Aircraft carrier fighter - Granit missile system. Aircraft carrier fighter - Granit missile system What is a weapon

When creating the complex, an approach was used for the first time, the basis of which is the mutual linkage of three elements: target designation means (in the form of spacecraft), a carrier and anti-ship missiles. The created complex acquired the ability to solve the most complex tasks of naval combat using a complement of fire weapons from one carrier.

It can also be used to destroy coastal targets.

History of creation

Work on the creation of a long-range supersonic underwater-launched cruise missile in the USSR was started by decree of the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers No. 539-186 dated July 10, 1969 at the IOM Central Design Bureau. By this time, the submarines were already armed with the P-6 supersonic cruise missile; however, launching it was possible only from the surface, which greatly increased the vulnerability of the submarine, and, taking into account the unmasking effect of a missile salvo, exposed the boat to significant risk. In addition, the P-6, designed back in the late 1950s, a decade later no longer met the requirements for speed, range and flight altitude.

The development of a new underwater launch cruise missile was initiated in parallel with the creation of the development of the P-6 - the P-500 "Basalt" cruise missile, with which they were going to re-equip existing carriers. However, the P-500 Basalt was also unsuitable for launching from under water. It was necessary to create completely new rocket. The project received the designation P-700 "Granit". Subsequently, it was decided to develop a new missile for use not only from submarines, but also from surface ships, duplicating the development of the P-500.

The flight testing phase of the rocket began in November 1975. The Granit complex passed state tests from 1979 to July 1983. By Decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 686-214 of July 19, 1983, the complex was adopted for service on the following ships:

• nuclear submarines of projects 949 "Granit" and 949A "Antey";
• heavy nuclear missile cruisers of projects 1144 "Orlan" and 1144.2 "Orlan";
• heavy aircraft-carrying cruisers of Project 1143.5 “Krechet”.

There were projects and other media, which, however, were not implemented.

Design

The P-700 Granit missile has a cigar-shaped shape with an annular air intake at the front end and a folding cross-shaped tail unit. A short, highly swept wing, foldable after launch, is installed in the central part of the fuselage.

The rocket is propelled by a KR-21-300 turbojet engine located along the central axis. The rocket is launched from under water using a block of four solid fuel boosters located behind the rocket. The missile is stored in a sealed transport and launch container with folded wings and tail surfaces, the air intake is covered with a dome-shaped fairing. Before launch, the installation is filled with sea water (this procedure is also used on surface ships to avoid damage to the installation by exhaust), after which the activated accelerator pushes the rocket out of the shaft and delivers it to the surface of the water. In the air, the air intake fairing is discarded, the wings and tail are straightened, the burnt-out accelerator is discarded and the rocket continues to fly with the help of the main engine.

The missile is equipped with warheads various types. This can be either a semi-armor-piercing (high-explosive-penetrating) warhead weighing 584-750 kg, or a tactical nuclear warhead with a TNT equivalent of up to 500 kilotons. Currently due to international agreements on the ban on sea-launched nuclear cruise missiles, all P-700s are equipped only with conventional warheads.

The missile is guided using an active radar guidance head. The on-board autonomous selective control system for anti-ship missiles is built on the basis of a three-processor on-board computer (OBC) using several information channels, which allows one to successfully understand a complex interference environment and identify true targets against the background of interference. During a group launch of missiles (salvo), the missiles, having detected the enemy with their homing heads, exchange information, identify and distribute targets by their size, relative position and other parameters. The on-board computer contains electronic data on modern classes of ships; tactical information, for example, about the type of orders of ships, which allows the missile to determine that in front of it is a convoy, aircraft carrier or landing group, and attack the main targets in its composition; data on countering enemy electronic warfare systems that can, by jamming, divert missiles from the target; tactical techniques for evading air defense fire.

To increase combat stability, the P-700 is equipped with a 3B47 “Kvarts” radio jamming station and devices for resetting dipole reflectors and decoys.

Characteristics

Application

The missiles are launched from containerized inclined launchers SM-225 (for submarines) or SM-233 (for surface ships), located under the deck of the carrier ship at an angle of 60 degrees. Before launch, to reduce thermal loads on the launcher, the container is filled with sea water.

