The history of the creation of domestic radar systems. The history of the creation of domestic radar systems Sapphire 21

This word is understandable without translation anywhere in the world - just like "satellite" or "Kalashnikov". These legendary fighters have always lived up to their swift name, having distinguished themselves in all wars of the USSR. The high-altitude high-speed MiG-3s, on which our air defense was based at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, reliably protected Moscow from German raids. The magnificent MiG-15s cleared the Korean skies of the Flying Fortresses, burying US hopes of winning a nuclear war. The famous MiG-21s shot down American Phantoms over Vietnam and Israeli Mirages over the Golan Heights. The whole history of OKB im. A. I. Mikoyan is a chronicle of records, achievements and victories: the first domestic jet aircraft MiG-9; the world's first serial supersonic MiG-19; revolutionary for its time MiG-23 with variable wing geometry; the impetuous MiG-25, the first among mass-produced vehicles to reach a speed of 3,000 km/h; the highly maneuverable MiG-29, rightfully considered one of the best fourth-generation fighters, “the dream of any pilot” ... Mikoyan’s contribution to the space victories of the USSR is less known, and it was under his leadership that artificial Earth satellites and the top-secret manned aerospace Spiral aircraft were created , unparalleled.

Removing the secrecy stamp, this book restores the true history of the MiG for three quarters of a century. This is the best creative biography of the great aircraft designer and his legendary design bureau, which has become the pride of the domestic aviation industry.

As mentioned in the previous book, in 1963, the MiG-21PF was equipped with an experimental Sapphire-21 radar sight, created at NPO Fazatron and received the designation RP-22S in serial production.

Station "Sapphire-21" in comparison with its predecessor had significant advantages. The monopulse direction finding method, logarithmic reception in combination with the side-lobe compensation channel ensured its high protection against active and passive interference. Significantly lower height combat use and simplify the conditions for detecting and capturing targets for the pilot.

Having retained the same scanning angles as those of the TsD-30 (RP-21), the detection range of bomber-type targets increased one and a half times and reached 30 km. At the same time, the target tracking range increased from 10 to 15 km.

If the pilot of an interceptor aircraft equipped with the TsD-30 station, having launched the RS-2-US missile, was forced to accompany it until it hit the target, then the Sapphire-21 radar only “highlighted” the enemy, providing the R-3R missile with a semi-active radar GOS itself to determine the trajectory of movement. At the same time, the accuracy of shooting at ground targets has increased.

The new radar provided in any weather conditions the search and detection of air targets in the forward hemisphere, identification of nationality, target selection, capture and tracking, bringing the aircraft to the aiming curve, calculation and indication of areas of possible launches of R-3S and R-3R missiles, dangerous zones rendezvous and the formation of commands "launch allowed" and "lapel". In addition, the radar, in conjunction with the ASP-PF-21 optical sight, made it possible to conduct aimed fire at air and ground targets from cannons and unguided aircraft missiles (NARs). By and large, the Sapphire-21 radar has become a weapon radio control system.

MiG-21S front-line fighter with Sapphire radar

Government Decree on the Establishment new system armament was signed in the spring of 1962 and a little more than three years were allotted for this work. At the same time, the Vympel Design Bureau was ordered to develop the K-13M air-to-air missile with a thermal seeker and an increased firing range.

Structurally, the RP-22S equipment is made in the form of a container that does not go beyond the contours of the fighter's airframe.

Factory flight tests of a prototype aircraft, designated the MiG-21S, began at the end of 1963. The development of both the Sapphire and guided missiles dragged on and ended when the fire of the Vietnam War blazed. Perhaps this circumstance was the main reason for launching the interceptor into mass production, without waiting for the end of its state tests.

Unlike the MiG-21PF, in addition to the Sapphire-21 radar, the MiG-21S was equipped with a larger-capacity overhead fuel tank, two more weapons hardpoints were added under the wing, borrowing them from the MiG-21R. Now the fighter could carry two R-3S and R-3R missiles at the same time. In addition, the suspension of unguided rockets and bombs was allowed in various combinations, depending on the task. Two additional fuel tanks (not counting the ventral one) could also be suspended on the same nodes. As on the MiG-21PFM, under the fuselage there was a GP-9 gondola with a double-barreled gun GSh-23, designed for close maneuvering combat and defeating ground targets.

