Captain Ken Dvili recalled how on March 27, 1999 his "invisible" F-117A was shot down near the village of Budanovtsi near Belgrade.
The first anti-aircraft missile systems S-25, S-75, developed in the USSR, and the American Nike-Ajax and Nike-Hercules, successfully solved the problem of hitting high-speed targets at high altitudes, the minimum height of their action was at least 3– 5 km, which made strike aircraft invulnerable at low altitudes. This required the creation of other anti-aircraft missile systems capable of countering low-flying targets.
Work on the first low-altitude anti-aircraft missile system (SAM) began in the fall of 1955. The head of KB-1 set for his employees the task of creating a transportable single-channel complex with increased capabilities for hitting low-altitude air targets and organized a special laboratory for its solution.
Officially, the development of the S-125 "Neva" air defense system with the B-625 missile was set by the decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR dated March 19, 1956. The new air defense system was intended to intercept targets flying at speeds up to 1500 km / h at altitudes from 100 to 5000 meters at range up to 12 km. A subsequent decree, dated May 8, 1957, clarified the timing of the phased implementation of work on the S-125.
The development of the B-625 anti-aircraft guided missile (SAM) was entrusted to the Design Bureau of one of the plants of the Ministry of Defense Industry. This work was the first for the design team, created in July 1956.
The plant's design bureau proposed a two-stage version of the rocket with solid-propellant engines. To reduce aerodynamic drag, the main stage hull had a large elongation. The aerodynamic "rotary wing" design was also new, which was used on the B-625 for the first time among domestic missiles. The launcher (PU) for the SM-78 SAM was developed in Leningrad.
The first launch of the V-625 was performed on May 14, 1958 and passed without any comments. However, during the second launch, which took place on May 17, in the third second of the flight, the stabilizer of the accelerator collapsed - as it turned out, due to its inaccurate installation at the plant. In the fourth launch, the rocket stabilizer collapsed again, and again due to a manufacturing defect. The fifth launch, which took place on November 21, added another problem: the main engine burned out due to a defect in the heat-shielding coating. The 8th launch also ended with its destruction, in January 1959.
"Pechora" at a firing position in Egypt
Rocket 5V27
Loading launcher 5P73
Aerodynamic steering wheels
Cruising and starting engines, fenders, aerodynamic brakes and stabilizers
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Transition Cone Starter Motor
Aerodynamic brakes on the starter motor
Starting engine nozzle
SAM "Pechora-2A" at the air show in Zhukovsky
Wreckage of the American F-117A stealth aircraft shot down over Yugoslavia
In general, by July 1959, 23 B-625 launches had been completed, but only seven of them passed without serious comments on the rocket. Most of the identified deficiencies were related to manufacturing defects and were not inherent in its design. However, in the situation that had developed by the summer of 1959, they acquired decisive importance.
The creation of the S-125 in KB-1 was carried out almost in parallel with the work at NII-10 on the shipborne SAM M-1 ("Volna"), which began on August 17, 1956. This complex included the similar characteristics. The development of the rocket was carried out by OKB-2, and more efficiently.
From the very beginning of the design of the B-600, OKB-2 specialists had to face almost the same problems as a few years earlier, when creating their first B-750 missile: the presence of a combination of a number of mutually exclusive requirements for the rocket, which means the search for reasonable technical compromises.
The main contradictions were as follows. To defeat low-flying high-speed targets, the missile must have a high average flight speed (up to 600 m / s) and high maneuverability when aiming at a target. Ensuring the possibility of firing anti-aircraft missiles at low-flying targets and hitting them at a small (of course, for the conditions of that time) distance from the ship (up to 2 km) required a maximum reduction in the distance of the missile's output to the guidance trajectory and high accuracy of keeping it in the direction of flight at the launch site.
These requirements were difficult to reconcile with the need to ensure the minimum possible launch weight and dimensions of the rocket. In addition, the B-600 was supposed to be launched from extremely short guides - another of the conditions for ship operation.