Since the long-range flight time of a missile is significant, and the target can go beyond the detection radius of the missile seeker, the complex needs precise target designation carried out by the Success aviation complex from Tu-95 RC aircraft or Ka-25 Ts helicopters, or by a space reconnaissance complex and target designation ICRC "Legend" The missile can also be used to destroy ground targets.

Project evaluation

The experience of combat and operational training of the Navy shows that a large mass and high speed missiles of the complex make it difficult to defeat them with enemy anti-aircraft missiles.

The missile has never been used in combat conditions; opinions about its actual effectiveness vary.

Carriers

Developers

• The parent organization is NPO Mashinostroyenia. Chief designer -

Damn, I love this car! A supersonic winged ship with a predatory, elongated fuselage and sharp triangles planes. Inside, in the cramped cockpit, the eye is lost among dozens of dials, toggle switches and switches. Here is the airplane control stick, comfortable, made of ribbed plastic. It has built-in weapon control buttons.

The left palm squeezes the engine control stick, directly below it is the flap control panel. There is a glass screen in front, on which the image of the sight and instrument readings are projected - perhaps the silhouettes of the Phantoms were once reflected in it, but now the instrument is turned off and therefore completely transparent...

It's time to leave the pilot's seat - below, near the stairs, others were crowding around wanting to get into the cockpit. Last time I glance at the blue instrument panel and descend from a three-meter height to the ground.

Already saying goodbye to the MiG, I suddenly imagined how 24 of the same aircraft were moving somewhere under the surface of the Atlantic, waiting in the wings in the launch silos of a nuclear submarine. Such ammunition of anti-ship missiles is on board the Russian “aircraft carrier killers” - Project 949A Antey nuclear-powered submarines. Comparing the MiG with a cruise missile is not an exaggeration: the weight and size characteristics of the P-700 Granit missile are close to those of the MiG-21.

Hardness of granite

The length of the gigantic rocket is 10 meters (in some sources - 8.84 meters without taking into account the SRS), the wingspan of the Granit is 2.6 meters. The MiG-21F-13 fighter (in the future we will consider this well-known modification) with a fuselage length of 13.5 meters, has a wingspan of 7 meters. It would seem that the differences are significant - the aircraft is larger than the anti-ship missile, but the last argument should convince the reader of the correctness of our reasoning.

The launch weight of the Granit anti-ship missile system is 7.36 tons, at the same time, the normal take-off weight of the MiG-21F-13 was ... 7 tons. The same MiG that fought with Phantoms in Vietnam and shot down Mirages in the hot sky over the Sinai turned out to be lighter than the Soviet anti-ship missile!

Anti-ship missile P-700 "Granit"

The dry weight of the MiG-21 structure was 4.8 tons, another 2 tons were fuel. During the evolution of the MiG, the take-off weight increased and, for the most advanced representative of the MiG-21bis family, it reached 8.7 tons. At the same time, the weight of the structure increased by 600 kg, and the fuel supply increased by 490 kg (which did not affect the flight range of the MiG-21bis in any way - the more powerful engine “gobbled up” all reserves).

The fuselage of the MiG-21, like the body of the Granit missile, is a cigar-shaped body with cut off front and rear ends. The nose of both designs is made in the form of an air intake with an inlet section adjustable using a cone. Like on a fighter, the radar antenna is located in the Granit cone. But despite external resemblance, there are many differences in the design of the Granit anti-ship missile system.

Declassified photo. This is what the combat unit of the Granit anti-ship missile system looks like.

The layout of the "Granit" is much denser, the rocket body has greater strength, because “Granit” was designed for an underwater launch (at nuclear power plants, sea water is pumped into the missile silos before launch). Inside the rocket is a huge warhead weighing 750 kg. We are talking about quite obvious things, but comparing a rocket with a fighter jet will unexpectedly lead us to an unusual conclusion.

Flying to the limit

Would you believe a dreamer who claims that the MiG-21 is capable of flying a distance of 1000 km at an extremely low altitude (20-30 meters above the Earth’s surface), at a speed one and a half times the speed of sound? At the same time, carrying in its belly a huge ammunition weighing 750 kilograms? Of course, the reader will shake his head in disbelief - miracles do not happen; the MiG-21 in cruising mode at an altitude of 10,000 m could cover 1200-1300 km. In addition, the MiG-21, due to its design, could show its excellent speed qualities only in a rarefied atmosphere at high altitudes; at the surface of the earth, the speed of the fighter was limited to 1.2 speeds of sound.

