Recently, the head of the Pentagon Leon Panetta stated a common truth: "Any fifth-grader knows that the US aircraft carrier strike forces are not able to destroy any of the existing powers in the world." Indeed, American AUGs are invulnerable because aviation "sees" beyond any ground (and naval) radar system. They quickly manage to "spot" the enemy and from the air do whatever their heart desires with him. However, ours managed to find a way to "put black marks" on the American fleet - from space. At the end of the 70s, the USSR created the Legend maritime space reconnaissance and target designation system, which could aim a rocket at any ship in the World Ocean. Due to the fact that high-resolution optical technologies were not then available, these satellites had to be launched into a very low orbit (400 km) and powered from a nuclear reactor. The complexity of the energy scheme predetermined the fate of the entire program - in 1993 the "Legend" ceased to "cover" even half of the strategic maritime directions, and in 1998 the last apparatus ceased to serve. However, in 2008 the project was revived and already based on new, more efficient physical principles. As a result, by the end of this year, Russia will be able to destroy any American aircraft carrier anywhere in the world within three hours with an accuracy of 3 meters
The United States has made a win-win bet on the aircraft carrier fleet - "poultry farms", together with missile guards of destroyers, have become inaccessible and extremely mobile floating armies. Even the powerful Soviet navy had no hope of competing with the American on an equal footing. Despite the presence in the USSR Navy of submarines (nuclear submarines pr. 675, pr. 661 "Anchar", submarine pr. 671), missile cruisers, coastal anti-ship missile systems, a large fleet of missile boats, as well as numerous anti-ship missile systems P-6, P -35, P-70, P-500, there was no certainty about the guaranteed defeat of the AUG. Special warheads could not correct the situation - the problem was in reliable over-the-horizon target detection, their selection and ensuring accurate target designation for incoming cruise missiles.
The use of aviation for targeting anti-ship missiles did not solve the problem: the ship's helicopter had limited capabilities, moreover, it was extremely vulnerable to carrier-based aircraft. The Tu-95RTs reconnaissance aircraft, despite its excellent inclinations, was ineffective - the aircraft needed many hours to arrive in a given area of the World Ocean, and again the reconnaissance aircraft became an easy target for fast deck interceptors. Such an inevitable factor as weather conditions finally undermined the confidence of the Soviet military in the proposed target designation system based on a helicopter and a reconnaissance aircraft. There was only one way out - to monitor the situation in the World Ocean from space.
The largest scientific centers of the country - the Institute of Physics and Power Engineering and the Institute of Atomic Energy named after V. I. I. V. Kurchatov. The calculations of the orbital parameters were carried out under the guidance of Academician Keldysh. The head organization was the Design Bureau of V. N. Chelomeya. The development of the onboard nuclear power plant was carried out at OKB-670 (NPO Krasnaya Zvezda). At the beginning of 1970, the Arsenal plant in Leningrad produced the first prototypes. The radar reconnaissance apparatus was adopted in 1975, and the electronic reconnaissance satellite - in 1978. In 1983, the last component of the system was adopted - the P-700 Granit supersonic anti-ship missile.
Supersonic anti-ship missile P-700 "Granit"
In 1982, the unified system was tested in action. During the Falklands War, data from space satellites allowed the command of the Soviet Navy to track the operational and tactical situation in the South Atlantic, accurately calculate the actions of the British fleet and even predict the time and place of the landing of the British landing in the Falklands with an accuracy of several hours. The orbital group, together with the ship's information receiving points, ensured the detection of ships and the issuance of target designation to missile weapons.
The first type of satellite US-P ("controlled satellite - passive", index GRAU 17F17) is an electronic reconnaissance complex designed to detect and direction finding objects with electromagnetic radiation. The second type of satellite US-A ("controlled satellite - active", index GRAU 17F16) was equipped with a two-sided side-scan radar, providing all-weather and all-day detection of surface targets. The low working orbit (which excluded the use of bulky solar panels) and the need for a powerful and uninterrupted energy source (solar batteries could not work on the shadow side of the Earth) determined the type of onboard power source - the BES-5 Buk nuclear reactor with a thermal power of 100 kW (electric power - 3 kW, estimated operating time - 1080 hours).
On September 18, 1977, the Kosmos-954 spacecraft was successfully launched from Baikonur, an active satellite of the Legend ICRC. For a whole month, "Cosmos-954" worked in space orbit, together with "Cosmos-252". On October 28, 1977, the satellite suddenly ceased to be monitored by ground control services. All attempts to orient him towards success have failed. It was also not possible to put into the "burial orbit". At the beginning of January 1978, the instrument compartment of the spacecraft was depressurized, Kosmos-954 was completely out of order and stopped responding to requests from the Earth. An uncontrolled descent of a satellite with a nuclear reactor on board began.
