home Health technologies Nuclear mines - Atomic ram of the 20th century. Infernal machines of the nuclear era of the USSR "SP": - Why was this necessary?

Nuclear mines - Atomic ram of the 20th century. Infernal machines of the nuclear era of the USSR "SP": - Why was this necessary?

Nuclear mines

The first nuclear mine (land mine) with a nuclear charge was adopted by the United States in 1954. Nuclear land mines were intended to create continuous strips of nuclear mine barriers and destroy large bridges, dams, waterworks, and railway junctions.

According to the American classification, the following categories of nuclear landmines are distinguished:
● ADM (Atomic Demolition Munition) – atomic land mine
● TADM (Tactical Atomic Demolition Munition) – tactical atomic land mine
● MADM (Medium Atomic Demolition Munition) – nuclear landmine of medium power class
● SADM (Special Atomic Demolition Munition) – special atomic land mine

The first nuclear landmine in the United States, ADM-B, with a W7 nuclear charge with a power of 90 tons, was put into service in 1954. In 1957, the ADM T-4 nuclear landmine was adopted, the nuclear charge of which was developed on the basis of the W9 charge with a reduced power . In 1960, the ADM with a W31 nuclear charge with a power of 1 kt was adopted.

In 1961, the TADM XM-113 with a W30 nuclear charge with a power of 300 and 500 tons entered service; in 1964, the MADM with a nuclear charge providing an explosion power of 0.5 kt, 1 and 8 kt.

In 1960 at Los Alamos national laboratory The United States designed a miniature implosion-type plutonium nuclear charge W54; its power, depending on its combat purpose, could vary from 0.01 to 1 kt of TNT equivalent. The weight of the charge was about 27 kg. The charge was used in several types of nuclear weapons, united by the common name “special (portable) atomic destruction munition” - SADM. Initially, the W54 nuclear charge was used in artillery nuclear ammunition of 120 and 155 mm caliber, and since 1964 it began to be used to create special nuclear mines M-129 and M-159 (in a “backpack design”).

The M-159 nuclear mine was produced in two modifications, differing only in the minimum power.
The dimensions of the M-129 and M-159 mines were the same: length - 70 cm, diameter - 31 cm. The mines together with necessary equipment(code locking device, radio receiving device, etc.) were placed in a container measuring 87x65x67 cm. The total weight of the container with the mine was 68 kg; it could be carried by one person in a special backpack.
The explosion of nuclear mines could be carried out either by a timer or remotely by transmitting a special radio signal.
Total for 1964 - 1983 About 600 of these mines were manufactured in the USA. In 1983, their production was discontinued.

In the early 1990s, the SADM, as well as the ADM and TADM nuclear bombs removed from service between 1963 and 1967, and the MADM, removed from service in 1984, were disposed of in accordance with unilateral initiatives that were announced in the USA in September 1991

This operation of the GRU special forces of the USSR General Staff still remains a deep secret. We will talk about it only in the most general outline, so as not to harm those who participated in this raid. More recently, it could have been put in the “Cold War Archive” folder, but after September 11, this topic acquired a second wind. Nuclear sabotage is today's horrible dream USA…

OUR RESPONSE TO REAGAN

When in the spring of 1986, US carrier-based aircraft struck our ally Libya, Gorbachev and his chief diplomat Shevardnadze decided to carry out the riskiest operation in the history of special forces on the entire planet. They tried to find a very impressive response to the furious onslaught of American President Ronald Reagan, who in 1981 vowed to send Soviet Union to the dustbin of history. By that time and economic situation our country has deteriorated: America's skillful diplomacy has led to Saudi Arabia sharply increased oil production, collapsing world prices and thereby sharply reducing Moscow's foreign exchange earnings.

And this is what the Soviet leadership had in mind: to install small nuclear landmines near the silos of American ballistic missiles. So that at the moment of the start of the war against the USSR, the taking off Minuteman-2 and Minuteman-3 would be overturned to the ground by a shock wave from nearby nuclear explosions low power. Both missiles are launched using the “mortar launch” method, using an expelling charge. They fly out of the mines like a cork from a champagne bottle, hanging in the air for some time at a moment when the first stage engines have not yet turned on. At this moment, ballistic missiles are especially vulnerable. An excess pressure of a shock wave of 0.3 atmospheres is enough for square meter, to tip the Minuteman on its side, after which it simply crashes into the ground.

Experts have calculated that to do this, it is enough to install a portable nuclear charge, a backpack one, about ten kilometers from the positions of American missiles, which was in service with special forces units of the Main Intelligence Directorate. Each of these charges was equipped with seismic sensors that responded to ground shaking at the moment when special charges were thrown American missiles from underground. The entire sabotage device with all sensors fit in three tourist backpacks - 25 kilos each. The power of the charge ranged from five to twenty kilotons. That is, from one-fourth to full Hiroshima. Or, to put everything more clearly, three duffel bags seemed to hold from five to twenty thousand tons of TNT train.

