Alexander Andreevich Raspletin

Alexander Andreevich Raspletin became General Designer of the first domestic systems of anti-space defense, he made a huge contribution to the creation of anti-missile defense systems. Rasletin, the first General Designer in the domestic radio industry, the founder of the scientific and technical direction for creating anti-aircraft missile weapons, one of the founders of the leading design bureau for the development of anti-aircraft missile air defense systems - Almaz Central Design Bureau.

A.A. Raspletin was a Party member since 1945, Soviet scientist and designer in the field of radio engineering and electronics, Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1964), Hero of Socialist Labor (1956). Since 1936 in the scientific research. and design organizations created radio. equipment, the edge successfully applied during the Great Fatherland, the war in the army (radar for aviation, radar with a sector review of the battlefield). He worked in the field of the first control systems of anti-aircraft missile weapons. Made significant contribution to the development of radio engineering, electronics, educated many scientists, engineers and designers. Was one of the main. creators of a new field of science and technology - radio control systems. Winner of the State Prize of the USSR (1951) and Leninskaya Prize (1958).

Evgeny Pavlovich Velikhov recalled “He was a real general designer, who knew and kept everything under control: from performing global research and organizational tasks to designing and testing individual radio engineering devices and systems in field conditions. Of course, missile weapons, which KB-1 has been engaged in for many years (now the JSC “Head Systems Design Bureau of the Almaz-Antey Air Defense Concern named after Academician A. A. Raspletin”) cannot be created by one person. This is the work of many thousands of staff, a huge cooperation, headed by Alexander Andreevich Raspletin ”.

Alexander Andreevich Raspletin was born in the city of Rybinsk in a merchant family. He was 10 years old when his father died. At school, he headed the radio circle, is elected to the bureau of the Rybinsk society of radio amateurs. After graduation he works as a fireman, since 1926 - as an electrician. At this time, he creates his first design development - a shortwave transmitter. In 1930, the family moved to Leningrad, where Alexander Andreyevich entered the radio-mechanical plant as a radio mechanic. In 1932, he joined the group to develop the first domestic televisions. In the evenings, he studied at the evening department of the Electrotechnical Institute. IN AND. Lenin (LETI). After graduating from the Institute in 1936, Raspletin worked in research and design organizations, becoming the head of a television group.

Raspletin's research work of this period is also connected with his participation in the creation of "the most powerful and most advanced television equipment" for the Palace of Soviets in Moscow. According to the project, it was assumed that a number of medium-sized halls, in which stationary cinema installations are designed, should also be equipped with special projection television receivers, allowing to design television images on screens up to 10–15 m2 in size.

In 1940 he took part in the Fifth Correspondence Radio Exhibition organized by the magazine Radiofront. The exhibition featured 32 TV designs. The television receiver, designed by engineer Raspletin, won the First Prize. The TV differed from the existing domestic and overseas in its simplicity, low cost and economy. The receiver was designed for the possibility of receiving both Leningradsky (240 lines) and Moscow (343 lines) telecentres, besides it allowed for a simple alteration of it after the transition to the new standard of definition in 441 lines.

At the beginning of World War II, he connected to defense topics and develops a military radio station. In besieged Leningrad, his mother and wife die, and in February 1942 he himself, a patient with dystrophy, was evacuated to Krasnoyarsk.

In 1943, the Central Research Institute No. 108 was created in Moscow, where the best specialists of the country in the field of radio engineering are gathered. Alexander Andreevich was also sent to this institute. In 1947, Raspletin defended his thesis and became the head of the leading laboratory of the institute engaged in the development of radar systems, as well as a member of the Scientific Council of the Central Research Institute-108. During the work here, A.A. Raspletin created four fundamentally new models of military radio devices. Thus, in 1944, he was the chief designer of the television aviation system for targeting aircraft to ground targets, and Alexander Stalin’s prize (1951) was awarded for the development of ground-based artillery reconnaissance radar (SNAR) Alexander Andreyevich Raspletin and his closest collaborators.

