Recently, the news has often recalled MANPADS, as a rule "Strela-2" or Igla ".
But very few people understand what kind of thing it is, so here I will briefly tell you about the device of such devices.
So, first, the banal things.
Such MANPADS have a self-guided missile. Not a rocket that flies out of a grenade launcher where to direct it and gets to where you are lucky. Not the Fagot anti-tank missile that is guided by the operator in flight. The MANPADS missile flies and guides itself.
To lock on a target, the target must be very hot. Well, like the exhaust of an aircraft jet engine, about 900 degrees. But according to the stories of the fighters, the rocket is able to catch on the tip of a cigarette, which has only 400 ° C.
But, of course, there is no question of any "hot air conditioner", even the exhaust pipe of a car is too cold for a rocket. Unless it can "catch" on the brake discs of a sports car, they heat up red hot during races, and this is more than 500 ° C.
Now let's look at the rocket.
In front of her there is a kind of "garbage" sticking out and for some reason it is believed that it is to her that she is aiming at the target, it is in her that the sensor.
I hasten to disappoint - this is a banal flow splitter. After all, the rocket is supersonic, its speed is about 500 m / s (this is one and a half the speed of sound). The Kalashnikov bullet flies a little faster than 700 m / s, but the speed of the bullet quickly drops, and here the rocket flies at that speed for several kilometers. But the divider is not required. There are rockets with a certain thing on a tripod, and there are no splitter at all.
So this is the divider. Inside, it's just empty. The sensor is located a little further behind the annular glass.
But the question arises - if the interfering divider exactly sticks out in front, then how does the rocket see the plane? She's blind right ahead!
Yes, that is right.
The rocket NEVER flies directly to the target. Even when hit, she tries to explode not exactly in the engine exhaust, but slightly on the side near the side of the plane (she has a sensor) so that the damage is greater.
Even when the missile is still in the installation during aiming and the sensor has not yet captured the target, it still stands unevenly.
If a soldier aims exactly at the horizon line in the sight, the rocket will stick out 10 degrees upwards, it does not coincide with the line of sight.
And, by the way, therefore, the explanation of the story with the alleged "Needle" in Lugansk, which "shot too low" is unthinkable. It is constructively made so as not to shoot too low. At the same time, if the pipe is really lowered slightly downward, then the rocket will simply slip out of there, it does not adhere to anything from falling forward on a combat platoon. I can imagine how many bricks can be put aside because of this, although the rocket does not explode, the fuse is already cocked in flight.
So, do not lower the rocket below the horizon when aiming. How high can you lift it?
Approximately 60 °. If you try to catch a target that is higher over your head, then when the rocket is fired, the powder gases will burn the soldier's heels, and the ass will get.
Let's go back to the sensor.
There are two of them in Needle - one for the target and the other for decoys. Moreover, the first is infrared, and the second is optical. And they are both mounted inside a mirrored lens. And the lens is installed inside the gyroscope. Which is also spinning. An egg in a duck, a duck in a chest …
Before locking on to a target on the ground, the gyroscope spins up to 100 revolutions per second. And this lens with sensors inside the gyroscope also rotates, examining the environment through the ring glass. In fact, it scans the surroundings. The lens has a narrow angle of view - 2 °, but it skips the angle of 38 °. That is, 18 ° in each direction. This is precisely the angle to which the rocket can "turn".
But that is not all.
After firing, the rocket rotates. It makes 20 revolutions per second, and the gyroscope at this time reduces the revolutions to 20 per second, but in the opposite direction. The sensor holds the target. But keeps the target slightly to the side.
Why is this needed?
The missile does not catch up with the target, it preempts it. She calculates where the target will be with her speed and flies slightly forward to the meeting point.
The main sensor is infrared and it is very desirable for it to be cooled. So they do it - they cool it with liquid nitrogen, -196 ° C.
In the field. After long-term storage … How?
