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System A

The main developer of System A was SKB-30 KB-1 (the future Research Institute of Radio Instrument-Making, now in the Aerospace Defense Concern Almaz-Antey). The chief designer was Grigory Kisunko. The system consisted of a main command and control center, a central computer station, a Dunay-2 early warning radar, three precision aiming radars, a missile sighting radar with a radio command station, a V-1000 antimissile system on stationary SM-71P launchers and a technical position for the preparation of missiles.

The missile system V-1000 was the development of the OKB-2 (now the ICD "Torch"), Chief Designer Pyotr Grushin. The rocket was a two-stage (starting accelerator solid-propellant, a marching liquid engine). The length of the rocket is 15 meters, the starting mass is about 9 tons. The average speed of the antimissile system is 1000 m / s , the peak speed is up to 1500 m/s. The upper limit of the affected area is 23-28 km. The maximum range of the flight is 300 km, the distant boundary of the interception zone is from 55-60 km.

For the first time, the problem of anti-missile defense was raised at the state level in the USSR in 1953, when seven marshals of the Soviet Union headed by Vasily Sokolovsky sent a letter to the CPSU Central Committee saying: "... air defense weapons that are in our possession and newly developed, can not fight ballistic missiles. Please instruct the industrial ministries to begin work on the creation of anti-ballistic missile means." Research work on the possibility of creating an anti-missile defense system was conducted in the country from 1953-54. In March 1956, the final report was ready with a positive conclusion, after which, in August 1956, a decision was adopted to start development work on the "A" system.

In those years, KB-1 was the lead organization for the development of guided missile systems and, above all, anti-aircraft defense systems. Here worked the best engineers and scientists in the field of radio engineering, electronics, automatic control, probability theory and random processes. The leading role in this work was played by the team headed by the 36-year-old scientist Grigory Kisunko.

The difficulties in creating the world's first ABM system were more than significant. The known traditional methods of radar did not allow to determine with all required ultra-high accuracy all three coordinates of the target (range, azimuth, elevation angle). The radar could only accurately measure the range to the target. The small size of the ICBM's warhead made it difficult to observe for the radar at the required detection distances.

Therefore, for any hypothetical anti-missile system, huge, powerful and therefore extremely expensive radar stations were required. Finally, the whole process of shooting is extremely fleeting, the balance of the time available is extremely small, and therefore the anti-racket was subjected to incredibly high requirements for flight speed and maneuverability.

Grigory Kisunko put forward the following principles for designing and constructing a missile complex of anti-missile defense. The required long-range missile defense system for a small-sized target must be achieved due to the high radar emission power, the choice of the optimum operating wavelength, the high sensitivity of the receiving devices and the sufficiently large size of the antenna devices. The radar will indeed be large and energy-intensive, but the state importance of missile defense justifies big economic and resource costs.

The required high accuracy of the determination of the coordinates of the ballistic target can be achieved by abandoning the traditional method for determining the coordinates of the target for radar at two measured angles and range. It is necessary to go on to the method of triangulation of the target in three ranges, measured by three radars separated on the terrain. Difficulties of triangulation of a superfast target in real time can be overcome with the help of high-performance computers that have the appropriate software and algorithmic support. Radars and computers must be connected by means of broadband communication lines.

The radar detector's detection of the missile warhead ["BM combat blocks'} which sseparated from the missile's hull and the missile rocket body, which continued to fly parallel with the warhead (this was the problem of target selection), was proposed to be carried out by the difference in the power of the radio signals reflected by them. Defeat of the warhead would be ensured by using the kinetic energy of the collision of a high-speed target with fragments-the striking elements of the anti-missile warhead.

The "A" system was a test range complex of anti-ballistic missile defenses that was created for experimental testing and verification of the principles of constructing anti-missile defense systems in the active models of these weapons by firing guided anti-missiles against the leading parts of Russian ballistic missiles of the R-5 and R-12 types.