At the same time, it seemed extremely difficult to ensure, with the given dimensions of the rocket, the necessary stability of its flight at the launch site. The designers and designers had to come up with something that would allow the rocket to occupy the space allotted to it on the ship, and in flight from the very first meters of the way to use the stabilizers. The missilemen, who created their products for ships, have faced this problem more than once. By the mid-1950s, one of its most original solutions was the expanding wings - they were equipped with their cruise missiles by the V. N. Chelomey Design Bureau. For an anti-aircraft missile, the stabilizers of which only had to work for a few seconds until they were dropped along with the booster, such a solution looked too complicated.
The answer to this rocket engineering problem was unexpected. Each of the four rectangular stabilizers of the accelerator was hinged at a point located in one of its corners. In this case, the stabilizer was pressed with its wide side to the accelerator - during transportation, while the rocket was in the cellar of the ship and on the launcher. This assembly was secured against premature opening with a wire located around the accelerator. Immediately after the start of the rocket movement along the PU guide, this wire was cut with a special knife installed on the PU. The stabilizers, due to inertial forces, were deployed and fixed in a new position, pressing against the accelerator with their short side. At the same time, the span of the stabilizers increased by almost one and a half times, increasing the stability of the rocket in the first seconds of its flight.
Choosing the layout of the rocket, the designers considered only two-stage options - in those years, single-stage missiles did not provide the required range and flight speed. At the same time, the rocket launching accelerator could only be solid-propellant. Only he could meet the requirements of an inclined rocket launch from short guides. But these engines in those years were distinguished by the instability of characteristics at various ambient temperatures: in the cold season they worked twice or three times longer than in the hot one. Accordingly, the thrust developed by them also changed several times.
Large values of the launch thrust required the appropriate safety margins to be incorporated into the design of the rocket and its equipment. At a low thrust value, the rocket "sagged" after leaving the guide and could not enter the control beam of the guidance radar by the set time.
However, there were solutions for this problem as well. The required stability of the characteristics of the accelerator was obtained due to a special device, which the workers of OKB-2 immediately called a "pear". Installed in the nozzle of the engine, it made it possible to regulate the area of its critical section directly at the starting position and, in full accordance with all the laws of motion, to set the time of its operation and the developed thrust. There was no super-complexity in setting the dimensions of the critical section - the "pear" ended with a ruler with all the necessary values applied to it. It remained only to go to the rocket and in the right place "tighten" the nut.
Even before the start of flight tests, in the winter of 1958, on the instructions of the military-industrial complex, OKB-2 considered the possibility of using the V-600 as part of the C-125. For the leadership of the Military-Industrial Commission under the Council of Ministers (MIC), this was of considerable importance: after all, in this case, the road was opened for the creation of the country's first unified model of anti-aircraft missile weapons. But they did not draw any conclusions before the start of the tests.
The tests of the B-600, like the B-625, were planned to be carried out in several stages - ballistic (throw), autonomous and in a closed control loop. For throw tests of the V-600, a mock-up of the above-deck part of the shipboard PU ZIF-101 was prepared. The first launch of the B-600 took place on April 25, 1958, and by July the drop test program was fully completed.
Initially, the transition to autonomous testing of the B-600 was planned for the end of 1958. But in August, after two consecutive unsuccessful throw launches of the V-625, P. D. Grushin came up with a proposal to carry out modifications to the B-600 so that it could be used as part of the C-125.
In order to speed up work on the B-600, PD Grushin decided to start autonomous tests in September at the Kapustin Yar test site. In those days, the B-600, like the B-625, was demonstrated to a number of the country's leaders, led by N. S. Khrushchev, who arrived in Kapustin Yar to demonstrate the latest types of rocketry.
The first autonomous launch of the B-600 took place on September 25. In the next two weeks, three more similar launches were carried out, during which the rudders of the rocket were deflected in accordance with commands from the program mechanism on board. All launches took place without significant comments. The final series of autonomous tests of the B-600 was carried out at the ZIF-101 PU mock-up stand and ended in December 1958 without significant comments on the rocket. Thus, the proposal of P. D. Grushin to use the B-600 as part of the S-125 was supported by very real results.
