American projects of atomic tanks. Iceberg aircraft carrier, atomic tank and other titanic military equipment Atomic tank in the ussr

We have already written about the largest tanks, guns and ships. But we are not enough. It turns out that there were tanks, guns and ships even larger than the largest, but they did not go into production. That won't stop us from learning about them.

Nikolai Polikarpov

The most, the most, the most

Once upon a time there lived in the 17th century King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden. And he ordered to build a warship, but not a simple one, but the largest and most powerful in the Baltic - for the fear of enemies. Shipbuilders got down to business, but the king himself wished to indicate the dimensions of the future flagship: “Higher stern, luxurious carved decoration! Make the hull narrower, the masts higher and the sails larger. The royal ship must be the fastest!”

It is dangerous to argue with kings. "Yes, your majesty," said the builders. "And guns, more guns!" "Yes," said the builders.

Everyone knows the end of this story: luxurious huge ship named "Vase" capsized and drowned on August 10, 1628 in front of the whole city. He drowned on his first voyage, immediately after leaving the harbor of Stockholm from the pier at the royal palace. "Vase" was excellent in all respects, and had only one drawback: instability.

steel rat

Something like this always happens when you want to make the “most-most” combat vehicle, and the engineer follows the lead of the military. Here, for example, the Germans. Well, the very ones that the “wunderwaffe” built everything, but they never built. After the German attack on the USSR, the Soviet heavy tanks KV became an unpleasant surprise for the Nazi generals.

The problem was that the guns of the German tanks did not penetrate their armor, nor did the anti-tank guns. The only effective means against the KV turned out to be heavy anti-aircraft guns of 8.8 cm caliber, while our tanks with their 76-mm gun could easily deal with any armored enemy that was in sight.

Based on the results of studying the captured KV, the generals of the Third Reich immediately declared: “We want the same one, only so that the armor is thicker and the gun bigger.” So in 1941 the story began in excess of heavy tank, called Ratte, that is, "Rat". The name echoes the name of another German tank, also inspired by mighty Soviet vehicles, the well-known Sd.Kfz. 205 Maus - "Mouse". The "Mouse" weighed almost 189 tons, and the "Rat", as it should be, should have been somewhat larger. The full name of this giant is Landkreuzer P. 1000 (land cruiser weighing 1000 tons).

It's funny that one of the creators of the "Rats" project in the bowels of the Krupp concern was engineer Edward Grotte, who worked in the USSR from the beginning of the 1930s on the creation of experimental tank projects, and then returned home and served as the Fuhrer. True, he served specifically. The fact is that he also offered the leadership of our country to build armored monsters, but domestic technical specialists sensibly assessed their prospects and refused to realize such sweet dreams.

Well, Hitler fell for the bait of a projector. The sketches of the giant were presented to Hitler on June 23, 1942 and struck his imagination so much that he allowed the project to be prepared for implementation in metal. Still, a tank 35 m long, 14 m wide and 11 m high would carry armor from 150 to 400 mm thick! Protection worthy of an ocean battleship!

The tank was also supposed to be armed according to naval standards: a ship's turret with a pair of 283-mm Shiffs Rfnobe SK C / 34 naval guns weighing 48 tons each and with a barrel length of about 15 m. Such guns were on "pocket battleships" of the Scharnhorst type. The armor-piercing projectile of the gun weighed 336 kg, and the high-explosive one - 315 kg.

The hit of such a gift in any tank or even a field concrete fortification would lead to the unambiguous destruction of the target. At the maximum elevation angle of the gun barrel and a full charge, the projectile flew 40 km, so that the tank could fire at the enemy, not only without entering the return fire zone, but generally from beyond the horizon! The SK C / 34 guns made it possible to use the "Rat" even in coastal defense for firing at heavy enemy ships - the tank would talk almost on an equal footing with cruisers and battleships.

But that's not all. If some nimble enemy tank crept up close to the giant, then to repel his feeble attacks there was also a heavy anti-tank gun KwK 44 L / 55 caliber 12.8 cm (armament and a pair of such guns were considered). Its weaker 88-mm predecessor was armed with the well-known German tank destroyers "Jagdpanther" and "Ferdinand".

It was supposed to fight off air raids with eight 20-mm anti-aircraft guns Flak 38, and from any mechanical small fry, various armored personnel carriers and infantry, if by some miracle they reach the armored fortress, - with two automatic 15-mm Mauser MG151 / 15 aviation cannons.

The designers did not forget about the retribution for all the miracles of the “gloomy German genius” mentioned: the mass came out to 1000 tons! Therefore, in order for the machine not to fall into the ground, the tracks had to have a width of 3.5 m each (today such can be seen on huge mining excavators). It was supposed to move the tank using either two 24-cylinder MAN V12Z32 / 44 marine diesel engines for submarines with an HP 8400 power. each, or as many as eight marine 20-cylinder Daimler-Benz MB501 diesel engines with a power of 2000 hp each, which were used on torpedo boats.