And the task was this: Russian sabotage groups, having landed in the United States, had to reach their destination, collect the devices, bury them securely and turn on the radio command line. And then - leave secretly. At any moment, based on a signal from a satellite, these landmines were put on alert and could explode at the moment the American missiles took off. intercontinental missiles. The task was made easier by the fact that US ground-based launch complexes are mainly located in the north of the country, in the Rocky Mountains, in the states of Montana and North Dakota, where they are deployed in regiments of ten missiles each.

This plan was adventurous and doomed to failure from the very beginning. The destruction of even all US ground-based nuclear missiles did not solve anything, because in this case the Americans still had warheads on strategic bombers carrying cruise missiles and on submarines. And it is simply impossible to mine absolutely all launch silos in the United States. Therefore, the USSR military tried to protest - but the political leadership demanded that the order be carried out.

UNDER THE VIEW OF TOURISTS

The operation began in January 1987. To begin with, three trial groups were sent to the United States, which were made consolidated, recruiting people from different special forces units.

They arrived at the naval base in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, where they boarded conventional diesel-electric submarines. Let us especially note: it is diesel-electric ones, and not nuclear ones with their special noiselessness. That is, the Russians in this case followed the same path as the Germans in World War II, who threw people into America with submarines. Only Doenitz’s submariners crossed the Atlantic, and ours in 1987 walked through the northern part of the Pacific Ocean.

The transition revealed the almost complete vulnerability of the United States against the penetration of saboteurs into its territory from this direction. The US Coast Guard is simply physically unable to cover the entire coastline of the country. Not far from the shore, boats surfaced, sending Soviet special forces to the shore in inflatable boats, almost invisible to radar.

One of the groups landed in the vicinity of Seattle, Washington. Having rounded Vancouver Island from the south, the boat entered the Gulf of Juan da Fuca, which cuts quite deeply into the territory of the United States in the very north of this country.

There were nine of them with one nuclear bomb. All are specialists in sabotage in the deep rear of NATO countries. And not all of them looked like Schwarzeneggers. Possessing perfectly crafted American-style documents, they worked according to the legend of emigrants from Eastern European countries. This is what eliminated questions about in English with an accent from some of the team members. Without any problems, the group rented a minibus and headed to their destination, posing as kayaking tourists in Alaskan jackets, American baseball caps and plaid flannel shirts. Our saboteurs traveled part of the way by car, and then moved on foot. In some places we went kayaking: fortunately, this region of the United States abounds in rivers.

They went to the laying site, laid a landmine without interference and then calmly went south, where they crossed the US-Mexico border, arrived on the Yucatan Peninsula, and from there they moved to friendly Cuba on a hired boat. Fortunately, among us there were enough experts in maritime affairs: several people in that detachment were trained as underwater saboteurs, studying in the famous training center in Fürstenberg, East Germany.

In total, three nuclear mines were installed in the United States in 1987. The most interesting thing is that the Americans were told about this operation only in 1993, on the wave of democracy and friendship. As part of, so to speak, the fight against the totalitarian past. Of course, without public disclosure, naming the exact locations of the “surprises”. But when the Yankees rushed to seize the land mines, it turned out that one was missing. However, they did not make a fuss about it: by that time, the four-year shelf life of the charge had already expired. The “filling” of the GRU backpack bomb is too unstable, which is why they need to be reloaded every few years. Therefore, the missing landmine will never explode again.

A participant in that operation, telling us this story, believes that on Moscow’s part it was an extremely adventuristic and completely senseless step from a military point of view. According to the most conservative estimates, to neutralize ground-based missiles, the United States at that time would have to send about a thousand groups of miners to America. It is clear that some of them would inevitably have been caught, and this could have caused a crisis worse than the Caribbean.

BIN LADEN HAS NO SUBMARINES

Yes, then it was pointless. But times have changed. Now the reckless adversaries of the United States do not need to destroy the American nuclear missile potential at all. Is Al Qaeda, a network structure scattered across dozens of countries, afraid of retaliatory nuclear strikes USA? Of course not. They are even beneficial to her, because they will attract new legions of Muslim avengers to her side. But it is very convenient to carry out precisely such sabotage attacks on America, fraught with the worst thing for this country - huge human casualties, environmental disasters and the mental breakdown of society.

Probably, the only thing that saves the United States today is that bin Laden does not have submarines capable of crossing the ocean and landing saboteurs on the American coast. The United States accuses Iraq of secretly possessing nuclear weapons, but even that country does not have a submarine fleet as such, much less ocean-going boats. However, there is still a route through Mexico, and it can indeed be used. Therefore, the United States can only pray to heaven that Arab world could not make compact charges that can be carried in backpacks.

