Super weapons. Unique superweapon of the Third Reich (11 photos)

Despite Western sanctions, currency fluctuations and falling world energy prices, Moscow continues to develop promising new generation weapons that should enter service with the Russian army in the coming years. According to The National Interest, which prepared a kind of rating of promising “Russian superweapons,” the United States and NATO countries would do well to pay attention to Russian developments today.

• RIA News

Russia is developing many new types of weapons and military equipment, most of them “have no equal in the world,” writes The National Interest, and work is being carried out despite the situation in the currency and oil markets and Western sanctions.

Based on this, The National Interest editorial staff has prepared a rating of Russian weapons “that should be closely monitored in the coming months and years.”

T-50 fighter

According to The National Interest, the T-50 fighter (a promising front-line aviation complex) “is perhaps the most outstanding project in the modernization of the defense industry.” It is being developed as a fifth-generation stealth aircraft and is intended to replace the Su-27 and its variations currently in service.

The T-50 is in no way inferior to the F-22 of the US Air Force, the publication notes, in addition, the Russian fighter will be distinguished by higher maneuverability.

Bomber PAK DA

The Tupolev design bureau is developing a promising long-range aviation complex (PAK DA) - a new stealth bomber about which little is known yet. However, the publication believes, the plane will fly at subsonic speeds.

"Armata" program

The editors of The National Interest separately highlighted the complex of armored vehicles that Moscow is developing as part of the Armata program.

“Rather than developing a specialized vehicle for a specific purpose, Russia is working on a common chassis that can be adapted to any role,” the publication writes.

As part of the Armata program, tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, self-propelled artillery mounts and other types of military equipment are being developed, which will be equipped with the latest electronic systems, the likes of which have never been seen in the Russian troops so far.

Electronic warfare systems

According to The National Interest, Russian electronic warfare systems are comparable to or even superior to similar developments in other NATO countries. In particular, the publication highlights the Krasukha-4 complexes, designed to cover troops, command posts and air defense systems, as well as the Khibiny complexes, aviation complexes designed for radio direction finding and camouflage of aircraft.

Nuclear submarines

“Russia has always built excellent submarines,” summarizes The National Interest. Nevertheless, modern submarines are modified versions of developments from the times of the USSR. Moscow is aware of all the associated disadvantages and has already begun developing the next generation nuclear submarines, the publication notes. According to the magazine, the new generation of submarines will replace the Granites, Antei and Barracudas.

Next, we bring to your attention a list of unique weapons developed by Nazi Germany on the eve of and during the Second World War. Most of these superweapons were under development or were produced in such small quantities that they failed to influence the course of the war.

Horten Ho IX

Horten Ho IX is an experimental jet aircraft developed in Germany by the Horten brothers during the Second World War under a program popularly known as “1000-1000-1000” (an aircraft carrying a bomb load of 1000 kg over a distance of 1000 kilometers at a speed of 1000 km/h). It is the world's first jet-powered flying wing. Its first flight took place on March 1, 1944. A total of six copies were made, but only two flew into the air. Horten Ho IX is included in the ranking of the strangest aircraft of the Second World War.

Landkreuzer P. 1000 "Ratte"

Landkreuzer P. 1000 “Ratte” (“Rat”) is the designation of a super-heavy tank weighing about 1000 tons, which was developed in Germany in 1942–1943 under the leadership of design engineer Edward Grotte. In 1942, this project was approved by Adolf Hitler, but due to the lack of technology and equipment for production, the program was canceled in early 1943 on the initiative of Albert Speer. As a result, not even a prototype of the tank was built, the length of which, according to the drawings, would have been 39 meters, width - 14 meters, height - 11 m.

Dora

Dora is an 802 mm caliber railway gun that was used during the storming of Sevastopol in 1942 and the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising in September - October 1944. Development of the project began in the late 1930s at the request of Adolf Hitler. In 1941, after testing, the Krupp company built the first gun, named “Dora”, in honor of the wife of the chief designer. In the same year, the second one was created - “Fat Gustav”. When assembled, "Dora" weighed about 1,350 tons; it could fire projectiles weighing 7 tons from a barrel 30 meters long at a distance of 47 kilometers. The size of the craters after the explosion of her projectile was 10 meters in diameter and the same in depth. The gun was also capable of penetrating 9 meters of reinforced concrete. In March 1945, Dora was blown up.

V-3

The V-3 ("Centipede", "Industrious Lischen") is a multi-chamber artillery gun developed at the end of World War II with the goal of destroying London and thereby avenging the Allied air raids on Germany. However, on July 6, 1944, when the gun was almost ready, three British bombers broke through German air defenses and damaged the V-3. The cannon complex was so damaged that it could no longer be restored. This gun was 124 m long and weighed 76 tons. It had a caliber of 150 mm and had a rate of fire of up to 300 rounds per hour. The mass of the projectile was 140 kg.

