How a real nuclear mortar was created

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Scientists who discovered the world atomic weapons capable of wiping out entire cities from the face of the earth, sooner or later had to create something similar to a monstrous device that shoots atomic bombs. This breakthrough period falls on the time of the Second World War.

In any case, according to experts, work on the creation of barrel artillery, rocket systems and the development of means for delivering an atomic charge to the target did not stop.

For a long time it was believed that the most reliable and safe way to deliver special ammunition to enemy territory was by air. The path for the development of strategic aviation seemed to have been determined. Ground explosions, more precisely, the ways in which the warhead had to be moved, were ignored.

It is difficult to say whether the legendary Soviet atomic artillery was created purposefully for firing atomic ammunition, or such ammunition was supposed to be used, as they say, "for the company." There is an opinion that the self-propelled gun "Condenser-2P" owes its appearance not so much to the desire to create a weapon as frightening as possible, as to the lack of the possibility of creating a more compact atomic ammunition.

One way or another, the 64-ton monster, as the Americans dubbed it "daddy mortar" (daddy mortar), turned out to be such a huge and terrifying weapon that for a long time after the "defile" at the Victory Parade this self-propelled gun excited the minds of analysts from the US Department of Defense … Despite the general belief that the specimens shown at the parade were only self-propelled mock-ups, the "Condensers" that rolled across the cobblestones of Red Square were ready-to-use, tested and absolutely combat-ready units.

Behind the tons of sedatives drunk by the American military is painstaking, hard and grueling research and engineering work. In fact, to create the "Condenser" it was necessary to re-invent the main components and assemblies of armored vehicles of those years.

The development of the undercarriage cost the developers and designers gray hair, because not a single undercarriage existing at that time could "digest" the colossal weight of the new weapon. To solve this problem, the specialists turned to the previously created project of the T-10M heavy tank, put together the main structural elements, redesigned the mounting method and took into account the mass of the gun, the effect of high recoil when fired, and a whole host of other technical subtleties.

After a long study and elaboration of all possible placement schemes, a unique eight-wheel chassis with hydraulic shock absorbers that extinguished the recoil energy was obtained. The engineers borrowed the power unit from the T-10 heavy tank, simply installing the same engine, only slightly changing the cooling system.

The most interesting part of the new installation is the monstrous weapon, adapted to fire both conventional and special (atomic) mines. The 406-mm gun SM-54, which used ammunition, the mass of which was equal to a small car, was so heavy that a hydraulic drive was required to guide the gun barrel vertically, and to guide it horizontally - turning the entire vehicle in the direction of the shot.

As conceived by the creators, the "Condenser" was supposed to simultaneously be both a weapon of retaliation and the edge of an attacking spear, because a shot of an RDS-41 atomic munition weighing almost 600 kilograms at a distance of over 25 kilometers was, in fact, to decapitate the enemy's forward formations and give Soviet tank and motorized rifle units "carte blanche" in an offensive operation,because the enemy's resistance after being hit by a mine with an atomic charge of 14 kilotons would be broken in a split second.

However, the very first tests of the "Condenser" revealed a whole heap of drawbacks that were critical by the standards of artillery. The energy of the shot and the subsequent recoil - the main reason for the headache of the designers of the domestic wunderwaffe, almost put an end to the entire project.

“The monstrous power of recoil was doing such terrible things that the project was almost canceled. After the shot, the gearbox broke loose from the mountings, the engine after the shot ended up not where it was located, communication equipment and hydraulics - literally everything failed. Each shot of this machine, in fact, was experimental, since after each such volley, the machine was studied for three to four hours, down to each screw, for metal weakening. This is not to mention the fact that the installation itself rolled back seven to eight meters, armored vehicle historian, artillery officer Anatoly Simonyan says in an interview with Zvezda.

The mobility of the installation is another point in the test program that greatly worried the creators of the monstrous Soviet mortar. Tests at the Rzhev test site showed that long marches and the transfer of the installation from area to area on their own adversely affect the reliability of the entire structure, and the crew, consisting of as many as eight people, had to be replaced after a long "run", since the "march" personnel literally collapsed from fatigue.

Also, during the tests, it turned out that the preparation of the "Condenser" for firing required significant human effort, because firing from an unprepared position, in other words, "from marching to combat" greatly reduced the accuracy of the shot.

In addition, in order to charge the car, a special loading device was required based on the same hydraulics, and the loading process itself could only be possible with the "traveling" (horizontal) position of the gun barrel. Despite the difficulties revealed during the test, the "Condenser" perfectly fulfilled the role of a weapon of intimidation, and the Soviet military even came up with a special technique aimed at using a unique mortar in conjunction with motorized rifle and tank forces.

"Double-click" consisted in the production of two shots with a minimum interval at virtually the same point. That is, for sure. Despite the fact that the unique mortar could not move freely along the streets of cities, it was completely incapable of driving under bridges (both road and rail), and its transportation to the place would break the stubbornness of the devil himself, the power of 406 mm ammunition and range The "work" of the complex made it possible to compete with the missile weapons available to the USSR by the end of the 60s.

