Five unusual Soviet experimental tanks. Secret military developments of the USSR

The Union knew how to keep secrets. And there were enough of them. Even today, not everyone knows about some of them, although the USSR is long gone.

Netizens have collected several of them.

Among them are the existence of the Caspian Sea Monster, the worst missile disaster in the history of the USSR and a museum of “decaying bourgeois creativity.”

The secrets are placed in random order without ranking them according to importance.

1. Worst nuclear disaster in the world (at that time)

When people hear about major nuclear disasters, most people think of Chernobyl and Fukushima. Few people know about the third nuclear disaster - the Kyshtym accident of 1957, which occurred near the city of Kyshtym in southern Russia. As in the case of the Chernobyl accident, main reason The disaster was caused by poor design, namely the construction of a cooling system that was impossible to repair. When coolant started leaking from one of the tanks, workers simply turned it off and left it alone for a year. Who needs cooling systems in Siberia?

It turns out that the containers in which radioactive waste are stored need cooling. The temperature in the tank rose to 350 degrees Celsius, which eventually led to an explosion that threw the 160-ton concrete lid into the air (which was originally 8 meters underground). Radioactive substances spread over 20,000 square kilometers.

The homes of 11,000 people were destroyed after the surrounding areas were evacuated, and approximately 270,000 people were exposed to radiation. It was only in 1976 that a Soviet emigrant first mentioned the disaster in the Western press. The CIA had known about the disaster since the 60s, but, fearing negative American attitudes toward their own nuclear industry, decided to downplay the severity of the accident. Only in 1989, three years after the Chernobyl accident, the details of the disaster in Kyshtym became known to the public.

2. Manned lunar program

In May 1961, US President John Kennedy announced that he believed the US should put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. By that time, the Soviet Union was leading the space race—the first object launched into orbit, the first animal in orbit, and the first person in space. However, on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first person to visit the Moon, thereby defeating the Soviet Union in this race. In a race in which the Soviet Union did not officially take part - until 1990, the USSR denied that they had their own manned lunar program. This was part of the policy according to which each space program kept secret until it was successful.

The Soviet Union was forced to partially acknowledge the program's existence in August 1981 when the Soviet satellite Kosmos 434, launched in 1971, entered the atmosphere over Australia. The Australian government, concerned that there might be people on board nuclear materials, it was certified by the USSR Minister of Foreign Affairs that the satellite was an experimental lunar spacecraft.

Other details of the program, including test runs, were hidden. The testing of lunar space suits during the docking of spacecraft in 1969 was presented as part of the construction of the space station - the USSR continued to claim that they had no plans to land on the Moon. As a result, the failed Soviet program to land on the Moon was closed in 1976.

3. Treasure of creativity

In the 1990s, Western journalists and diplomats were invited to a secret museum hidden in the remote city of Nukus, Uzbekistan. The museum housed hundreds of works of art dating back to the beginning of the Stalinist regime, when artists were forced to conform to the ideals of the Communist Party. “Decomposing bourgeois creativity” was replaced by paintings from factories, and without the participation of Igor Savitsky (collector), most of the work of artists of that time would have been completely lost.

Savitsky convinced artists and their families to entrust their work to him. He hid them in Nukus, a city surrounded by hundreds of kilometers of desert.

This is a unique item on this list because it tells the story of something that was hidden not so much from the outside world as from an oppressive regime. While the importance of creativity itself remains an open question, the value of the story of how creativity was kept secret for decades is beyond doubt.

4. Death of an astronaut

The Soviet Union “erased” cosmonauts from its history more than once. For example, data about the first astronaut to die during the space race was hidden. Valentin Bondarenko died during training in March 1961. Its existence was not known in the West until 1982, and public recognition followed only in 1986. Those who are faint of heart should refrain from reading the next paragraph.

During an isolation exercise in a pressure chamber, Bondarenko made a fatal mistake. After removing the medical device and cleaning his skin with alcohol, he threw cotton wool onto the hot stove he was using to make his tea, causing it to burst into flames. When he tried to put out the fire with his sleeve, the 100% oxygen atmosphere caused his clothes to catch fire. It took several minutes to open the door. By that time, the astronaut had received third-degree burns all over his body, except for his feet - the only place, where the doctor was able to find blood vessels. Bondarenko's skin, hair and eyes were burned. He whispered, "It hurts too much... do something to stop the pain." Sixteen hours later he died.

Denying this incident just to avoid bad news was a very bad decision.

5. Mass famine - one of the worst in history

Many people have heard about the famine (Holodomor) of 1932, but internal and external attempts to hide this fact are worthy of mention. In the early 1930s, politics Soviet Union led (whether intentionally or not) to the death of several million people.