Although, compared to its predecessor, the MiG-21S was noticeably heavier, it was still equipped with a . True, they provided for the replacement of the turbofan engine with a more powerful two-shaft R13-300 with a gas-dynamic stability margin increased by one and a half times. P13-300 was distinguished not only by increased reliability, but also by ease of maintenance, a wide stepless range of afterburner modes with a smooth change in thrust.

Updated not only flight and navigation, but also special equipment. For example, instead of a roll autopilot, a full-fledged AP-155 was installed, which made it possible not only to maintain the position of the machine relative to three axes, but also to bring it to level flight from any position, followed by stabilization of altitude and heading. The SPO-10 station warned of enemy radar exposure, and the mirrors in the cockpit improved the view of the rear hemisphere.

The ejection seat KM-1 ensured the rescue of the pilot in the entire range of speeds and altitudes of combat use, including takeoff and landing. A reinforced front strut and an enlarged base for sealing the shock absorber rod of the main landing gear, protection of a number of assemblies and connections from contamination, as well as external sealing of fuselage hatches ensured the mass operation of aircraft from unprepared unpaved airfields. The introduction of more advanced means of ground handling of the aircraft significantly reduced its preparation for a re-flight.

In 1965, the Gorky Aviation Plant produced the first 25 serial aircraft. Following the MiG-21S, the MiG-21SM appeared with the R13-300 engine and the built-in GSh-23L cannon (similar to the MiG-21M export aircraft) with a gas compensator to reduce the diving moment when firing.

In addition, multi-lock beam holders for 100 kg bombs and UB-32 blocks with S-5 shells were allowed to be mounted on internal suspensions.

In connection with the installation of the GSh-23L, the configuration of the second fuel tank was changed, and an 800-liter tank could be suspended under the fuselage, and the distance from it to the ground remained the same. Side-view mirrors were preserved in the cockpit, and on the wingtips there were antenna radomes of the SPO-10 station, which notified and warned of radar exposure to other aircraft.

Flight tests of the MiG-21SM began in 1967, and the following year, plant No. 21 produced the first 30 serial machines.

The only case of using the MiG-21SM in air combat that I know of dates back to November 28, 1973. On that day, the deputy squadron commander, Captain G.N. Eliseev, who flew out on alarm, destroyed a Turkish military aircraft. The circumstances were such that the intruder was heading towards the border, and there was no time to use weapons. There was only one, proven back in the First World War, the Russian way to prevent the flight of a foreigner - a ram. On December 14, Captain G.N. Eliseev was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but the country learned the details of this feat almost twenty years later.

In 1975, on one MiG-21SM, the wing profile was modified, replacing the rounded toe of the leading edge with a sharp one. Studies have shown a noticeable improvement in flight performance, but it was not possible to introduce this innovation into mass production for a number of reasons.

The main stages of the enterprise.

The history of the Phazotron goes back to the years of the Great Patriotic War. After the successful reflection of the first massive raid on Moscow on July 21, 1941 with the help of the Pegmatit radar (chief designer A. Slepushkin, his deputy V. Tikhomirov), the interest of the country's military command in radar increased sharply. It was decided to organize serial production of the Pegmatit radar at the Moscow plant No. 339 (then called the Phazotron) from 1943. At the same time, the plant began to produce the SCH-3 radar transponder (chief designer E. Genishta), and by the end of the war, the Gneiss-5S aircraft radar (chief designer G. Sonnenstral), created on the basis of the first domestic aircraft radar Gneiss-2 (chief designer designer V. Tikhomirov). V. Tikhomirov laid the foundations for the national scientific school of aviation radar. Since 1955, the chief designer G. Kunyavsky began working at the plant, who created a number of radars ("Sokol", "Orel", "Sapphire-23"), and since 1958 - the chief designer F. Volkov (radar "Smerch", " Smerch-A", "Sapphire-21"). All this made it possible in 1962 to create the Scientific Research Institute of Apparatus Building on the basis of the plant and its Design Bureau (since 1969 - the Scientific Research Institute of Radio Engineering).