Speed, afterburner, flight range... For the R-13-300 engine, fuel consumption in cruising mode is 0.931 kg/kgf*hour, in afterburner it reaches 2.093 kg/kgf*hour. Even an increase in speed will not be able to compensate for the sharply increased fuel consumption, in addition, no one flies in this mode for more than 10 minutes.

According to the book by V. Markovsky “The Hot Sky of Afghanistan”, which describes in detail combat service aviation of the 40th Army and the Turkestan Military District, MiG-21 fighters were regularly involved in striking ground targets. In each episode, the combat load of the MiGs consisted of two 250 kg bombs, and during difficult missions, it was generally reduced to two “hundreds”. When carrying larger ammunition, the flight range rapidly decreased; the MiG became clumsy and dangerous to pilot. It is necessary to take into account that we are talking about the most advanced modifications of the “twenty-first” used in Afghanistan - MiG-21bis, MiG-21SM, MiG-21PFM, etc.

The combat load of the MiG-21F-13 consisted of one built-in NR-30 cannon with 30 rounds of ammunition (weight 100 kg) and two R-3S air-to-air guided missiles (weight 2 x 75 kg). I dare to suggest that the maximum flight range of 1300 km was achieved without external suspensions at all.

Silhouette of F-16 and Granit anti-ship missiles. The Soviet missile looks solid even against the backdrop of the large F-16 (take-off weight 15 tons).

The anti-ship Granit is more “optimized” for low-altitude flight; the frontal projection area of ​​the missile is smaller than that of a fighter. The Granit lacks retractable landing gear and a braking parachute. And yet, there is less fuel on board the anti-ship missile - the warhead takes up 750 kg of space inside the hull, and we had to abandon fuel tanks in the wing consoles (the MiG-21 has two of them: in the nose and middle root of the wing).

Considering that Granit will have to break through to the target at an extremely low altitude (LAL), through dense layers of the atmosphere, it becomes clear why the real flight range of the P-700 is much less than the stated one of 550, 600 and even 700 km. In WWI at supersonic speed, the flight range of a heavy anti-ship missile is 150...200 km (depending on the type of warhead). The obtained value completely coincides with the tactical and technical assignment of the military-industrial complex under the Council of Ministers of the USSR from 1968 for the development of a heavy anti-ship missile (the future “Granit”): 200 km on a low-altitude trajectory.

This leads to another conclusion - the beautiful legend about the “leader rocket” remains just a legend: a low-flying “flock” will not be able to follow the “leader rocket” flying at high altitude.

The impressive figure of 600 km, which often appears in the media, is only valid for a high-altitude flight path, when the missile follows a target in the stratosphere, at an altitude of 14 to 20 km. This nuance affects the combat effectiveness of the missile system; an object flying at high altitude can be easily detected and intercepted - Mr. Powers is a witness.

The Legend of 22 Rockets

Several years ago, one respected admiral published memoirs about the service of the 5th OPESK (Operational Squadron) of the USSR Navy in the Mediterranean Sea. It turns out that back in the 80s, Soviet sailors accurately calculated the number of missiles to destroy aircraft carrier formations of the American Sixth Fleet. According to their calculations, the AUG air defense is capable of repelling a simultaneous attack from no more than 22 supersonic anti-ship missiles. The twenty-third missile is guaranteed to hit the aircraft carrier, and then a hellish lottery begins: the 24th missile can be intercepted by air defense, the 25th and 26th will again break through the defenses and hit the ships...

The former sailor was telling the truth: a simultaneous strike by 22 missiles is the limit for the air defense of an aircraft carrier strike group. You can easily verify this by independently calculating the capabilities of the Ticonderoga-class Aegis cruiser to repel missile attacks.

USS Lake Champlain (CG-57) - Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser

So, the Project 949A nuclear submarine Antey has reached a launch distance of 600 km, and the target designation problem has been successfully resolved.
Volley! – 8 “Granites” (the maximum number of missiles in a salvo) pierce the water column and, having shot up like a fiery tornado to a height of 14 km, lie down on a combat course...