Of course, the creation of a unified rocket posed extremely difficult tasks for the OKB-2 specialists. First of all, it was necessary to ensure the compatibility of the missile with significantly different ground and ship guidance and control systems, equipment and auxiliary means.
The requirements of the Air Defense Forces and the Navy were also somewhat different. For the S-125, the minimum target destruction height of the order of 100 m was considered sufficient, which at the time of the beginning of the development of the air defense system corresponded to the expected lower limit of the use of combat aviation. For the fleet, however, it was required to create a missile that would ensure the defeat of aircraft and anti-ship missiles flying over a relatively flat sea surface at altitudes of 50 m. from above demanded the placement of two receiving antennas of a radio fuse on the rocket. The securing of missiles before launch was also fundamentally different. Due to significant restrictions on the size of the missile zones on the ship's launcher, they were suspended under the guides on yokes located on the launch stage. On the ground-based launcher, on the contrary, the rocket rested with yokes on the guide. There were also differences in the placement of antennas on aerodynamic surfaces.
During the winter - spring of 1959, OKB-2 prepared a version of the B-600 missile (conditionally called B-601), compatible with the S-125 guidance means. This rocket was similar in geometric, mass and aerodynamic characteristics to the ship's B-600. Its main difference was the installation of a radio control and sighting unit designed to work with the S-125 ground guidance station.
The first test of the B-601 was carried out on June 17, 1959. On the same day, the 20th launch of the V-625 took place, once again "gone" from the direction of the launch and did not fall into the review sector of the S-125 guidance station. Two more successful launches of B-601, carried out on June 30 and July 2, finally brought the line into question of choosing a missile for the S-125. On July 4, 1959, the country's leadership adopted a resolution, which stated that the B-601 was adopted as a missile defense system for the S-125. (Later, after studying the issues of increasing the range by using the passive section of the trajectory, she received the designation V-600P). The B-601 was supposed to appear on joint flight tests in early 1960. Taking into account the great energy capabilities of the B-600 missile, the OKB-2 was simultaneously tasked with increasing the complex's engagement zone, including target interception heights up to 10 km. By the same decree, work on the B-625 rocket was terminated.
Taking into account the fact that for the projected design bureau of plant No. 82 of the V-625 missile, the SM-78 PU and the PR-14 transport-loading machine (TZM) have already been developed, the design teams of TsKB-34 and KB-203 had to make a number of improvements to ensure their use in conjunction with the V-600P missile. The modified SM-78 launcher received the designation SM-78A. At GSKB, the TZM PR-14A was designed, which was used in conjunction with the experimental SM-78A launcher, and later with the serial two-bar PU-type SM-78A1 (5P71).
Despite the fact that the quality level of work performance has increased markedly, further tests of the V-600P were not without difficulties. From June 1959 to February 1960, 30 rocket launches were carried out at the test site, including 23 in a closed control loop. 12 of them were unsuccessful, mostly due to problems with control equipment. Not in all respects the requirements specified by the decree of July 4, 1959, and the characteristics of the rocket.
But by March 1961, most of the problems had been overcome, which made it possible to complete the state tests. By that time, there were reports of an experiment in the United States, during which in October 1959 a B-58 Hustler bomber with a full bomb load, having risen in the eastern United States near Fort Werton, flew across North America to Edwards Air Force Base. At the same time, the B-58 overcame about 2300 km at an altitude of 100-150 m with an average speed of 1100 km / h and made a "successful bombing". The "friend or foe" identification system was turned off and the vehicle remained undetected by the well-equipped American air defense radar posts along the entire route.
This flight again demonstrated how great the need for a low-altitude air defense system is. Therefore, even with a number of shortcomings, the S-125 with the V-600P (5V24) rocket was adopted on June 21, 1961.
In 1963, the creation of the S-125 was awarded the Lenin Prize.