FX-1400 - German radio-controlled aerial bomb from World War II. It is the world's first precision weapon. The bomb was developed since 1938 in Germany and was used since 1942 to destroy heavily armored targets such as heavy cruisers and battleships. The main idea of ​​the project was that the FX-1400 was dropped by a bomber from an altitude of 6000–4000 m at a distance of about 5 km from the target, which allowed the aircraft to be out of reach of enemy anti-aircraft fire. In total, about 1,400 bombs were fired, including trial models. Its length was 3.26 m, weight - 4570 kg.

V-2

The V-2 is the world's first ballistic missile, developed by German designer Wernher von Braun. It was adopted by Germany at the end of World War II. Its first launch took place in March 1942. The first combat launch was September 8, 1944. In total, about 4,000 copies were produced. There were 3,225 combat missile launches, mainly against targets in France, Great Britain and Belgium. The maximum flight speed of the V-2 rocket was up to 1.7 km/s, the flight range reached 320 km. The length of the rocket is 14.3 m.

Panzerkampfwagen VIII "Maus"

In fourth place on the list of unique superweapons of the Third Reich is the Panzer VIII “Maus” - a German super-heavy tank designed between 1942–1945 by Ferdinand Porsche. It is the heaviest tank (188.9 tons) ever built. A total of two copies were produced, none of which took part in battles. Only one Maus has survived in the world, assembled from parts of both copies, which is now stored in the Armored Museum in Kubinka, Moscow region.

Type XXI submarines

Type XXI submarines are a series of German diesel-electric submarines from World War II. Due to their late entry into service, they did not influence the course of the war, but until the mid-50s they had a significant influence on all post-war submarine shipbuilding. Between 1943 and 1945, 118 boats of this type were under construction in the shipyards of Hamburg, Bremen and Danzig. Only two took part in the fighting.

Messerschmitt Me.262

Messerschmitt Me.262 “Schwalbe” (“swallow”) is a multifunctional German jet aircraft from the Second World War. It is the first production jet fighter in history. Its design began in October 1938. It entered service in June 1944 and at that time was in many ways superior to traditional aircraft. For example, its speed was more than 800 km/h, which was 150–300 km/h faster than the fastest fighters and bombers. A total of 1,433 “swallows” were produced.

Solar cannon

The Sun gun is a theoretical orbital weapon. In 1929, German physicist Hermann Oberth developed a plan to create a space station consisting of 100-meter mirrors that would be used to reflect sunlight and focus it on enemy technology or any other object on Earth.
Later, during World War II, a group of German scientists at the artillery ranges in Hillersleben began creating superweapons that could harness solar energy. The so-called "solar cannon" would theoretically be part of a space station located 8,200 km above the Earth's surface. Scientists have calculated that a huge reflector made of sodium, covering an area of ​​9 square kilometers, could produce enough concentrated heat to burn down an entire city. When questioned in the United States, German scientists claimed that the solar cannon could be completed within the next 50 to 100 years.

Incredible facts

At all times, people have tried to impress, especially their sworn enemies. They did this in different ways, for example, by spreading rumors about miraculous super weapons that they allegedly planned to produce.

The Spartans dressed their warriors in red cloaks that showed no blood, and this gave them the reputation of being invincible warriors. The huge storm towers terrified the besiegers and forced them to surrender. The Mongol horsemen who invaded Russia, dressed in Chinese silks and carrying expensive Chinese weapons, were hailed as heroes by Russian soldiers.

Parades, magnificent uniforms, photographs of monstrous cannons in magazines and related articles at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century became a powerful weapon to influence the minds of mankind. The dissemination of such information, although not always reliable, often gave a country moral, and therefore political, superiority over its adversary (“we are better because we are more talented and powerful”).

For example, this turned out to be the “trench destroyer”, which appeared in the USA on the cover of the popular magazine “Electrical Experimenter” in February 1917. The author most likely came up with it after being inspired by a Ferris wheel he saw at a fair or amusement park, or perhaps at the first agricultural wheeled tractor show. However, his vehicle was simply amazing: maximum offensive power with maximum protection for the crew.

Nevertheless, he didn’t think through how this vehicle would move across the battlefield, or how the team will fire shots from the cockpit while swinging on a Ferris wheel. But magazines with this image quickly sold out, and the artist's efforts were certainly rewarded. In addition, people were convinced that there were a large number of capable engineers living in the United States, and they believed in their country.