This would seem difficult to hide from the outside world, but fortunately for Stalin and his subordinates, the rest of the world oscillated between willful ignorance and denial of the facts.

The New York Times, like the rest of the American press, hid or downplayed the famine in the USSR. Stalin organized several pre-arranged tours for foreign commissions: the shops were filled with food, but anyone who dared to approach the store was arrested; the streets were washed and all the peasants were replaced by members of the Communist Party. H. G. Wells from England and George Bernard Shaw from Ireland said that rumors of famine were unfounded. Moreover, after the French Prime Minister visited Ukraine, he described it as a “blooming garden.”

By the time the results of the 1937 census were classified, the famine had already been overcome. Despite the fact that the number of victims of the Holodomor is comparable to the Holocaust, the assessment of hunger as a crime against humanity was given only in the last ten years.

6. Katyn massacre

As with the 1932 famine, international denial Katyn massacre These murders deserve the top spot on this list. In the 1940s, the NKVD killed more than 22,000 prisoners from Poland and buried them in mass graves. According to the official version, fascist troops were responsible for this. The truth was recognized only in 1990. The execution was hidden not only by the Soviet Union, but also with the help of the leaders of the United States and Great Britain.

Winston Churchill confirmed in an informal conversation that the execution was most likely carried out by the Bolsheviks, who “could be very cruel.” However, he insisted that the Polish government in exile stop making accusations, censor its press, Churchill also helped prevent independent investigation incident International Committee Red Cross. The British Ambassador to Poland described it as "using England's good reputation to cover up what the killers covered up with pine needles." Franklin Roosevelt also did not want the blame for the executions to fall on Stalin.

Evidence that the US government knew about the true culprits of the Katyn massacre was suppressed during parliamentary hearings in 1952. Moreover, the only government that told the truth about those events was the government of Nazi Germany. This is another sentence that is read very rarely.

It's easy to criticize leaders of countries that have essentially left criminals unpunished, but Germany, and then Japan, were more important issues, which means that sometimes it was necessary to take very complex solutions. The Soviet Union, with its military and industrial superpower, was necessary. “The government blames only the common enemy for these events,” Churchill wrote.

7. Ekranoplan

In 1966, an American spy satellite captured images of an unfinished Russian seaplane. The plane was larger than any aircraft the United States owned. It was so large that, according to experts, such a wing span would not allow the plane to fly well. What was even stranger was that the plane's engines were much closer to the nose than to the wings. The Americans were puzzled and remained puzzled until the USSR collapsed 25 years later. Caspian Sea Monster, as it was called then, was an ekranoplan - vehicle looking like a mixture of an airplane and a ship, which flies just a few meters from the water.

Even mentioning the name of the device was prohibited to those who participated in its development, despite the fact that huge sums of money were allocated for the project. In the future, these devices, of course, were very useful. They could transport hundreds of soldiers or even several tanks at speeds of 500 km/h, while remaining undetected by radar. They are even more fuel efficient than the best modern cargo aircraft. The Soviet Union even built one such aircraft, 2.5 times longer than the Boeing 747, equipped with 8 jet engines and six nuclear warheads on the roof (what else can be installed on a tank delivery jet ship?)

8. Worst rocket disaster ever

The disregard for health and safety was not limited to nuclear waste. On October 23, 1960, a new secret missile, the R-16, was being prepared for launch in the Soviet Union. Near launcher, which contained a rocket using new type fuel, there were many specialists. The rocket developed a leak of nitric acid - the only the right decision in this case, the evacuation of everyone nearby was initiated.

However, instead, project commander Mitrofan Nedelin ordered the leak to be patched. When the explosion occurred, everyone on the launch pad died immediately. The fireball was hot enough to melt the surface of the site, leaving many who tried to escape stranded and burned alive. More than a hundred people died as a result of the incident. It remains the worst missile disaster in history.

Soviet propaganda immediately began its work. It was alleged that Nedelin died in a plane crash. Reports of the explosion were presented as rumors sweeping the USSR. The first confirmation of the incident appeared only in 1989. To date, a monument has been erected dedicated to those who died in that disaster (but not to Nedelin himself). Although he officially remains a hero, those with any connection to the disaster remember him as the man responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people entrusted to him.

9. Smallpox Outbreak (and Containment Program)

In 1948, the Soviet Union established a secret biological weapons laboratory on an island in the Aral Sea. The laboratory was engaged in turning anthrax and bubonic plague into weapons. They also developed smallpox weapons and even conducted an outdoor test in 1971. In a mysterious turn of events, a weapon designed to cause an outbreak of smallpox, when activated in the open, actually caused an outbreak of smallpox. Ten people fell ill and three died. Hundreds of people were quarantined, and within 2 weeks, 50 thousand people from surrounding areas received smallpox vaccinations.

