By the middle of the twentieth century, humanity fell into the "nuclear trap." Unlike all other types of weapons, the simple quantitative and even qualitative superiority of WMD units by either side did not guarantee victory. The very fact of the massive use of one of the countries of nuclear warheads could lead to the death of almost all of humanity. Since the seventies, strategic parity has been a guarantee of peace, but weapons of mass destruction remain an instrument of political pressure.
First strike or guaranteed answer?
The very presence and number of charges in the modern period is already playing a secondary role. The urgent task now consists in either the ability to attack with impunity, or to ensure guaranteed retaliation to the aggressor. If the deployment of the US global missile defense system is designed to carry out an offensive doctrine, then the creation of a retaliatory strike weapon is a priority for the development of Russian strategic forces. Currently, the basis of the Strategic Missile Forces are the carriers of the Voivode (aka Satan), which no missile defense systems can intercept. These ICBMs were made in the then Soviet city of Dnepropetrovsk, after the collapse of the USSR, which became Ukrainian.
Complexes, with all their advantages, are aging, like any equipment. Until recently, military analysts assumed that their service life would last until 2022, but the political realities associated with very specific technical maintenance issues dictated a reduction in the time remaining before they were written off. All the more urgent is the task of adopting the new strategic carrier Sarmat. In 2018, the missile should replace those on combat duty in the mines of Voevody.
Balance of power
At present, the nuclear weapons of all countries are distributed as follows: approximately 45% of all special munitions fall on the United States and the Russian Federation. The number of charges is known and according to the START-3 treaty is approximately 1,550 pieces of sea and ground-based plus 700 on aircraft.
The number of carriers is somewhat different. The Americans have more of them (794 against 528 Russian). This does not mean any advantages of a potential adversary, but indicates that the United States has more monoblock systems.
So, 90% of all atomic (hydrogen, neutron) charges are in service with the Russian and American armies. The remaining 10% belong to Britain, China, France and other countries of the "nuclear club". It is difficult to assess which state will take sides in the event of a global conflict. It is possible that many of them (non-NATO members) will prefer neutrality.
The new Satan?
Ballistic missile "Sarmat" by the end of the second decade of the XXI century will replace the "Governor" - "Satan", performing the task of guarantor of retaliation. In Soviet times, the number of RS-20V exceeded three hundred, now there are 52 of them. Ten of them are installed on each of them, a total of 520 warheads (750 kilotons of TNT equivalent) - this is almost a third of the total land and sea strategic defense potential. The weight of the Voivode is more than two hundred tons. Russia's nuclear potential is being updated. In 2015, the Strategic Missile Forces will receive fifty new complexes of other types, but they will have to perform other tasks. These are mainly mobile units on duty in operational areas.
“Satan” is terrifying with its two important capabilities: the ability to go beyond the ABM frontiers and a huge destructive force. Each such carrier is able to turn into a radioactive desert a whole industrial area or metropolis with its environs. The Sarmat heavy missile should replace the world's most powerful carrier at about the time it reaches the age of thirty respectable for ICBMs.
The main difference between the new rocket
Design, development and construction of new weapons were entrusted to the Makeev State Missile Center, located in the city of Miass (Chelyabinsk Region). Designers did not limit themselves to modernization of the well-established Satan, and immediately chose the thorny path of pioneers. The challenge was to create a more compact and lightweight pattern. That is what Sarmat was conceived - a missile whose characteristics should have exceeded the parameters of all previously armed with our Strategic Rocket Forces. The main parameter of any ballistic projectile is the power-to-weight ratio, that is, the ratio of the mass to the force that sets it in motion. It was in this area that a breakthrough was planned. The 210-ton Satan is a heavy rocket. Sarmat weighs half as much.
Liquid fuel
Most of the mass of the rocket falls on the fuel, which is in the steps. All strategic carriers are conventionally divided into three main categories:
- light, weighing up to 50 tons;
- medium weighing from 51 to 100 tons;
- heavy, up to 200 tons in weight, large yet.
This gradation also determined the flight range: the more fuel, the longer the radius of action. For example, the American "Minutemans" have a mass of 35 tons and belong to the lung class. Light weight is a big advantage, such missiles require less bulky mines, they are easier to transport and hide. But almost all of them are solid fuel. And this gives a lot of advantages: the shelf life is significantly increased, highly toxic components are not used, maintenance is cheaper. But the trouble is that the energy saturation of solid fuel is lower than liquid. So, "Sarmat" is a rocket with liquid fuel. Nothing more is known about the power plant, except that its power-to-weight ratio has no equal in the world.