In 1963, the institute formed a direction for the creation of an air-to-air CGS, headed by the chief designer, laureate of the State and Lenin Prize E. Genishta. The work of three times laureate of the State Prize V. Tikhomirov was continued and developed by his students, who became the chief designers of the radar station: F. Volkov, V. Grishin, A. Rastov, Yu. Kirpichev, G. Gribov. A whole line of work was headed by I. Hakobyan. A leading participant in the development of a number of radars (as their deputy chief designer), Yu. Guskov, became the chief designer of the SUV-29M radar, in which many of the solutions used today in new radars were tested. Under the leadership of the general designer A. Kanashchenkov, the development of the first radar station based on its own TTZ - "Spear" (chief designer Yu. Guskov) began. All the general and chief designers mentioned here were awarded the titles of laureates of Lenin and State Prizes and high government awards for the development of new radar stations.

In the last 20 years, a new Phasotron school of development and manufacture of radar systems has actually been established under the leadership of General Designer A. Kanashchenkov (Yu. Guskov, V. Frantsev, I. Ryzhak, I. Tsivlin, O. Samarin, V. Babichev, A. Matyushin, V. Ratner, V. Kustov, V. Kurilkin, N. Gorkin, P. Kolodin, S. Loginov, S. Zaikin). A feature of the development of modern radars at the "Phazotron" was the creation of unified basic radars and unified rows of their components. Instead of creating radars according to the principle "for each type of aircraft - its own type of radar", now only one or two basic radars are being developed, which are adapted to each new aircraft (helicopter) (the antenna diameter corresponds to its midsection, the transmitter power corresponds to the available energy resources of the aircraft), the radar has open architecture and uses standard interfaces, which allows for subsequent upgrades by replacing individual blocks.

Over time, the place of the radar in the equipment of the aircraft changed: from modest RP - radio sights - (50s - 60s), they first turned into a radar sighting system (RLPK, 60s - 70s), then into a weapons control system (SUV, 70s - 80s) and, finally, into the weapons and defense control system (SUVO, this term was born and put into circulation by "Phazotron" in the 90s). The SUVO, in addition to the SUV that ensures the attack of targets by an aircraft, also includes means of defense against an attack on it. In fact, the onboard radar system is now the intellectual center of the combat vehicle, organizing the work of its onboard radio-electronic complex(REC). Radar and today remains the only airborne electronic system which makes contact with one or more targets at long ranges, day and night, in any weather conditions. Having received flight and navigation information from other on-board systems, it is able to solve the most complex intellectual tasks of choosing the most dangerous target and the type of weapon necessary to defeat it. The first single-frequency pulsed radar "Sokol" was intended to control the fire of small arms and cannon weapons of a fighter against air targets.

In the future, additional control tasks appeared, as well as noise protection (radar stations "Orel", "Orel-D", "Smerch", "Sapphire-21"). Later, such radars became two-channel in frequency, which significantly increased their noise immunity ("Smerch-A2"). Next, the developers were given the most difficult task hitting targets against the background of the earth. Its solution went in two directions: the development of pulsed coherent radar with selection of moving targets (SDC) - ("Sapphire-23" and "Sapphire-25"); development of a radar station with a quasi-continuous signal, digital filtering and information processing using an onboard digital computer; the use of antennas that allow simultaneous operation on several targets (SUV-29 radar with a Cassegrain antenna for the MiG-29, SUV-27 radar for the Su-27 and SUV-31 radar with a passive phased antenna array).

Modern Phazotron radars are multifunctional, coherent, pulse-Doppler, multi-mode stations capable of controlling all types of aircraft weapons (or giving them target designation) that strike air, as well as ground and sea targets. They also carry out information support for low-altitude flight with obstacle avoidance.

according to the materials of the museum.

Self-repair of a black and white TV Sapphire 23TB-307. I recently got such a TV - it stood for 10 years in the garage without turning on at all, as it broke down, as the owner of this device said. And I decided to repair it and use it as a personal 3rd TV in the house. , studied and began to restore. First of all, the TV set was untwisted and inspected - the boards were in a layer of dust, so I moistened a rag and cotton wool with a solvent and began to clean and scrub everything.

