Modern weapons are less and less in need of a person in the conduct of battle
The development of military technology has led to the emergence of an adversary who is unable to think, but makes decisions in a split second. He knows no pity and never takes prisoners, hits almost without a miss - but he is not always able to distinguish between his own and others …
It all started with a torpedo …
… To be more precise, it all started with the problem of shooting accuracy. And by no means a rifle, and not even an artillery one. The question stood squarely in front of the sailors of the XIX century, who were faced with a situation when their very expensive "self-propelled mines" passed the target. And this is understandable: they moved very slowly, and the enemy did not stand still, waiting. For a long time, ship maneuver was the most reliable method of protection against torpedo weapons.
Of course, with an increase in the speed of torpedoes, it became more difficult to dodge them, so the designers spent most of their efforts on this. But why not take a different path and try to correct the course of an already moving torpedo? Asked this question, the famous inventor Thomas Edison (Thomas Alva Edison, 1847-1931), paired with the less famous Winfield Sims (Winfield Scott Sims, 1844), presented in 1887 an electric torpedo that was connected to a mine vessel by four wires. The first two - fed its engine, and the second - served to control the rudders. The idea, however, was not new, they tried to design something similar before, but the Edison-Sims torpedo became the first adopted (in the USA and Russia) and mass-produced moving remote-controlled weapons. And she had only one drawback - the power cable. As for the thin control wires, they are still used today in the most modern types of weapons, for example, in anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM).
Nevertheless, the length of the wire limits the "sighting range" of such projectiles. At the very beginning of the 20th century, this problem was solved by a completely peaceful radio. The Russian inventor Popov (1859-1906), like the Italian Marconi (Guglielmo Marconi, 1874-1937), invented something that would allow people to communicate with each other, and not kill each other. But, as you know, science cannot always afford pacifism, because it is driven by military orders. Among the inventors of the first radio-controlled torpedoes were Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) and the outstanding French physicist Édouard Eugène Désiré Branly, 1844-1940. And although their offspring rather resembled self-propelled boats with superstructures and antennas submerged in the water, the very method of controlling equipment by radio signal became, without exaggeration, a revolutionary invention! Children's toys and drones, car alarm consoles and ground-controlled spacecraft are all the brainchild of those clumsy cars.
But still, even such torpedoes, albeit remotely, were aimed by a person - who sometimes misses the mark. Eliminate this "human factor" was helped by the idea of a homing weapon capable of finding a target and independently maneuvering towards it without human intervention. At first, this idea was expressed in fantastic literary works. But the war between man and machine ceased to be a fantasy much earlier than we suppose.
Sight and hearing of an electronic sniper
Over the past twenty years, the US Army has participated in major local conflicts four times. And each time their beginning turned, with the help of television, into a kind of show that creates a positive image of the achievements of American engineering. Precision weapons, guided bombs, self-targeting missiles, unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, control of the battle using orbiting satellites - all this should have shaken the imagination of ordinary people and prepared them for new military expenditures.
However, the Americans were not original in this. The propaganda of all kinds of "miracle weapons" in the twentieth century is a common thing. It was also widely conducted in the Third Reich: although the Germans did not have the technical ability to film its use, and the secrecy regime was observed, they too could boast of various technologies that looked even more amazing for that time. And the PC-1400X radio-controlled aerial bomb was far from the most impressive of them.
At the beginning of World War II, in clashes with the powerful Royal Navy defending the British Isles, the German Luftwaffe and U-Bot-Waff suffered heavy losses. Enhanced anti-aircraft and anti-submarine weapons, complemented by the latest technological advances, made British ships more and more protected, and therefore more dangerous targets. But German engineers started working on this problem even before it appeared. Since 1934, they pored over the creation of the T-IV "Falke" torpedo, which had a passive acoustic homing system (its prototype was developed even earlier in the USSR), which responded to the noise of the ship's propellers. Like the more advanced T-V "Zaunkonig", it was intended to increase firing accuracy - which was especially important when the torpedo was launched from a long distance, safer for the submarine, or in difficult maneuvering combat conditions. For aviation, in 1942, the Hs-293 was created, which, in fact, became the first anti-ship cruise missile. A somewhat strange-looking structure was dropped from an aircraft several kilometers from the ship, outside the range of its anti-aircraft guns, accelerated by the engine and glided to the target, controlled by radio.
The weapon looked impressive for its time. But its effectiveness was low: only 9% of homing torpedoes and only about 2% of guided missile bombs hit the target. These inventions required deep refinement, which after the war the victorious allies did.