But this same episode also shows a new chance for our people in the fight against possible aggression from the West. Today, dear reader, the Russians do not have the task of completely mining the entire fleet of US intercontinental missiles. In the event of an attack by NATO, the main task becomes completely different: defeating the consciousness and critical infrastructure nodes of the most important of our potential adversaries.

The experience of the 1987 operation suggests that if new Russia will be able to restore special forces units (already within the framework of the Special Operations Forces of the new empire), if at the very least he can supply the Navy with new silent boats, then another way will open up to fight the aggressor. Diversionary. Already directly in the deep enemy territory.

POSTSCRIPTUM: RUSSIA'S VULNERABLE NUCLEAR SHIELD

But another question arises by itself: could the enemy do something similar in order to leave our Russia without nuclear weapons?

Alas, the times of another Russian turmoil are very conducive to the success of such an operation. Our borders are like a sieve, the people are poor and lethargic. If a group of Barayev’s terrorists walked around Moscow for two months, under the noses of all the special services and the Kremlin itself, preparing to seize the theater, then what can we say about those remote places in which our divisions are deployed? Missile Forces strategic purpose? Let’s imagine groups of foreign saboteurs who calmly roam the expanses of Russia in minibuses and vans, bribing the police, arranging caches of weapons where necessary. The receivers of the American GPS satellite system will not let them get lost.

Where could there be enemies who would launch a surprise attack on our nuclear potential? Firstly, saboteurs from among our own, Caucasian ones. In September 2001, at a meeting on nuclear energy and nuclear safety in Kursk, which was held under the auspices of the leadership of the Central Federal District, representatives of the Prosecutor General's Office casually noted that almost three thousand immigrants somehow very suspiciously settled in the maneuvering areas of mobile Topol-type missiles from Chechnya. But the peculiarity of the ground “slider”, the Topol complex, is such that it can be disabled by shots from a large-caliber sniper rifle from a distance of one and a half kilometers.

Or there may be enemies of another kind - from the NATO bloc. The flagship of the North Atlantic Alliance, America, has both portable nuclear mines and aerospace forces with precision weapons capable of launching “June 22”: air strikes against the bases of divisions and regiments of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces. And NATO also has hard currency, which can be used to hire saboteurs from local personnel who have no love for a united Russia. Fortunately, the Yankees have experience of such interaction - in Kosovo in 1999, when the Islamic militants there became best friends USA and excellent gunners for their air force.

For now, of course, this danger is purely hypothetical, while it is believed that the alliance between Washington and Moscow against the global hydra of terrorism is eternal and indestructible. But they said exactly the same thing in 1941-1945, when we were allies in the anti-Hitler coalition. And who knows how long the current idyll will last?

Therefore, we can look at how our Strategic Missile Forces are protected today from a sudden non-nuclear strike by both saboteurs and modern air forces.

Here are the positions strategic missiles cover Krasnoyarsk with a large horseshoe from the north. In Solnechny (or Uzhur-4) there are complexes of heavy multi-charge missiles of the 62nd Missile Division, located in silos. In Kansk there is a base of mobile “poplars” of the 23rd Guards Division of the Strategic Missile Forces. Finally, the division in Gladkoye is “nuclear trains”. Today they are almost completely defenseless against attacks by promising US aerospace expeditionary forces! However, in the face of Chinese bomber raids too. There are no anti-aircraft missile units or fighter aircraft here.

And the wilderness of this region is simply a paradise for groups of enemy special forces. Set yourself nuclear mines with seismic sensors - and wait for the decisive moment.

Here is the 59th division of strategic missile forces in the vicinity of the city of Kartaly in the Chelyabinsk region and the 13th division of the Strategic Missile Forces in Yasny (in Orenburg region). In fact, this is one group of heavy silo missiles with ten heads. For example, the 59th division consists of forty launch complexes in the steppe, to which it takes about an hour to fly by helicopter from Magnitogorsk. Today the division is not covered by anything from the air, as is the entire Chelyabinsk region. The situation with the 13th division is no better - the closest Donguz anti-aircraft missile brigade with S-300B systems is pressing towards Orenburg. If the Americans attack the positions of our heavy missiles from the south, from their bases in Central Asia and in the Middle East, then nothing will stop them.

Let's take the 27th Missile Army with its headquarters in Vladimir. The nearest division of mobile complexes is the 54th, in Teykovo. Who is protecting them from the first air strike? Central officer courses of anti-aircraft missile forces in Kosterevo-1. Of course, there are S-300P systems there, but there are too few of them. “Wave” attacks by cruise missiles, familiar to us from Yugoslavia, will quickly exhaust them. The closest air cover is the 54th MiG-31 regiment in the neighboring Nizhny Novgorod region - in Savasleika. Damn, they'll crush you in no time!