The deployment of the first anti-aircraft missile regiments armed with the S-125 air defense system began in 1961 in the Moscow Air Defense District. Along with this, anti-aircraft missile and technical divisions of the S-125 and S-75 air defense systems, and later the S-200, were organizationally reduced to air defense brigades, as a rule, of a mixed composition - from complexes of various types. At first, the S-125 was also used by air defense units of the Ground Forces. However, with a significantly smaller affected area and the use of a much lighter missile, the ground-based means of the S-125 complex in terms of mass and size indicators and the level of mobility were close to the previously adopted S-75. Therefore, even before the completion of work on the creation of the S-125, specifically for the Ground Forces, the development of the self-propelled air defense system "Kub" was started, which has an engagement zone almost the same as that of the S-125.
Even before the S-125 was put into service, on March 31, 1961, the military-industrial complex decided to modernize the missile and its equipment. It was based on the proposals of the GKAT and the GKOT to create a missile with an increased range and an upper limit of the affected area, having an increased average flight speed. It was also proposed to thoroughly alter the launcher, ensuring the placement of four missiles on it. According to one of the versions, the last task was set personally by D. F. Ustinov.
The 1961 decree, along with the adoption of the V-600P rocket, officially approved the task for the development of a more advanced model, which received the designation V-601P. In parallel, work was carried out to improve the ship version of the V-601 (4K91) SAM.
Since in this case the task of creating a new anti-aircraft missile system was not set, the modernization of the S-125 was entrusted to the design team of plant No. 304, while maintaining the general management of KB-1. At the same time, for the new missile, the composition of the guidance station equipment was expanded and refined. In a modified version of the complex, a new four-boom PU 5P73 was used, which made it possible to use the V-600P and V-601 P missiles, as well as conduct training exercises. Modernized versions of the TZM were also created: PR-14M, PR-14MA, already on the basis of the chassis of the ZIL-131 car.
The main direction of work on the new V-601 P rocket was the design of new radio fuses, warheads, safety-actuating mechanism and propulsion engine on a fundamentally new composite fuel. A higher specific impulse and an increased density of this type of fuel, while maintaining the dimensions of the rocket, should have increased the energy characteristics of the engine and ensured the expansion of the range of the complex.
Factory tests of the V-601P began on August 15, 1962, during which 28 launches were carried out, including six missiles in combat configuration, which shot down two MiG-17 targets.
On May 29, 1964, the V-601P (5V27) rocket was put into service. She was capable of hitting targets flying at speeds of up to 2000 km / h in the altitude range of 200-14000 m at a distance of up to 17 km. When staging passive jamming, the maximum height of the defeat was reduced to 8000 m, the distance - to 13, 2-13, 6 km. Low-altitude (100-200 m) targets were hit within a radius of up to 10 km. The range of destruction of transonic aircraft reached 22 km.
Externally, the B-601P was easily recognized by two aerodynamic surfaces, which were installed on the transition connecting compartment behind the upper right and lower left consoles. They ensured a decrease in the range of the accelerator after its separation. After the separation of the steps, these surfaces unfolded, which led to intensive rotation and deceleration of the accelerator with the destruction of all or several stabilizer consoles and, as a result, to its disorderly fall.
Simultaneously with the introduction of the V-601 P into service, the Ministry of Defense was given an assignment to carry out work to expand the combat capabilities of the C-125: to defeat targets flying at speeds up to 2500 km / h; transonic - at altitudes up to 18 km; an increase in the overall probability of hitting targets; and Overestimation of overcoming interference.
In the early 1970s, several more modernizations of the C-125M were carried out in terms of improving the electronic equipment, which provided an increase in the noise immunity of the target sighting and missile control channels. In addition, a new modification of the rocket, 5V27D, was created with an increased flight speed, which made it possible to introduce a “catch-up” mode of target firing. The length of the rocket increased, the mass increased to 980 kg. For
the heavier 5V27D, it turned out to be possible to load only three missiles on the PU 5P73 when placed on any beams.