Still, it was the missile and jet weapons of the Second World War, starting with the Katyushas and ending with the huge V-2, that became the basis for the development of new systems that became the basis of all modern arsenals. Why exactly missiles? Is their advantage only in flight range? Perhaps they were chosen for further development also because the designers saw in these "air torpedoes" an ideal option for creating a projectile controlled in flight. And first of all, such a weapon was needed to combat aviation - given that the aircraft is a high-speed maneuverable target.
True, it was impossible to do this by wire, keeping the target in the field of vision of their eyes, as on the German Ruhrstahl X-4. This method was rejected by the Germans themselves. Fortunately, even before the war, a good replacement was invented for the human eye - a radar station. An electromagnetic pulse sent in a specific direction bounced back off the target. By the delay time of the reflected pulse, you can measure the distance to the target, and by the change in the carrier frequency, the speed of its movement. In the S-25 anti-aircraft complex, which entered service with the Soviet army in 1954, the missiles were controlled by radio, and the control teams were calculated based on the difference in the coordinates of the missile and the target, measured by the radar station. Two years later, the famous S-75 appeared, which was not only able to "track" 18-20 targets simultaneously, but also had good mobility - it could be moved relatively quickly from place to place. The missiles of this particular complex shot down Powers' reconnaissance plane, and then "overwhelmed" hundreds of American planes in Vietnam!
In the process of improvement, radar missile guidance systems were divided into three types. Semi-active consists of a missile on board, receiving a radar, which catches the reflected signal from the target, "highlighted" by the second station - the target illumination radar, which is located on the launch complex or fighter aircraft and "leads" the enemy. Its plus is that more powerful emitting stations can hold a target in their arms at a very considerable distance (up to 400 km). The active guidance system has its own emitting radar, it is more independent and accurate, but its "horizon" is much narrower. Therefore, it usually turns on only when approaching the target. The third, passive guidance system, emerged as an ingenious decision to use the enemy's radar - on the signal of which it guides the missile. It is they, in particular, that destroy the enemy's radars and air defense systems.
The inertial missile guidance system, old like the V-1, was not forgotten either. Its original simple design, which only told the projectile the necessary, pre-established flight path, is today supplemented by satellite navigation correction systems or a kind of orientation along the terrain sweeping under it - using an altimeter (radar, laser) or a video camera. At the same time, for example, the Soviet Kh-55 can not only "see" the terrain, but also maneuver over it in height, keeping close above the surface - in order to hide from enemy radars. True, in its pure form, such a system is suitable only for hitting stationary targets, because it does not guarantee high hitting accuracy. So it is usually supplemented by other guidance systems that are included at the last stage of the path, when approaching the target.
In addition, infrared, or thermal, guidance system is widely known. If its first models could only capture the heat of incandescent gases escaping from the nozzle of a jet engine, today their sensitive range is much higher. And these thermal guidance heads are installed not only on short-range MANPADS of the Stinger or Igla type, but also on air-to-air missiles (for example, the Russian R-73). However, they have other, more mundane targets. After all, heat is emitted by the engine not only of an aircraft or a helicopter, but also of a car, armored vehicles, in the infrared spectrum you can even see the heat that buildings (windows, ventilation ducts) emit. True, these guidance heads are already called thermal imaging and they are able to see and distinguish the outlines of the target, and not just a shapeless spot.
To some extent, semi-active laser guidance can be attributed to them. The principle of its operation is extremely simple: the laser itself is aimed at the target, and the missile flies neatly at a bright red dot. Laser heads, in particular, are on high-precision air-to-ground missiles Kh-38ME (Russia) and AGM-114K Hellfire (USA). Interestingly, they often designated targets by saboteurs thrown to the rear of the enemy with peculiar "laser pointers" (only powerful ones). In particular, targets in Afghanistan and Iraq were destroyed this way.
If infrared systems are used mainly at night, then television, on the contrary, works only during the day. The main part of the guidance head of such a rocket is a video camera. From it, the image is fed to a monitor in the cockpit, which selects a target and presses to launch. Further, the rocket is controlled by its electronic "brain", which perfectly recognizes the target, keeps it in the field of view of the camera and chooses the ideal flight path. This is the same “fire and forget” principle, which is considered the pinnacle of military technology today.
