Means of armed struggle. Damaging factors of modern types of weapons

Means of warfare are weapons and other means used by the armed forces of the warring forces to harm and defeat the enemy.

Methods of warfare - the procedure for using means of warfare.

Unlawful means include conventional weapons capable of causing significant harm to civilians and civilian objects, weapons causing unnecessary suffering, and weapons intended to cause or capable of causing widespread, long-term and serious damage to the environment.

Prohibited conventional weapons:

1. explosive bullets and shells containing flammable and incendiary substances weighing less than 400 grams,

2. bullets that easily unfold or flatten into human body,

3. any incendiary weapon, including phosphorus bombs against the population and civilian objects,

4. any weapon whose main effect is to cause damage by fragments that are not detectable by x-ray.

According to UN documents, weapons of mass destruction include weapons that operate by explosion or using radioactive materials, lethal chemical and bacteriological weapons and any other weapons that will be developed in the future that have the properties of an atomic bomb or other weapons mentioned above.

Weapons of mass destruction:

1. radiation weapons,

2. infrasonic weapons defeat rate internal organs,

3. genetic weapon,

4. ethnic weapons,

5. psychotropic weapons,

6. geophysical weapons.

Weapons of mass destruction should also include weapons whose use:

1. leads to mass destruction of both combatants and civilians,

2. will destroy the foundations of human existence not only in the area of their use, but also far beyond its borders,

3. has a destructive effect both at the time of its use and for a long time after that.

Chemical weapons

The Convention on the Laws and Customs of War on Land prohibited the use of chemical weapons, poison or poisoned weapons. This ban is comprehensive. It prohibits the use in hostilities of all chemical, bacteriological and biological agents that currently exist and may be obtained in the future.

However, the Geneva Protocol does not prohibit states from researching, developing, producing and stockpiling chemical weapons.

Bacteriological weapons

A prohibited means of warfare, the action of which is based on the use of pathogenic properties of microorganisms capable of causing mass diseases in people, animals and flora.

The development, production and stockpiling of weapons, equipment or delivery vehicles intended for the use of such agents or toxins in armed conflicts is prohibited.

The rules prohibiting the use of chemical and bacteriological weapons are also mandatory for states that are not parties to the relevant conventions, because their norms became the usual norms of the MP.

Nuclear weapons

Nuclear weapons are weapons mass destruction, falls under the system of prohibitive rules of the law of armed conflict.

General Assembly The UN, on behalf of the UN member states, solemnly declared the forever prohibition of the use of nuclear weapons, condemned the development, dissemination and propaganda of political and military doctrines and concepts designed to justify the legality of the first use of nuclear weapons, as well as the general admissibility of unleashing a nuclear war.

The illegality of the use of nuclear weapons follows from the fact that:

1. nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction,

2. the use of nuclear weapons contradicts the generally recognized principle of the law of armed conflict, according to which belligerents do not use unlimited means of causing harm to the enemy,

3. nuclear weapons cannot be used in such a way that they spare, as far as possible, buildings serving the purposes of science, art, charity, charity, churches, historical monuments,

4. modern LOAC prohibits the destruction of any property belonging to individuals, communities or states, and the use of nuclear weapons denies this norm in relation to the victim state.

5. the use of nuclear weapons causes radioactive exposure of the civilian population, which entails, in some cases, rapid and inevitable death, in others – long-term illness and suffering.

Environmental Impact as a Weapon of War

In 1977, a special convention was concluded in Geneva prohibiting military or any other influence on natural environment, in which means of influence are understood as any means for changing, by deliberate control of natural processes, the dynamics, composition or structure of the earth, including its biosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere or outer space.

The Convention excludes all types of military or any other hostile use of means of influencing the natural environment if this would have widespread long-term or serious consequences in the form of destruction and damage to another state.

5. Protection of civilians

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GBOU VPO OrGMA

Department of Disaster Medicine

Head of the department, Candidate of Medical Sciences Mikhail Viktorovich Boev

Topic: Modern means of armed warfare

Valtsak Ya.E.

Orenburg 2014

Introduction

Weapons appeared in human history in primitive society. Prehistoric warriors were armed with clubs, wooden spears with bone or stone tips, bows, and stone axes. Then bronze and iron swords and spears with metal tips appeared. With the discovery of gunpowder, firearms were invented. One of the first examples of such weapons is considered to be a modfa (metal tube) attached to the shaft. It fired round metal cannonballs and was used by the Arabs back in the 12th-13th centuries. In the XIV century. firearms appeared in Western Europe and Rus'. Since its appearance, firearms have been constantly improved as the most effective remedy defeat of the enemy. In the 16th century the first samples were created rifled weapons(squeaker, fitting). In the second half of the 19th century. rapid-fire and then automatic weapons and mortars appeared. During the First World War, aircraft and depth charges began to be used. During World War II, rocket launchers, guided missiles (V-1) and ballistic missiles (V-2) were used for the first time.

Even the final passing of the Cold War relapses into the past does not mean that military-political confrontation will be excluded from international practice. Abandoning ideological confrontation will not cancel geopolitical interests, as well as national priorities in foreign policy any state.