The incident became widely known only in 2002. The outbreak was effectively prevented, but despite the scale of the incident, Moscow did not acknowledge what had happened. This is unfortunate because there were valuable lessons to be learned from this incident about what can happen if biological weapons will ever fall into the hands of terrorists.

10. Dozens of cities

In the south of Russia there is a city that was not on any map. There were no bus services that stopped there, and no road signs confirming its existence. The postal addresses in it were listed as Chelyabinsk-65, although Chelyabinsk was almost 100 kilometers from it. Its current name is and, despite the fact that tens of thousands of people lived in it, the existence of the city was unknown even in Russia until 1986. The secrecy was caused by the presence of a spent nuclear fuel reprocessing plant here. There was an explosion at this plant in 1957, but due to secrecy, the disaster was named after the city, which was located a few kilometers from Ozyorsk. This city was Kyshtym.

Ozersk is one of dozens of secret cities in the USSR. On this moment 42 such cities are known, but it is believed that about 15 more cities are still shrouded in secrecy. The residents of these cities were provided with better food, schools and amenities than the rest of the country. Those who still reside in such cities cling to their isolation - the few outsiders allowed into the cities are usually escorted by guards.

In an increasingly open and global world many are leaving closed cities and there is likely some limit to how long these cities can remain closed. However, many of these cities continue to serve their original function - be it plutonium production or supplying the marine fleet.

In the USSR, scientists and engineers tried to make a fairy tale come true. Telepathy, amphibious boats capable of breaking through the thickness of the earth, space planes - all these projects were developed by our engineers.

Underground boat "Battle Mole"

After World War II, Soviet designers received documents with drawings of the German underground tanks “Subterrina” and “Midgrad Serpent”. Their peculiarity was that they were planned as amphibians. The equipment worked on and under the ground, as well as under water over one hundred meters. After much research by Professors G.I. Babat and G.I. Pokrovsky, it was decided that this structure could reach the enemy’s location and blow it up underground.

Was urgently recruited working group, and funds were also allocated to create an underground tank, which was called the “battle mole”. The car ran on a nuclear reactor and moved through the earth at a speed of 7 km/h. The first tests took place in Ural mountains, the result shocked everyone: the “Mole” entered the ground, walked about fifteen km and destroyed the mock enemy. It was a complete success. However, the second experiment ended tragically. Subterrine by no known reasons exploded, the whole team died. The project was suspended, and under Brezhnev it was completely closed.

Space fighter "Spiral"

Many years ago, space planes could only be found in science fiction books. But 50 years ago, fantasy was almost turned into reality. In the midst Cold War in the USSR, any conditions for introducing war were considered, space was no exception. In response to the US development of the X-20 orbital manned interceptor-reconnaissance-bomber, the USSR decided to create its own aerospace system. The project was called "Spiral". It was supposed to become the very first warship of the USSR, which was intended for space battles. As planned, the booster aircraft was used to reach a speed of 7.5 thousand km/h and reach an altitude of 30 km. Then the orbital plane was separated from the GSR and, with the help of a rocket accelerator, reached the first cosmic speed (7.9 km/s). Thus, the aircraft entered low-Earth orbit and could begin to carry out its own missions: reconnaissance, interception of space targets, space-to-Earth bombing, and so on.

However, in the second half of the 70s, when the first copy was built, the project was closed by senior management. They considered this device a stupid fantasy. This is how the very first one was buried spaceship THE USSR.

Brain radio

Many scientists dreamed of creating a mechanism with which it would be possible to control the consciousness and thoughts of people at a distance. Such psychological weapons could become the most terrible and effective in history. human civilization. In 1923, electrical engineer Bernard Kazhinsky presented his plan for a “brain radio,” capable of transmitting brain impulses into signals over vast distances.

Having learned about his scientific work, Kazhinsky began to be invited to give lectures in various research institutes peace. When he returned home, the government immediately allocated funds for experiments, as the hypothesis was considered strategically important. The first tests took place in Moscow on dogs. So, the essence of the experiment was to use a brain signal to force the dog to bring the desired book from several copies. It is interesting that the animal coped with the task without any problems, but after that, for some unknown reason, it could not carry out basic commands.

What then happened to the “brain radio” remains a mystery. The scientist soon stopped scientific work, but until the end of his life he believed that such an invention could exist.

Flying tank A-40

In 1941, the government set a difficult task for engineers, namely, to get armored vehicles into the air. It was necessary to design a tank that could move through the air. This would allow it to be transferred to partisans to strengthen resistance in the occupied territories.