In any case, the total power of the power plant would be about 16,000 hp, which would allow the Rat to move at speeds up to 40 km / h. Can you imagine a mass of 1000 tons, breaking at such a speed? Here, even a gun is not needed - it will simply demolish any obstacle by inertia and will not notice. Fuel in tanks ... Although in what tanks? In side tanks! So, the fuel should have been enough for 190 km.

No bridge across the river could bear the weight of the Rat. For this reason water barriers the tank had to overcome under its own power along the bottom, for which the designers made its hull pressurized, equipped with a snorkel for air supply from the surface and means for pumping out water. The colossus was supposed to be controlled by a crew of 21-36 people, who would have at their disposal a bathroom, rooms for rest and storage of supplies, and even a “garage” for a pair of BMW R12 communication and reconnaissance motorcycles.

At the end of December 1942, the project was generally ready and submitted to the Reich Minister of the Imperial Ministry of Armaments and Ammunition, Albert Speer, for a decision to build a prototype. But at the beginning of 1943, he decided not to build the Rat. The reasons are clear: firstly, it is too expensive in a war. Secondly, combat effectiveness extremely doubtful.

Of course, not a single anti-tank gun, and not even a single heavy gun the tank would probably not have been harmed, but a couple of successfully dropped armor-piercing bombs (and it is difficult to miss on a sedentary target of this size) would have destroyed it with guarantee. In addition, not a single road would have survived after the movement of the "Rat" along it, and the movement of the colossus over rough terrain would require preliminary engineering preparation of its path.

crush with mass

But do you think the fantasy of the designers of the Krupp concern stopped at a tank of 1000 tons? Nothing happened. In the same December 1942, an even more ambitious self-propelled project appeared. artillery mount weighing 1500 tons! The vehicle was called the Landkreuzer P. 1500 Monster and was designed to mount an 807 mm gun from the same Krupp.

This gun itself deserves attention. Initially, it was developed from 1936 on the orders of Hitler to destroy the French fortifications of the Maginot Line, but the Wehrmacht dealt with France anyway, and the first giant Dora gun was built in 1941. At the same time, the second one was also assembled, which was named in honor of the owner of the company and the president of the Adolf Hitler Foundation, Gustav von Bohlen und Halbach Krupp - "Fat Gustav" (Schwerer Gustav). The giants were mounted on huge railway carriages, which were moved by locomotives along two parallel rail tracks at once, the length of which in position was supposed to be about five kilometers. 250 people of calculation and 2500 people of additional personnel participated in the maintenance of the giant.

It took 54 hours to prepare the chosen position and assemble the gun after the arrival of its parts by separate trains. Five trains with 106 wagons were needed to deliver the disassembled gun, personnel, ammunition and mounting devices to the position. Anti-aircraft cover was provided by two air defense battalions.

The gun fired at a distance of up to 48 km, each of its huge shells weighed more than seven tons and contained up to 700 kg of explosive. It took about 40 minutes to load a new projectile and charge, and then re-aiming the gun at the target. The projectile penetrated the ground to a depth of 12 m, leaving a three-meter funnel on the surface, pierced one-meter steel armor or seven meters of reinforced concrete.

Railroad gun in action. 1943

From the "Dora" in 1942, the Germans fired at Sevastopol, firing 48 shells. Huge loads on the metal of the 32-meter barrel led to an increase in its caliber as it wore out - from the original 807 mm to the permissible 813 mm. The barrel had to withstand 300 shots.

It was precisely such a weapon that they now planned to place not on a railway, but on a self-propelled tracked chassis. "Monster" is the most appropriate name for such an installation: 52 m long, 18 m wide and 8 m high! The installation would have weighed 1500 tons, of which about a third would have been the gun itself. Shells and charges to them were supposed to be brought up by a caravan of trucks.

More than a hundred people of the calculation were supposed to be protected from enemy shelling by 250-mm armor, and two 150-mm sFH18 howitzers and 15-mm automatic guns MG 151/15 were intended for self-defense. The Monster was supposed to be powered by four MAN marine diesel engines for submarines, 6500 hp. each, but even the power of 26 thousand "mechanical horses" could not disperse this monster faster than 10-15 km / h.

As a result, Albert Speer in 1943 buried this project as well. The reasons are the same: only one gun cost the Reich 7 million marks, so even only two of them were built on a railway carriage. To fence a “platinum” tank under a “golden” cannon would be economic suicide, and to destroy the “Monster”, if it appeared in the front zone, one successful flight of a bomber or attack aircraft would be enough. But, if we assume that one madman agreed to allocate funds for the construction of the monster, and the other sent him into battle, then the car would not have reached the firing position.