The global military danger to Russia comes and will continue to come from countries that have strategic nuclear weapons (USA, China, France, UK, Pakistan). In turn, Russia, which has the same weapons, is a source of global military danger in relation to other countries of the world. At the same time, the military-strategic situation in the world shows that the potential military danger on a global scale is decreasing and has all positive trends towards further decline. weapons war ammunition radiation

The sources of potential regional danger for Russia and other neighboring countries are the states bordering the territory of the former USSR in the south, which are capable of individually creating quite powerful groupings of troops against their northern neighbors. In addition, the source of regional military danger is the growing territorial and religious contradictions in the north-west and east of Russia. At the same time, regional military dangers of various types have been mitigated to a certain extent by bilateral agreements and have practically not developed into a military threat to Russia, although they have great explosive potential.

Brief Analysis trends in the development of military-political relations between states and sources of military danger shows that with unfavorable development, a sharp aggravation of existing contradictions between Russia and states near and far abroad is possible. This can lead to the emergence of armed conflicts (wars), varying in their goals and scale.

Nuclear weapons

Nuclear is a weapon whose destructive effect is based on the use of intranuclear energy released during a chain reaction of fission of heavy nuclei of certain isotopes of uranium and plutonium or during thermal nuclear reactions synthesis of nuclei of light hydrogen isotopes.

It includes various nuclear weapons, means of delivering them to the target (carriers) and control means. Nuclear weapons include warheads of missiles and torpedoes, bombs, artillery shells, depth charges, mines (land mines). Carriers of nuclear weapons are aircraft, surface ships and submarines, equipped with nuclear weapons and delivering them to the launch (firing) site. There are also carriers of nuclear charges (missiles, torpedoes, shells, aircraft and depth charges), which deliver them directly to targets. The power of a nuclear weapon is characterized by its TNT equivalent, which is equal to the mass of TNT, the explosion energy of which is equal to the explosion energy of a given nuclear weapon. Based on the size of TNT equivalent, nuclear weapons are divided into 5 groups: ultra-small (up to 1 kt), small (1-10 kt), medium (10-100 kt), large (100 kt - 1 Mt), extra-large (over 1 Mt).

The damaging factors of a nuclear explosion are shock wave, light radiation, penetrating radiation, radioactive contamination and electromagnetic pulse.

The shock wave is the main damaging factor of a nuclear explosion, since most of the destruction and damage to structures and buildings, as well as injury to people, are usually caused by its impact. It is an area of sharp compression of the medium, spreading in all directions from the explosion site at supersonic speed. The front boundary of the compressed layer of air is called the front shock wave. The damaging effect of a shock wave is characterized by the amount of excess pressure - the difference between the maximum pressure in the front of the shock wave and normal atmospheric pressure in front of him. At excess pressure 20-40 kPa, unprotected people can get mild injuries (bruises and contusions). Exposure to a shock wave with an excess pressure of 40-60 kPa leads to moderate damage (loss of consciousness, damage to the hearing organs, severe dislocations of the limbs, bleeding from the nose and ears). Severe injuries occur when excess pressure exceeds 60 kPa. Extremely severe lesions are observed at excess pressure above 100 kPa.

Light radiation is a stream of radiant energy, including ultraviolet and infrared rays. Its source is a luminous area formed by hot explosion products and air. This radiation spreads almost instantly and lasts, depending on the power of the nuclear explosion, up to 20 s. Its strength is such that it can cause burns skin and damage (permanent or temporary) to people’s visual organs, as well as fire of flammable materials and objects. Light radiation does not penetrate through opaque materials, so any barrier that can create a shadow protects against the direct action of light radiation and prevents damage. Light radiation is significantly weakened by dusty (smoky) air, fog, rain, and snowfall.

Penetrating radiation is a stream of gamma rays and neutrons. It lasts 10-15 s. Passing through living tissue, this radiation ionizes the molecules that make up the cells. Under the influence of ionization, biological processes arise in the body, leading to disruption of the vital functions of individual organs and the development of radiation sickness. As a result of the passage of ionizing radiation through materials environment their intensity decreases. The weakening effect of materials is usually characterized by a layer of half attenuation, i.e., such a thickness, passing through which the radiation intensity decreases by 2 times. For example, a layer of steel with a thickness of 2.8 cm, concrete - 10 cm, soil - 14 cm, wood - 30 cm weakens the intensity of gamma rays by 2 times. Open and especially closed cracks significantly reduce the impact of penetrating radiation, and shelters and anti-radiation shelters practically completely protected from it.

Radioactive contamination of the area, the surface layer of the atmosphere, airspace, water and other objects occurs as a result of the fallout of radioactive substances from the cloud of a nuclear explosion. In this case, a high level of radiation can be observed not only in the area adjacent to the explosion site, but also at a distance of tens and even hundreds of kilometers from it. Radioactive contamination of the area can be dangerous for several weeks after the explosion.

An electromagnetic pulse is a short-term electromagnetic field that occurs during the explosion of a nuclear weapon as a result of the interaction of gamma rays and neutrons emitted with the atoms of the environment. The consequence of its impact may be burnout and breakdowns of individual elements of radio-electronic and electrical equipment.