So the engineer decided to take light tank T-60 and attach wooden “maize” wings to it. It was assumed that the equipment would fly to the desired landing site and drop its wings. However, unfortunately, not a single experiment was successful. Due to the weight, the car became very hot. The workers were filming maximum amount bomber parts, but nothing helped.

The development of various weapons today for many countries is one of the priority tasks, for which significant amounts are allocated cash. Moreover, it is worth noting that weapons mean not only classic types of weapons, be they machine guns or pistols, but also fighter aircraft and all kinds of missile systems. It is not difficult to guess that the palm in such developments is occupied by two powers that have the most impressive military forces and the most advanced military technologies - Russia and the United States. The development of new devices is often carried out in secret. After the creation of ready-made working samples, field tests are almost certainly carried out first, and then tested in combat conditions, since armed conflicts occur quite often in our time. In this article, we will take a closer look at the most secret military developments and try to give a short description of them based on known facts.

Information about this development appeared in the US print media back in 2013. The RQ-180 is a “drone” created by Northrop Grumman. According to information, the first flight took place in 2013 in the area of ​​Area-51. For those who are not aware, Area 51 is a classified military airfield in Nevada. Also, according to information, maximum height the flight range of the RQ-180 is 18,000 m. The length of the RQ-180 is 15 m. The main task of the module is to conduct reconnaissance operations using the most modern technologies and with a developed enemy air defense system. The device uses modern radar stealth systems. Most likely, these same “drones” have already taken part in hostilities, but naturally information about this is carefully hidden and is secret.

Boeing X-37 is a space shuttle that can be used for various purposes. The development is in the public domain, but the exact purpose of building such a device is still not clear. Nasa says the X-37 will be used to deliver cargo into orbit, but is that true? This shuttle is also not suitable as an intelligence collector. It is quite possible that the real purpose of the Boeing X-37 is a space interceptor that will be able to disable enemy ships that are in orbit. The length of the shuttle is 8.9 meters, and the take-off weight is up to 5 tons. According to Boeing, the X-37 has been launched into space 4 times. By the way, the available flight altitude of the device is from 200 to 750 km.

As they say in the modern world, governments and intelligence services have such broad capabilities that they can track almost all of a person’s movements and find out everything they need about him. The mobile tracking system, called Argus-Is, is no longer new, but it is still classified. Development and support is carried out by Bae Systems. The system can cover an area with a radius of 7.2 km. Argus-Is includes 4 lenses and about 370 photosensors of 5 MHz each. Overall, this gives an output of 1.8 gigapixels. As a result of using such a crazy resolution, Argus-Is allows you to view 15 cm objects from a height of 6000 m. The system is usually installed on unmanned modules.

Quite little is known about this development. By the way, information about this project flashed purely by chance in a news report from a Ministry of Defense event with the participation of the President.

According to some information, “Status-6” is a project to create unmanned (guided) underwater torpedoes or vehicles. Inside such a device, of course, there is a warhead with an approximate power of 100 Mgt. Who exactly is developing of this project also unknown. What is known is that the approximate idea of ​​​​creating such devices was put forward by academician Andrei Sakharov back in Soviet times. However, according to preliminary information, the implementation period for this project is until 2025. So, in any case, there is still time for thorough testing and improvement.

Tupolev Design Bureau is developing a new generation bomber. It is worth noting that the aircraft is a missile carrier and is designed to perform various combat missions. Unfortunately, this bomber will not be able to reach supersonic speed due to its design features and large wingspan, but it will be completely invisible to radar. The development is partially classified, but we can say that the first flights are still quite far away.

The development of such weapons is, of course, top secret and virtually no information is leaked to the media and the Internet. However, it is worth clarifying that the development of such weapons was carried out back in the days of the USSR, but their successful completion was prevented by the collapse of the Union. As a result, due to insufficient funding, the projects were frozen and only after 2000 did development resume. Under climate weapon It is worth understanding the settings that can significantly change the climate of a particular area. Of course, no one will ever admit to testing such devices, but it is curious that in recent years the climate has changed dramatically in various parts globe. And perhaps it’s not just the notorious global warming.

The research and study of plasma dates back to the 60s of the 20th century. It was the USSR that was the first in the world to begin studying the possibility of creating and further using plasma and its plasmoid elements in missile defense systems.

Of course, these developments were strictly classified and only today some information appears. But almost all the time since the 60s, scientists in the USA and the USSR/Russia have been competing with each other to create perfect weapons, which are based on plasma molecules. As stated above, plasma guns and charges can theoretically be used in a missile defense system to destroy and intercept enemy missiles. Also, domestic scientists want to use plasma for space exploration and improve the performance of fighter aircraft. It is suggested that within a few decades plasma weapons will completely replace today's firearms. Whether this will actually happen, as they say, we'll wait and see.