In August 1950, in order to create an air defense system in Moscow, KB-1 was formed (later renamed the Moscow design bureau Strela, then to the Central Design Bureau Almaz of the USSR Ministry of Radio Industry, NPO Almaz, and from July 10, 2001 OAO NPO Almaz named after academician A. Raspletin), where SB-1 is fully integrated). Right away, without taking their views into consideration, the primary radio engineering scholars were taken from another organization, TsNII-108, the main radar scientific-research institute, headed at that time by Aksel Ivanovich Berg. The first leading specialist taken from Berg was Aleksandr Andreyevich Raspletin. At TsNII-108 he had directed the main developmental laboratory for radar systems. Kuksenko and Beriya agreed to the appointment of Raspletin as deputy chief designer on the Berkut system and as chief of the KB-1 radardepartment. This appointment had decisive importance for the fate of the Berkut system. It was Raspletin in particular who had the fundamental ideas that gave Berkut its unique technical characteristics, unparalleled in the world.

The thirty best specialists from research and design organizations of Moscow and Leningrad, whole issues of civil and military educational institutions, as well as engineers and technology, with who were on the order with the enterprises of different cities of the country. The chief designer of the KB-1, A.A.Raspletin ess appointed the head of the SB-1, and P.N.Kuksenko, his deputy and the head of the radar department - transfered from the Central Research Institute-108.

Alexander Andreyevich was entrusted with the task of choosing the structure of the Moscow defense system and the development of its radio equipment. His first deputy becomes Anatoly Vasilyevich Pivovarov. In the shortest possible time, the solution is found, in many ways ahead of time. The created radar for the first time in world practice was multifunctional. It provided not only detection and automatic tracking of up to 20 aircraft in the sector of 60 °, but also carried out simultaneous targeting of up to 20 missiles on aircraft. Capture of missiles after the launch was carried out automatically. The design of the Moscow defense system, which received the code name "Berkut", went so fast that two years after the start of work, the first missile launches were carried out, which the well-known aircraft designer S.A. Lavochkin .

For testing anti-aircraft missile systems, a special test site "Kapustin Yar" was created, in the formation of which a huge role is played by A.A. Raspletin. Flight and shooting tests were successful, and on April 26, 1953, for the first time in the world, the Tu-4 strategic bomber was shot down by an anti-aircraft missile system . This day was the birthday of a new type of weapon. In the same year, the system was named S-25 , and A.A. Raspletin, after the arrest of L.P. Beria, appointed Chief System Designer.

In May 1955, the S-25 system was put into service and put on combat duty. This system has gone through several upgrades and has always been ahead of the capabilities of the enemy aircraft. She was on duty for over 30 years.

For the development of the S-25 system, Aleksandr Andreyevich Raspletin, in 1956 was awarded the title "Hero of Socialist Labor" and was awarded the degree of Doctor of Technical Sciences. In 1958, he received the Lenin Prize and was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

In 1953, an OKB-2 unit was formed on the basis of a subdivision separated from KB-1 (the machine-building design bureau, Fakel, since 1967), whose leader is PD. Grushin. Subsequently, all anti-aircraft guided missiles for systems created and built by Almaz are being developed at the Fakel ICD. KB-1 and OKB-2 are entrusted with the development of a transported ZURO system, called the S-75 . Raspletin assigned direct guidance for the development of radar facilities to his deputy, B.V. Bunkin . The development of a new mobile system proceeded as quickly as the S-25 system.

In January 1957, the Il-28 target bomber was shot down with the S-75 system . The tests have not yet been completed when the Government Decree issued on the start of mass production of the system. In 1958, the system S-75 was adopted. In the same year, large groups of specialists of KB-1 and OKB-2 became laureates of the Lenin Prize, holders of orders and medals. The awards were presented to them by the top leaders of the state and, by the way, not in the Kremlin, as always, but at the factories: K.E. Voroshilov, and personally, in S. Grushinsky Design Bureau, N.S. Khrushchev. In 1961, the S-125 system, designed to combat low-flying aircraft, was put into service.

In 1958, Aleksandr Andreevich Raspletin made a crucially important decision: to start developing a coherent radar for continuous radiation and from command guidance to go to self-guided missiles. This will create a long-range system, which will be called the S-200 system . At the same time, the necessary structural and technological changes are being made in KB-1 and OKB-2. A large team of developers of onboard radar systems led by Bogdan Fedorovich Vysotsky is transferred to the CB-1 from the Central Research Institute-108. When developing the S-200 system, a huge number of fundamental questions were resolved that advanced our domestic science and industry. Almost all technical solutions were realized at the level of inventions.