The most reliable means of protection against all damaging factors of a nuclear explosion are protective structures. In open areas and in the field, you can use durable local items, reverse slopes of heights and folds of terrain.

When operating in contaminated areas, special protective equipment should be used to protect the respiratory system, eyes and open areas of the body from radioactive substances.

Chemical weapons

The action of these weapons is based on the toxic properties of certain chemicals. The main components of these weapons are chemical warfare agents and means of their use, including carriers used to deliver chemical munitions to targets.

Based on their effect on the body, combat toxic chemical substances (BTC) are divided into nerve paralytic, vesicant, asphyxiating, generally toxic, irritant and psychochemical.

Nerve-acting chemical agents (VX, sarin) affect the nervous system, affecting the body through the respiratory system, penetrating in vapor and droplet-liquid form through the skin, and also entering the gastrointestinal tract along with food and water. Their durability lasts for more than a day in summer, and several weeks and even months in winter.

Signs of damage by these substances are drooling, constriction of the pupils, difficulty breathing, nausea, vomiting, convulsions, and paralysis.

As a means personal protection a gas mask and protective clothing are used. To provide first aid to the victim, a gas mask is put on him and an antidote is injected into him. If substances come into contact with skin or clothing, the affected areas are treated with liquid from an individual anti-chemical package (IPP).

BTXV of blister action (mustard gas) have a multifaceted damaging effect. In a droplet-liquid and vapor state, they affect the skin and eyes, when inhaling vapors - the respiratory tract and lungs, and when ingested with food and water - the digestive organs. A characteristic feature of mustard gas is the presence of a period of latent action (the lesion is not detected immediately, but after some time - 2 hours or more). Signs of damage are redness of the skin, the formation of small blisters, which then merge into large ones and burst after two or three days, turning into difficult-to-heal ulcers. With any local damage, these substances cause general poisoning of the body, which manifests itself in fever and malaise. To protect against blistering BTXV, it is necessary to use a gas mask and protective clothing. If drops of a toxic substance come into contact with skin or clothing, the affected areas are immediately treated with PPI liquid.

BTXV asphyxiating agents (phosgene) affect the body through the respiratory system. Signs of damage are a sweetish, unpleasant taste in the mouth, cough, dizziness, and general weakness. After leaving the source of infection, these phenomena disappear, and the victim feels normal within 4-6 hours, unaware of the damage he has received. During this period of latent action, pulmonary edema develops, which leads to a sharp deterioration in breathing, cough with copious sputum, headache, fever, shortness of breath, and palpitations. When providing assistance, they put a gas mask on the victim, take him out of the contaminated area, cover him warmly and provide him with peace. Under no circumstances should you administer artificial respiration to the affected person!

Generally toxic BTXVs (hydrocyanic acid and cyanogen chloride) affect only by inhaling air contaminated with their vapors (they do not act through the skin). Signs of damage include a metallic taste in the mouth, throat irritation, dizziness, weakness, nausea, vomiting, severe convulsions, and paralysis. To protect against these substances, it is enough to use a gas mask. To help the victim, you need to crush the ampoule with the antidote and insert it under the helmet-mask of his gas mask. In severe cases, the victim is given artificial respiration, warmed up and sent to a medical center.

Irritating BTHBs (CS, CS, Adamsite) cause acute burning and pain in the mouth, throat and eyes, severe lacrimation, coughing, and difficulty breathing.

BTXB of psychochemical action (Bi-Z) have a specific effect on the central nervous system and cause mental (hallucinations, fear, depression) or physical (blindness, deafness) disorders. In case of defeat toxic substances irritating and psychochemical effects, it is necessary to treat the infected areas of the body with soapy water, rinse the eyes and nasopharynx thoroughly with clean water, and shake out or brush the clothes.

Bacteriological weapons

Biological weapons are intended for mass destruction of manpower, farm animals and crops. The destructive effect of this weapon is based on the use of the pathogenic properties of microorganisms - pathogens of diseases in humans, animals and agricultural plants. Causative agents of various infectious diseases can be used as bacterial agents: plague, anthrax, brucellosis, glanders, tularemia, cholera, yellow and other types of fevers, spring-summer encephalitis, rash and typhoid fever, influenza, malaria, dysentery, smallpox, etc. In addition, botulinum toxin can be used, which causes severe poisoning of the human body. To infect animals, along with the pathogens of anthrax and glanders, foot-and-mouth disease, rinderpest and poultry viruses can be used, and to infect agricultural plants - pathogens of cereal rust, potato late blight and some other viruses. Disease in humans and animals occurs as a result of inhalation of contaminated air, contact of microbes or toxins on the mucous membrane and damaged skin, consumption of contaminated food and water, bites of infected insects and ticks, contact with contaminated objects, injury from fragments of ammunition filled with bacterial agents, and also as a result of direct contact with sick people or animals. A number of diseases are quickly transmitted from sick people to healthy people and cause epidemics (plague, cholera, influenza, etc.).

