Buran-B Orbital Bomber

In 1976 the CPSU Central Committee and the Council of Ministers of the USSR issued a special secret resolution "On the study of the possibility of creating weapons for combat operations in space and from space". Work on shock space weapons was launched in the NGO Energia, directed by Valentin Petrovich Glushko.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s in the NGO "Energia", a set of studies was conducted to determine possible ways of creating space vehicles capable of solving the problems of military aircraft, ballistic missiles in flight, as well as especially important air, sea and land targets. At the same time, the task was to achieve the necessary characteristics of these funds on the basis of using the scientific and technical reserve available at that time, with the prospect of developing these funds while limiting production capacity and financing.

To destroy especially important ground targets, the Buran-B orbital bomber was developed. The "Burana" fuselage was used in this orbital bomber project as a carrier: large fuel reserves in the combined propulsion system and a very good control system allow maneuvering in orbit actively, while the payload is combat blocks, hidden in the cargo compartment hidden from prying eyes, and just as unfavorable factors of outer space. As a variant of the combat unit, the apparatus was considered based on the already tested and tested orbital plane of the BOR family, it is also Lapot (the Spiral Project 1966). Another option was a shielded ballistic nuclear warhead.

BOR combat units were manned or remotely controlled orbital aircraft armed with nuclear or other munitions. The fuselage was made in accordance with the scheme of the bearing body with a greatly blunted feathered triangular shape in the plan, because of what it was nicknamed "Lapot". The thermal protection was performed using clad plates, in this case a niobium alloy coated with molybdenum disilicide. The temperature of the surface of the nose of the fuselage at different stages of descent from the orbit could reach 1600°C. The propulsion system consisted of a liquid-propellant rocket engine (LRE) for orbital maneuvering, two emergency brake LREs with a displacement system for supplying fuel components to compressed helium, an orientation unit consisting of 6 coarse-grained engines and 10 precision-oriented engines. Turbojet engine for flying at subsonic speeds and landing, running on kerosene.

Modifications included photo and radio reconnaissance, attack for the defeat of aircraft carriers and other ground targets, armed with a missile with a nuclear warhead and a guidance system from a satellite, interceptors of space targets.

Dimensions of the cargo compartment "Buran" allowed to place on each rotating catapult installation up to five combat blocks, as it is shown in the figure. Taking into account the possible lateral maneuver of each combat unit during descent in the atmosphere of at least plus / minus 1100-1500 km, one percussion module "Buran" could, in a short time, with its 10-20 maneuvering combat blocs "BOR", erase all living things from the face of the Earth in a strip up to 3000 km wide.

Two options for using Buran-B were planned: a single patrol in the Earth's orbit with the return and simultaneous launch of the next on-board ship, and a permanent, stand-alone watch in the orbit of a group of ships as part of a combat space station. The combat space station, based on the space station of the 17KDOS series (Mir), at which the Buran-B autonomous modules with combat units of ballistic or planning type were to be based.

The combat space station consisted of an inhabited base unit, both on the Mir orbital station, the control center for combat units, combat station modules with targeting complexes and combat modules (based on the Buran fuselage) .Supply and change of duty crews was to be provided by transport crews The ships "Progress", "Dawn" or piloted by the CMC "Buran".

This, so to speak, "orbital aircraft carrier." In response to the alarm, the "Buran" are separated and diverged into battle orbits, by independent maneuvering they had to occupy the necessary position in outer space with the subsequent separation of the units according to command for combat use for given targets on the Earth.

What is especially important in the context of strategic deterrence is that this weapon system could strike an aimed, "surgical" blow, even if the USSR itself is destroyed. Like nuclear submarines, it is able to wait out the first volley and strike retaliation.