When the dust was removed, I began to clean the same lower case, from the side of the soldering, as some smart guy filled it with varnish mixed with glue. Turned on: there is sound, but the screen does not glow. Began to look more closely for faults. The first was that the kinescope socket was oxidized. I cleaned it and connected it - the kinescope appeared glowing. By the way, the glow of this model is 12 volts. It is not usual that this TV warms up for about a minute - well, nothing, let's wait :) Then he began to pick the line scan and the quenching cascade, since on the 1st output of the kinescope foot it turned out to be 0 from the voltages indicated in the diagram.

Soon a non-working transistor kt940b was found, replaced it, since I have a hundred of these. You can find it on color boards, for example, in Soviet TVs, and in general, such TVs are easier to repair because it is transistorized and all parts are available. You can also check everything with a regular multimeter.

Let's go further. In horizontal scanning, 2 diodes burned out - this is kd522b. APCF. At the duty cycle regulator, the engine moved away and oxidized - it was also cleaned. At the frame scan, the kd522b diode, which sent a signal to the base of the transistor at the multivbrator, behaved somehow strangely - it seemed to be broken, and passed current in both directions. Replaced it too.

Capacitor c40 - 1 microfarad, lost half of its capacity, replaced it with a new one. Oddly enough, this capacitor was the only one that lost capacity. Although it is known that Soviet electrolytes often dry up. Here they are all alive :)

I wiped all trimmers with solvent and twisted to restore contact. I checked it again and turned it on ... the picture is terrible on the screen, I started adjusting with trimmers and external regulators from the back and front, the task is not easy, since you turn 1 regulator - you need to adjust the second one, and so on in turn a little bit.

After 20 minutes of work, I set up the unit. The kinescope has lost a little brightness over the years, probably 70% has already been brought out, but sometimes it’s the most to look at something! Perhaps some will consider restoring the performance of such old devices unjustified, but for training this is what you need. It is on such devices that you need to gain experience, after all, do not immediately take on plasma? The repair was carried out by Comrade. redmoon with the support of the site site and the help of radio amateurs ear, bvz, Bor.

Discuss the article REPAIR OF THE SAPPHIRE TV

Today it is difficult to imagine an airliner or a combat aircraft without an airborne radar station (BRLS). The possibilities of the existing stations seem fantastic. But the history of practical radar is relatively short - about 70 years.

During the war years

During the Second World War, radars appeared in the arsenal of the aviation of both our allies and our opponents. Before the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, they appeared with us. In the early 1940s, locators of the Gneiss family were created at the NII-20 of the People's Commissariat of Electrical Industry.

Station "Gneiss-2" had a mass of 122.5 kg. She could detect targets at a distance of 3.5-4.5 km, and the maximum height of her combat use was from 3500 to 4500 m. An operator was required to work with her, since the pilot could not simultaneously control both the aircraft and the locator. Despite the shortcomings, experts noted that the creation of such equipment is a great achievement of Soviet radio engineering, giving the country a powerful new weapon for the air defense system.

However, it was not enough to develop the equipment. It was still necessary to work out the tactics of its combat use. This task had to be solved in combat conditions in 1942-1943. in the Moscow air defense zone, near Stalingrad and Leningrad on Pe-2 and Pe-3 aircraft. The results turned out to be very encouraging, and in June 1943 Gneiss-2 was put into service, and the hero of the occasion, NII-20, was ordered to start serial production of these stations.

In addition to Gneiss-2, during the war years, a PNB station was developed, which modestly stood for “Night Fighting Device”. The radar showed a maximum detection range of 3-5 km. In general, its characteristics were similar to the Gneiss-2, and in some respects it surpassed it.

At the end of World War II, a more advanced Gneiss-5 station appeared. She weighed 30 kg less and detected targets already at a distance of up to 7 km at an altitude of 8000 m. In addition, starting from a distance to the target of 1.5 km, the pilot could independently launch an attack using a backup indicator installed in his cockpit (the operator had the main one) .

Jet era

After the war, the development of jet aircraft began. For high-speed fighters of the new generation, fundamentally different radars were required, more reliable, with a greater target detection range. This task was assigned to NII-17. Here, in the summer of 1947, they began to create the Toriy radar station, and at the beginning of 1949, an even more advanced station, called the Korshun.

Alas, "Thorium-A" did not justify the hopes placed on it. The detection range of the Tu-4 at viewing angles other than 0 ° -10 ° averaged 5-6 km, and when the interceptor exited strictly in the direction of the target, it increased to 9 km. The sighting part of the locator did not provide the required accuracy of aiming and synchronization, and also showed low accuracy in solving the problem of aerial firing.