Back in 1905, a patent was registered in Germany for a tank in the form of an armored ball with a side insert for cannons and machine guns. But it was never made. However, the idea was seriously discussed in the American magazine Popular Science in 1936. In accordance with this project, the tank was to consist of a fixed inner sphere and two rotating outer hemispheres with special "grousers".

The tank's armament consisted of three machine guns: one looked forward, the second - into the towers at the end of the hemispheres, and the third - into the zenith. The engine exhaust gases were located in the space between the shells, and instead of ventilation inside the “tank” they seriously planned to place oxygen cylinders. However, at first glance, the tank in the picture looked quite functional, and the idea that taxpayers don't just give money to the government came up again. Once engineers started “working” on similar projects, it seemed that the United States had no problems.

However, all of these projects were worse than the "electric tank" that was supposedly developed in 1935 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For road travel, it had wheels, but for some reason the designers chose propellers for cross-country travel. This fact alone should have alerted people, because before this not a single tank moving on propellers had been put into operation. But it was in this image that the tank looked more impressive.

But what's more interesting is The "tank" was impressive with its weapons. It was not an ordinary flamethrower, but a Van de Graaf generator of electrical charges.

Inside the ball there was a cabin for an individual, who had at his disposal a large amount of water in a special tank. When a stream of water was directed at an opponent immediately after he had been treated with an artificial lightning bolt with a force of hundreds of millions of electric volts, it would instantly burn him. Other crew members were distracted by controlling the diesel engine of the “super tank.” Van de Graaf managed to create a generator with a power of seven million volts. These are certainly impressive sizes, but the engineers were unable to expand the range of the water cannon, which is what prevented the construction of a tank.

Popular Science magazine wrote in 1940: "An experimental model of a giant armored car has been built in Los Angeles, armed with two six-inch guns built into a rotating armored 'turret.' This 'machine' is equipped with thick armor to protect against shells and bombs. Special effort were applied to protect the vehicle. Its specially designed tires can travel at a speed of about 105 kilometers per hour. During firing, the “turrets” interact with the ground using hydraulic supports. Moreover, in addition to the six-inch gun, the vehicle is also equipped with a machine gun. It was tested by the army USA within four months."

Tested, but without results, despite the fact that all the fighting qualities of this “super tank” were remarkable. But in reality, nothing like this existed because military technology was not yet developed at this level in those days. However, gullible readers of the time believed that it was possible. They thought that the United States, being the most advanced automotive power in the world, could build any combat vehicle.

Interestingly, the same principle was used by the American media to present Reagan's Star Wars program by scaring people with "binary gas, a neutron bomb" and other horrors that ultimately turned out to be false. It appears that binary munitions were designed to simply increase shelf life, but also more to ensure the safety of friendly troops. In addition, chemical weapons were later banned.

The Star Wars program could not be implemented because even if all its components were implemented, frequent launches of blocks into space would destroy the entire ozone layer over the United States. The "neutron bomb" is a conventional anti-tank vehicle, which today lacks an appropriate carrier. This means that nothing that the Americans threatened the world with for many decades existed in reality. However, people were afraid, and a lot of money from the state budget was spent to maintain this fear.

Lightning strike: Moscow is ready to disarm Washington

Technology race

“Usually supersonic cruise missiles fly at a speed of Mach 2-3,” says the candidate of physical and mathematical sciences Nikolay Grigoriev. – We want our devices to fly at speeds of more than Mach 6. Moreover, this flight must be long. At least 7-10 minutes, during which the device must independently reach a speed of more than one and a half thousand meters per second.”

The first hypersonic vehicle was created in the USSR back in the late 70s of the last century. In 1997, the designers of the Dubna MKB "Raduga" first showed it on. It was presented as a system of a new class - a hypersonic experimental aircraft (GELA) X-90. In the West they called him AS-19 Koala. According to the company, the missile flew at a distance up to 3 thousand km. Carried two individually targetable warheads capable of hitting targets at a distance of 100 km from the separation point. The X-90 could be carried by an extended version of the Tu-160M ​​strategic bomber.

In the early 90s of the last century, the IKB carried out joint work with German engineers on the problem of hypersound based on another of its rockets X-22 "Storm"(according to classification – AS-4 Kitchen("Kitchen"). This supersonic cruise missile is part of the standard armament of the Tu-22M3 long-range bomber. Can fly 600 km and carry a thermonuclear or conventional warhead weighing up to 1 ton. The missile is designed to destroy US aircraft carriers. During the experiment, with additional upper stages installed on the rocket, the vehicle was able to reach hypersonic flight mode.

Moreover, as it reminds Grigoriev, a reusable spacecraft was created "Buran", which upon entering the dense layers of the atmosphere developed a speed of 25 swings. Today, according to the expert, the task is to make such a flight active, that is, the machine must not just “plan”, but independently develop and maintain such a speed, change the direction of flight.