In the late 1990s, the USSR began active development to create a hypersonic glider, then for well-known reasons the research was “frozen,” and just last year the American media reported successful tests of a glider codenamed Yu-71. The meaning of this weapon is that it moves at hypersonic speed, can maneuver, that is, it remains inaccessible to modern systems air defense. In addition, it can carry either a ballistic missile or a thermonuclear missile on board. However, it is worth clarifying that American scientists are probably also developing similar weapons, and accordingly there is a need to create modern protection systems against such gliders.

Quite a long time ago, back during the Second World War, the Nazis and their allies began developing psychotronic weapons, that is, weapons that affect the human brain. Using a special device for different distances impulses are sent that are comparable to those of the human brain. Thus, a person can be made into an obedient “doll” that will carry out all the specified commands. Agree that this sounds quite scary and the saddest thing is that the consciousness and the human brain itself cannot do anything to counteract such an impact. Probably, this type of weapon is the most secret of those presented in our article, but there is already evidence officials intelligence agencies that this type of influence has already taken place in our history.

Our country is also developing combat robots and exo-skeletons, in which the role of an operator is assigned to a person. That is, by and large, the robot will be autonomous and all control will fall on a person.

Summing up, we can conclude that modern military systems around the world are becoming more and more sophisticated every year. True, in this case there is no need to talk about perfection, since in any case, one type of weapon will definitely be replaced by a newer one, which will in some way be superior to the previous one. Countries are trying to develop as much as possible more types weapons in order to take advantage of the effect of surprise in the event of an attack. By the way, these types of weapons are the most secret.

Standard weapons like airplanes or machine guns can often be seen at international arms exhibitions, where weapons developers come to establish new contacts and search for sales channels. Unfortunately, in most cases, third world countries or countries where military conflicts are flaring up become testing grounds for high-quality testing of new types of weapons. Unfortunately, in Lately increasingly, these countries are immigrants from former USSR. I would like to hope that a global military conflict will never happen, and local ones will soon go out on their own.

Sincerely,
Technocontrol team

Since ancient times, man has been drawn to either sink to the bottom, or rise into the air, or reach the very center of the Earth. However, until some time this was possible only in fantasy novels and fairy tales. Nowadays, an underground boat is no longer just a fantasy. Successful developments and tests have been carried out in this area. After reading our article, you will learn a lot of interesting things about such a device as an underground boat.

Underground boats in literature It all started with a flight of fancy. In 1864, Jules Verne published a famous novel called “Journey to the Center of the Earth.” Its heroes descended to the center of our planet through the mouth of a volcano. In 1883, the book “Underground Fire” by Shuzi was published. In it, the heroes, working with pickaxes, dug a shaft to the earth's center. True, the book already said that the planet’s core is hot. Alexei Tolstoy, the Russian writer, achieved greater success. In 1927 he wrote “Engineer Garin's Hyperboloid”. The hero of the work made his way almost through the thickness of the earth, while casually and even with some cynicism.

The Russian Ministry of Defense has declassified secret archives about the crimes of the OUN UPA. Ukrainians must know the exploits of their “heroes”

All these authors built hypotheses that could not be substantiated in any way. The matter remained with the inventors and engineers, the rulers of human thoughts at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. However, in “Winners of the Subsoil,” published in 1937, Grigory Adamov reduced the problem of assaulting the earth’s subsoil to ordinary achievements of the USSR government. The design of the underground boat in his book seemed to have been copied from the drawings of a secret design bureau. Is this a coincidence?

First developments Now no one can answer the question of what formed the basis of Grigory Adamov’s bold guesses. However, judging by the limited data, there were still grounds for them. The first engineer who allegedly created the drawings of the underground apparatus was Pyotr Rasskazov. This engineer was killed in 1918 by a German intelligence agent who stole all his documentation. Americans believe that Thomas Edison began the first developments. However, it is more reliable that they were carried out in the late 20-30s of the 20th century by engineers from the USSR A. Treblev, A. Baskin and A. Kirilov. It was they who developed the design of the first underground boat.

However, it was intended exclusively for utilitarian purposes related to oil production, in order to facilitate this process and satisfy the needs of the socialist state. They took as a basis a real mole or earlier developments in this area by Russian or foreign engineers - it’s hard to say now. However, it is known that test “swims” of the boat were carried out in the Ural mines located under Mount Blagodat. Of course, the sample was experimental, more like a smaller copy than a full-fledged working device. Apparently, it resembled later coal miners. The presence of defects, a reliable engine, and a slow penetration speed were natural for the first model. It was decided to curtail the work on the underground tunnel.