Four installations built for experimental use in 1957 drove to the paving stones of Red Square, where the eyes of domestic and foreign military analysts were more likely to be a "Star Destroyer" than just a large self-propelled mortar. The shock experienced by foreign military attachés more than compensated for all the difficulties transferred during the design and testing.

It is hard to believe that along with the development of the "Condenser" Soviet gunsmiths designed and embodied in hardware what a potential enemy could not even dream of. The gun, which has an even larger caliber than the "daddy of all mortars" 2A3 "Condenser", according to the developers' plan, was not only supposed to shoot farther and better, but also with a much greater "psychological" effect.

However, the "Oka", built in the spirit of the most monstrous fears of the Western military, during the tests showed the same problems as the "Condenser". Too large mass, too large dimensions. There was too much of a Soviet self-propelled mortar. Except for ammunition. According to military historians, the shot of the Oka mortar was recorded by nearby seismic stations as a small earthquake, and the roar from the shot was such that the personnel participating in the Oka tests had serious hearing problems for a long time.

No less impressive was the "hero of the occasion" himself - the 420-mm Transformer mine, the height of which, if put on the bottom, was equal to the height of a person. The problems of the 420-mm mortar 2B1 faded into the background when, at a particular meeting, the designers, the military or the project leaders discussed the firing characteristics. In theory, "Oka" could reach with its shot the location of the enemy at a distance of up to 50 kilometers, provided that an active-reactive type mine was used.

“Shot 2B1 was called a strategic bargaining chip in the negotiations. Why? Well, probably because one shot could change not only the balance of forces in the upcoming battle, but also, for example, change the balance of forces in general in the area of operation. Imagine the accumulation of enemy forces, into which a mine with an atomic charge and weighing more than 600 kilograms "flies". I think that there will be no witnesses here, there will not even be any envoys for capitulation, "- ironically remarks the military historian, candidate of historical sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, orientalist and rocket officer Nikolai Lapshin.

The produced self-propelled guns with a smooth-bore mortar of 420 mm caliber became for Soviet design engineers not so much a state order for the construction of an atomic "eraser", as a colossal experience in creating a deterrent that cooled more than a dozen hot heads overseas.

And although the gun did not have recoil devices, the equipment and internal structural elements broke under the monstrous load after each shot. The effect that "Oka" had both on the testers and on the main potential "clients" of the 420-mm atomic mine - the Western military - was so high that even the sluggishness and low rate of fire were leveled out by the horror that gripped the analysts of the potential enemy.

However, if the 420-mm mortar were to go into production and were put into service, the deployment of an atomic self-propelled gun somewhere in Europe, with almost 100% probability, would have made the heads of the Western military ache with terrible force.

And what about the Americans?

Like Soviet strategists, the Americans of those years understood that strategic bombers with atomic weapons on board were not suitable for striking the positions of the rapid reaction forces. However, despite the obvious need to create an "atomic cannon", American engineers took a different path from Soviet engineers.

In 1952, in the course of research and development, the T-131 atomic gun with a caliber of 280 millimeters was adopted. Like the Soviet atomic artillery, the American big gun was designed to use atomic weapons. However, unlike the Soviet installations released a little later, the "American" already suffered from excess weight in the stowed position. 76 tons on the march is a pretty serious weight.

In addition, unlike the Soviet self-propelled guns, which moved, albeit slowly, but under their own power, the American gun was deprived of the ability to move independently. The movement of the gun was carried out by two Peterbilt trucks, and unloading, assembling, setting up and bringing the gun into action took from three to six hours on the spot, depending on the experience and skill of the technician team.

“From a technical point of view, it is possible to compare an American cannon, which fired a nuclear projectile at a distance of about 30 kilometers, and a Soviet mortar only conditionally. For example, you can compare the charging power, charging time. On this, perhaps, we can stop. American weapons, both then and now, differ from Soviet ones in increased complexity during operation. While you are deploying the installation and preparing it for firing, you will be wiped off the face of the earth 50 times already,”artillery officer, candidate of technical sciences and reserve lieutenant colonel Sergei Panushkin explains in an interview with Zvezda.

By the end of 1952, the Americans had formed six artillery battalions from partially mobile installations, stationed at the location of the US 7th Army in Europe. Until 1955, the T-131 remained the only ground-based "atomic baton" of the Americans. The battalions of American atomic artillery were finally disbanded in December 1963, and all further work in this direction was closed.

The emphasis by both American and Soviet design engineers was placed on the creation of mobile tactical missile systems with a nuclear warhead, capable of operating as soon as possible and with the maximum possible mobility. However, only Soviet engineers were able to create a model of atomic artillery capable of moving under its own power, including on the ground, in difficult weather and combat conditions.