Test
The construction of a new technical model is always associated with risk, but it is justified by a high effect if successful.
Work on the project began in 2009. After two years of research, the design bureau began testing.
In the early autumn of 2011, the vicinity of the Kapustin Yar Cosmodrome shuddered from a powerful explosion. The Sarmat, a rocket that had high hopes, crashed to the ground a few minutes after the launch. Subsequent launches were also unsuccessful.
Only a year later, the launch was a success. The basic parameters of ballistics were clarified. Tests have shown that the Sarmat liquid missile can overcome more than 11 thousand km, while carrying a combat compartment weighing 4350 kg. In May 2014, Deputy Defense Minister Yu. Borisov announced that all work on the creation of a new strategic complex was proceeding as planned, without delaying the schedule. According to him, the new Sarmat missile has no limitations in the direction of combat use, it will be able to hit targets along trajectories passing through both poles of the planet. And this is very important, since the NATO defense systems are not designed for such universality.
Warhead
The unique energy-mass indicators do not exhaust the advantages that Sarmat possesses. A launch vehicle is, of course, a very important structural element, but no less significant is a combat unit containing ten pieces of individual guidance. And he, apparently, is also unique. The fact is that each of the warheads combines the qualities of two different types of weapons: it behaves both as a cruise and a hypersonic missile. Each of these species has so far had a clearly defined range of tasks. Until now, cruise missiles with a flat trajectory did not fly very quickly.
Winged hypersonic blocks
The properties of warheads look contradictory. The fact is that a conventional cruise missile creeps up to the target at a relatively low speed. Using the terrain, hiding behind its irregularities, it is forced to be slow-moving so that the electronic "brain" has time to assess obstacles and develop solutions for flying around them. For example, the American KR “Tomahawk” moves at the speed of a regular passenger liner (less than 900 km / h).
In addition, a cruise missile, like another aircraft, has a mass, which means that both inertia and the control effects of air rudders must be proactive. So do the Sarmat ICBM units. The missile, whose characteristics are close to hypersonic, after separation maintains a flat trajectory, which makes it impossible to intercept it.
Unpredictability
All the advantages of the unique system of individual control of the warheads of the shared warhead will be useless if the enemy can destroy the ICBM before it enters the combat course. The Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile flies quickly, but its trajectory can at any moment go off the usual predictable arc - the parabola. Additional shunting engines change altitude, direction, speed, and then the onboard computer determines new flight parameters to reach the target. Such unpredictability is also characteristic of other types of modern Russian nuclear carriers, it has become their "calling card", an asymmetric response to the attempts of Western "friends" to ensure their own invulnerability and, as a consequence, the right of the first strike.
Earth invulnerability
The most desirable situation for the aggressor who decided to deliver a massive nuclear strike with impunity is the one in which the enemy is deprived of the opportunity to respond in the initial phase of the war. This means that launchers, submarines, aircraft and ground carriers must be neutralized (destroyed) by the first salvo. However, such a desire has a very low probability of fulfillment for many years. The mines in which the Sarmatians are supposed to be located have a multilevel degree of protection both active (in the form of anti-ballistic systems and air defense) and passive (high level of safety of fortifications). For guaranteed destruction of an underground launcher, it is required to deliver with high accuracy at least seven nuclear strikes against the operational deployment area covered by effective missile defense systems. In addition, the location is kept secret. State secret is also made by the Sarmat rocket itself, the photos of which are hardly published, with the exception of not-so-clear shootings made during test launches. Only information intended for the media and military analysts is published.
Mysterious Sarmatian
The veil of mystery covers everything related to the creation of this complex. This is exactly the case when not every taxpayer will be able to find out in the near future what the funds allocated to him go. Only the scanty messages of news channels about successful launches and a clear sky above your head serve as proof that public money is not spent in vain.
In fact, very little is known about Sarmat. It is precisely this class of nuclear weapons carriers that, in all likelihood, will have to play the role of the country's main shield when interacting with mobile, sea and air-based systems. Only some scattered information about what the Sarmat missile is is published. The performance characteristics are also approximate: the range exceeds 11 thousand km, but it is possible to defeat targets through the South Pole.