The most characteristic features of bacteriological (biological) weapons are:

* the ability to cause massive infectious diseases in humans and animals when ingested in negligible quantities;

* the ability of many infectious diseases to quickly be transmitted from sick to healthy;

* long duration of action (for example, spore forms of anthrax microbes retain damaging properties several years);

* presence of a latent (incubation) period of the disease;

* the ability of contaminated air to penetrate into various non-sealed rooms and infect people and animals in them.

As a result of the use of biological weapons and the spread of pathogenic bacteria in the area, zones of biological contamination and foci of biological damage may form. If at least one sign of the use of biological weapons is detected, you must immediately put on a gas mask (respirator, dust mask) and skin protection. After this, you should take refuge in a protective structure. To ensure protection against biological weapons, it is of great importance to carry out anti-epidemic and sanitary-hygienic measures in advance, as well as strict adherence to the rules of personal hygiene.

Non-lethal weapons

Military experts note that in the last decade, when developing the concept of modern wars, NATO countries have attached increasing importance to the creation of fundamentally new types of weapons. Its distinctive feature is its damaging effect on people, which, as a rule, does not lead to fatalities in the affected.

This type includes weapons that are capable of neutralizing or depriving the enemy of the opportunity to conduct active fighting without significant irreversible losses of manpower and destruction of material assets.

To possible weapons on new ones physical principles, first of all, non-lethal effects include:

laser weapons;

electromagnetic pulse weapon;

incoherent light sources;

electronic warfare equipment;

Microwave weapons;

Meteorological, geophysical weapons;

infrasonic weapons;

biotechnological agents;

new generation chemical weapons;

means of information warfare;

psychotropic weapons;

parapsychological methods;

New generation precision weapons (smart ammunition);

New generation biological weapons (including psychotropic drugs).

New means of armed struggle, according to military experts, will be used not so much for conducting military operations, but to deprive the enemy of the possibility of active resistance by destroying his most important economic and infrastructure facilities, destroying the information and energy space, and disturbing the mental state of the population . As the experience of the war unleashed by the NATO countries against Yugoslavia in 1999 has shown, this result can be achieved by the widespread use of special operations, air- and sea-based cruise missile strikes, as well as the massive use of electronic warfare.

Beam weapon

Beam weapons are a set of devices (generators), the destructive effect of which is based on the use of highly directed beams of electromagnetic energy or a concentrated beam of elementary particles accelerated to high speeds. One type of beam weapon is based on the use of lasers, another type is beam (accelerator) weapon. Lasers are powerful emitters of electromagnetic energy in the optical range - “quantum optical generators”.

The damaging effect of a laser beam is achieved as a result of heating the object’s materials to high temperatures, leading to their melting and even evaporation, damage to hypersensitive elements, damage to the organs of vision and thermal burns to the skin of a person. The action of a laser beam is distinguished by its secrecy (the absence of external signs in the form of fire, smoke, sound), high accuracy, straightness of propagation, and almost instantaneous action.

The use of lasers with the greatest efficiency can be achieved in outer space to destroy intercontinental ballistic missiles and artificial Earth satellites, as envisaged in the American Star Wars plans. Laser weapons, according to experts, can be used to damage the organs of vision in a tactical combat zone.

A type of beam weapon is an accelerator weapon. The damaging factor of accelerator weapons is a high-precision, highly directed beam of charged or neutral particles saturated with energy (electrons, protons, neutral hydrogen atoms), accelerated to high speeds. Accelerator weapons are also called beam weapons.

Objects of destruction can be, first of all, artificial earth satellites, intercontinental, ballistic and cruise missiles of various types, as well as various types of ground weapons and military equipment. A very vulnerable element of the listed objects is electronic equipment. The possibility of intensive irradiation of enemy personnel by accelerator weapons cannot be ruled out. According to American sources, there is a possibility of intense radiation from accelerator weapons from space large areas the earth's surface (hundreds of square kilometers), which will lead to massive damage to people and other biological objects located on them.

Meteorological (climate) weapons

Meteorological weapons were used during the Vietnam War in the form of seeding supercooled clouds with microcrystals of silver iodide. The purpose of this type of weapon is to purposefully influence the weather in order to reduce the enemy’s ability to meet his needs for food and other types of agricultural products.

Climate weapons are means of influencing, for military purposes, the local or global climate of the planet and are intended to change the characteristic weather patterns of the planet over many years. certain territories. Even minor changes climate change can seriously affect the economy and living conditions of entire regions - a decrease in the yield of the most important agricultural crops, a sharp increase in the incidence of the population.

Currently, methods (by carrying out underground explosions) of artificially initiating volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunami waves, and snow avalanches, mudflows and landslides, and other natural disasters that can lead to massive losses among the population. From a military point of view, ozone weapons are effective. Its use leads to depletion of the ozone layer and increases the intensity of ultraviolet irradiation of the Earth's surface. This causes an increase in the incidence of skin cancer, snow blindness, and reduces agricultural yields.

List of used literature

1. Civil defense: ed. N.P. Olovyanishnikova - M.: Higher School, 1979.

2. Kammerer Yu.Yu. Protective structures of civil defense - M.: Energoatomizdat, 1985

3. 3) “The Effects of Nuclear Weapon”, Samuel Glasston, Philip Dolan, 1977

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16. Modern means of armed struggle. Damaging factors of modern types of weapons.