In December 1960, Chief Designer Alexander Andreevich Raspletin was appointed Technical Director of KB-1, i.e. he was responsible for all developments and on the subject of air defense and on the subject of missile defense. In 1961, Alexander Andreevich Raspletin together with Academician V.N. Chelomey created new cooperation in creating space systems for reconnaissance and satellite control. The development of these systems Raspletin instructs OKB-41, which is headed by A.I.Savin. In 1961, OKB-30 was allocated from KB-1 (later - Vympel), and G.V.Kisunko was appointed its Chief Designer The work on missile defense ess distributed as follows: the OKB-30 is designated as the head on the missile defense system as a whole and the long-range missile defense system was assigned the KB-1.

In 1962, under the leadership of Alexander Andreevich, the development of a missile defense system for intercept S-225 began , brought to firing tests. As a result, the speed of the anti-missile PRS-1 (Sverdlovsk Design Bureau Novator, Chief Designer - L.V. Lyulyev ) was completely worked out, which was later transferred to the A-135 system of the Moscow missile defense system. The second sample of the S-225 radar as a 5K17 measuring complex was deployed in Ust-Kamchatsk, where it provided wiring and recording of the parameters of warheads outputted to the trajectory from the Plesetsk test site.

January 8, 1963 A.A. Raspletin was appointed by the General Designer and the responsible head of KB-1. In 1964, Alexander Andreevich was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences. In 1965, on the initiative of academicians Raspletin, Prokhorov, and Millionshchikov, work began on laser topics in KB-1. Alexander Andreevich commissioned these works to OKB-31.

In the mid-60s, the development of strategic cruise missiles launched from aircraft and ships began in the United States. The features of these cruise missiles were to be the possibility of their flight at very low altitudes with rounding of the terrain and the possibility of massive use in one combat operation. In addition, this period is characterized by a sharp technological leap - the emergence and wide spread of integrated circuits.

Alexander Andreevich Raspletin well felt these changes. Therefore, in 1966, shortly before his death, he took the initiative to begin work on a unified multi-channel system of the new generation - S-300 . System S-300 was planned to replace the previously created systems. It was supposed to ensure the destruction of all types of modern and promising aerodynamic targets, including cruise missiles of all types, massively used both at high and at low and very low altitudes.

Raspletin laid the foundation for the methodology of flight tests of anti-aircraft guided missile weapons, the necessary measurements and processing of results, a wide and varied simulation using real equipment and simulators. Great attention has always been paid to the development of new production technologies and their transfer to plants. With his active participation, large-scale production of S-75 and S-125 systems was established, and these systems became the basis of anti-aircraft missile defense of the country's air defense forces.

He was the founder of the development team, his teacher and educator. The headquarters structure provided for the development and manufacture of all key components of the system, ranging from antennas to gyroscopes, in practice implemented a systematic approach to the development of complex technical systems - anti-aircraft guided missile systems and space reconnaissance systems. A huge conglomerate of individual design bureaus, factories and factory design bureaus was a harmonious organism that carried out technical and technological developments under the unified leadership of Raspletin for the sake of obtaining the highest characteristics of the system as a whole.

Alexander Andreevich Raspletin created a school whose students were the leaders of the majority of enterprises of the radio industry of the USSR. The value of this school can be estimated from the results of the development of anti-aircraft guided missile systems, which were carried out under his leadership, as well as subsequent systems that have always provided an effective fight with the most dynamic type of offensive weapons, namely aircraft and missiles.

Thus, Alexander Andreevich Raspletin is rightly considered the founder of the Russian systems of guided missile weapons. The case started by him in KB-1 was actively continued and continued by his students in the ICD Strela and TsKB Almaz. As a scientist, he had enormous prestige at the Academy of Sciences, especially in the department of general physics and astronomy.

Climbing to the highest levels of scientific and design fame, Alexander Andreevich always remained a very modest person, was cheerful and cheerful. Even on vacation, he was always the leader, the “instigator”, whether on a fishing trip or while celebrating any team success. In his circle, the younger generation of designers called him "Uncle Sanya".

On March 1, 1967, Raspletin suffered a stroke, from which he died at 6 o'clock on March 8, 1967. He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery (station number 6). The government established a gold medal and a prize from the Russian Academy of Sciences named after him, which is awarded every three years for outstanding work on radio engineering control systems.

A crater on the far side of the moon was named in his honor, a street was named after him, NPO Almaz and a technical school in Moscow, an ocean-going motor ship, a street in its homeland in Rybinsk.