• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Aquilon / Project 10030 Foros

In the early 1970s the military leadership of the Soviet Union showed a great interest in developments related to laser weapons. Laser installation was planned to place on space platforms, stations and aircraft. All of the new units were attached to stationary sources of energy and did not meet the demand of the military for full autonomy. The Government of the USSR set the task of testing and testing of autonomy to the Navy. The laser gun, which was held in all the documents under the symbol LSG (powerful propulsion system), was decided to establish a surface ship.

Three years after the "Sanguine" entered the arsenal of the Soviet army, the "Aquilon" ship-board laser complex was develope along the principle of the similar land-based system. Sea-based is an important advantage over ground: the energy system of a warship can provide much more power to the pump laser, so it can increase capacity and rate of fire of the lasers. Complex "Aquilon" intended to defeat electro-optical systems, the navy of the enemy.

In 1976 Sergei Gorshkov, the commander in chief of the Soviet Navy, for the CDB "Chernomorets" approved a special assignment for the conversion a Project 770 landing ship SDK-20 into a trials vessel, which received the designation of the Project 10030 "Foros" [Foros is a town on the southern coast of the Crimea, part of the city district of Yalta of the Crimea]. On the "Foros" it was planned to test the laser complex "Aquilon", whose task was to defeat electro-optical means and the crews of the enemy.

The process of conversion was delayed for eight years. The mass and size of the "Aquilon" demanded a significant increase in the ship's hull and superstructure. At the end of September 1984 the ship under the designation OS-90 "Foros" entered the Black Sea Fleet of the USSR. The ship's hull suffered a really big change. The bow ramp and bow section were replaced. On the topside one module with full equipment and facilities positions was installed, and also a crane of a hundred tons capacity was installed. To reduce the noise all residential and office space of the vessel were treated with sound-absorbing insulation, for the same purpose the ship had cofferdams (narrow horizontal or vertical compartment on the vessel for the separation of the neighboring buildings). All units of the complex "Aquilon" were mounted with great precision, particularly the increased requirements for the design of the bearing surfaces.

In October 1984 at the Feodosia test range for the first time in the history of the Soviet Navy the towing vessel "Foros" conducted test firing of the laser gun. Shooting as a whole was successful, low-flying missile was promptly discovered and destroyed by the laser beam. But it showed a number of drawbacks - the attack only lasted a few seconds, but preparations for the shooting took more than a day, the efficiency was very low, only five percent. The undoubted success was the fact that during the tests scientists were able to gain experience in combat use of lasers, but the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent economic crisis has halted development work, not allowing to follow through.

In ancient Greek religion and myth, the Anemoi were Greek wind gods who were each ascribed a cardinal direction from which their respective winds came, and were each associated with various seasons and weather conditions. They were sometimes represented as mere gusts of wind, at other times were personified as winged men, and at still other times were depicted as horses kept in the stables of the storm god Aeolus. The aquilon is the north wind.

Later it was decided to test the complex "Aquilon" on a warship. For this purpose, one small artillery ship was built under the amended project 12081 (base project 1208) with the installation of an experimental laser complex "Aquilon", which began testing in 1986.