CLASSIFICATION OF MODERN TYPES OF WEAPONS

According to the scale and nature of the damaging effect modern weapons divided into:

1.Weapons of mass destruction:

Chemical

Bacteriological (biological)

2. Conventional weapons,

including:

Cluster munitions

Precision weapons

Volumetric explosion ammunition

Incendiary mixtures

3.Weapons based on new physical principles:

Laser weapons

Beam weapon

Microwave weapons

4.Non-lethal weapons.

5.Genetic weapons.

6. Ethnic weapons.

7. Information weapons, etc.

Nuclear weapons is a weapon whose destructive effect is based on the use of intranuclear energy released during a nuclear explosion.

Nuclear weapons are based on the use of intranuclear energy released during chain reactions of fission of heavy nuclei of the isotopes uranium-235, plutonium-239 or during thermonuclear reactions of fusion of light hydrogen isotope nuclei (deuterium and tritium) into heavier ones.

These weapons include various nuclear munitions (warheads of missiles and torpedoes, aircraft and depth charges, artillery shells and mines) equipped with nuclear chargers, means of controlling them and delivering them to the target.

The main part of a nuclear weapon is a nuclear charge containing a nuclear explosive (NE) - uranium-235 or plutonium-239.

Damaging factors of a nuclear explosion

When a nuclear weapon explodes, a colossal amount of energy is released in millionths of a second. The temperature rises to several million degrees, and the pressure reaches billions of atmospheres.

The main damaging factors of a nuclear explosion are:

1. shock wave - 50% of the explosion energy;

2. light radiation - 30-35% of the explosion energy;

3. penetrating radiation - 8-10% of explosion energy;

4. radioactive contamination - 3-5% of explosion energy;

5. electromagnetic pulse - 0.5-1% of explosion energy.

Chemical weapons– these are toxic substances and means of delivering them to the target.

Toxic substances are toxic (poisonous) chemical compounds that affect people and animals, contaminating the air, terrain, water bodies and various objects in the area. Some toxins are designed to damage plants. Delivery vehicles include artillery chemical shells and mines (CAP), chemically charged missile warheads, chemical land mines, bombs, grenades and cartridges.

Toxic substances can have different states of aggregation (vapor, aerosol, liquid) and affect people through the respiratory system, gastrointestinal tract or upon contact with the skin.

Based on their physiological effects, agents are divided into groups :

1) Nerve agents - tabun, sarin, soman, V-X. They cause disorders of the nervous system, muscle cramps, paralysis and death;

2) Agents of skin-blister action – mustard gas, lewisite.

3) Generally toxic agent – hydrocyanic acid and cyanogen chloride. Damage through the respiratory system and when entering the gastrointestinal tract with water and food.

4) Asphyxiating agent– phosgene. Affects the body through the respiratory system. During the period of latent action, pulmonary edema develops.

5) Agent of psychochemical action - Bi-Zet. Affects through the respiratory system. Impairs coordination of movements, causes hallucinations and mental disorders;

6) Irritating agents – chloroacetophenone, adamsite, CS (Ci-S), CR (Ci-Ar). Causes respiratory and eye irritation;

Biological weapons (BW)- these are special ammunition and combat devices with delivery vehicles, equipped with biological agents.

BW is a weapon of mass destruction of people, farm animals and plants, the action of which is based on the use of the pathogenic properties of microorganisms and their metabolic products - toxins.

The causative agents of plague, cholera, anthrax, tularemia, brucellosis, glanders and smallpox, psittacosis, yellow fever, foot-and-mouth disease, Venezuelan, Western and Eastern American encephalomyelitis, epidemic typhus, KU fever, rocky spotted fever can be used as biological agents. mountains and tsutsugamushi fever, coccidioidomycosis, nocardiosis, histoplasmosis, etc.

The main ways of using BO are the following:

a) aerosol - contamination of ground air by spraying liquid or dry biological formulations;

b) vector-borne - dispersion of artificially infected blood-sucking vectors in the target area;

c) sabotage method - contamination of air, water, food with the help of sabotage equipment.

Conventional assault weapons, precision weapons.

The main role of the carrier conventional means defeats are carried out by aviation as the most mobile component of the entire NATO military machine. Their aircraft are equipped with high-precision guided weapons - air-to-ground missiles, guided aerial bombs (conventional aerial bombs, high-explosive, armor-piercing, cumulative, concrete-piercing, incendiary, volumetric explosion, etc.).

Common types of modern weapons also include volumetric explosion ammunition. The damaging factors of volumetric explosion ammunition are shock wave, thermal and toxic effects. Buildings, structures, buried objects can be destroyed as a result of the action of a shock wave, as well as the flow of a gas-air mixture (DHW) into the entrances, air supply channels, communications with subsequent detonation of the DHW.

INTRODUCTION

An analysis of the military-political situation in the world shows that the beginning of the 21st century will be characterized by the manifestation of two main trends in domestic and international relations:

First - a departure from military-power politics to the development of relations of trust and cooperation in the military-political field.

Second - the opposite trend, which consists in expanding the reasons and reasons for the use of military power politics. Crisis nature economic development large group states, the real growth of the gap between economically developed and backward countries provokes the political regimes of some countries to attempt to solve economic and internal political problems by armed means.