By railway the tank could not be transported - it would not have passed either in the tunnels or on the bridges. And even a purely theoretical assumption about moving under its own power at a speed of 15 km / h, the inevitable destruction of the road and a continuous stream of tankers driving behind horrified the generals.

Ice carrier

In other matters, ideas that seemed promising at first glance were visited not only by the Germans. During the Second World War, Britain was somewhat isolated and faced with a shortage of steel for the construction of ships. In 1942, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his friend Lord Louis Mountbatten, commander of the 5th Destroyer Flotilla of the Royal Navy, who also worked on the development of special operations, even discussed the use of icebergs for arranging airfields on them.

It was supposed to cut down the top of the ice mountain and land planes there to cover convoys traveling in high latitudes, and at the same time attach an engine to the iceberg, put communications equipment, equip rooms for the team and power from diesel power plants. It would turn out to be an almost unsinkable aircraft carrier. Indeed, in order to split such a mass of ice, the enemy would have to spend an incredible amount of bombs or torpedoes.

The iceberg itself lives in northern waters for up to two years. However, as the lower part thaws, it can roll over with catastrophic consequences for people, and the power of the engines must be huge to control the movement of such a colossus.

And here, very opportunely, they remembered the proposal of the English engineer Geoffrey Pike, who served as a scout in the department of Lord Mountbatten. Pike back in 1940 came up with an amazing composite material - pykrete. In fact, it is a mixture of about 20% sawdust and 80% of the most common water ice.

Frozen "dirty ice" turned out to be four times stronger than usual, due to its low thermal conductivity it melted slowly, was not brittle (it could even be forged within certain limits), and its explosive resistance was comparable to that of concrete.

The idea was ridiculed at first, but in 1943 Lord Mountbatten brought a pykrete cube to an Allied conference in Quebec, Canada. The demonstration turned out to be impressive: the officer placed a pykrete next to it and a block of the same size regular ice, moved away and shot both samples from a revolver. From the very first hit, the water ice shattered to smithereens, and from the pykrete the bullet ricocheted without any harm to the sample, injuring one of the participants in the meeting. So the Americans and Canadians agreed to participate in the project.

An order for the development of a preliminary design for an ice carrier was issued by the British Admiralty at the end of 1942. Geoffrey Pike planned to build a ship with a length of 610 m and a width of 92 m from his proprietary material. Its displacement would be 1.8 million tons, and it would be able to take on board up to two hundred aircraft. The stability of the hull would be provided by refrigeration units with a network of refrigerant pipes laid in the sides and bottom.

Otherwise, it would be a completely traditional ship with an engine, propellers, anti-aircraft weapons and crew quarters. The project was codenamed "Avvakum". Then it was supposed to build a whole fleet of such ships, only much larger: length 1220 m, width 183 m, displacement - several million tons. These would be real giants, unsinkable giants of the ocean.

To begin with, a model ship was built in Canada on Patricia Lake: 18 m long, 9 m wide, and weighing a miserable 1100 tons. The model was built in the summer to test the behavior of pykrete in the warm season. The small "Avvakum" also had a wooden frame, a network of tubes for cooling the pykerite blocks of the hull and an engine. 15 people managed to build it in two months.

The experiment ended successfully, proving the fundamental feasibility of the project. But then they started counting money. And here it turned out that pykrete ships are much more expensive than steel ones, moreover, to build even one aircraft carrier formation, almost all the forests of Canada would have to be lime for sawdust!

In addition, at the end of 1943, the shortage of metal was overcome. So in December 1943, the Habakkuk project was closed, and today only wooden and iron fragments of the model at the bottom of Patricia Lake, which scuba divers found in the 1970s, remind of it.

underground ship

"The Midgard Serpent"

However, there were projects in Germany even more exotic than just a colossal tank. In 1934, engineer Ritter developed a project for an underground ship! The device was called the "Midgard Serpent" - in honor of the mythological huge snake surrounding the human-inhabited world of Midgard. It was assumed that the "Snake" would be able to move on the ground, underground and under water, but it was needed to deliver explosive charges under enemy long-term fortifications, defense lines and port facilities. The "ship" was assembled from hinged compartments 6 m long, 6.8 m wide and 3.5 m high, respectively. Depending on the task, its length could vary from 399 to 524 m by replacing or adding sections. The structure was supposed to weigh about 60,000 tons.