Here is the 7th missile division in Vypolzovo, Tver region, equipped with Topol mobile systems. As we have already mentioned, it is vulnerable to the actions of mobile sabotage groups that can hit tractors with missiles and from sniper rifles, and with the help of light anti-tank guided missiles such as “Malyutka”, “Fagot” or “Kornet”. The latter, by the way, are being used with might and main by separatists in Chechnya. At the same time, saboteurs are capable of directing air strikes via satellite communications.

In the Kostroma region, at the Vasilek station, there is a division of strategic missiles on trains. It is not covered by anti-aircraft missile units or fighter regiments.

Let's take the 14th and 8th divisions of the Strategic Missile Forces, which are deployed in Bashkiria and the Kirov region. There is no cover from air attacks again! Only much further east, in the Perm land, nests a lonely MiG-31 regiment - the 764th regiment in Sokol.

And the state of domestic air defense today is such that vast areas inside Russia are not visible by radar. That is, saboteurs can land for “anti-missile war” from airplanes.

In a word, today there is something to think about not only for Americans, but for us too.

At one time, the foreign press repeatedly reported that the USSR Armed Forces were ready to use nuclear mines to cover the border with China. We are, however, talking about a long period of very unfriendly relations between Moscow and Beijing.

And this is how things stood then. In the event of a war between the PRC and its northern neighbor, real hordes would pour into its territory, consisting of formations of the People's Liberation Army of China and the militia - minbin. Only the latter, we note, significantly outnumbered all fully mobilized Soviet divisions. That is why, on the borders separating the USSR from the Middle Kingdom, in addition to the many tanks dug into the ground, it was allegedly planned to resort to the installation of nuclear mines. Each of them was capable, according to an American journalist and former Soviet officer Mark Steinberg, turn a 10-kilometer section of the border zone into a radioactive barrier.

Surprise in the well

It is known that sappers are engaged in mining and demining, dealing with anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, unexploded bombs, shells and other extremely dangerous things. But few people have heard that in the Soviet army there were secret special-purpose sapper units created to eliminate nuclear landmines.

The presence of such units was explained by the fact that during the Cold War, American troops in Europe placed nuclear explosive devices in special wells. They should have worked after the outbreak of hostilities between NATO and the Warsaw Pact on the path of the Soviet tank armies breaking through to the English Channel (the Pentagon’s worst dream at that time!). The approaches to nuclear landmines could be covered with conventional minefields.

Meanwhile, civilians in West Germany, for example, lived and did not know that there was a well with American atomic weapons nearby. Similar concrete shafts up to 6 meters deep could be found under bridges, at road intersections, right on highways and at other strategically important points. They usually took place in groups. Moreover, the banal-looking metal covers made nuclear wells practically indistinguishable from ordinary sewer manholes.

However, there is also an opinion that in reality no land mines were installed in these structures, they were empty and atomic ammunition should have been launched there only in the event of a real threat of military conflict between the West and the East - in a “special period in an administrative manner” according to the terminology adopted in the Soviet Union. army.

Atomic chicken coop

Platoons for reconnaissance and destruction of enemy nuclear land mines appeared on the staff of engineer battalions of Soviet tank divisions stationed on the territory of the Warsaw Pact countries in 1972. The personnel of these units knew the structure of atomic “infernal machines” and had the necessary equipment to search for and neutralize them. The sappers, who, as we know, make only one mistake, could not make a mistake here at all.

These American land mines included M31, M59, T-4, XM113, M167, M172 and M175 with a TNT equivalent of 0.5 to 70 kilotons, united under the common abbreviation ADM - Atomic Demolition Munition ("atomic demolition munition"). They were quite heavy devices weighing from 159 to 770 kilograms. The first and heaviest of the landmines, the M59, was adopted by the US Army back in 1953. To install nuclear landmines, the United States troops in Europe had special sapper units, such as the 567th Engineer Company, whose veterans even acquired a completely nostalgic website on the Internet.

The military of the United Kingdom also tried to keep up with its overseas allies, and there was a certain curiosity associated with chickens (such a pun). The nuclear bomb, called Blue Peacock, looked like a hefty steel cylinder containing a 10-kiloton plutonium charge and conventional explosives. The Peacock was created in the late 50s based on the first British nuclear bomb, Blue Danube. The landmine weighed more than seven tons, and the generals from Foggy Albion intended to bury a dozen of these “birds” near important objects in Germany and for the same purpose - to blow them up in the event of a Soviet offensive.