Strakhov resumes the project

After some time, the era of mass terror began. Many specialists who participated in this project were shot. However, on the eve of the war they suddenly remembered the “Steel Mole”. Authorities were again interested in the underground boat. P.I. Strakhov, a leading expert in this field, was summoned to the Kremlin. At that time he worked as a curator on the construction of the Moscow metro. The scientist, in a conversation with D. F. Ustinov, who headed the arms commissariat, confirmed the opinion about combat use underground tunnel. He was instructed to develop an improved experimental model based on the surviving drawings.

War interrupts work

People, funds, necessary equipment. The Russian underground boat had to be ready as soon as possible. However, the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, apparently, interrupted the work. Therefore, the state commission never accepted the experimental sample. He suffered the same fate as many other projects - the sample was sawn into metal. At this time, the country needed planes, tanks and submarines more for defense. But Strakhov never returned to the underground boat. He was sent to build bunkers.

German underground boats

Naturally, similar designs were also carried out in Germany. Any superweapon that would be capable of bringing world domination to the Third Reich was necessary for leadership. IN fascist Germany, according to information received after the end of the war, there was development of underground military apparatus. The code name of the first of them is Subterrine (a project by R. Trebeletsky and H. von Wern). By the way, some researchers believe that R. Trebeletsky is A. Treblev, an engineer who fled the USSR. The second development is Midgardschlange, which means “Midgard Serpent”. This is Ritter's project. After the end of the Great Patriotic War Soviet authorities discovered adits of unknown origin near Königsberg, next to which were the remains of an exploded structure. It has been suggested that these are the remains of the “Midgard Serpent”. An equally remarkable project was “Sea Lion” (its other name is Subterrine). Back in 1933, Horner von Werner, a German engineer, filed a patent for it. According to his plan, this device could reach speeds of up to 7 m/h. There could be 5 people on board, and the weight of the warhead was up to 300 kg. This device, moreover, could move not only underground, but also under water. This underground submarine was immediately classified. Her project ended up in the military archives. Probably no one would have remembered him if the war had not started. Count von Staufenberg, who oversaw military projects, retrieved it from the archives. He suggested that Hitler use a submarine to invade the British Isles. She had to cross the English Channel unnoticed and secretly go underground to the desired location.

However, these plans were not destined to come true. Hermann Goering convinced Adolf Hitler that it would be much cheaper and faster to force England to surrender by simple bombing. Therefore, the operation was not carried out, although Goering was unable to fulfill his promise.

Study of the Sea Lion Project

After the victory over Germany in 1945, an unspoken confrontation began on the territory of this country. Former allies began to compete with each other for possession of German military secrets. Among some other developments, a German project for an underground boat called “Sea Lion” fell into the hands of Abakumov, a SMERSH general. A group led by professors G.I. Pokrovsky and G.I. Babata began studying the capabilities of this device. As a result of the research, the following verdict was made - the underground tunnel can be used by the Russians for military purposes.

Development by M. Tsiferov

Engineer M. Tsiferov created his own underground projectile at the same time (in 1948). He was even given a USSR author's certificate for the development of an underground torpedo. This device could move independently in the thickness of the earth, while developing a speed of up to 1 m/s!

Construction of a secret factory

In the USSR, meanwhile, Khrushchev came to power. In the outbreak of the Cold War, they needed their own trump cards, military and political. Engineers and scientists who were faced with this problem came up with a solution that advanced new level development of a project to create an underground boat. It was supposed to be made with a nuclear engine, like the first submarines who had atomic reactor. In a short time for pilot production, it was necessary to build another secret plant. By order of Khrushchev, its construction began at the beginning of 1962 near the village of Gromovka (Ukraine). Soon Khrushchev publicly declared that the imperialists should be reached not only from space, but also from underground.

Development of “Battle Mole”

Two years later, the plant produced the first underground boat of the USSR. She had a nuclear reactor. Underground nuclear boat was called the "Battle Mole". The design had a titanium body. The stern and bow were pointed. The underground boat “Battle Mole” reached 3.8 m in diameter and its length was 35 meters. The crew consisted of five people. In addition, the underground boat “Battle Mole” was capable of taking on board a ton of explosives, as well as 15 more paratroopers. The nuclear reactor of the “Battle Mole” allowed the boat to reach speeds of up to 7 m/h

What was the nuclear underground boat “Battle Mole” intended for?