State tests of the second station - "Kite" - also did not bring the desired result. Unlike the Torii-A, the Korshun station had a smaller mass - 128 kg versus 205.3 kg, but its characteristics were also far from the required ones: the Tu-4 primary detection range at viewing angles from 0 ° to 5 ° was about 8.5 km, and the range of stable detection is 6 km. The effectiveness of firing with the Korshun station in conditions of lack of visibility and at night was 6-7 times lower than firing with an ASP-ZN optical sight during the day at a visible target.

At the same time, during state tests, the Korshun radar showed better sighting data than that of the Toriy-A station. Therefore, the state commission, despite a number of shortcomings, considered it expedient to order an experimental batch from the industry for conducting military tests.

The station "Izumrud", developed at NII-17, was fundamentally different from the "Thorium-A" and "Kite". It included not one, but two antennas - a survey and an aiming one. Her weight was 121.2 kg. The detection range of the Tu-4 bomber (in the tail) at night is 11 km, in the daytime - 7.7 km, and the Il-28 (in the tail) at night - 8.4 km, in the daytime - 5.6 km, while it is within the zone the review practically did not depend on the angle.

State tests "Emerald" withstood. The simplicity and clarity of the indication, the presence of an electronic artificial horizon line on the survey indicator made it possible for the first time to use radar on a single-seat jet fighter when piloting an aircraft using instruments. The effectiveness of firing with the help of the "Emerald" approached the effectiveness of firing with the ASP-ZN sight during the day on a visible target. Undoubtedly, this was a great achievement of the domestic industry.

It can be said that the Emerald opened the way for equipping air defense aviation with a qualitatively new means of combating an air enemy - interceptor fighters capable of operating regardless of visibility conditions, both day and night. In June 1953 radar station RP-1 "Emerald" was adopted.

Since January 1951, a more powerful Sokol locator has been developed for two-seat interceptor fighters at NII-17. He had a mass of 512.4 kg and was supposed to detect Tu-4 class bombers at a distance of up to 30 km. The Falcon compares favorably with the Emerald in its ability to intercept air targets at low altitudes and a greater detection range. The aiming part of the radar was also more advanced, which made it possible to conduct both accompanying and barrage fire at large heading angles. In 1955, the Sokol radar was put into service.

Thus, in the second half of the 1950s, it was possible to achieve reliable protection of the airspace of the USSR by cannon fighter-interceptors.

Increase application height

But at that time, new weapon systems began to enter the arena - guided missiles (UR), which made it possible to significantly expand the capabilities of fighters to intercept an air enemy in conditions of increasing speeds and flight altitudes. To work with SD, new radar stations were required.

The first attempt under the working code K-5 was a system developed in KB-1 of the Ministry of Armaments. It included the Izumrud-2 radar station, coupled with the ASP-ZN sight, and K-5 missiles. The missiles were aimed at the target using the “three points” method along an equisignal line formed by the radar beam.

Tests of the K-5 system took place in 1953-1956. They showed the high efficiency of firing missiles at single bombers at altitudes from 5000 to 10000 m at ranges of 2-3 km in the rear hemisphere under the angle of 0/4 at a carrier speed of 850-1000 km/h. Specialists recommended it for adoption by the Air Force and air defense fighter aircraft as a military weapon.

In those years, aviation progressed very quickly, and it soon became obvious that it was necessary to increase the height of combat use to 15,000 m and the range of aimed fire to 2.5-3.5 km. In 1956, two MiG-19PM interceptor fighters were built at the Gorky Aviation Plant to test the upgraded K-5M. The aircraft were equipped with the Izumrud-2 radar, coupled with the ASP-5N sight, and four launchers for K-5M missiles.

In the late 1950s, in KB-1 under the leadership of the chief designer A.A. Kolosov for promising fighter-interceptors developed the TsD-30 radar. The station was made in the form of a compact monoblock and was intended to be placed in the central body of the air intake. The radar antenna was covered with a radio-transparent cone. The weight of the CD-30 was 163 kg. The new station was designed to work with the K-51 guided weapon system, the maximum combat altitude of which was 18,000-20,000 m.