The curious thing was that in order to provide the necessary technical microclimate inside the Blue Peacocks in winter, the British were going to introduce chickens with a supply of food and water. The Blue Peacock developers believed that hens and cockerels, with their biological heat, would effectively warm the cold-sensitive electronic brains of the nuclear monster. The detonation of such a device could be carried out via five-kilometer wires or using a timer with an urgency of up to eight days - approximately the amount of chicken provisions, as well as the composition, was calculated for air environment, so that the birds do not suffocate in their own amber.

However, the deployment of underground nuclear chicken coops never happened. In 1958, the British Secretary of Defense canceled the Blue Peacock program, considering that the safety of such a landmine was insufficient and threatened serious political complications in the event of radiation incidents on the territory of a NATO ally. And in the 80s, much more advanced American nuclear land mines were withdrawn from service and taken out of Europe.

Satchel with thorium and californium

The potential adversary also had other exotic nuclear weapons in his arsenal. "Green Berets" - special forces, Rangers - military personnel of deep military reconnaissance units, "Navy Seals" - saboteurs of the US naval special intelligence service were trained to lay special small-sized nuclear mines, but on enemy soil, that is, in the USSR and other Warsaw Pact states. It is known that such mines included M129 and M159. For example, the M159 nuclear mine had a mass of 68 kilograms and a power of 0.01 and 0.25 kilotons, depending on the modification. These mines were produced in 1964-1983.

At one time there were rumors in the West that the American human intelligence tried to implement a program for installing portable radio-controlled nuclear landmines in the Soviet Union (in particular in large cities, areas where hydraulic structures are located, etc.). In any case, units of American nuclear saboteurs, nicknamed Green Light, conducted training during which they learned to plant nuclear “infernal machines” in hydroelectric dams, tunnels and other objects that are relatively resistant to “conventional” nuclear bombardment.

What about the Soviet Union? Of course, he also had similar means - this is no longer a secret. The special purpose units of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff were armed with special nuclear mines RA41, RA47, RA97 and RA115, the production of which was carried out in 1967-1993.

The above-mentioned Mark Steinberg once reported on the presence in the Soviet army of portable explosive devices of the RYA-6 backpack type (RYA - nuclear backpack). In one of his publications, an ex-USSR citizen writes: “The weight of RYa-6 is about 25 kilograms. It has a thermonuclear charge, which uses thorium and californium. The charge power varies from 0.2 to 1 kiloton in TNT equivalent: The nuclear landmine is activated either "delayed action fuse, or remote control equipment at a range of up to 40 kilometers. It is equipped with several non-neutralization systems: vibration, optical, acoustic and electromagnetic, so it is almost impossible to remove it from its installation site or neutralize it."

So, our special sappers learned to neutralize the American atomic “hellish machines”. Well, all that remains is to take off our hats to the domestic scientists and engineers who created this. It is also worth mentioning vague information about the allegedly (key word in this article) plans considered by the Soviet leadership to lay sabotage nuclear mines in mining areas launchers American ICBMs - they were supposed to fire immediately after the missile launched, destroying it with a shock wave. Although this, of course, is more like the action films about James Bond. For such “counterforce plantings” would have required about a thousand, which a priori made these intentions practically unrealizable.

At the initiative of the leadership of the United States and Russia, sabotage nuclear mines of both countries have already been disposed of. In total, the United States and the USSR (Russia) produced, respectively, more than 600 and about 250 small-sized backpack-type nuclear weapons for special forces. The last of them, the Russian RA115, were disarmed in 1998. It is unknown whether other countries have similar “infernal machines”. Venerable experts agree that most likely not. But there is little doubt that China, for example, has the capabilities to create and deploy them - the scientific, technical and production potential of the Celestial Empire is quite sufficient for this.

And some other experts suspect that North Korea may have its own nuclear land mines, planted in tunnels dug in advance. Despite the fact that adherents of the Juche idea are skilled masters of underground warfare.

35 years ago, on August 6, 1976, an unprecedented explosion occurred in the Kazakh part of the Tien Shan. He lifted two mountain peaks and brought them down into a deep gorge. Multi-ton rocks flew up. An ominous mushroom rose above the mountain range.

The chief of the engineering troops of the Soviet Armed Forces observed what was happening from a special shelter. Colonel General Sergei Aganov, commanders of military districts, border armies of the Far Eastern, Transbaikal and Siberian regions.

Information about this explosion was closed to the press for a long time. The "SP" correspondent talked with a participant in those events, the former head of the department of the defense research institute involved in the development of nuclear mines, retired captain of the first rank Viktor Meshcheryakov.

“SP”: — Was the USSR Ministry of Defense really able to hide the fact of testing a nuclear mine?

“The fact is that this was not a test, but a demonstrative detonation of a nuclear landmine simulator. For several weeks, dozens of cars were driven to the foot of two mountains located in a deserted place, explosives, fuel oil, all kinds of smoke bombs. Our military scientists have calculated how much of all this is needed so that the explosion, in terms of external parameters, corresponds to the detonation of a real atomic mine. This is an almost real effect.