Introduced an underground "worm" with a height of two-storey house and half a kilometer long? Under the ground, the Midgard Serpent would make its way with the help of four powerful drills with a diameter of one and a half meters each, and nine electric motors of 1000 hp would rotate them. The bits on the drill head can be changed depending on the type of soil, for which the “ship” would carry spare kits for rock, sand and medium density soil. Forward movement would be provided by tracks with 14 electric motors with a total power of 19,800 hp.

Electric motors would be powered by four diesel generators with a capacity of 10,000 hp, for which it was supposed to carry 960,000 liters of diesel fuel. Under water, the “ship” would be controlled by 12 pairs of rudders and move at speeds up to 3 km / h with the effort of 12 additional engines with a capacity of 3000 “horses”. According to the project, the "Serpent" could travel on the ground at a speed of 30 km/h (let's imagine again: a train on tracks, merrily rushing across the field), underground in rocky soil - 2 km/h, and in soft soil - up to 10 km/h

The Serpent was to be operated by 30 people, who would have at their disposal an on-board electric kitchen, a rest compartment with 20 beds and repair shops. For breathing and powering diesel engines, it was supposed to take 580 compressed air cylinders on the road, and it would be possible to communicate with the world using a radio transmitter.

The ship, according to Ritter, would carry a thousand 250-kilogram mines and the same number of 10-kilogram mines. For self-defense on the ground, the crew would have 12 coaxial machine guns of 7.92 mm caliber. But all this seemed to the designer not enough, so he planned to impress the imagination of the military with a special underground weapon, which was supposed to operate on some secret principles.

The dragon Fafnir gave its name to an underground six-meter torpedo, the "Hammer of Thor" was intended to undermine especially hard rocks, the dwarf Alberich, who keeps the gold of the Nibelungs, became the reconnaissance torpedo of the same name with microphones and a periscope, and the king of the Zwerg Laurin, who loved his rose garden more than anything in the world, donated its name to the rescue capsule for the crew of the "Serpent" to go to the surface of the earth in case of any emergency.

Each "Serpent" should have cost modestly: 30 million million Reichsmarks. This project was seriously considered, and as a result of the discussion on February 28, 1935, it was returned to Ritter for revision. And already at the end of World War II, adits and the remains of a certain structure that resembled this underground ship were even found in the Koenigsberg area. Apparently, the Germans even tried to conduct experimental work.

Then it seemed to be a source of free energy and the dawn of a bright tomorrow for humanity, and all dangers were supposed to be fended off according to the recipes of science fiction writers - a couple of ordinary pills for radiation. Then in American fantasy novels one could read about well-deserved rocket mechanics in shabby overalls, turning with a poker in the atomic boiler of the engine blocks of nuclear fuel burning with a blue flame. At the same time, portable nuclear reactors for transport and military equipment were invented in the USSR and the USA. Today, will anyone get into a car with a miniature "Chernobyl" under the hood? And then - easily.

In June 1954, the Question Mark III conference was held in Detroit, USA, dedicated to the prospects for the development of armored vehicles. There, for the first time, the concept of a nuclear-powered tank was proposed, which would be capable of operating for 500 hours at full turbo engine power without changing fuel. The idea was picked up by the Chrysler company, which in May 1955 offered the Armored Directorate ground forces USA (TASOM) their vision of a promising tank to replace the M48 that was in service.

At first, the designers were going to equip the tank with a 300-horsepower engine with an electric generator that would power a pair of electric motors to rewind the tracks, but in the end they decided that the electric motors could work unreliably under radiation conditions, and the autonomy of the tank when moving through the glass desert would play an important role. From these considerations, the tankers received in their inhabited tower... a small nuclear reactor that was supposed to generate thermal energy to power the steam engine, which created torque directly for the caterpillar tank mover. External video cameras transmitted to the tankers on monitors everything that was happening outside, so that people did not risk going blind from flashes of nuclear explosions.

The mass of the car was supposed to be about 23 tons, the reservation was supposed to be made of rolled armor steel and equipped with an anti-cumulative screen. Armament - 90 mm T208 gun and two 7.62 mm machine guns. TV-8 could swim: two water cannons provided him with an acceptable speed on the water.

TV1 - one of the tank projects with YASU

By the time of the next conference, Question Mark IV, held in August 1955, the development of nuclear reactors had made it possible to significantly reduce their size, and hence the mass of the tank. The project presented at the conference under the designation R32 assumed the creation of a 50-ton tank armed with a 90-mm T208 smoothbore gun and protected in the frontal projection by 120-mm armor.

R32. Another project of the American atomic tank

And for a snack, as they say. One of the variants of atomic monsters developed at one time in the United States under the Astron program.

One of the modules of the mobile nuclear power plant TES-3 based on the units of the heavy tank T-10

One of the sources -

In 1956, Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev instructed the designers to begin work on the project of a unique tank, which was not afraid of either an atomic explosion, or radiation contamination of the crew, or chemical or biological attacks. The project received article 279.