According to the fundamental laws of nature, an outside observer will be able to see the Granites at a distance of 490 km - it is at this distance that a missile flock flying at an altitude of 14 km rises above the horizon.

According to official data, the AN/SPY-1 phased array radar is capable of detecting an air target at a distance of 200 US miles(320 km). The effective dispersion area of ​​the MiG-21 fighter is estimated at 3...5 square meters. meters is quite a lot. The missile's ESR is smaller - within 2 square meters. meters. Roughly speaking, the Aegis cruiser's radar will detect a threat at a distance of 250 km.

Group target, distance... bearing... The confused consciousness of the command center operators, aggravated by impulses of fear, sees 8 terrible “flares” on the radar screen. Anti-aircraft weapons for battle!

It took the cruiser’s crew half a minute to prepare for missile firing, the covers of the Mark-41 UVP fell back with a clang, the first Standard-2ER (extended range - “long range”) climbed out of the launch container, and, fluffing its fiery tail, disappeared behind the clouds... behind it one more... and another...

During this time, the “Granites” at a speed of 2.5 M (800 m/s) approached 25 kilometers.

According to official data, the Mark-41 launcher can produce missiles at a rate of 1 missile per second. Ticonderoga has two launchers: bow and stern. Purely theoretically, let’s assume that the real rate of fire in combat conditions is 4 times less, i.e. Aegis cruiser releases in 30 minutes anti-aircraft missiles.

The Standard-2ER, like all modern long-range missiles, is a missile with a semi-active guidance system. During the cruising portion of the trajectory, the Standard flies in the direction of the target, guided by a remotely reprogrammable autopilot. A few seconds before the interception point, the missile’s homing head is turned on: the radar on board the cruiser “illuminates” the air target and the missile’s seeker catches the signal reflected from the target, calculating its reference trajectory.

Note. Realizing this shortcoming of anti-aircraft missile systems, the Americans rejoiced. Attack aircraft can attack sea targets with impunity, dropping Harpoons from their hardpoints and immediately “washing away”, diving to an extremely low altitude. The reflected beam has disappeared - the anti-aircraft missile is helpless.

The sweet life of pilots will end with the advent of anti-aircraft missiles with active guidance, when the missile defense system will independently illuminate the target. Alas, neither the promising American Standard-6 nor the active-guided long-range missile of the S-400 complex has yet been able to successfully pass tests - the designers still have to resolve many technical issues.

Will remain main problem: radio horizon. Strike aircraft do not even need to “shine” on the radar - it is enough to fire homing missiles, remaining undetected below the radio horizon. The exact direction and coordinates of the target will be “told” to them by an AWACS aircraft flying 400 km behind the strike group. However, even here you can find justice for insolent aviators - it’s not for nothing that a long-range missile was created for the S-400 air defense system.

On the superstructure of the Aegis cruiser, two AN/SPY-1 radar headlight arrays and two AN/SPG-62 target illumination radars on the roof of the superstructure are clearly visible.

Let's return to the confrontation between 8 anti-ship missiles "Granit" and "Ticonderoga". Despite the fact that the Aegis system is capable of simultaneously firing at 18 targets, the cruiser has only 4 AN/SPG-62 illumination radars on board. One of the advantages of the Aegis is that in addition to monitoring the target, the BIUS automatically controls the number of missiles fired, calculating the firing so that at any given time there are no more than 4 of them on the final part of the trajectory.

The end of the tragedy

Opponents quickly get closer to each other. "Granites" fly at a speed of 800 m/s. The speed of anti-aircraft "Standard-2" is 1000 m/s. Initial distance 250 km. It took 30 seconds to make a decision to counteract, during which time the distance was reduced to 225 km. Through simple calculations, it was established that the first “Standard” will meet the “Granites” in 125 seconds, at which point the distance to the cruiser will be 125 km.

In fact, the situation for the Americans is much worse: somewhere at a distance of 50 km from the cruiser, the Granite homing heads will detect the Ticonderoga and heavy missiles will begin to dive at the target, disappearing for a while from the cruiser’s visibility zone. They will appear again at a distance of 30 km, when it is too late to do anything. Phalanx anti-aircraft guns will not be able to stop the gang of Russian monsters.