“SP”: — Why was this necessary?

— At that time, nuclear landmines began to be put into service in the border armies of the Far Eastern, Transbaikal and Siberian districts. District and army commanders needed to be shown how this new weapon worked. Since real explosions of nuclear weapons were prohibited, we limited ourselves to a simulated display.

“SP”: — Who was it planned to use such mines against?

— After the Chinese tried to break through our border in the area of Damansky Island in March 1969, the command of the USSR Armed Forces took a number of measures to strengthen the eastern borders. Military scientists were tasked with finding a way to counter an attack by significantly superior enemy forces. One of these decisions was the creation of a high-explosive nuclear belt along the border. Or rather, parallel to the border several tens of kilometers from it. At the same time, factors such as the desolation of the area where mines were installed, the preferential directions of winds towards China, etc. were taken into account. If we minimize radiation contamination of our own territory, then we can talk about the very high effectiveness of such weapons against large masses of invaders.

“SP”: — How did it happen that you, a naval sailor, found yourself in the center of work to strengthen the country’s eastern border?

— When the events at Damansky occurred, I served in the mine-torpedo combat unit of a nuclear submarine. At the Farrero-Icelandic border we had a reactor accident. I had to return to the base at one reactor and undergo repairs. The crew was temporarily out of work. And then I fell into the hands of the higher command. An order came from the Ministry of Defense to send a naval miner with good knowledge of nuclear processes to the special group for the development of an atomic mine. I was sent to the Military Engineering Academy, where the special group was undergoing retraining. At first it was assumed that we would develop atomic mines for the Navy. But the naval command subsequently refused, citing the fact that nuclear torpedoes, which were already being supplied to ships at that time, were more effective at sea. Nevertheless, I was not released from the group. And then a corresponding research institute was created. So I remained assigned to the engineering troops, although military ranks received in the navy. So it turned out that as a naval officer, he spent his entire life developing nuclear mines for land border armies.

"SP": - Are your products still in service?

- No, all sorts of perestroikas and reforms swept it out of military units.

“SP”: - Where did it go, was it really destroyed?

- I hope no. It's lying somewhere in a warehouse, waiting in the wings.

“SP”: - Could you tell me what a nuclear mine is?

— For obvious reasons, I won’t talk about ours. I will refer to the Western model.

“SP”: — Were nuclear land mines also developed there?

Still would! The NATO command proposed creating a nuclear mine belt along the borders of Germany and on its territory itself. The charges were to be installed at strategically important points for the advance of the advancing troops - on large highways, under bridges (in special concrete wells), etc. It was assumed that if all the charges were detonated, a zone of radioactive contamination would be created, which would delay the advance Soviet troops for two or three days. In particular, Britain planned to install 10 huge nuclear mines in the zone of its occupation forces in Germany, hidden from its population. They had to cause significant destruction and lead to radioactive contamination of a large area in order to prevent Soviet occupation. It was assumed that the force of the explosion of each mine would reach 10 kilotons, which is approximately twice as weak as the explosion of the atomic bomb dropped by the Americans on Nagasaki in 1945.

The British nuclear mine weighed about 7 tons. It was a gigantic cylinder, inside of which there was a plutonium core, surrounded by detonating chemical explosives, as well as electronic filling, which was quite complex for those times. The mines were supposed to explode eight days after the built-in timer was turned on. Or instantly - on a signal from a distance of up to five kilometers. The mines were equipped with anti-mine devices. Any attempt to open or move an activated land mine led to an immediate explosion. Soviet intelligence revealed the intentions of the British. A scandal broke out. The Germans did not want to burn in a nuclear cauldron. And this plan was thwarted.

The plan to nuclear mine Europe was recently revealed by historian David Hawkins after his retirement from the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE). His work, based on government documents, was published in last issue Discovery is AWE's science and technology magazine.

Mine development project code name Blue Pheasant was started in Kent in 1954. As part of a secret program to create “atomic munitions,” the weapon was designed, its components were tested, and two prototypes were created.

The Blue Pheasant was to consist of a plutonium rod surrounded by explosives and placed in a steel sphere. The design was based on the Blue Danube atomic bomb, which weighed several tons and was already in service with the British Air Force. But the Blue Pheasant, weighing 7 tons, was much more cumbersome.

The steel case was so large that it had to be tested outdoors. In order to avoid unnecessary questions, the military, according to Hawkins, had a legend ready that this was a “container for a nuclear power unit.” In July 1957, the military leadership decided to order 10 mines and install them in Germany.

Hawkins calls plans to deploy weapons in the event of a threatened Soviet invasion "somewhat theatrical." One problem was that the mines might not work in the winter due to extreme cold, so the military was encouraged to wrap them in fiberglass blankets.