The combat mission that was assigned to her was the destruction of enemy missile silos and underground command bunkers. The General Staff planned to deliver such “subs” to the United States using nuclear submarines specially designed for this purpose. California was chosen as the destination, where high seismic activity was observed due to frequent earthquakes. She could disguise the movement of the Russian underground. An underground boat of the USSR, in addition, could install a nuclear charge and, by detonating it remotely, in this way cause an artificial earthquake. Its consequences could be attributed to normal disaster. This could undermine the power of the Americans financially and materially.

Testing a new underground boat

In 1964, in early autumn, the “Battle Mole” was tested. The underground tunnel demonstrated good results. He managed to overcome heterogeneous soil, and also destroy the command bunker located underground, which belonged to the mock enemy. Several times the prototype was demonstrated to members of government commissions in Rostov region, in the Urals and Nakhabino near Moscow. After this, mysterious events began. During scheduled tests, the nuclear-powered icebreaker allegedly exploded in the Ural Mountains. The crew, led by Colonel Semyon Budnikov (it is possible that this is a fictitious name), died heroically. The reason for this is an allegedly sudden breakdown, as a result of which the “mole” was crushed rocks. According to other versions, there was sabotage by foreign intelligence services or even the device entered an anomalous zone.

Minimizing programs

After Khrushchev was removed from leadership positions, many programs were curtailed, including this project. The underground boat again ceased to interest the authorities. The economy of the Soviet Union was bursting at the seams. Therefore, this project, like many other developments, such as Soviet ekranoplans flying over the Caspian Sea in the 60-70s, was abandoned. The Soviet Union could compete with the United States in the ideological war, but was noticeably losing in the arms race. I had to save on literally everything. The common people felt this and Brezhnev understood it. The existence of the state was at stake, so advanced, bold projects that did not promise immediate superiority were kept secret for a long time and curtailed.

Is work still ongoing?

In 1976, information about the underground nuclear fleet of the Soviet Union was leaked to the press. This was done for the purposes of military-political disinformation. The Americans fell for this bait and began building similar devices. It is difficult to say whether such machines are currently being developed in the West and in the USA. Does anyone need an underground boat today? The photos presented above, as well as historical facts, are arguments in favor of the fact that this is not just a fantasy, but the most real reality. How much do we know about the modern world? Perhaps right now underground boats are plowing through the earth somewhere. Secret developments Nobody is going to advertise Russia, as well as other countries.

In the USSR, people wanted not only to make a fairy tale come true, but also science fiction. Telepathy, amphibious boats capable of breaking through the thickness of the earth, space planes - all these projects were developed by our scientists.

Brain radio

In 1923, electrical engineer Bernard Kazhinsky presented his project for a “brain radio,” capable of transmitting brain impulses, turning them into signals, over vast distances. He hypothesized that a person is a living radio station that can work both as a radio transmitter and as a radio receiver.

Thus, electromagnetic waves transmitted by one person can be perceived by another if he is in the same mood as the transmitter.
The results of his research became a real sensation. He was invited to give lectures by the largest research institutes and laboratories in the world. Upon returning to his homeland, his developments were recognized as effective and all conditions were provided to continue the experiments.

On March 17, 1924, the first tests of “brain weapons” were carried out in Moscow, allowing them to have a remote and destructive effect on the body. Impact force became low-frequency waves emitted by “brain radio”. The experiments were carried out on animals, and the essence of the experiment was to force the dog with a brain signal to take the desired book from a pile and bring it to the members of the commission. The dogs coped with the task perfectly, but after that, for some reason, they became completely incapable of following ordinary commands and training.

Little is known about the further fate of the “brain radio,” but it is obvious that work on it under the leadership of Kazhinsky soon ceased. The scientist himself believed in the possibility of creating his invention until the end of his days. He died in 1962, shortly before his death he published a second book on “brain radio”, in which he described his idea in detail and called for its further development.

Flying tank A-40

In 1941, the command of the Red Army set before the chief engineer of the glider department of the People's Commissariat of Aviation Industry, Oleg Antonov, a difficult task, which more than one generation of designers had struggled with - getting armored vehicles into the air.

The idea was to create an armored vehicle that could move through the air. This would allow it to be transferred to partisans to strengthen resistance in the occupied territories.

Antonov decided “not to reinvent the wheel”, but to take the T-60 light tank, which was adopted by the Red Army, and attach light wooden wings of a “corn farmer” to it. It was assumed that the flying tank would be towed to its destination by air, and then use its wings to glide to the desired landing point. Immediately after landing, the wings were supposed to be shed, and the flying tank was ready for battle.

But the first and last flight of the A-40 tank was unsuccessful. The TB-3 bomber taken for towing could not provide stable flight even for the lightest tank with drained fuel, a removed turret and a tool box. The engines of the TB-3 began to overheat from such a load at the most favorable conditions, let alone the conditions of a military operation.