And such a heavy tank weighing 60 tons was designed by 1957 at SKB-2 of the Kirov Plant of Leningrad (KZL) under the leadership of the chief designer, Major General Joseph Yakovlevich Kotin. It was immediately and rightly called atomic. Moreover, the lion's share of its weight was armor, in some places reaching up to 305 millimeters. That is why the internal space for the crew was much smaller than that of heavy tanks of a similar mass.

The atomic tank embodied the new tactics of World War III and a more "vegetarian" era, when human life was worth at least something. It was the concern for the crew of this armored vehicle that dictated some of the tactical and technical data of this tank. For example, if necessary, the hermetically closing hatch of the tower and the breech of the gun prevented even a speck of dust from entering the interior of the machine, not to mention radioactive gases and chemical agents of infection. Excluded for tankers and bacteriological danger.

So, even the sides of the hull were protected by almost twice as thick armor than the German Tigers. It reached 182 mm on the 279th. The frontal armor of the hull generally had an unprecedented thickness - from 258 to 269 mm. This exceeded the parameters of even such a cyclopean German development of the Third Reich as the heaviest monster in the history of tank building, as if jokingly named by its developer Ferdinand Porsche Maus (“Mouse”). With a vehicle weight of 189 tons, its frontal armor was 200 mm. Whereas in a nuclear tank, it was covered with simply impenetrable 305-mm high-alloy steel. Moreover, the body of the Soviet miracle tank had the shape of a turtle shell - shoot, don't shoot, and the shells simply slid off it and flew on. In addition, the giant's body was also covered with anti-cumulative screens.

* * *

By the way, for such a heavyweight, he had a very good speed on the highway - 55 km / h. And being invulnerable, the iron hero himself could deliver a lot of trouble to the enemy: his gun had a caliber of 130 mm, and could easily break through any armor that existed at that time. True, the supply of shells led to pessimistic reflections - according to the instructions, only 24 of them were placed in the tank. In addition to the gun, the four crew members also had a heavy machine gun at their disposal.

Another feature of the Project 279 was its tracks - there were already four of them. In other words, an atomic tank, in principle, could not get stuck - even on complete impassability, thanks also to the low specific pressure on the ground. And he successfully overcame mud, deep snow, and even anti-tank hedgehogs and gouges. On tests in 1959, in the presence of representatives of the military-industrial complex and the Ministry of Defense, the military liked everything, especially the thickness of the armor of the atomic tank and its complete protection from everything. But the ammunition load plunged the generals into despondency. They were not impressed by the difficulty in operating the undercarriage, as well as the extremely low ability to maneuver.

And the project was abandoned. The tank remained manufactured in a single copy, which is now exhibited in Kubinka - in the Armored Museum. And the other two unfinished prototypes were melted down.

* * *

It is clear that with a weight of almost eight tons (together with a glider), a tank equipped with wings could fly behind a bomber at a speed of only 130 km / h. However, the main thing they wanted to teach him was to land in right place, having unhooked from the BT-3 in advance. It was planned that after landing, two crew members would remove from the T-60 all the flight “uniforms” that had become unnecessary and be ready for combat operations, having at their disposal a 20 mm caliber gun and a machine gun. The T-60s were supposed to be delivered to the encircled units of the Red Army or partisans, and they also wanted to use this method of transportation for the emergency transfer of vehicles to the necessary sections of the front.

The flying tank was tested in August-September 1942. Alas, due to the low speed, the glider just kept at a height of forty meters above the ground due to poor streamlining and its rather solid mass. There was a war, and at that time such searchlights were out of place. Only those developments that could become combat vehicles in the very near future were welcomed.

For this reason, the project was cancelled. This happened in February 1943, when Oleg Antonov was already working in the Design Bureau of Alexander Sergeevich Yakovlev - his deputy. Another important point, because of which work on the A-40 was stopped, was the condition of transporting its ammunition along with the tank - this question remained open. The flying tank was also made in just one copy. But he was not the only project of our designers. There were dozens, if not hundreds, of such developments. Fortunately, there have always been enough talented engineers in our country.

Vitaly Karyukov

In the fifties of the last century, mankind began to actively develop a new source of energy - the fission of atomic nuclei. Nuclear power was then seen, if not as a panacea, then at least as a solution to a great many different problems. In an atmosphere of universal approval and interest, nuclear power plants and designed reactors for submarines and ships. Some dreamers even proposed making the nuclear reactor so compact and low-power that it could be used as household source energy or as a power plant for cars, etc. The military became interested in similar things. In the United States, options for creating a full-fledged tank with a nuclear power plant were seriously considered. Unfortunately or fortunately, they all remained at the level of technical proposals and drawings.