This question has to do with how the rocket electronics are powered. In the field. After storage. It is unlikely that batteries will be a good solution, if they sit down - and MANPADS will be useless.
There is something that looks like batteries. Far off.
Admiring the picture - this is a ground power source.
In the black round there is liquid nitrogen at a pressure of 350 atmospheres, and in the cylinder there is an electrochemical element, that is, a battery. But the battery is special - it is solid, and in working order - on molten electrolyte.
How does this happen.
When the power source is connected, you need to sharply "prick" it with a special pen, that is, break through the membrane.
The container with liquid nitrogen is opened and it is fed through a special tube to the infrared sensor of the rocket. The sensor cools down to almost two hundred degrees below zero. It takes 4.5 seconds for this to happen. The rocket warhead has a storage element, where liquid nitrogen is stored during the flight, it lasts for 14 seconds. In general, this is the lifetime of the rocket in flight, after 17 seconds, self-destruction is triggered (if the rocket did not reach the target).
So, liquid nitrogen ran to the rocket.
But he rushed inward - and triggered the spring-loaded firing pin, which, with a blow, ignites the pyrotechnic element. It lights up and melts the electrolyte (up to 500-700 ° C), a current appears in the system after one and a half seconds. The trigger comes to life. This is a device from below with a pistol grip. It is reusable and, if sown, it is a tribunal. Because it contains a terribly secret interrogator of the friend or foe system, for the loss of which there is a deadline.
This trigger gives the command to the gyroscope, which spins up in three seconds. The rocket starts looking for a target.
Time to find a target is limited. Because nitrogen leaves the container and evaporates, and the electrolyte in the battery cools down. The time is about a minute, the manufacturer guarantees 30 seconds. After that, all this is turned off, the trigger mechanism locks the gyroscope with the guidance system, the nitrogen evaporates.
So, preparation for launch is about 5 seconds and there is about half a minute for a shot. If it didn't work, a new NPC (ground power source) is needed for the next shot.
Well, let's say we coped with a bunch of target acquisition modes (considering whether it flies at us or away from us), the rocket said "everything is ok, I caught the target" and fired.
Further - the active life of the rocket, its very 14 seconds that are allotted for everything.
First, the starting engine is triggered. It is a simple powder engine that propels a rocket out of a tube. It throws it out 5.5 meters (in 0.4 seconds) after which the main engine is triggered - also solid fuel and also on special gunpowder. The starter engine does not fly out with the rocket, it remains trapped at the end of the tube. But he manages to ignite the main engine through a special channel.
The question is - from what power source does the rocket work in flight? As you can imagine, the rocket itself does not have a battery either. But, unlike a ground source, this is NOT a battery at all.
Before starting the starting engine, the on-board power supply, the alternator, is also started. Started by electrical ignition. Because this generator runs on a powder bunker. The gunpowder burns, gases are released, which turn the turbine generator. The result is 250 watts of power and a complex speed control circuit (and the turbine makes about 18 thousand rpm). The powder check burns at a speed of 5 mm per second and burns out completely after 14 seconds (which is not surprising).
Here the rocket would need to be turned on the target in order to take a lead. But there is still no speed, the rocket has not accelerated, the aerodynamic rudders (designed for supersonic) are useless. And then it will be too late to finish. The generator helps with this. More precisely, not the generator itself, but its exhaust powder gases. They go through special tubes through valves to the sides at the end of the rocket, which unfolds it according to the commands of the guidance system.
Then everything is clear - the rocket works by itself. She looks behind the target, estimates its speed and goes to the meeting point. Whether it will succeed depends on many factors. The Igla helicopter reaches an altitude of 3.5 km, and the plane only reaches 2.5 km, its speed is higher and if it is higher, then it will not be able to catch up.
Well, after the shot we are left with an empty plastic tube and a trigger with a handle. It is advisable to hand over the plastic pipe, it can be equipped again, the newly equipped pipes are marked with red rings, up to five starts can be made from one pipe.
And that garbage that flew away … it cost 35 thousand euros.