These trends are due to the following reasons:

· increasing shortage of raw materials and energy in developed countries Oh;

· transfer of social-class confrontation to the area of national contradictions;

· strengthening the struggle for leadership in the conditions of the new order in the regions and in the world as a whole;

· growing need to reform the existing world order by changing the status of new world powers;

· entry into the political arena of forces professing terrorism as a way to change the world order.

Existing contradictions between states and peoples will push various radical and extremist movements to use force.

Consequently, even the final passing of the Cold War relapses into the past does not mean that military-political confrontation will be excluded from international practice. Abandoning ideological confrontation will not cancel geopolitical interests, as well as national priorities in the foreign policy of any state.

3.2 POSSIBLE CHARACTER OF A FUTURE WAR

When analyzing threats to Russia's security, one should focus on the sources of military danger, which can develop into military threats of various scales (global, regional, local).

The global military danger to Russia comes and will continue to come from countries that have strategic nuclear weapons (USA, China, France, UK, Pakistan). In turn, Russia, which possesses the same weapons, is a source of global military danger in relation to other countries of the world. At the same time, the military-strategic situation in the world shows that the potential military danger on a global scale is decreasing and has all positive trends towards further decline.

Thus, the military-strategic situation in the world beginning of the XXI century is characterized by a tendency to reduce the existing military threat to Russia from countries possessing nuclear weapons. The same goes for Russia – to these countries.

TO characteristic features modern wars today can be attributed to:

· application various forms and methods of combat operations, including unconventional ones;

· combination of military actions (conducted in accordance with the rules of military science) with partisan and terrorist actions;

· widespread use of criminal groups;

· transience of military operations (30-60 days);

· selectivity of hitting objects;

· increasing the role of long-distance combat using high-precision radio-controlled equipment;

· delivering targeted strikes on key facilities (critical elements of economic facilities);

· a combination of powerful political-diplomatic, informational, psychological and economic influence.

Local military danger currently has a more mobile nature, more pronounced and specific symptoms of contradictions and a shorter process in terms of time of transition to an immediate military threat or armed conflict.

Currently, trends in increasing military danger within the CIS and Russia are playing an increasingly important role, which can develop into armed conflicts of varying scale and intensity.

A) The first is the discrepancy between the ethnic and administrative borders of a number of CIS states and Russia. The same problem occurs within the Russian Federation and between its subjects.

B) Second, political and economic contradictions both within Russia and with the CIS countries can provoke armed conflicts.

C) The third is the desire of the nationalist power structures of some autonomies for complete sovereignty and the creation of their own national formations.

Thus, for Russia there are currently sources of military danger in the European, Central Asian, and Asia-Pacific regions.

A brief analysis of trends in the development of military-political relations between states and sources of military danger shows that with unfavorable development, a sharp aggravation of existing contradictions between Russia and states near and far abroad is possible. This can lead to the emergence of armed conflicts (wars), varying in their goals and scale.

Based on military threats, dangers and measures to ensure the security of Russia, the alignment of military and political forces in the world and states neighboring Russia, as well as the possible geopolitical goals of the aggressor, military conflicts of the early 21st century can develop according to Fig. 1

Military conflicts will be characterized as:

· border wars– where the aggressor will pursue goals: breaking through the state border to allow smugglers, terrorists or a flow of refugees through; implementation of territorial claims against Russia; support for separatist movements in neighboring territories; provoking NATO to enter the conflict on the side of the aggressor; gaining access to the resources of the Russian economic zone;

· local wars, which can be tied to the following goals: the implementation of territorial claims against the Russian Federation; support for armed separatist movements on Russian territory with the goal of separating certain regions from it, as well as ousting peacekeeping contingents and Russian military bases in other states;

· regional wars– wars of a larger scale, which will be carried out with the goals of: defeating the main military forces of the Russian Federation on the territory of the theater of military operations; seizure of significant territory; weakening the military-political leadership of the state and promoting the territorial disintegration of the Russian Federation; weakening of the international positions of the Russian Federation; the final erosion and collapse of the CIS and the system of international relations;

· large scale (world) war, where the aggressor is a state, a coalition of states or a bloc of them, will pursue the goals of the military and economic defeat of the Russian Federation and its allies, the dismemberment and liquidation of Russia as a state subject of international relations.

Sources of military danger for Russia can be divided into two groups: A) Existing within the CIS and Russia, and B) Coming from other states.

Currently within the CIS and Russia The following contradictions remain, causing trends in increasing military danger, which can develop into armed conflicts of varying scale and intensity:

1) The discrepancy between the ethnic and administrative borders of a number of CIS states and Russia (the same problem also occurs within the Russian Federation between its subjects).

2) Political and economic contradictions both within Russia and with the CIS countries.

3) The desire of the nationalist power structures of some autonomies for full sovereignty and the creation of their own national formations.

Interethnic armed conflict

Local war in one strategic direction

Regional conflict in 2-3 strategic directions

World war using only conventional weapons

2-3 weeks		2-3 months

The escalation of a war with the use of conventional weapons into a war with the limited use of nuclear weapons and other means of mass destruction

World nuclear war

Options for the development of a military conflict

From the outside so-called states far abroad the most likely military threat is a border, local and regional war.