Space fighter "Spiral"

At the height of the Cold War, the USSR considered any conditions for waging war, and they did not forget about space. In response to the US development of the X-20 orbital manned interceptor-reconnaissance-bomber, the USSR decided to create its own aerospace system.

A complex and top secret task was set before design bureau 115, where the research was carried out by chief designer Gleb Lozino-Lozinsky. The project was called "Spiral". It was supposed to become the first space combat ship of the USSR.

Lozino-Lozinsky proposed creating a “Spiral” from three main parts: a hypersonic booster aircraft (HSA), a two-stage rocket booster and an orbital aircraft. As planned, the booster aircraft was used to reach a speed of 7.5 thousand km/h and reach an altitude of 30 km. Then the orbital plane was separated from the GSR and, with the help of a rocket accelerator, reached the first cosmic speed (7.9 km/s). Thus, the aircraft entered low-Earth orbit and could begin to carry out its own missions: reconnaissance, interception of space targets, space-to-Earth bombing, and so on.

The proposed design had a number of advantages. For example, a plane can quickly reach any point on the globe and land under any conditions. But in the second half of the 70s, when the first device was built and ready for testing, the project was suddenly closed by senior management. USSR Defense Minister Andrei Grechko threw out all the documentation, saying that “We won’t indulge in fantasies.” Thus, one of the most promising space projects of the USSR was buried prematurely.

Underground boat "Battle Mole"

After the end of World War II, the projects of the German underground tanks “Subterrina” and “Midgrad Serpent” fell into the hands of the Soviet leadership. They were planned as amphibians, capable of moving on the ground, underground and even under water at a depth of up to 100 meters.

As a result of a long study of the drawings by a group of scientists led by professors G.I. Babat and G.I. Pokrovsky, a verdict was made: the machine can be used for combat purposes. It was assumed that such an underground combat boat would be able to reach strategically important enemy targets and blow them up directly from the ground. The explosion in this case can be explained by an earthquake.

Personnel and funds were urgently allocated to create their own underground tank, which was code-named “battle mole.” A machine powered by a nuclear reactor was created, capable of moving through the earth at a speed of 7 km/h. The results of the first tests in the Ural mountains amazed everyone: the “mole”, having penetrated into the ground without any difficulties, covered 15 km and destroyed the mock enemy’s bunker. It was a complete success.

But the repeated experiment unexpectedly ended in complete disaster. The subterrine exploded for unknown reasons, killing the entire team. The project was suspended, and under Brezhnev it was completely closed.

Atomolet

In the 50s of the 20th century, as at the height of the Cold War, the USSR and the USA were actively developing the “peaceful atom”. Along with successes in this area, a reasonable question arises: is it possible to use atomic energy for military purposes? For example, in aviation as an alternative to kerosene. The latter has at least two big disadvantages - firstly, its low energy consumption, and secondly, high consumption during flight. Replacing it with a product nuclear reaction It would not only reduce costs, but also increase the time the planes spend in the air almost indefinitely. And in the conditions of the Cold War, in the absence of the two warring parties ballistic missiles, the two superpowers were in dire need of a means of delivering atomic bombs.

Under these conditions, top-secret work on the first nuclear aircraft begins in the USSR and the USA. At the beginning of April 1955, after Soviet physicists confirmed the possibility of creating a nuclear power plant for aircraft, the USSR Council of Ministers issued an order according to which the design bureaus of Tupolev A.N., Lavochkin S.A. and Myasishcheva V.M. were supposed to create a heavy aircraft with a nuclear power plant. Moreover, the work was carried out separately to strengthen the competition factor. The creation of the engine-reactor was entrusted to the bureau of Nikolai Kuznetsov and Arkhip Lyulka.

But the developers immediately faced a serious problem, a consequence of a nuclear reaction - radiation. When servicing such an aircraft, not only the crew members, but also the ground maintenance personnel were exposed to mortal danger. According to preliminary calculations, the design M-60 nuclear aircraft was supposed to be stuck for a couple of months after the flight.

In addition, scientists could not find the answer to how to protect the atmosphere from nuclear residues. One launch of a rocket or aircraft with a nuclear engine was supposed to create a dead, contaminated zone around itself.
And finally, the possibility of a plane crash with a nuclear reactor on board finally decided the fate of nuclear aircraft. As Dr. Herbert York, one of the leaders of the nuclear aircraft program in the United States, later said: “First of all, airplanes sometimes crash. And the very thought that it’s flying somewhere nuclear reactor which could suddenly fall was unacceptable.” The possibility of a plane crash, which automatically became environmental, served as a sobering factor in the race to create the first nuclear aircraft. Development programs were curtailed in the USSR and the USA in the 1960s.