The history of nuclear tanks began in 1954 and its appearance is associated with scientific conferences Question Mark ("Question mark"), which discussed promising areas of science and technology. At the third such conference, held in June 1954 in Detroit, American scientists discussed the project of a tank with a nuclear reactor submitted for consideration. According to the technical proposal, the TV1 combat vehicle (Track Vehicle 1 - Tracked Vehicle-1) was supposed to have a combat weight of about 70 tons and carry a 105-mm rifled gun. Of particular interest was the layout of the armored hull of the proposed tank. So, behind armor up to 350 millimeters thick, a small-sized nuclear reactor should have been located. For him, a volume was provided in the front of the armored hull. Behind the reactor and its protection, the driver's workplace was located, in the middle and rear parts of the hull they placed the fighting compartment, ammunition stowage, etc., as well as several power plant units.

Fighting vehicle TV1 (Track Vehicle 1 - "Tracked vehicle-1")

The principle of operation of the power units of the tank is more than interesting. The fact is that the reactor for TV1 was planned to be made according to the scheme with an open gas coolant circuit. This means that the reactor had to be cooled by atmospheric air flowing next to it. Further, the heated air was supposed to be supplied to the power gas turbine, which was supposed to drive the transmission and drive wheels. According to the calculations carried out right at the conference, with the given dimensions, it would be possible to ensure the operation of the reactor for up to 500 hours on one refueling of nuclear fuel. However, the TV1 project was not recommended for further development. For 500 hours of operation, a reactor with an open cooling circuit could infect several tens or even hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of air. In addition, it was not possible to fit sufficient reactor protection into the internal volumes of the tank. In general, the TV1 combat vehicle turned out to be much more dangerous for its troops than for the enemy.

By the next Question Mark IV conference, held in 1955, the TV1 project was finalized in accordance with current capabilities and new technologies. The new nuclear tank was named R32. It differed significantly from TV1, primarily in its size. The development of nuclear technology has made it possible to reduce the dimensions of the machine and accordingly change its design. The 50-ton tank was also proposed to be equipped with a reactor in the front, but the armored hull with a 120 mm thick front plate and the turret with a 90-mm gun in the project had completely different contours and layout. In addition, it was proposed to abandon the use of a gas turbine driven by superheated atmospheric air and to apply new protection systems for a smaller reactor. Calculations have shown that the practically achievable power reserve on one refueling of nuclear fuel will be approximately four thousand kilometers. Thus, at the cost of reducing the operating time, it was planned to reduce the danger of the reactor for the crew.

And yet, the measures taken to protect the crew, technical personnel and troops interacting with the tank were insufficient. According to the theoretical calculations of American scientists, the R32 "fonil" is less than its predecessor TV1, but even with the remaining level of radiation, the tank was not suitable for practical use. It would be necessary to regularly change crews and create a special infrastructure for the separate maintenance of nuclear tanks.

After the R32 failed to meet the expectations of a potential customer in the face of american army, the interest of the military in tanks with a nuclear power plant began to gradually fade away. It is worth recognizing that for some time there have been attempts to create a new project and even bring it to the testing stage. For example, in 1959 an experimental vehicle based on the M103 heavy tank was designed. It was supposed to be used in future tests of a tank chassis with a nuclear reactor. Work on this project began very late, when the customer stopped seeing nuclear tanks as promising equipment for the army. Work on the conversion of the M103 into a test bench was completed with the creation of a draft design and preparation for the assembly of the layout.

R32. Another project of the American atomic tank

The last American project of a nuclear-powered tank, which was able to move beyond the technical proposal stage, was carried out by Chrysler during its participation in the ASTRON program. The Pentagon has ordered a tank designed for the army of the next decades, and Chrysler apparently decided to give the tank reactor another try. Besides, new tank TV8 was meant to represent new concept layout. The armored chassis with electric motors and, in some versions of the project, an engine or a nuclear reactor was a typical tank hull with a tracked undercarriage. However, it was proposed to install a tower of the original design on it.

The large-sized unit of a complex streamlined faceted shape was supposed to be made a little longer than the chassis. Inside such an original tower, it was proposed to place the jobs of all four crew members, all weapons, incl. 90-mm gun on a rigid recoilless suspension system, as well as ammunition. In addition, in the later versions of the project it was supposed to place a diesel engine or a small-sized nuclear reactor. In this case, the reactor or engine would provide energy for the operation of the generator that feeds the propulsion electric motors and other systems. According to some sources, until the closure of the TV8 project, there were disputes about the most convenient placement of the reactor: in the chassis or in the tower. Both options had their pros and cons, but the installation of all power plant units in the chassis was more profitable, although technically more difficult.

