Weapons 16/01/20 “King-torpedo”: what a lethal weapon has created the Sakharov
Soviet scientist Andrei Sakharov (1921-1989) has developed several types of batch and promising thermonuclear weapons. Their goal was not only to provide the Soviet Union with nuclear parity, and total win in global thermonuclear war with the United States.
the Myth about Stalin and Sakharov
There is a myth that after the first test of the Soviet hydrogen bomb to Stalin reported the names of the scientists involved in its development. And mentioned that “the calculations performed by the graduate student Sakharov,” to which Stalin replied: “Give my congratulations to academician Sakharov”.
the Myth arose because in 1953, after the testing of the first thermonuclear bomb in the Soviet Union, Andrei Sakharov was elected (at the age of 32, which was a rarity) a member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Moreover, bypassing the stage of corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences.
But, first a bomb test on 12 August 1953, when Stalin has been more than five months, was not alive. Secondly, at that time, Sakharov was no longer a graduate student, and doctor of physico-mathematical Sciences.
third, the widely known unofficial title of Sakharov, the “father of the hydrogen bomb” – does not belong to him alone. In the development of RDS-6S, what was the name of the first Soviet device of this type, involved a team of scientists.
“Puff” Sakharov
In 1948 Sakharov (then – candidate of physico-mathematical Sciences) proposed a computational model of a thermonuclear explosive device, in which a nuclear warhead was immersed in layers of heavy and light elements. Undermining this charge caused a nuclear chain reaction one layer after another. This scheme received the designation “C” from the “layer” or “layered”. Jokingly nuclear physicists have nicknamed this device “puff Sakharov.”
Another option, also suggested by Sakharov, was based on the detonation of the atomic bomb in heavy hydrogen. He got the trainthe value “T” from the word “pipe”. Further work showed that a promising model is the “S”. It was implemented in the Soviet Union. A variant of the “T” was not feasible on the technology.
the Only Russian among the “fathers” of the hydrogen bomb
Supervision over all work on the hydrogen bomb was carried out (at the time Professor) Yuri Khariton. But directly the project of RDS-6S was headed by Professor Igor Tamm, a future Nobel laureate.
It was after the successful test of RDS-6S, in October 1953, involved in this project have become academicians of the USSR. This was Khariton, Sakharov and Tamm (the youngest among them). Vitaly Ginzburg, who worked on the project together with Sakharov (and former five years his senior), was on this occasion only elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences, and a full academician only in 1966. Worked in the project of the famous physicist Yakov Zeldovich, corresponding member of USSR Academy of Sciences since 1946, together with Khariton in 1939, the first in the USSR calculated the theoretical model of the atomic bomb, also became a member much later.
Subsequently, Ginzburg claimed that he and Zeldovich were not elected, along with Sakharov (or Sakharov was elected, together with Chariton and Tamm) just to observe “national par” Sakharov was the only Russian in the team.
RDS-37
the Next step was the creation of a two-stage hydrogen bomb, where fusion reaction was caused by the shock wave from the detonation of a nuclear warhead. In working on this project, under the leadership of academicians Igor Kurchatov, Mstislav Keldysh and Andrey Tikhonov, took part a team of scientists from the same KB-11, where he worked as Sugars.
During the test at the test site in Semipalatinsk 20 November 1955, the weather suddenly deteriorated, appeared cloudy, and there was a threat of bombs in populated place. The question arose about the cancellation of the test, when the plane with the bomb has already left. Under these conditions, the Zeldovich and Sakharov gave an extra opinion on the possibility of a safe landing for himselfOleta with a hydrogen bomb aboard. A test conducted two days later.
In search of the “king of weapons”
the Soviet leadership was very concerned that weapons are in service of the USSR nuclear weapon carriers are not able to reach the US territory, while American planes and missiles from their bases in the countries-allies could strike at any point of the USSR. Work on the creation of the Soviet “king of weapons” that can discourage US from wanting to put the atomic bombing of the territory of the USSR, and ideally preemptively destroy the U.S. even before the conflict was started under Stalin.
In the development of ballistic missiles and strategic bombers of the Soviet Union covered the gap with the US, but it was catch-up steps. They did not provide the Soviet nuclear forces strategic superiority over the us. I wanted to find some “asymmetric” the answer is cheap and effective.
the solution was found. At least in the idea. It is known that American civilization tends to the sea. Most of the largest cities and about half the population of the United States focused on ocean coasts. And, significantly, it is the coast open ocean waters, and not enclosed seas.
testing of the first hydrogen bombs made a great impression on the Soviet leadership. It seemed they found a power equal to the power of natural elements. It was clear that the explosion of a thermonuclear device in the sea can cause a wave of destruction – tsunami – which many times will increase the impact of the explosion. So, in the late 1940s in the USSR, work began on the creation of nuclear torpedoes.
“the King-torpedo”
Sugars originally had no relation to these works. Its hooked up to them already on an advanced stage, after the successful testing of “puff” in its name. Nuclear torpedo T-15 (“the king-torpedo”) was to be the weapon that will wipe US from the face of the Earth.
Know-how Sakharov in this work was to develop nuclear ramjet-a jet engine for torpedoes. In this way he rubbedsang a complete failure. However, this engine has not yet managed to get anyone in the world, despite the fact that the theoretical work conducted since the 1950s.
project Sakharov, “the king-torpedo” was expected to feature heavy-duty thermo-nuclear warhead up to 100 megatons. Its counterpart was detonated over Novaya Zemlya on 30 October 1961. But the installation of such a warhead on a torpedo manufactured from a submarine, limited dimensions. Existing propulsion systems are not allowed to equip a torpedo warhead of more than 3 megatons. This was not enough to cause a tsunami of such force to destroy the East coast of the United States. Submarines as a strategic tool, was deemed fit only as carriers of ballistic missiles.
However, nowadays the idea of “king-torpedo” reborn project “Status-6”, wherein the heavy duty thermonuclear warheads is no longer a torpedo, and itself submarine robot without a crew. Thus, the ideas of academician Sakharov continues in our time to feed the race destroying weapons.
Russian Seven
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