In the end, the risk of radioactive contamination was considered “unacceptable,” Hawkins writes, and the installation of nuclear weapons in an allied country was “politically incorrect.” Therefore, the Ministry of Defense stopped work on the project.

According to Damn Interesting

It seems to me that those mine chambers in bridges and tunnels that are described in the text are far from being used for nuclear ammunition and they were made long before the advent of nuclear weapons. It’s generally strange about chickens. As you know, early nuclear weapons, on the contrary, needed cooling.

Original taken from masterok in Nuclear mines with chickens

Blue Peacock is the name of a top-secret project that the British military developed in the 1950s. As part of the project, underground nuclear mines were to be installed in Germany. If the USSR began to attack Europe, the mines would be activated (remotely or using an 8-day timer).

It was assumed that the explosion of nuclear mines “would not only destroy buildings and structures over a large area, but also prevent its occupation due to radioactive contamination of the area.” The British atomic bombs Blue Danube (Blue Danube) were used as the nuclear filling of such mines. Each of the mines was enormous in size and weighed more than 7 tons. The mines were supposed to lie unguarded on German soil, so their casing was made practically unbreakable. Once activated, each mine would explode 10 seconds after someone moves it or changes in internal pressure and humidity.

Let's find out more about this...

On April 1, 2004, the National Archives of Great Britain released information: during the Cold War, the British were going to use the Blue Peacock nuclear bomb filled with live chickens against Soviet troops. Naturally, everyone thought it was a joke. It turned out to be true.

"This true story“said Robert Smith, head of the press service of the British National Archives, who opened the exhibition The Secret State, dedicated to the state secrets and military secrets of the British in the 1950s.

“Public service is no joke,” echoes his colleague Tom O’Leary.

So the New Scientist magazine confirms some facts: it published a serious report on the English nuclear warhead on July 3, 2003.

Immediately after the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan, then British Prime Minister Clement Attlee sent a top-secret memo to the Atomic Energy Committee. Attlee wrote that if Britain wanted to remain a great power, it needed powerful weapon deterrence capable of razing large enemy cities to the ground. British nuclear weapons were developed in such secrecy that Winston Churchill, returning home in 1951, was amazed at how Attlee was able to hide the cost of the bomb from Parliament and ordinary citizens.

In the early fifties, when the post-war picture of the world had already largely arrived at a bipolar scheme of confrontation between the communist east and the capitalist west, a threat loomed over Europe new war. The Western powers were aware that the USSR significantly outnumbered them in terms of the number of conventional weapons, so the main deterrent that could stop the proposed invasion was supposed to be nuclear weapons - the West had more of them. In preparation for the next war, the British secret enterprise RARDE developed a special type of mines that were supposed to be left behind by troops in case they had to retreat from Europe under the onslaught of communist hordes. The mines of this project, called "Blue Peacock", were, in fact, ordinary nuclear bombs- only intended for installation underground, and not thrown from the air.

The charges were to be installed at strategically important points for the advance of the advancing troops - on large highways, under bridges (in special concrete wells), etc. It was assumed that if all the charges were detonated, a zone of radioactive contamination and difficult obstacles would be created, which would delay the advance of the Soviets. troops for two to three days.

In November 1953, the first atomic bomb, the Blue Danube, was delivered to the Royal Air Force. A year later, “Danube” formed the basis of a new project called “Blue Peacock”.

The goal of the project is to prevent enemy occupation of the territory due to its destruction, as well as nuclear (and other) contamination. It is clear who, at the height of the Cold War, the British considered a potential enemy - the Soviet Union.

It was his “nuclear offensive” that they anxiously awaited and calculated the damage in advance. The British had no illusions about the outcome of the Third World War for themselves: the combined power of a dozen Russian hydrogen bombs would be equivalent to all the allied bombs dropped on Germany, Italy and France during the Second World War.

12 million people die in the first seconds, another 4 million are seriously injured, and poisonous clouds travel throughout the country. The forecast turned out to be so gloomy that it was not shown to the public until 2002, when the materials ended up in the National Archives.

The nuclear mine of the Blue Peacock project weighed about 7.2 tons and was an impressive steel cylinder, inside of which there was a plutonium core surrounded by detonating chemical explosives, as well as a rather complex electronic filling for those times. The power of the bomb was about 10 kilotons. The British planned to bury ten such mines near strategically important objects in West Germany, where the British military contingent was located, and to use them if the USSR decided to invade. The mines were supposed to explode eight days after the built-in timer was activated. In addition, they could be detonated remotely, from a distance of up to 5 km. The device was also equipped with a system that prevented demining: any attempt to open or move the activated bomb led to an immediate explosion.