HEAD DEVELOPERS OF "A" SYSTEM FACILITIES (names of enterprises and organizations are given at the time of development)

• KB-1 GKRE (now GSKB "Almaz-Antey" named after Academician A. A. Raspletin) - on the "A" system as a whole, on the missile guidance system, on precision radar equipment, command transmission station, on-board guidance radio equipment, autopilots , control and testing equipment for testing on-board radio equipment and autopilots, as well as on experimental installations for studying the radar properties of ballistic missiles.
• OKB-2 GKAT - for anti-missiles.
• NII-37 GKRE - according to the system of radar detection of ballistic missiles and target designation to the means of the guidance system.
• ITM and VT AS USSR - on the equipment of the central computer station.
• NII-20 GKRE - on radar station sightings of anti-missiles.
• NII-129 GKRE - on the system of radio relay lines for data transfer of automatic interaction of objects of the system.
• GSKB-47 GKOT - on high-explosive fragmentation warheads of anti-missiles.
• NII-1011 MSM - on special combat parts of anti-missiles.
• CDB-34 GKOT - for launchers of anti-missiles (jointly with TsNII-173 GKOT - with respect to tracking drives and OKB-476 MGSNH - with regard to pre-launch automation and control equipment).
• NII-4 MO - on extraterrestrial measurements of ballistic missiles, service of uniform time and connection of the test site.
• LII GKAT - for external-measurement measurements of missiles and missile measurements.
• GNIIP-10 MO - to provide and conduct, together with the developers, all tests of the complex's facilities.
• TsIPSS ?? - on designing of landfill constructions.
• 32 WIR GUISS MO - for the construction of technological and housing and utility facilities of the landfill.

The "A" system was developed in accordance with the Resolutions of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR for No. 170-101 of February 3, 1956; and the Council of Ministers of the USSR for No. 1160-596 of August 18, 1956. The experimental missile defense complex was located at the A-range (as it was called in the late 1950s) near the Sary-Shagan railway station (Kazakhstan, Lake Balkhash). With the complex development of the system A, the launch of ballistic missiles of the R-12 type was carried out at the T-12 point with the VSP-12 launch site specially designed for this purpose, and the launching of the R-5 missile from the launch site SP-5 to the T point -5, located 5 km west of the point T-12.

The main technological objects of system "A" were:

• the station for detection of ballistic missiles "Danube-2", consisting of the transmitting and receiving parts (object No. 14);
• central computer station (facility No. 40);
• three precision-guided radars (objects No. 1, 2, 3);
• starting position in the radar sighting station of anti-missiles combined with the command station (output station) and two launch sites equipped with SM-71 launchers for launching V-1000 anti-missile (object No. 6);
• technical position for assembling, monitoring and equipment of B-1000 anti-missile (object No. 7);
• radio relay stations of the data transmission system: central (at site No. 40), terminal (at facilities Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 14) and intermediate stations - only sixteen stations;
• complex of registration and data processing of polygon measurements.

The test range was equipped with measuring points of the system of external measurement measurements (objects Nos. 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22) and a single-time service.

The SM-71P launcher consisted of a base and a movable part that provided a turn of the anti-missile in a horizontal plane by an angle of plus or minus 185 degrees. and in the vertical plane by an angle of - 10-70 degrees. For turns of the moving part of the launcher electric power drives with capacities were used: in the azimuth - 50 kW, in the elevation - 20 kW. The input signals for the operation of the electric actuators of the launcher were pulses of the digital code coming from the central computer station. Conversion of code pulses to control voltages was carried out by a distribution and conversion device and a drive control station. Launchers were mounted on a special foundation and surrounded by a protective gas-deflecting wall. The weight of the launcher is 39 tons.

The "A" system was also thematically related to the study of the radar properties of ballistic missiles:

• medium range - with the help of a specialized experimental installation RE-2, located at the facility No. 2 of the "A" test site;
• intercontinental - with the help of a specialized experimental installation RE-2M, created in the area of ??the fall of R-7 missiles (the Oka facility) in accordance with the Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers for No. 1164-525 of September 26, 1957.

In complex tests with the "A" system, the warhead of the R-12 ballistic missile was destroyed on March 4, 1961 in inert equipment (with a cargo mock-up instead of a special charge), and on March 26, 1961, the head of the R-5 missile with a standard high-explosive warhead.

Interaction of the elements of system "A"

When the target appeared in the work area, the radar detection station of the BR carried out the acquisition of the target for automatic tracking, determined its current coordinates and issued them to the central computer station of the system. The central computer station, based on the results of statistical processing of the current coordinates of the target, developed target designations for three precise-tracking radars, and also determined the pre-ordinated coordinates of the target.