Launch of Standard-2ER missiles from the Arleigh Burke destroyers.

The US Navy has only 90 seconds left - it is during this time that the Granites will cover the remaining 125-50=75 kilometers and dive to a low altitude. During this minute and a half, the Granites will fly under continuous fire: the Ticonderoga will have time to fire 30 x 1.5 = 45 anti-aircraft missiles.

The probability of an aircraft being hit by anti-aircraft missiles is usually given in the range of 0.6...0.9. But the tabular data does not entirely correspond to reality: in Vietnam, anti-aircraft gunners spent 4-5 missiles on one Phantom shot down. The high-tech Aegis should be more effective than the S-75 Dvina radio command air defense system, however, the incident with the downing of an Iranian passenger Boeing (1988) does not provide clear evidence of an increase in efficiency.

Without further ado, let’s assume the probability of hitting the target is 0.2. Not every bird will fly to the middle of the Dnieper. Only every fifth "Standard" will hit the target. The warhead contains 61 kg of powerful explosive - after meeting with an anti-aircraft missile, Granit has no chance of reaching the target.

Total: 45 x 0.2 = 9 targets destroyed. The cruiser repelled a missile attack.
Silent scene.

Implications and conclusions

The Aegis cruiser is probably capable of single-handedly repelling an eight-missile salvo from the Project 949A nuclear-powered missile submarine Antey, expending about 40 anti-aircraft missiles. It will also repulse the second salvo - for this it has enough ammunition (80 “Standards” are placed in 122 UVP cells). After the third salvo, the cruiser will die the death of the brave.

Of course, there is more than one Aegis cruiser in the AUG... On the other hand, in the event of a direct military clash, the carrier group would have to be attacked by heterogeneous forces Soviet aviation and the fleet. We can only thank fate that we did not see this nightmare.

What conclusions can be drawn from all these events? But none! All of the above was true only for the mighty Soviet Union. Soviet sailors, like their colleagues from NATO countries, have long known that anti-ship missile turns into a formidable force only at an extremely low altitude. At high altitudes there is no escape from air defense missile systems (Mr. Powers is a witness!) - the air target becomes easily detectable and vulnerable. On the other hand, a launch distance of 150...200 km was quite enough to pin down aircraft carrier groups. Soviet "pikes" more than once scratched the bottoms of US Navy aircraft carriers with periscopes.

Of course, there is no place for “hack-throwing” sentiments here - the American fleet was also strong and dangerous. "Tu-95 flights over the deck of an aircraft carrier" in peacetime, in a dense ring of Tomcat interceptors, cannot serve as reliable evidence of the high vulnerability of the AUG - it was necessary to get close to the aircraft carrier undetected, and this already required certain skills. Soviet submariners admitted that secretly approaching an aircraft carrier group was not an easy task, for this it was necessary high professionalism, knowledge of tactics " probable enemy"and His Majesty Chance.

Nowadays, American AUGs do not pose a threat to purely continental Russia. No one will use aircraft carriers in the “marquise puddle” of the Black Sea - in this region there is a large Incirlik air base in Turkey. And in the event of a global nuclear war, aircraft carriers will not be the primary targets.

As for the Granit anti-ship complex, the very fact of the appearance of such a weapon was a feat of Soviet scientists and engineers. Only a super-civilization was capable of creating such masterpieces, combining the most advanced achievements of electronics, rocket and space technology.

Table values ​​and coefficients - www.airwar.ru

In 1969, OKB-52 began developing the P-700 Granit long-range anti-ship weapon. In 1970, the preliminary design was completed. The complex is designed to strike formations of warships (primarily AUG), convoys and enemy landing forces with enhanced air defense and missile defense.

The Granit missile system, created by OKB-52 (now NPO Mashinostroeniya), had to meet extremely high requirements: maximum range - at least 500 km, maximum speed- at least 2500 km/h. Granit was distinguished from previous complexes of similar purposes by flexible adaptive trajectories, versatility in launch (underwater and surface), as well as carriers (submarines and surface ships), salvo firing with a rational spatial arrangement of missiles, and a noise-proof selective control system. It was allowed to fire at targets whose coordinates were known with large errors, as well as when the data became outdated for a long time. All operations for daily and launch maintenance of rockets have been automated. As a result, “Granit” acquired a real ability to solve any naval combat task with one carrier. However, the effectiveness of a long-range anti-ship missile system was largely determined by the capabilities of reconnaissance and target designation equipment. The “Success” system, which was based on the Tu-95 aircraft, no longer had the necessary combat stability. Was created new system maritime space reconnaissance and target designation (MCRTS) - “Legend”.

