such apparatus is capable of destroying an entire fleet, or a large naval base. And given that on an aircraft carrier, caught under such a nuclear explosion, its own nuclear reactor will also explode, the power of the blow increases immediately at times. Moreover, theoretically, nothing prevents such an invisible ekranoplan from reaching even the shores of the United States. And since this aircraft itself and its launcher are much cheaper than the same ballistic missile and its launch station, it is logical to assume that more ICBMs will be built of such ekranoplanes.
Journal of 1949. On the cover, missiles are launched from containers in the airplane's hull. The project has found its way into modern stealth aircraft.
Tethered balloons-radar
As you know, tethered balloons have been used in military affairs for a very long time. In the last quarter of the 20th century, they were also adapted to carry radars to detect low-flying targets inaccessible to ground-based radars. The result is a very effective combination. And the above example of an Israeli radar balloon is a vivid confirmation of this. Now aircraft on low level flight, cruise missiles enveloping the terrain and maneuvering missiles turning into low-altitude flight are perfectly visible. And then the main question is how to shoot down these attacking means. The solution to this issue has already been proposed and practically worked out. First of all, it is worth remembering the Soviet-Russian air defense missile systems "Tunguska" and the more ancient "Shilka". If you configure their connection with aerostat-based radar, you can get a good interaction of different types of weapons. The Americans in Afghanistan went even further. They used their radar stations with rapid-fire machine guns on the road to protect military bases from artillery attacks by dushmans. Where Soviet troops suffered losses, the Americans learned to quite successfully deal with shelling from mortars and mobile multiple launch rocket systems. With defensive fire, rapid-fire machine guns simply shot down all incoming mines and rockets. This experience in combating shelling was used by the Israelis, although less successfully. After all, hiding in the mountains, you cannot drag a large ammunition load to the military base of the occupation forces. Short shelling and runaway. And on the borders with Israel, the situation is different. Thousands of cheap rockets are launched here at the same time. Some of them reach the addressee due to the fact that machine guns simply do not have enough ammunition to shoot down everything. And it turns out that it is necessary to increase the number of such installations, but the military budget of a small country is very limited. If you buy more of this, it means less of something else. But the idea itself is excellent and, I repeat, is capable of showing good results against low-flying attacking means "air-to-surface" and "surface-to-surface". Russia and China may well protect dangerous areas with these, in fact, inexpensive means. And quite effective.
The magazine of our days. "Flying Warrior" with jet engines and its own wings.
Long-range shells and missiles
As you know, in the system of artillery and missile weapons, all aspects of the flight of shells to the target have long been studied. They squeezed out what they could for a long time. All that remains is to fight aerodynamic drag and increase the thrust / power of the accelerator.
Most readers interested in military topics are familiar with the Shkval high-speed submarine missile capable of moving under water at a speed of 300 kilometers per hour. We also know from the physics course that water is 800 (!) Times denser than air. What if you tried to overcome air resistance in a similar way? If it worked out with water, maybe it will work out for shells and air traffic missiles too? And in this subheading we will try to answer this question.
At high speeds of a body flying through the air, a significant counter resistance arises from friction against the air. By adding the resistance of the side surfaces located along the flow, we get an air wall, through which it is difficult to break through. In fact, every aircraft or projectile makes its way like a man through a dense bush. But it seems that there is a way out if you look at this process differently. By the way, this is probably why many effective engineering solutions are often used by dropouts, from the point of view of scientists. Scientists seem to understand everything, but inquisitive minds compare various known processes with each other, thus obtaining new promising developments.
"Ekranolet" from the 1961 magazine. There are no such ones yet, and it is not expected!
Let's remember such a widely known thing today as a jet engine. It has a compressor that builds up the required air pressure. What if the idea of this compressor was applied to rotating artillery shells and rockets? Of course, in the open air, the turbine blades will create a high counter resistance to the air flow, which negates all their useful work. But you can put the turbine blades horizontally, with its upper end facing the air flow, thus reducing the oncoming air resistance to the minimum. On the elongated head of the projectile, or rocket, designed to overcome the oncoming air resistance, the rows of these recumbent turbine blades can be arranged in 2-3 rows, stepwise. And when the projectile has already started, they will simply drive the oncoming air through themselves, "throwing" it aside. Thus, reducing the oncoming air resistance. Of course, the effectiveness of this design must be checked in special laboratories, in wind tunnels. We will remember that, flying out of the barrel, the projectile makes up to several thousand revolutions per minute. And, probably, this rotation can be used to dissipate the oncoming air flow. Moreover, a number of such turbine blades can be placed in the tail of the projectile, which will reduce the area of the discharged space behind the flying body (a kind of suction cup that reduces the flight speed). This will also reduce overall drag and increase airspeed. But we will go further and consider an option that is not available for cannon artillery. Rocket projectiles are convenient in that they, as such, do not need a barrel, but only guides. This is both their plus and minus. We will try to increase the number of advantages of multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS). Having slightly reduced the caliber of the rocket and the mass, we will place long blades along the entire body (except for the head), vaguely resembling the blades of a helicopter. Let's move them away from the body of the projectile by a few millimeters and place them at an angle that also allows us to drive the air flow away from the rocket. By arranging 6-8 blades around the circumference, we get another "fan", which has a low counter resistance to air and provides a discharged airspace in which the rocket is flying.
Anti-submarine glider! Original, but unreal!