Tank TV8

One of the variants of atomic monsters developed at one time in the United States under the Astron program.

The TV8 proved to be the luckiest of all American nuclear tanks. In the second half of the fifties, a model of a promising armored vehicle was even built at one of the Chrysler factories. But things did not go beyond the layout. The revolutionary new layout of the tank, combined with its technical complexity, did not give any advantages over existing and developed armored vehicles. The ratio of novelty, technical risks and practical returns was considered insufficient, especially in the case of using a nuclear power plant. As a result, the TV8 project was closed for lack of prospects.

After TV8, not a single American atomic tank project left the technical proposal stage. As for other countries, they also considered the theoretical possibility of replacing diesel with a nuclear reactor. But outside the United States, these ideas remained only in the form of ideas and ideas. simple sentences. The main reasons for the rejection of such ideas were two features of nuclear power plants. First, a tank-mountable reactor cannot, by definition, be adequately shielded. As a result, the crew and surrounding people or objects will be exposed to radiation. Secondly, a nuclear tank, in the event of damage to the power plant - and the likelihood of such a development of events is very high - becomes a real dirty bomb. The chances of the crew surviving the moment of the accident are too small, and the survivors will become victims of acute radiation sickness.

The relatively large power reserve on one refueling and the general, as it seemed in the fifties, the prospects of nuclear reactors in all areas could not overcome the dangerous consequences of their use. As a result, nuclear-powered tanks remained an original technical idea that arose in the wake of the general "nuclear euphoria", but did not give any practical results.

According to the websites:

This tank can be considered a symbol of a nuclear war that never started. Its design is optimally suited to resist the shock wave, and the four-track undercarriage is suitable for movement in the conditions of a probable nuclear winter ...

Heavy tank - "Object 279", the only one of its kind and, without any doubt, the most unique. Its hull had a cast curvilinear shape with thin-sheet anti-cumulative screens, complementing its contours to an elongated ellipsoid. This hull shape was supposed to prevent the tank from being overturned by the blast wave of a nuclear explosion.

Let's take a closer look at this project...

Maybe the beginning of the post is somewhat pretentious and exaggerated, but first let's rewind the events a bit.

In 1956, the GBTU of the Red Army developed tactical and technical requirements for a heavy tank, which was supposed to replace the T-10. The design bureau of the Kirov Plant in Leningrad began to create a tank, with extensive use of ideas and individual components from the IS-7 and T-10 tanks. Received the index "Object 277", the new tank was created according to the classical layout, its undercarriage consisted of eight road wheels and four support rollers on board, suspension on beam torsion bars, with hydraulic shock absorbers on the first, second and eighth rollers. The hull was assembled from both rolled and cast parts - the sides were made from bent plates of rolled armor, while the bow was a single casting. The tower was also made of a cast, hemispherical shape. The developed niche accommodated a mechanized ammunition rack to facilitate the actions of the loader.

The armament consisted of a 130mm M-65 gun, stabilized in two planes with the Thunderstorm stabilizer, and a coaxial 14.5mm KPVT machine gun. Ammunition 26 shots of separate loading and 250 cartridges for a machine gun. The gunner had a TPD-2S stereoscopic rangefinder sight, the tank was equipped with a full set of night vision devices. Power point was a 12-cylinder V-shaped diesel engine M-850, with an HP 1050 power. at 1850 rpm. The transmission is planetary, type "3K", made in the form of a single block of the mechanism for changing gears and turns. Unlike the transmission of the T-10 tank, the band brakes of the planetary turning mechanism were replaced with disc brakes. The crew consisted of 4 people, three of whom (commander, gunner and loader) were in the tower. With a mass of 55 tons, the tank showed top speed 55 km/h.

Two copies of the "Object 277" were produced, and shortly after the start of testing, work on it was curtailed. The tank favorably differed from the T-10 with more powerful weapons and a more advanced FCS, including a rangefinder, but the ammunition load was small. In general, the "Object 277" was created on the basis of well-developed units in the series and did not require long-term refinement.

The second competitor was the tank of the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant - "Object 770". Unlike the "Object 277", it was decided to design the tank "from scratch", relying only on advanced solutions and using new units. characteristic feature The tank became a completely cast hull, the sides of which were distinguished by both a differentiated thickness and a variable angle of inclination. A similar approach can be traced in the booking of the forehead of the hull. The turret is also completely cast, with variable armor thickness, reaching up to 290mm in the frontal parts. The armament and control system of the tank are completely similar to the "Object 277" - a 130mm M-65 gun and a coaxial 14.5mm KPVT machine gun, 26 rounds of ammunition and 250 rounds of ammunition.

