[Russie] Forces des fusées stratégiques de la Fédération de Russie

[Polybe]

Un article étonnant sur un test de protection hard-kill des silos ICBM soviétiques : https://www.twz.com/air/soviets-tested-icbm-silo-defense-system-that-showered-incoming-warheads-with-clouds-of-metal-darts

"In simple terms, Mozyr aimed to develop an APS that would protect ICBM silos against incoming ballistic missile warheads, using a shotgun-like multi-barrel launcher that would fire tungsten rods into the paths of the warheads, bringing them down when they were in the lower atmosphere.

[...]

According to available accounts, the various tests proved that an incoming ICBM warhead could be successfully intercepted in the descent phase of its trajectory. An academic report into the results of these tests stated that the destruction of a nuclear warhead by the Mozyr system “was highly likely to prevent the initiation of a nuclear detonation.”

[...]

Interestingly, Russian accounts suggest that the Mozyr system was not in contravention of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, although this doesn’t seem entirely clear. The treaty permitted the Soviet Union and the United States to each have one limited ABM system to protect their capital and another to protect an ICBM launch area; this was later reduced to one system.

It should be noted that the United States also looked at a very similar kind of APS as a means of protecting its planned MX (later LGM-118 Peacekeeper) ICBM sites. This was known as Swarmjet and would have comprised launchers containing thousands of spin-stabilized unguided rockets. Unlike its Soviet equivalent, it never reached the hardware stage."