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MUNITIONS FROM HOMELAND ARSENALS
Red Star. July 18, 2006. By Anatoly Dokuchaev
Volume 12 of the unique Encyclopedia "Russia's Arms and Technologies. The XXI
Century Encyclopedia", called "Ordnance and Munitions", has been published.
The project is being implemented by extremely competent experts of the Russian
defense industry and military institutions, scientists, historians, and a group
of journalist of the Publishing House "Arms and Technologies". The Encyclopedia
is published under general supervision of Defense Minister and Deputy Prime
Minister Sergei Ivanov.
Such a full and systematic publication, like this one, should be made at least because Russia is one of few states in the world which are able to provide their armed forces with a complete set of all munitions required, as well as with important components of numerous kinds of weapons including non-nuclear missile warheads, explosive devices, homing heads, onboard instruments and equipment for their testing. Note, that all defense products are manufactured on the basis of native components and chemicals.
At the present time, Russia produces all basic components for energetic condensed systems including explosives (trotyl, hexogen, octogen, etc.), components of missile solid propellants, gunpowders, and others. Technological processes for manufacturing explosives and warheads, gunpowders and propellants, pyrotechnical materials and initiators, detonators and their parts, interrupters, control and guidance systems, packages and cartridges, and other components have been developed, and facilities are provided with all required equipment.
A short excursion into the historical domain would be appropriate here. The adequate supply with required amount of high-efficiency munitions plays a key role in gaining the victory. While protection facilities become more developed, the munitions consumption during combat operations grows beyond measure. Thus, the Russian artillery consumed 1200 shells taking Berlin in 1760, and the Soviet artillery consumed 7225 wagons with cannon and mortar projectiles storming Berlin in 1945. At the present time, combat tasks must be attained at minimal resource consumption. This requires high-efficiency munitions such as clusters with fragmentation submunitions, or high-precision guided munitions able to detect infrared emission of armored targets autonomously, without human control.
"The volume "Ordnance and Munitions" differs from other publications, which appear on the book market, in the sense that it is an encyclopedia", - says Nikolai Spassky, General Director and Editor in Chief of the Publishing House "Arms and Technologies". - "This book covers main models of munitions for Army, Air Force and Navy, as well as special munitions, gunpowders, explosives and solid propellants. Separate sections cover development, tests, storage, utilization, and disposition of munitions and explosives, including chemical weapons, as well as demilitarization of land-based mines. Moreover, information presented here is exhaustive because it was obtained from the best specialists in the Russian defense industry and Defense Ministry.
Now let us look through the book that, by the way, is the most voluminous in the Encyclopedia "Russia's Arms and Technologies. The XXI Century Encyclopedia", - it contains 848 pages of A4 format with text and illustrations.
The book begins with a review of munitions for Army armament. We have a possibility to learn in detail, using schemes, tables and drawings, about the design and development of missiles for semistrategic and tactical missile systems. All missiles for Russian tactical missile systems are covered, as well as high-precision system "Iskander-E", semistrategic missile systems "Oka" and "Temp-S".
The subsection "Surface-to-air missiles and their development" could be useful for specialists. It is appropriate to say here that publishers give zest to every volume. The zest of this book is that we get knowledge about "behavior of tomorrow munitions".
The guided antitank missile systems "Metis", "Fagot", "Malyutka", "Falanga", "Konkurs", "Kornet", "Shturm", "Hermes", and "Shmel" are described in detail. The excursus into guided missiles for tanks, infantry combat vehicles, and airborne assault vehicles would be interesting as well, especially because Russia holds the leading position in the world in this sphere during last thirty years. Up to now, there are no munitions similar to the 125-mm round 3UBK20 with the guided missile 9M119M and a propellant charge, which is included into an ammunition system for tanks T-72S, T-80U, and T-90S. It destroys armored targets within the range from 100 to 5000 meters with the hitting probability as high as 0.8. Moreover, not only the round is described here, but also the guided weapon systems "Reflex" and "Svir" are covered in detail.
It is difficult to talk in these notes about various models of munitions for the ground artillery because this "sphere" takes more than 80 pages of the volume. There are covered missiles for many launch rocket systems, munitions for guided artillery systems and antitank guns, rounds for artillery systems. The authors and publishers give us one more surprise. Apart from modern munitions, they tell us about rounds for those cannons and mortars, which were famous during the Second World War, for example 120-mm mortar M-120 (models of 1938 and 1943).
This subsection also contains information about munitions for small caliber artillery systems used in the Army, grenade launcher systems, antipersonnel grenade launchers, and small arms. Articles about munitions for active protection systems "Arena-E" and "Drozd", land-based mines, pyrotechnical devices, fuses, flamethrowers, and chemical munitions are included as well. It is published a voluminous story about technologies for modeling and testing the munitions.
The existing air-delivered ordnance is analyzed at the same level of detail as others. The volume covers all modern air-launched missiles (air-to-air and air-to-surface classes), antitank missile systems, helicopter-launched anti-aircraft missile systems, guided bombs, as well as a wide range of unguided air-delivered ordnance, rounds for automatic small-caliber aircraft guns. As we can see, the systematic and encyclopedic approach is present here too.
It is the first time when ordnance and munitions for the Navy have been disclosed so completely. There are covered all fleet missile systems, rounds for naval guns, jammers to be used against guided weapons, munitions for anti-saboteur grenade launchers. Again, it is a surprise here. We have a chance to learn about the multi-barrel rocket grenade launcher MRG-1 to be used against underwater divers in the close-in zone of a ship, submarine or hydrotechnical construction. There is a story about the portable rocket grenade launcher DP-61. It is aimed to protect ships, surface objects, harbors, and beach installations against frogmen, as well as mark the frogman position. The portable anti-saboteur grenade launcher DP-64 and the small-size remotely controlled grenade launcher DP-65 are present in this line as well.
The volume contains information about main enterprises, organizations and research centers of the defense industry those design and manufacture munitions, propellants and explosives. There are about 60 such companies. There is a section covering energetic condensed systems and special chemistry products. You can learn about explosives for hollow charges. The book tells about munitions storage and utilization, and about dual-purpose technologies used during ordnance production.
The volume contains interesting scientific and information materials prepared by specialists of the defense industry and corresponding directorates of the Defense Ministry. The book contains articles "Ordnance and munitions" (by Colonel-General Nikolai Svertilov, Chief of the Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Defense Ministry of the Russian Federation), "Munitions industry crucial for Russia's defense capability" (by Yuri Mikhailov, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Chief of the Munitions Industry and Special Chemistry Directorate of the Federal Agency on Industry), "Modern munitions" (by Major-General Vladislav Baydak, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Director of the 3-rd Central Scientific-Research Institute of the Defense Ministry), "Surface-to-air missiles and their development" (by Vladimir Svetlov, Doctor of Technical Sciences, General Director and Chief Designer of the "Fakel" Machine-Building Design Bureau named after Academician P. D. Grushin), and others.
The publishers of the Encyclopedia "Russia's Arms and Technologies. The XXI Century Encyclopedia" have achieved a great information breakthrough in the sphere of design and application of ordnance and munitions.
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