Export versions of the S-125 complex received the designation "Pechora" and were supplied to dozens of countries around the world, were used in a number of armed conflicts and local wars. The S-125's finest hour struck in the spring of 1970, when a large group of our missilemen was sent to Egypt by the decision of the Soviet leadership in the course of Operation Caucasus. They had to provide air defense of this country in the face of intensified Israeli air raids, carried out during the so-called "war of attrition" 1968-1970. The fighting was conducted mainly in the Suez Canal zone, the eastern bank of which the Israelis occupied after the end of the 1967 Six-Day War.
For the delivery of weapons from the USSR to Egypt, about a dozen dry cargo ships were used (Rosa Luxemburg, Dmitry Poluyan, etc.).
S-125 divisions with Soviet personnel, combined into an air defense division, reinforced the Egyptian air defense groupings equipped with the C-75 air defense system. The main advantage of the Soviet missile engineers, along with their higher level of training, was the ability to operate the S-125 in a different frequency range compared to the S-75, already studied by the Israelis and the Americans who support them. Therefore, at first, Israeli aircraft did not have effective means of countering the S-125 complex.
However, the first pancake turned out to be lumpy. On the night of March 14-15, 1970, Soviet missilemen celebrated their entry into combat duty by shooting down an Egyptian Il-28 with a two-missile salvo, which entered the S-125 engagement zone at an altitude of 200 m with an inoperative "friend or foe" responder. At the same time, the Egyptian military were also next to the Soviet officers, who swore to our missilemen that their aircraft could not be in the firing zone.
A few weeks later, it came to shooting at a real enemy. At first, they were unsuccessful. Israeli pilots tried to bypass the affected areas of the air defense missile systems, located at permanent positions with protective structures. Firing at enemy aircraft located on the far border of the launch zone ended with the Israeli pilots being able to turn around and get away from the missile.
I had to adjust the tactics of using the air defense system. The complexes were taken out of the equipped reliable shelters in the areas of permanent deployment to the "ambush" positions, from which the missiles were launched at targets at ranges of up to 12-15 km. Improving their combat skills in the face of a real threat from the enemy, the Soviet missilemen brought the time for folding the complex to 1 hour 20 minutes instead of the normative 2 hours 10 minutes.
As a result, on June 30, the division of captain V. P. Malyauki managed to shoot down the first "Phantom", and five days later, the division of S. K. Retaliatory strikes by the Israelis followed. In the course of a fierce battle on July 18 in the division of V. M. Tolokonnikov, eight Soviet servicemen were killed, but the Israelis were also missing four Phantoms. Three more Israeli aircraft were shot down by N. M. Kutyntsev's division on August 3.
A few days later, with the mediation of third countries, a cessation of hostilities in the Suez Canal zone was achieved.
After 1973, the S-125 complexes were used by the Iraqis in 1980–1988 in the war with Iran, and in 1991 when repelling air raids by the multinational coalition; the Syrians against the Israelis during the 1982 Lebanese crisis; Libyans on American planes in 1986; during the war in Angola; Yugoslavs against the Americans and their allies in 1999
According to the Yugoslav military, it was the C-125 complex on March 27, 1999 in the sky over Yugoslavia that the F-117A was shot down, photographs of its fragments were repeatedly published in the media.
Design description 5B24
The 5V24 rocket is the first domestic solid-propellant missile defense system. Its marching stage, made according to the aerodynamic "canard" scheme, was equipped with aerodynamic rudders for pitch and yaw control; roll stabilization was carried out by two ailerons located on the wing consoles in the same plane.
The first stage of the rocket is a launching accelerator with a solid-propellant engine PRD-36, developed in KB-2 of plant No. 81 under the leadership of II Kartukov. PRD-36 was equipped with 14 single-channel cylindrical solid propellant bombs. The engine was equipped with an igniter. The nozzle of the starting engine was equipped with a "pear", which made it possible to regulate the critical section area depending on the ambient temperature. The rear bottom of the body and the engine nozzle were covered with a tail compartment in the form of a truncated reverse cone.
Each stabilizer console of a rectangular shape was fixed in a hinge device on the front frame of the tail compartment. During ground operation, the longer side of the stabilizer was adjacent to the cylindrical surface of the starter motor housing.