Spacecraft "Cosmos-954"
The Western world gazed in horror at the night sky, expecting to see the shooting star of death. Everyone was discussing when and where the flying reactor would fall. Russian Roulette has started. In the early morning of January 24, Kosmos-954 collapsed over Canadian territory, filling the province of Alberta with radioactive debris. Luckily for Canadians, Alberta is a northern, sparsely populated province, with no local population harmed. Of course, there was an international scandal, the USSR paid symbolic compensation and for the next three years refused to launch US-A. Nevertheless, in 1982 a similar accident was repeated aboard the Kosmos-1402 satellite. This time, the spacecraft safely drowned in the waves of the Atlantic. If the fall had begun 20 minutes earlier, Cosmos-1402 would have landed in Switzerland.
Fortunately, no more serious accidents with "Russian flying reactors" were recorded. In the event of emergency situations, the reactors were separated and transferred to the "disposal orbit" without incident. In total, 39 launches (including test) of US-A radar reconnaissance satellites with nuclear reactors on board were carried out under the Marine Space Reconnaissance and Targeting System program, of which 27 were successful. As a result, US-A reliably controlled the surface situation in the World Ocean in the 80s. The last launch of a spacecraft of this type took place on March 14, 1988.
At the moment, the space constellation of the Russian Federation includes only passive US-P electronic reconnaissance satellites. The last of them - "Cosmos-2421" - was launched on June 25, 2006, and unsuccessfully. According to official information, there were minor problems on board due to incomplete disclosure of solar panels.
During the chaos of the 90s and the underfunding of the first half of the 2000s, the Legend ceased to exist - in 1993 the Legend ceased to “cover” even half of the strategic maritime areas, and in 1998 the last active apparatus was buried. However, without it, it was impossible at all to talk about any effective counteraction to the American fleet, not to mention the fact that we became blind - military intelligence was left without an eye, and the country's defense capability deteriorated sharply.
"Cosmos-2421"
The reconnaissance and target designation systems were revived in 2006, when the government instructed the Ministry of Defense to work out the issue in terms of using new optical technologies for accurate detection. 125 enterprises from 12 industries were involved in the work, the working name is "Liana". In 2008, a detailed project was ready, and in 2009, the first experimental launch and launch of the experimental vehicle into a given orbit took place. The new system is more versatile - due to its higher orbit, it can scan not only large objects in the ocean, as the Soviet Legend was capable of, but any object up to 1 meter in size anywhere in the world. The accuracy has increased more than 100 times - up to 3 meters. And at the same time, there are no nuclear reactors that pose a threat to the Earth's ecosystem.
In 2013, Roskosmos and the Russian Ministry of Defense completed the experimental creation of the Liana in orbit and began debugging its systems. According to the plan, by the end of this year, the system will work by 100%. It consists of four state-of-the-art radar reconnaissance satellites, which will be based at an altitude of about 1,000 km above the planet's surface and constantly scan land, air and sea space for enemy targets.
“Four satellites of the“Liana”system - two“Peonies”and two“Lotos”- will detect enemy objects in real time - planes, ships, cars. The coordinates of these targets will be transmitted to the command post, where a virtual real-time map will be formed. In the event of a war, high-precision strikes will be delivered against these targets,”a representative of the General Staff explained the principle of operation of the system.
Not without the "first pancake". “The first satellite" Lotos-S "with the index 14F138 had a number of disadvantages. After launching into orbit, it turned out that almost half of the onboard systems were not functioning. Therefore, we demanded from the developers to bring the equipment to mind,”said a representative of the Space Forces, which are now included in the Aerospace Defense. The specialists explained that all the satellite's shortcomings were associated with flaws in the satellite's software. “Our programmers have completely reworked the software package and have already re-flashed the first" Lotus ". Now the military has no complaints against him,”the Defense Ministry said.
Satellite "Lotos-S"
Another satellite for the "Liana" system was launched into orbit in the fall of 2013 - "Lotos-S" 14F145, which intercepts data transmission, including enemy communications (electronic intelligence), and in 2014 a promising radar reconnaissance satellite will go into space " Pion-NKS "14F139, which is capable of detecting an object the size of a car on any surface. Until 2015, another Pion will be included in Liana, thus, the size of the system's constellation will expand to four satellites. After reaching the design mode, the Liana system will completely replace the outdated Legend - Celina system. It will increase by an order of magnitude the capabilities of the Russian Armed Forces to detect and defeat enemy targets.