When creating the mine, the developers encountered a rather unpleasant problem associated with the unstable operation of the bomb's electronic systems in conditions low temperatures winter. To solve this problem, it was proposed to use a thermally insulating shell and... chickens. It was assumed that the chickens would be immured in the mine along with a supply of water and feed. After a few weeks, the chickens would have died, but their body heat would have been enough to warm the mine's electronics. The chickens became known after the Blue Peacock documents were declassified. At first everyone thought it was an April Fool's joke, but Tom O'Leary, head of the UK National Archives, said "it looks like a joke, but it's definitely not a joke..."

However, there was a more traditional option, using ordinary thermal insulation based on glass wool.

In the mid-fifties, the project culminated in the creation of two working prototypes, which were successfully tested, but not tested - not a single nuclear mine was detonated. However, in 1957, the British military ordered the construction of ten Blue Peacock mines, planning to place them in Germany under the guise of small nuclear reactors designed to generate electricity. However, in the same year, the British government decides to close the project: the very idea of secretly placing nuclear weapons on the territory of another country was considered a political miscalculation by the army leadership. The discovery of these mines threatened England with very serious diplomatic complications, so as a result the level of risk associated with the implementation of the Blue Peacock project was considered unacceptably high.

A prototype “chicken mine” has joined the historical collection of the government’s nuclear weapons agency (Atomic Weapons Establishment).

And this is how things stood then. In the event of a war between the PRC and its northern neighbor, real hordes would pour into its territory, consisting of formations of the People's Liberation Army of China and the militia - minbin. Only the latter, we note, significantly outnumbered all fully mobilized Soviet divisions. That is why, on the borders separating the USSR from the Middle Kingdom, in addition to the many tanks dug into the ground, it was allegedly planned to resort to the installation of nuclear mines. Each of them was capable, according to the American journalist and former Soviet officer Mark Steinberg, of turning a 10-kilometer section of the border zone into a radioactive barrier.

It is known that sappers are engaged in mining and demining, dealing with anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, unexploded bombs, shells and other extremely dangerous things. But few people have heard that in the Soviet army there were secret special-purpose sapper units created to eliminate nuclear landmines.

However, there is also an opinion that in reality no landmines were installed in these structures, they were empty and atomic ammunition should have been launched there only in the event of a real threat of military conflict between the West and the East - during a “special period in an administrative manner” according to the terminology adopted in the Soviet Union. army.

units for reconnaissance and destruction of enemy nuclear land mines appeared on the staff of engineer battalions of Soviet tank divisions stationed on the territory of the Warsaw Pact countries in 1972. The personnel of these units knew the structure of atomic “hellish machines” and had the necessary equipment to search for and neutralize them. The sappers, who, as we know, make only one mistake, could not make a mistake here at all.

These American landmines included M31, M59, T-4, XM113, M167, M172 and M175 with a TNT equivalent of 0.5 to 70 kilotons, united under the common abbreviation ADM - Atomic Demolition Munition (“atomic demolition munition”). They were quite heavy devices weighing from 159 to 770 kilograms. The first and heaviest of the landmines, the M59, was adopted by the US Army back in 1953. To install nuclear landmines, the United States troops in Europe had special sapper units, such as the 567th Engineer Company, whose veterans even acquired a completely nostalgic website on the Internet.

At one time, there were rumors in the West that American intelligence agents were trying to implement a program for installing portable radio-controlled nuclear landmines in the Soviet Union (in particular in large cities, areas where hydraulic structures are located, etc.). In any case, units of American nuclear saboteurs, nicknamed Green Light, conducted training during which they learned to plant nuclear “infernal machines” in hydroelectric dams, tunnels and other objects that were relatively resistant to “conventional” nuclear bombardment.

The above-mentioned Mark Steinberg once reported the presence in the Soviet army of portable explosive devices of the RYA-6 backpack type (RYA - nuclear backpack). In one of his publications, the ex-USSR citizen writes: “The weight of the RYA-6 is about 25 kilograms. It has a thermonuclear charge, which uses thorium and californium. The charge power varies from 0.2 to 1 kiloton of TNT: The nuclear landmine is activated either by a delayed action fuse or by remote control equipment at a range of up to 40 kilometers. It is equipped with several non-neutralization systems: vibration, optical, acoustic and electromagnetic, so it is almost impossible to remove it from its installation site or neutralize it.”

So, our special sappers learned to neutralize the American atomic “hellish machines”. Well, all that remains is to take off our hats to the domestic scientists and engineers who created such weapons. It is also worth mentioning vague information about the allegedly (key word in this article) plans considered by the Soviet leadership to lay sabotage nuclear mines in the areas of silo launchers of American ICBMs - they were supposed to go off immediately after the launch of the missile, destroying it with a shock wave. Although this, of course, is more like the action films about James Bond. Because about a thousand such “counterforce plantings” would have been required, which a priori made these intentions practically unrealizable.

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