The locator turned out to be so successful that it was possible to “fit” it into the new aircraft of A.I. Mikoyan - E-7, which later became widely known as the MiG-21PF. The radar made it possible to detect Tu-16 type bombers at a distance of 17-20 km, and Il-28 - 14-17 km and provided semi-automatic target acquisition and automatic tracking. The height of combat use lay in the range of 4000-20000 m.

To expand the combat capabilities of the MiG-21 family of fighter-interceptors, the more advanced weapon system S-21 allowed. Its basis was the Sapphire-21 radar, created at NII-339 (now the Fazotron-NIIR Corporation). The station had a larger weight and dimensions than that of the RP-21, but it was also structurally carried out in the form of a container, due to which the aerodynamic qualities of the aircraft were not violated.

The MiG-21S fighter-interceptor equipped with the Sapphire-21 radar successfully passed the tests and was put into service in September 1967. The new station was named RP-22S. She had a mass of 220 kg, but showed significantly better parameters in terms of detection and capture of targets, better noise immunity from active and passive interference. Its detection range was 6-9 km, and its capture range was 4-6 km. The height of combat use lay in the range of 500-25000 m.

Further development

A significant step forward was the creation of the C-23 weapons control system for frontline fighter-interceptor of the third generation MiG-23 with a variable geometry wing. "Sapphire-23" ensured the detection and tracking of air targets not only on the opposite-crossing courses and in the rear hemisphere, but also against the background of the earth.

The next step was Sapphire-2ZL. Lettering was introduced from it, a beam mark on the indicator and stability of operation in the SDC mode was ensured. The minimum height of combat use was 500 m.

In 1972, the Sapphire-23D appeared, which was better than its predecessor in 11 more parameters. The Sapphire-23D-Sh radar had a mass of 550 kg and ensured the detection of the Tu-16 bomber at a distance of 46 km, and its capture at a distance of 35 km. The range of combat use altitudes ranged from 50 m to 22000 m. In terms of its tactical and technical parameters, the radar reached the level of world systems of a similar purpose, and surpassed them in a number of parameters.

Since 1977, front-line fighter-interceptors MiG-2ZM / 1A were produced with an improved Sapphire-2ZMLA (N003) station, coupled with an ASP-17ML sight. Also, on the basis of this radar, a variant was developed for the MiG-23P (23-14) air defense fighter-interceptor, in which the station (I006) was mated with the ASP-23DTsMP sight and the on-board equipment of the Raduga-Bort-MB guidance system.

The latest version of the station was the Sapphire-2ZMLA-2 (N008) radar, which was installed on the modified MiG-23MLD.

In conclusion, it is worth noting that the Sapphire-23MLA radar station turned out to be so successful that a more advanced Sapphire-25 (H005) radar was later developed on its basis for the MiG-25PD high-altitude fighter-interceptor.

In addition, at the first stage of creating a light front-line fighter MiG-29, it was also planned to use the Sapphire radar. But for the aircraft, they still considered it more expedient to develop a new locator.

Since 1991, the Ryazan Television Plant has been producing a black-and-white image television receiver "Sapphire-23TB-307 / D". "Sapphire 23TB-307 / D" is a small-sized portable transistor television with integrated circuits. A TV with the index "D" was produced with an installed UHF channel selector in the SK-D-24 range. A TV without an index was produced without a selector, but with the possibility of installing it. The TV uses a 23LK13B-2 kinescope with a screen diagonal of 23 cm and a beam deflection angle of 90°. The TV provides reception of television programs on any of the 12 channels of the MB band and on any of the channels from 21 to 60 in the UHF band; listening to sound on headphones when the loudspeaker is turned off. AGC provides a stable image. The effect of interference is minimal with the help of AFC and F. Sizer images 140x183 mm. The sensitivity of the image channel in the MB range is 40 μV, UHF - 70 μV. Horizontal resolution 350 lines. The nominal output power of the audio channel is 0.2 W. The range of reproducible frequencies is 400...3550 Hz. The supply voltage at which the TV operates: from the network 198 ... 242 V, from an independent source 12.5 ... 15.8 V. Power consumption from the network 30 W, from an independent source 20 W. TV dimensions 250x350x230 mm. Weight 5.5 kg.

Photos by Alexei Lifanov, Moscow.

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