Border and local military danger can currently arise in any region that contains important economic or political significance. This military danger has a more mobile nature, more pronounced and specific symptoms of contradictions and a shorter process in terms of time of transition to an immediate military threat or armed conflict.

At the same time, regional military dangers of various types have been mitigated to a certain extent by bilateral agreements and have practically not developed into a military threat to Russia, although they have great explosive potential.

However, we should not forget that based on military threats, dangers, the balance of military and political forces in the world and states neighboring Russia, as well as the possible geopolitical goals of the aggressor, military conflicts of the early 21st century can develop up to a world war with the use of all types of weapons .

What the nature of each specific war will be is determined by: the capabilities of the states participating in it, the military-political goals and the strategic objectives set to achieve them.

Thus, for Russia there are currently sources of military danger in almost all regions surrounding the state: in the European, Central Asian, and Asia-Pacific regions.

The strategic nature of modern wars is determined by the capabilities of the states participating in them, the military-political goals and the strategic tasks set to achieve them.

It is important to note that modern wars are fundamentally different from all previous wars in history. The characteristic features of modern wars today include:

1) the secrecy of preparation and the suddenness of the unleashing of aggression, elements of which have already been observed in the wars of the twentieth century;

2) the transience of military operations (30-60 days);

3) the constant threat of expanding the scale of the conflict;

4) conducting armed struggle in all spheres of the globe - on land, in the air, at sea, with the increasing role of aerospace attack means;

5) the use of various classical and previously unknown forms and methods of warfare, including unconventional ones;

6) selectivity of hitting objects;

7) massive use of high-precision weapons, electronic warfare equipment, and, in the future, weapons based on new physical principles;

8) increasing the role of long-distance combat using high-precision radio-controlled equipment;

9) fire destruction of the most important objects and elements of the infrastructure of the state and a group of troops to the entire depth of their formation; maneuverable actions of troops with the widespread use of airmobile forces, landing forces and special forces;

10) carrying out targeted strikes on key objects (critical elements of economic objects);

11) a combination of military operations (conducted in accordance with the rules of military science) with partisan and terrorist actions;

12) widespread use of criminal groups;

13) active struggle to gain strategic initiative and superiority in management;

14) a combination of powerful political-diplomatic, informational, psychological and economic influence.

Their most characteristic features will be: the secrecy of preparation and the suddenness of the unleashing of aggression; massive use of high-precision weapons, electronic warfare equipment, and, in the future, weapons based on new physical principles; the use of previously unknown forms and methods of warfare; conducting armed struggle in all spheres - on land, in the air, at sea, with the increasing role of aerospace attack means; active struggle to gain strategic initiative and superiority in management; fire destruction of the most important objects and elements of the infrastructure of the state and a group of troops to the entire depth of their formation; maneuverable actions of troops with the widespread use of airmobile forces, landing forces and special forces; the constant threat of expanding the scale of the conflict. All this puts forward new demands on the structure of the state’s military organization, including civil defense and the system of medical care for the population in wartime.

Characteristic of modern wars is the fact that even with the participation of large military formations over large territories, war, as a rule, is not declared, martial law is not introduced in the state, and full-scale mobilization measures are not carried out. In other words, there is no clear legal boundary between the peaceful and military situation in a country in which, in essence, there is a war.

At the same time, even in a limited military conflict the state must take measures to protect civilian population, material and cultural values from the effects of enemy weapons, i.e. conduct civil defense activities and use its strengths and means.

All this puts forward new requirements both for the structure and organization of work of military units, formations and associations of the state, and for the structure and organization of work of civil defense forces and means.

IN recent years There has been a sharp increase in the combat potential of developed countries due to the quantitative and qualitative build-up of conventional weapons. A priority role is given to the use of high-precision conventional weapons, mainly by remote control from long distances with virtually no full-scale ground operations.

In a likely war, the decisive role will be played by precision weapons and weapons based on new physical principles of destruction, and created on the basis of the latest technologies. The development of weapons based on new physical principles is being carried out most intensively. Their destructive properties and combat effectiveness have increased sharply. Further development of scientific and technological progress in military field finds its concentrated expression in the computerization of the armed forces. A new term “computer-technotronic war” has been introduced into everyday use.

These types of weapons will significantly devalue the role of nuclear weapons and destroy the barrier long time separating nuclear and conventional weapons.

This weapon will inevitably change the nature of the war and, as a result, require changes in the organization of civil defense work.

Thus, it is obvious that probable wars against Russia will be carried out using modern conventional weapons. Qualitatively new means of armed struggle, created on the basis of the latest technologies, will inevitably change the nature of war. The decisive role is assigned not to manpower, not to nuclear weapons, but to high-precision conventional weapons and weapons based on new physical principles. These types of weapons will significantly devalue the role of nuclear weapons and destroy the barrier that has long separated nuclear and conventional weapons.