Now let's remember that today the Smerch rocket launcher is capable of launching its 12 shells at a distance of up to 70 km. And given the upgrade of the shells indicated here, it is quite possible to increase the firing range to 100 km. And this is with conventional rockets. That is, the Kuril Islands, on which Japan and the United States are buried, or any safe haven that modern missile cruisers often use, become accessible for conventional weapons. And as we remember, this weapon in its mass production is much cheaper than special anti-ship and cruise missiles. Imagine an enemy cruiser approaching and "hiding" behind an island, preparing to launch its missile strike. To get it, you need to send ships that will bypass the island or launch expensive missiles that can maneuver and "pick out" such adversaries. In contrast to these actions, an ordinary MLRS battery with the indicated long-range missiles can go to the seashore and fire a salvo. The number of missiles in the Smerch installation package is 12, multiplied by 6 vehicles in the artillery battery and we get a one-time inexpensive long-range salvo of 72 rockets. Considering that the eres will fly at once, at small intervals and at speeds close to hypersonic, there is not a single ship defense system in the world today capable of repelling such a massive attack. But such missiles can also have simple semi-active guidance systems, in the final stage of the flight aiming at the radiation of the cruiser itself. And even if there are those who claim that the superstructures of the ship will be hit, and the hull itself may remain intact. We remember that the ship will lose controllability, and fires inside from multiple hits can get to the artillery cellars, with all the consequences. Or while help arrives, the out-of-control ship will hit the rocks of that island with another storm.
As you can see, the dream of an "invisible plane" has not gone anywhere in our time!
As a result, the ships of a potential enemy will have to stay far out to sea to avoid such a scenario. And there they become prey for submarines, with the very "Shkval" submarine missiles.
Stealth submarine is cool!
I would like to complete the description of inexpensive rationalization proposals with the phrase: "As long as the Russian land is full of" Ivans Kulibins ", there will always be an answer to the increase in the military budgets of the countries of potential adversaries!"
It makes more sense to end up with politics
In addition to what was described at the beginning of the article. The bargaining between the Russian government and Japan is alarming. It is clear that these negotiations are about a peace treaty and economic agreements. The peace treaty will make it possible to establish more clearly defined relations with Japan and limit the possibilities of influence on the territory of the Russian Federation from American military bases located on the Japanese islands. But the process of this very bargaining is suspicious. It is possible that hysteria is being whipped up specially by our "sleeping patriots", by the way, described recently on the website of the Military Review in the article "Navalny and the" sleeping patriots ". In any case, the issue in the dispute with the Japanese side is cardinal. Russia is required to surrender the islands of the Kuril ridge. The very ones for which our grandfathers shed blood. For which hundreds of thousands of our compatriots risked their lives. And in turn, while the media exerts psychological pressure on the citizens of the Russian Federation, the Kremlin does not answer anything clear and intelligible to its fellow citizens. More often than not, she just keeps silent. Because of the reasons outlined in this article, the idea was born to come up with an answer for the "dearly beloved" American side, which is invisibly behind the negotiations with Tokyo. That is, even if Russian diplomats fail by giving up the islands for which so much of our blood has been shed, the opponents' gain may turn out to be scanty and unworthy of the efforts expended on this.
Next-generation strike aircraft will be unmanned ?!
As a result, I believe that the development of these technologies will largely level the chances of the parties, even against a stronger enemy, in all coastal conflict zones. Moreover, it will be beneficial for Russia to share developments on these topics with the same China. Then all the military bases of the United States and its allies in the Indian Ocean and the southeastern part of the Pacific Ocean will not only be within reach, but will lose any strategic advantage in their favor. They can be attacked with impunity (within the Pacific forces) and destroyed by the enemy. And now, when such a balance of power arises in the Southeastern region of the Earth, the United States of America will lose its global strategic superiority over the enemy, because they have many military theaters). And economic and political changes will follow the lost military superiority in the region. In fact, in the event of a military-political equilibrium, each country will no longer choose in favor of the stronger one, but in favor of the more profitable economically and politically. And given that American goods and deals offered by American corporations are far from the most profitable, and the same China is easily able to offer significantly more favorable and cheaper contract terms, at least in order to squeeze Americans out of Asian markets, it becomes quite interesting. Before our eyes, another superpower may disappear, quite possibly sharing the fate of the ancient superpower known to us - Ancient Rome.
Interesting cover caption: "How can the United States realize its technology superpowers to ensure its dominance at the last frontier?"
And finally, let's think about what the United States can oppose to the development of the technologies indicated here. As we understand, any army and any weapon can be defeated and surpassed. But the question of price arises! How much will it cost to re-equip the American army with new means of protection capable of adequately and successfully fighting new threats ?! Probably, even people far from the economy will see the amounts astronomical. The cost of a planned United States expedition to Mars looks like a grain of sand compared to a sandbox here. Although, of course, we need to talk not only about the costs of the American State Department, but also about the will of our politicians, who must issue a command to finance these programs. And here again those "sleeping" ones come into their heads. But this is from another opera and we will not touch upon it here.
P. S
Now for the United States, a very important historical moment, or, more correctly, a turnaround. If it is overlooked presumptuously, it is likely that we will be able to talk about this powerful state in the past tense. And apparently the time has come for the United States of America to make urgent efforts to revive two or three polar worlds, where each of the superpowers in its area of responsibility limits the proliferation of advanced weapons, obliging them to acquire their own equipment and technologies. Otherwise, it may soon turn out that superpowers will completely disappear in the world.
