In uniform

Doomed rocket

July 20, 2009 Alexander Golts

If we analyze the statements that the domestic chiefs squeezed out after the sixth unsuccessful test (11 were carried out) “maces”, a new strategic missile for submarines, it turns out: the word “doomed” is used much more often than others. Like, we understand that the rocket is still shit, but there is nowhere to go, you still have to bring to mind and take it into service. Firstly, because the money was burnt as much as 300 million dollars (although ten years ago the developers promised unprecedented savings in funds). Secondly (and, I suspect, in the main ones), the head submarine of the new series Yuri Dolgoruky has already been converted under this missile. Initially, this underwater missile carrier, which was built for almost 13 years, was designed under the failed Bark missile. To remake a second time and wait a few more years is unthinkable.

So the finale of this story is really a foregone conclusion: it’s not early, but it’s more likely very late, having spent a lot more money than previously expected, the “mace” will still be put into operation. But, one way or another, a pause has come in the tests. And it would be nice to use it to draw at least some conclusions from the failures that have occurred.

Of course, it is possible to argue endlessly about whether Igor Dmitrievich Sergeyev was right, when, in the conditions of almost complete lack of funding, he closed the Bark project after three unsuccessful launches and handed over an order for the development of a new marine rocket to the Moscow Institute of Heat Engineering (MIT), which had just transferred the Topol-M industry and turned out to be without a lot of order. Then the minister explained his decision by the fact that the “mace”, created on Topolya-M technology, will become a prototype of a unified rocket-both for land and for the sea. You can also continue the dispute between supporters of liquid -fuel and solid fuel missiles. Design Bureau named after Makeeva, who lost ten years ago, an order to develop a new marine rocket, is now advertising his Sineva missile, which has just been successfully launched twice. The delight of these launches was such that an unnamed source in military intelligence informed RIA Novosti that these launches were a complete surprise for the American Pro system, which did not manage to fix them (this is complete nonsense, since according to existing agreements the parties warn each other in advance about the upcoming launches, but what you can’t do for the sake of PR). Bureau named after In a special press release, Makeeva also recalled that their Sineva set a range of range. At the same time, attention is not focused on the fact that “blue” is a modification of a missile adopted almost a quarter of a century ago. And this modification was done only in order to ensure the service life of the Delta IV class submarines (they are Dolphin). It is also silent about the obvious disadvantages of liquid -fuel missiles - the sizes of missiles and, as a result, the size and noise of the submarines, a tendency to all kinds of incidents.

It is clear that in this case only specialists can make a verdict. But the task of the state spending gigantic funds is to organize an examination, make the right decision, and then ensure the competent leadership of the project. Sergeyev is not only a marshal, but also a doctor of technical sciences - such an accompaniment, of course, could provide. Let us recall how, in the stormy 90s, he literally burst out “Topol-M”, so that under any circumstances, Russia will remain in the next thirty powerful nuclear power. Sergei Ivanov, who replaced him as Minister of Defense (now the Deputy Prime Minister, responsible for the defense industry), can only grumble menacingly and give Labradorshe Koni a collar allegedly equipped with a GLONASS device. Ivanov safely failed those two most important projects (GLONASS and BULAVA), which needed organizational abilities. It turned out that Ivanov is not Ustinov and not Vannikov. Thus, the first lesson is the fact of a joint service with Putin V.V. The Leningrad Directorate of the KGB as a place of work does not guarantee the presence of the ability to competent leadership of high -tech projects. I think that the other Putin's protege is no better than Ivanov, just the case with the “mace” is the most obvious.

The second lesson. The production of a high -tech product requires a giant number of suppliers. Over the past 15-18 years, this chain has been destroyed. Enterprises that existed in the USSR only in order to produce three dozen “products” a year, now either closed or re -profiled. Judging by some publications, our brave counterintelligence officers have concentrated now on the search for saboteurs who put obviously defective details on the “mace”. In my opinion, everything is much easier and more serious - many details for missiles are not produced in serial, but with a artisanal way. Therefore, it is time to think about how, in principle, a defense-industrial complex should function in a market economy, how to interest the owners in the release of a little-based, but vital for the security of the state of products.

Finally, the most important question. It is clear that one of the main negative factors that spoke at work on the "Bulad" was a hurry for ten years. Everyone understood: the rocket must be put up urgently, before the “heavy” terrestrial missiles, which have already extended the life of the service life in the massive order. Now, when it is clear that it will not be possible to meet in the established time limits, that just a rush (refusal of bench tests, replacing them with mathematical models) and predetermined the failure, the time to ask: where, in fact, they drove the horses? When Kurchatov, Korolev, Khariton and their associates created a missile-nuclear power, regardless of the victims, they at least believed that they were saving the country from the inevitable nuclear attack from the United States. Let me ask, we now also believe that, having achieved superiority, the Americans will immediately inflict a sudden nuclear blow? It is appropriate to recall that for the past ten years these insidious Yankees not only synchronized the removal of their nuclear means with a contract due to old age of Russian nuclear potential. They still spent a billion dollars a year on maintaining the safety of this very potential.

So why are we so torn so in order to support at least the visibility of the parity. It is clear that not in order to ensure the security of the country. It is possible to guarantee the impossibility of aggression against Russia using a much smaller number of nuclear ammunition.

It should be honestly admitted that a race with a “mace” is needed, first of all, so that Moscow at least feel equal to Washington. This makes it possible to make the main issue of Russian-American negotiations the number of carriers and warheads. Now is the time to ask the question whether it is worth the sheepskin. In other words, are Medvedev and Putin, blood from the nose of those who want to feel equal when communicating with Barack Obama, the tension of all the forces and resources of the state,

Photos of RIA Novosti