Testing of "Granit" began in November 1975 from a ground stand, and ended in August 1983, while since December 1980, launches were made from Project 949 submarines. By resolution of the Council of Ministers of March 12, 1983, the Granit complex was adopted for service.

The ZM-45 missile, equipped with both nuclear (500 kt) and high-explosive warheads weighing 750 kg, is equipped with a KR-93 sustainer turbojet engine with a ring solid-fuel rocket booster that begins operation under water. The maximum firing range is up to 600 km, the maximum speed corresponds to M=2.5 at high altitudes and M=1.5 at low altitudes. The launch mass of the rocket is 7000 kg, length is 9.15 m, body diameter is 0.85 m, wingspan is 2.6 m.

The missile embodies the rich experience of Soviet designers in creating electronic artificial intelligence systems, allowing them to act against a single ship according to the principle of “one missile - one ship” or “in a flock” against an order of ships. The missiles can be fired either singly or in one salvo (up to 24 anti-ship missiles launched at high tempo). The P-700 anti-ship missiles are completely autonomous after launch, have a complex flight path and a multi-variant program for attacking enemy formations. Thanks to the change in flight speed, anti-ship missiles of one salvo are able to form a dense group, which makes it easier to overcome enemy missile defense systems, and thanks to on-board control systems and mutual exchange of information, they can optimally distribute targets among themselves. Organizing the flight of all missiles in a salvo, additionally searching for a warrant and “covering” it with an activated radar sight allows the anti-ship missile to fly on the cruising sector in radio silence mode. During the flight of missiles, the optimal distribution of targets within the order is carried out between them (the algorithm for solving this problem was worked out by the Institute of Naval Armaments and NPO Granit). When approaching a detachment of enemy ships, the missiles themselves will distribute and classify according to the importance of the target, choose the attack tactics and plan for its implementation. To eliminate errors when choosing a maneuver and hitting a specific target, the on-board computer of the anti-ship missile system contains electronic data on modern classes of ships. In addition, the machine also contains purely tactical information, for example, about the type of orders of ships, which allows the missile to determine who is in front of it - a convoy, an aircraft carrier or a landing group, and attack the main targets in its composition. Also in the on-board computer there is data on countering enemy electronic warfare systems that can divert missiles from the target by jamming, and tactical techniques for evading air defense fire. As the designers say, after the launch of the missile, they themselves decide which of them will attack which target and what maneuvers need to be carried out for this in accordance with the mathematical algorithms embedded in the behavior program. The missile also has means to counter anti-missile missiles attacking it. Having destroyed the main target in the ship group, the remaining missiles attack other ships of the order, eliminating the possibility of two missiles hitting the same target.

On TARKR pr.1144, 20 Granit missiles are placed in individual under-deck launchers SM-233. The TAVKR pr.1143.5 “Admiral Kuznetsov” is equipped with twelve missiles. In addition, 3 Project 949 nuclear submarines and 9 Project 949A submarines are armed with Granit missiles. Both types of boats have 24 launchers. The ship's control system can ensure the simultaneous preparation and launch of all 24 anti-ship missiles. Target designation can be obtained from the Legend MCRTs system, Tu-95RTs aircraft or Ka-25RTs helicopters.

Supersonic speed and a complex flight path, high noise immunity of radio-electronic equipment and the presence of a special system for removing enemy anti-aircraft and aircraft missiles provide the Granit, when firing in full salvo, with a high probability of overcoming the air defense and missile defense systems of an aircraft carrier formation. Currently, Project 949(A) submarines armed with the Granit complex, together with naval missile-carrying aircraft, are the basis of the anti-aircraft carrier forces of the Russian fleet. Thanks to the unique technical solutions laid down by the designers back in the 80s. last century, the Granite complex is still for a long time will retain its excellent fighting qualities.