The brace fixing the stabilizer consoles was cut with a special knife when the missile left the launcher. Under the action of inertial forces, the stabilizers were deployed more than 90 °, adjoining the short side to the outer surface of the tail section of the launch stage. The deceleration of the rotation of the stabilizer console before contact with the surface of the tail compartment was ensured by the use of a brake piston device, as well as a crush pin attached to the stabilizer console. The extreme rear flight location of the consoles ensured a high degree of static stability of the spent booster after its separation from the sustainer stage, which led to an undesirable expansion of the zone of its fall. Therefore, on subsequent versions of the rocket, measures were taken to eliminate this drawback.
The body of the other stage of the rocket - the sustainer - is divided into two zones: in the tail there was a solid-propellant engine, in four compartments of the front zone - equipment and a warhead.
In the front conical compartment of the sustainer stage, a radio fuse was located under the radio-transparent elements of the fairing. In the steering compartment there were two steering machines, which were used together to deflect the aerodynamic rudders located in the same plane, the necessary efficiency of which in a wide range of altitudes and flight speeds was provided by spring mechanisms.
Further, the compartment of the warhead was located, in front of which a safety-executive mechanism was located, ensuring the safety of ground operation of the rocket and the exclusion of unauthorized detonation of the warhead.
Behind the warhead was a compartment with onboard equipment. A central distributor was installed in the upper part, and under it was a converter and an on-board power supply. The drive of the steering gears and the turbine generator was carried out by compressed air, which was in a ball-cylinder under a pressure of 300 atmospheres. Further, the autopilot, the radio control equipment unit and the steering machines of the roll channel were located. Roll control was carried out by ailerons located on the upper right and lower left wing consoles. The desire to concentrate almost all control devices and steering drive elements, including the aileron steering drive, in one zone, in front of the main engine, led to the implementation of an unusual design solution - the open placement of a rigid aileron drive thrust along the main engine housing.
The engine was made with a split steel body, equipped with an insert charge in the form of a monoblock solid fuel checker with a cylindrical channel. A box-shaped block with a launch device was located on top of the conical transition compartment. The main engine was started at the end of the starting engine, with a drop in pressure.
Trapezoidal wing consoles were attached to the hull of the sustainer stage. Ailerons were located on two consoles in one of the planes. The connection of the drive of the steering gears with the ailerons was carried out, as already mentioned, by means of long rods laid outside the engine housing without covering with gargrottes - above the lower left and above the upper right consoles. Two boxes of the on-board cable network passed from the front end of the warhead compartment to the tail compartment of the sustainer stage on the left and right sides of the rocket. In addition, a short box passed from above over the warhead compartment.
The transported two-girder PU 5P71 (SM-78A-1) with a variable launch angle was operated as part of the RB-125 missile battery. The launcher was equipped with a synchronous-tracking electric drive for guidance in azimuth and elevation in a given direction. When deployed at the launch site with a permissible slope of the site up to 2 degrees, its leveling was carried out using screw jacks.
For loading launchers and transporting 5V24 missiles in KB-203, the TZM PR-14A (hereinafter - PR-14AM, PR-14B) was developed using the chassis of the ZiL-157 car. The alignment along the guides with the PU was ensured by the placement of access bridges on the ground, as well as the use of stoppers on the TPM and PU, which fixed the position of the TPM. The standard time for the transfer of the missile from the TPM to the launcher is 45 seconds.
The transported four-girder PU 5P73 (SMI06 under the designation TsKB-34) was designed under the leadership of the chief designer B. S. Korobov. PU without gas reflectors and chassis was transported on a YAZ-214 vehicle.
In order to prevent the rocket from touching the ground or local objects during "subsidence" at the initial uncontrolled stage of flight, when firing at low-altitude targets, the minimum firing angle of the rocket was set - 9 degrees. To prevent soil erosion during missile launches, a special rubber-metal multisection circular coating was laid around the launcher.
The launcher was loaded sequentially by two TPMs, which approached the right or left pair of beams. It was allowed to load the launcher simultaneously with 5V24 and 5V27 missiles of early modifications.