Of interest is the power unit of the tank, made on the basis of a 10-cylinder diesel engine DTN-10, with a vertical arrangement of cylinder blocks, which was installed perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the tank. Engine power was 1000 hp. at 2500 rpm. The transmission of the tank included a torque converter and a planetary gearbox, the parallel inclusion of which made it possible to have one mechanical and two hydromechanical forward gears, and one mechanical reverse gear. The undercarriage included six large-diameter road wheels per side, without supporting rollers. The roller suspension is hydropneumatic. The tank was distinguished by ease of operation and good dynamic characteristics.

Unique and one of a kind prototype heavy tank - object 279 - was developed in 1957 by a team of designers from the Leningrad Kirov Plant under the leadership of L.S. Troyanov according to the proposals of the Office of the Chief of the Armored Forces Soviet army in 1956 tactical and technical requirements for a heavy tank. The tank was intended to break through the prepared enemy defenses and operate in difficult terrain for conventional tanks.

In defiance of the conservative "Object 277", the machine was created completely anew, and not only in terms of the units used, but also in concept. Cast hulls with differentiated armor, elliptical shapes have been encountered before, but in this car the idea was brought to the absolute. Assembled from four cast parts, the body was covered along the entire perimeter with an anti-cumulative screen, which complemented its contours to an elliptical shape (not only in plan, but also in vertical section). Thanks to the armored volume reduced to the limit, which amounted to only 11.47 m 3, it was possible to achieve unprecedented values ​​​​of armor thickness both normal and given - the frontal armor of the hull reached 192 mm at large angles of inclination and underturn, side armor up to 182 mm, at smaller angles. The cast tower of a flattened hemispherical shape had a circular armor of 305 mm, with the exception of the stern.

Armament was the same 130mm M-65 gun and 14.5mm KPVT machine gun, with 24 rounds of ammunition in a mechanized ammo rack with semi-automatic loading and 300 machine gun rounds. The combined efforts of the loader and semi-automatic cassette loader ensured a combat rate of fire of 5-7 rounds per minute. The control system included a stereoscopic rangefinder sight with independent stabilization of the field of view TPD-2S, a two-plane electro-hydraulic stabilizer "Groza" and full set night vision devices.

The power plant of the tank was developed in two versions - a DG-1000 diesel engine with a capacity of 950 liters. With. at 2500 rpm or 2DG-8M with a capacity of 1000 liters. With. at 2400 rpm. Both engines are 4-stroke, 16-cylinder, H-shaped with a horizontal arrangement of cylinders (to reduce the height of the case). The transmission of the tank was also distinguished by its unusual and innovative approach - a hydromechanical and planetary 3-speed gearbox, and switching between the two highest gears was automated.

But the most conspicuous detail of the tank is certainly its undercarriage, whose feature was the use of four caterpillar propellers!

The undercarriage was mounted on two longitudinal hollow beams, which served as fuel tanks. The design of the caterpillar mover provided high cross-country ability in deep snow and wetlands. It excluded the landing of the tank on the bottom when overcoming vertical obstacles (hollows, stumps, hedgehogs). The average pressure on the ground was only 0.6 kgf / cm², that is, it approached the same parameter for a light tank. It was a unique example of a heavy cross-country tank.

For one propulsion unit, the undercarriage consisted of six road wheels, three support rollers, a sloth and a drive sprocket. The suspension is individual, hydropneumatic, adjustable. Thus, the concept of clearance became only a formality, and the tank could overcome vertical obstacles without the threat of landing on them.

The specific pressure was also very low - only 0.6 kg / m 2, which made it possible to overcome deep snow and marshy areas. The disadvantages of the selected undercarriage were poor maneuverability and increased resistance to movement, especially on heavy soils. Maintainability left much to be desired, due to the high complexity of the design and the inaccessibility of the inner pair of tracks.

A prototype tank was built in 1959 and began to be tested, but it immediately became clear that such an expensive vehicle had no chance of mass production. The successor to the T-10 was supposed to be one of the two tanks "seven hundred and seventy" or "two hundred and seventy seven", but none of the contestants was put into service.

The crew of the tank consisted of four people, three of whom - the commander, gunner and loader - were located in the tower. The driver's seat was in the front of the hull in the center, there was also a hatch for getting into the car.

Of all the tanks developed simultaneously with it, object 279 was distinguished by the smallest booked volume - 11.47 m3, while having a very complex armored hull. The design of the undercarriage made it impossible to land on the bottom of the car, provided high cross-country ability in deep snow and wetlands. At the same time, the undercarriage was very complex in design and operation, and did not make it possible to reduce the height of the tank.

At the end of 1959, a prototype was built, the assembly of two more tanks was not completed.

Object 279 is located in the Museum armored weapons and technology price Kubinka |