However, shifting all responsibility for the conduct of the battle onto the shoulders of the machines was a mistake. Sometimes, a hole happened to the electronic old woman - as, for example, it happened in October 2001, when, during a training firing in Crimea, the Ukrainian S-200 missile chose not a training target at all, but a Tu-154 passenger liner. Such tragedies were by no means rare during the conflicts in Yugoslavia (1999), Afghanistan and Iraq - the most precision-guided weapons were simply “mistaken”, choosing peaceful targets for themselves, and not at all those that were assumed by people. However, they did not sober up either the military or the designers, who continue to design new models of guns hanging on the wall, capable not only of aiming independently, but also of shooting when they deem it necessary …
Sleeping in ambush
In the spring of 1945, the Volkssturm battalions, hastily assembled for the defense of Berlin, underwent a short course of military training. The instructors sent to them from among the soldiers written off due to the injury taught the teenagers how to use the Panzerfaust hand grenade launcher and, trying to cheer the boys up, asserted that with this “miracle weapon” a person could easily knock out any tank. And bashfully lowered their eyes, knowing full well that they were lying. Because the effectiveness of "panzerfaust" was extremely low - and only their huge number allowed him to earn a reputation as a thunderstorm of armored vehicles. For each successful shot, there were a dozen soldiers or militias, mowed down by a burst or crushed by the tracks of tanks, and a few more who, having abandoned their weapons, simply fled from the battlefield.
Years passed, the armies of the world received more advanced anti-tank grenade launchers, then ATGM complexes, but the problem remained the same: grenade launchers and operators died, often not even having time to fire their own shot. For armies that valued their soldiers and did not want to overwhelm enemy armored vehicles with their bodies, this became a very serious problem. But the protection of tanks was also constantly being improved, including active fire. There was even a special type of combat vehicles (BMPT), whose task is to detect and destroy enemy "faustics". In addition, potentially dangerous areas of the battlefield can be preliminarily "worked out" by artillery or air strikes. Cluster, and even more isobaric and "vacuum" (BOV) shells and bombs leave little chances even for those who are hiding at the bottom of the trench.
However, there is a “fighter” to whom death is not at all terrible and who is not at all a pity to sacrifice - because he is intended for this. This is an anti-tank mine. The weapon, massively used in World War II, still remains a serious threat to all ground military equipment. However, the classic mine is by no means perfect. Dozens of them, and sometimes hundreds, need to be placed to block the defense sectors, and there is no guarantee that the enemy will not detect and neutralize them. The Soviet TM-83 seems to be more successful in this regard, which is not installed on the path of the enemy's armored vehicles, but on the side - for example, behind the side of the road, where sappers will not look for it. The seismic sensor, which reacts to ground vibrations and turns on the infrared "eye", signals the approach of the target, which, in turn, closes the fuse when the hot engine compartment of the car is opposite the mine. And it explodes, throwing forward a shock cumulative core, capable of hitting armor at a distance of up to 50 m. But even being detected, TM-83 remains inaccessible to the enemy: it is enough for a person to approach it at a distance of ten meters, as its sensors will trigger on his steps and heat body. Explosion - and the enemy sapper will go home, covered with a flag.
Today, seismic sensors are increasingly used in the design of various mines, replacing traditional push fuses, "antennae" and "stretch marks". Their advantage is that they are able to "hear" a moving object (equipment or person) long before it approaches the mine itself. However, he is unlikely to be able to get close to it, because these sensors will close the fuse much earlier.
The American M93 Hornet mine seems even more fantastic, as well as a similar Ukrainian development, nicknamed "Woodpecker" and a number of other, still experimental developments. A weapon of this type is a complex consisting of a set of passive target detection sensors (seismic, acoustic, infrared) and an anti-tank missile launcher. In some versions, they can be supplemented with anti-personnel ammunition, and the Woodpecker even has anti-aircraft missiles (like MANPADS). In addition, the "Woodpecker" can be installed covertly, being buried in the ground - which, at the same time, protects the complex from shock waves of explosions if its area is subjected to shelling.
So, in the zone of destruction of these complexes is enemy equipment. The complex begins work, firing a homing missile in the direction of the target, which, moving along a curved trajectory, will hit exactly the roof of the tank - its most vulnerable spot! And in the M93 Hornet, the warhead simply explodes over the target (an infrared detonator is triggered), hitting it from top to bottom with the same shaped-charge core as the TM-83.
The principle of such mines appeared back in the 1970s, when automatic anti-submarine systems were adopted by the Soviet fleet: the PMR-1 mine-missile and the PMT-1 torpedo mine. In the USA, their analogue was the Mark 60 Captor system. As a matter of fact, all of them were homing anti-submarine torpedoes that already existed by that time, which they decided to put on independent watch in the depths of the sea. They were supposed to start at the command of acoustic sensors, which reacted to the noise of enemy submarines passing nearby.
Perhaps, only the air defense forces have so far cost such complete automation - however, the development of anti-aircraft systems that would guard the sky almost without any human participation is already underway. So what happens? First, we made the weapon controllable, then we “taught” it to direct itself to the target on its own, and now we allowed it to make the most important decision - to open fire to kill!