3.3 NUCLEAR WEAPONS. ITS Striking FACTORS. BRIEF CHARACTERISTICS OF NUCLEAR DAMAGE SITE

IN modern warfare Nuclear weapons occupy a special place. It is the main means of destruction, the main means of waging war. Tactical-technical and military-economic characteristics may allow the widespread use of nuclear weapons both to strike industrial, political and administrative centers, transport hubs and military facilities deep in enemy territory, and to hit the population. According to their purpose, a distinction is made between strategic and tactical nuclear weapons. This distinction is to a certain extent arbitrary, since the same nuclear weapons can be used for different purposes.

Table 10

Indicators of sanitary losses during the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Table 11

Structure of sanitary losses during the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (%)

The development and improvement of nuclear weapons have a great influence on the means and methods of warfare, which in turn affects the organization and equipment of the armed forces, strategy, operational art and tactics of combat operations, including medical support for troops, as well as for medical care of the civilian population injured during hostilities or as a result of these actions

Nuclear weapons are ammunition (bombs, shells, missile warheads, land mines, etc.), the destructive effect of which is due to intranuclear energy released during explosive nuclear reactions. The production of nuclear energy is achieved through the fission of the nuclei of atoms of some heavy elements (uranium, plutonium) or the synthesis of the nuclei of atoms of the lightest elements into heavier ones, for example, isotopes of hydrogen into helium.

Type of nuclear weapon

Atomic weapons(charge up to 500 Kt TNT equivalent)

Chain reaction of fission of nuclei of heavy elements

U 233, U 235 (30 kg), Pu 238 (60 kg)

Thermonuclear weapons

Synthesis of nuclei of light elements H 2 + H 3 = He 4 + n 0

Combined charges (charges up to 50-100 Mt TNT equivalent)
Neutron weapons
Radiological weapons

Atomic munitions

In atomic weapons, nuclear fission and the release of intranuclear energy are carried out due to the action of neutrons on the nuclei of atoms. In this case, the nucleus of a heavy element breaks up, as a rule, into two “fragments”, which are the nuclei of elements located in the middle part of Mendeleev’s periodic table, and a greater amount of energy is released.

That is atomic bomb- these are two masses of nuclear matter, each less than the critical mass, which quickly combine during the use of weapons, causing a nuclear explosion.

During a fission reaction, two or three neutrons are emitted that can cause further nuclei to fission. If the resulting neutrons are captured by other nuclei, which in turn fission with the release of 2-3 new neutrons, it will spontaneously increase in an avalanche-like manner. As a result, a chain reaction will occur with an instant release of energy, i.e. nuclear explosion.

Some neutrons can escape from the reaction sphere without causing atomic fission.

The critical mass required for an explosion can be obtained from the non-critical mass in two ways: either by adding a certain amount of fissile material, or by increasing its density.

To do this, fissile material of subcritical mass is placed in the center of a spherical charge of a conventional explosive, detonated from the outside by a system of detonators. An inward detonation wave occurs, which compresses the fissile material, as a result of which its mass becomes supercritical and a nuclear explosion occurs.

Thermonuclear munition

3 1 H + 2 1 H 4 2 He + 1 0 n

In thermonuclear weapons, the release of an intranuclear reaction occurs when the nuclei of light elements fuse to form heavier nuclei. These reactions can occur at ultra-high temperatures (several tens of millions of degrees).

The bulk of the starting reagents in thermonuclear munitions large calibers represented by lithium deutride. Under the influence of neutrons generated during the explosion of the initiating charge based on the fission reaction, a reaction occurs with the formation of tritium from lithium:

lithium + neutron --- helium + tritium + 4.8 MEV

The result is the components necessary for the development of various thermonuclear reactions. The reaction between deuterium and tritium is most easily initiated:

In general, fusion reactions release approximately three times more energy than the fission reaction of the same amount of uranium or plutonium.

Thus, a thermonuclear weapon combines in one body a charge based on a fission reaction and a charge based on a fusion reaction, and a thermonuclear explosion has two instantaneous phases: fission of uranium-235 (plutonium-239) nuclei + synthesis of helium nuclei from isotope nuclei hydrogen.

In combined type ammunition, the thermonuclear charge is enclosed in a shell of uranium-238. This makes it possible for neutrons released during thermonuclear reactions and having high energy to cause fission of uranium-238 nuclei, which is hundreds of times cheaper fissile material than all others, because it remains as waste at nuclear industry enterprises during the production of the uranium-235 isotope.

Thus, the explosion develops in three stages: a chain reaction of fission of uranium-235 (plutonium-239) - synthesis of helium nuclei from nuclei of hydrogen isotopes - chain reaction of fission of uranium-238 shell nuclei. Moreover, it should be noted that more than 80% of the explosion energy of the combined ammunition is released precisely due to the fission of uranium-238 nuclei

Neutron ammunition

Neutron munitions are thermonuclear devices of low and ultra-low power. Unlike thermonuclear and combined charges large caliber the main part of their charge consists of heavy isotopes of hydrogen - tritium and deuterium. To heat a mixture of deuterium and tritium to the temperature at which their nuclei begin to fuse, a fission chain reaction or a special laser device can be used.

The thermonuclear reaction has the following character:

deuterium + tritium --- helium + neutron + 17.58 MEV