According to the external target designation data, all three precise aiming radars carried out the target acquisition for automatic tracking and provided updated data on its coordinates to the central computer station of the system. According to the precise coordinates of the target, the central computer checked the hit of the prolonged point of the target's fall into the defense zone of the starting position, determined the parameters of the kinetic trajectory of the antimissile launch to the target trajectory, produced data for the pre-launch turns of launchers, platforms for free gyroscopes and antenna devices for the antimissile launch station, and issued a command to launch an interceptor.

After the launch, the anti-missile system was captured by the automatic tracking of the antimissile system by the radar station, which determined and provided the current coordinates of the interceptor to the central computer station. These coordinates were used for the formation of anti-racket control commands at the stage of output and for the development of target designations for anti-missile radars for accurate guidance.

After the antimissile missile was taken out on a trajectory close to the prolonged trajectory of the target, the stage of accurate guidance of the antimissile system on the target began. This stage was characterized by the fact that the anti-racket management teams were formed by a central computer station based on data on the target range and the antimissile system, measured by three precision-guided radars.

At the calculated time, the central computer station issued a command to undermine the warhead of the interceptor. The anti-missile control commands and the subversive command were transmitted to the anti-missile system by the command station. The exchange of information between the objects was carried out using radio relay lines of the data transmission system in the form of digital codes of the binary number system.

The tests had been going on since 1957, since the fall of 1960, several tens of experiments were carried out to intercept real ballistic missiles, but all of them failed. The case was new, and the "wisdoms" of interception of high-speed goals were learned in practice. However, on March 4, 1961, the "A" system successfully intercepted a R-12 medium-range ballistic missile fired at a range in Kapustin Yar (Astrakhan region) at a range of 60 km. From now on, March 4 is considered to be the "day of missile defense". In October 1961 and October 1962 the means of system "A" participated in studies of the effect of the electromagnetic pulse of high-altitude nuclear explosions on radio electronic equipment.

System "A" was not adopted because of the experimental nature of the development, as well as departmental squabbles in the Ministry of Radiophysics of the USSR. However, the solutions worked out on it formed the basis for the development of the missile defense system of Moscow A-35 , which operated until 1995 (until the A-135 system replaced it).

Anti-missile Radar Sighting Station (RSVPR)

Radar sighting station of the anti-missile system (chief designer - SP Rabinovich) of the anti-missile system was intended for the automatic capture of an antimissile missile and its tracking from the moment of launching the accelerator to the moment of the detonation of the combat unit. The sighting station automatically accompanied the anti-missile system by the signals of the on-board transponder and gave out to the central computer station the current coordinates of the anti-missile (two angular coordinates and range).

The sighting station was a pulsed radar station operating in the decimeter wave band. The station ensured the capture of an antimissile in the cone of spread of the initial trajectories of the antimissile system, equal to plus or minus 7 degrees. The range of measuring the range to an anti-missile system is 1-60 km. The maximum error in measuring the range is 30-50 m. The maximum error in the measurement of the angular coordinates is 10 min.

The structure of the radar sighting station of the anti-missile system included two (for reservation) of the same radar, a central control panel and an automatic control station. Each radar included an antenna-feeder system, a transmitting and receiving device, a range measuring system, an antenna column control system, a discrete coordinate transformation system, and a control panel.

The antenna system was made in the form of three parabolic mirrors mounted on a common swivel mechanism and included a capture channel antenna, an accurate tracking antenna and a compensation antenna combined with a command station antenna. The diameters of the parabolic mirrors of the antennas were correspondingly equal to 1 m, 2.5 m and 2.5 m. The magnetron transmitter generated high-frequency pulses with a repetition frequency of 880 Hz, a power of 1 MW, a duration of 1 microsecond.

The receiver consisted of three channels - capture, tracking and compensation of the fluctuations of the response signal. The control of the station was fully automated and was carried out remotely by commands and signals coming from the central computer station via radio relay lines. The time of readiness of the equipment for combat operation from the standby mode is 15 sec. The equipment was made in a stationary version and mounted in a ground bunker.