From "Koala" to "Yars"

Testing hypersonic vehicles is a closely guarded secret. One can judge how things are going with their development only by American reports of success or failure during certain test launches. They conducted the last such experiment in August. Rocket launch X-43A was produced from the Kodiak test site on . The missile was developed as a joint project of the American army and the laboratory Sandia National within the framework of the “Prompt Global Strike” concept. Her first test occurred in November 2011. It was assumed that during the current tests, the missile, picking up a speed of about 6.5 thousand km/h, would hit a training target on the Pacific atoll of Kwajalein. As a result, the device only worked 7 seconds before burning up in the atmosphere. Nevertheless, they called this flight a success - the machine demonstrated the ability to gain the required acceleration.

Soviet X-90, about which at least something is known for certain, flew further and longer. As the designers say, the machine quickly heated up due to air resistance, which destroyed the device or rendered the mechanisms inside the body inoperative. To achieve hypersound, a ramjet rocket engine required at least fuel consisting largely of hydrogen. And this is extremely difficult to implement technically, since hydrogen gas has a low density. Storing liquid hydrogen presented other insurmountable technical difficulties. And finally, during a hypersonic flight around X-90 arose plasma cloud, which burned the radio antennas, which led to loss of controllability of the device.

However, these shortcomings eventually turned into advantages. The problem of cooling the body and hydrogen fuel was solved by using a mixture of kerosene and water as its components. After heating, it was fed into a special catalytic mini-reactor, in which an endothermic catalytic conversion reaction took place, as a result of which hydrogen fuel was produced. This process led to severe cooling of the device's body. No less original was the solution to the problem of burning radio antennas, for which they began to use plasma cloud.

At the same time, the plasma cloud allowed the device not only to move in the atmosphere at a speed 5 km per second, but also do it with “broken” trajectories. The machine could abruptly change its flight direction. In addition, the plasma cloud also created invisibility effect radar apparatus. X-90 did not enter service; work on the missile was suspended back in 1992.

But the principles of its operation are very similar to the description of the actions of maneuvering nuclear warheads of ballistic missiles "Topol M", "Yars" and new RS-26. The Ministry of Defense has repeatedly cited them as an example of overcoming any system. The maneuvering unit can swerve at any second, unpredictably changing the direction of flight, which is guaranteed to hit the target. Not a single national missile defense system is capable of calculating such a trajectory and targeting the attacking missile defense unit.

Combat "Platypus"

Last year, the Ministry of Defense announced that hypersonic weapons would primarily be equipped with long-range aircraft. At that time, rockets already existed, although their flight was hypersound lasted only a few seconds. The Deputy Prime Minister has repeatedly stated this. However, neither the military, nor the Deputy Prime Minister, nor industry representatives provided any specific details.

Current successes in the creation of hypersonic aircraft can only be judged by indirect evidence. For example, this summer the Tactical Missiles Corporation, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Industry and Trade reported that they had agreed on a program to create hypersonic missile technologies. More than 2 billion rubles will be invested in the development of promising technology, and the first device will not appear later than 2020. What kind of devices these will be, what characteristics they will have and for what purposes has not been announced.

The fact that the groundwork, as they say, is there, can be judged at least from the MAKS exhibition in the Moscow region. In 2011, the Central Institute of Aviation Engine Engineering from Lytkarino near Moscow demonstrated a number of promising hypersonic vehicles. At the institute’s stand, several models of promising rockets were exhibited, more similar not to classic cigar-shaped rockets, but to the masterpiece of an avant-garde sculptor, who took the Australian animal platypus as the prototype for his creation - the flattened spade-shaped “nose” of the fairing, the chopped shapes of the rocket body itself. Then the representative of the institute Vyacheslav Semenov reported that in 2012 the Ministry of Defense will present a fully operational flight model of a hypersonic cruise missile. He also spoke about this. What exactly was discussed is unknown. There were no official reports about the new rocket in the press. However, the name of the promising complex was repeatedly mentioned "Zircon".

According to indirect indications, it is based on a missile created on the basis of a supersonic anti-ship missile "Yakhont" and its Russian-Indian counterpart "BrahMos". Indian BrahMos Aerospace Limited has repeatedly announced work on creating a hypersonic version of its products. Its layout was demonstrated by the same “Platypus”. According to an employee of the company, a hypersonic missile already exists and is being tested. If this is so, then there is its analogue in Russia.

Russia has a Superweapon

More details and a variety of information about events taking place in Russia, Ukraine and other countries of our beautiful planet can be obtained at Internet Conferences, constantly held on the website “Keys of Knowledge”. All Conferences are open and completely free. We invite everyone who is interested. All Conferences are broadcast on Internet Radio “Vozrozhdenie”...