/ world today news/ By the end of the 1970s, the USSR and the USA developed a whole set of measures to protect the army from nuclear attacks. Both sides are looking for weapons that would be even more powerful. Exactly 45 years ago, on November 17, 1978, the Soviet Union announced the successful test of a neutron bomb, a new type of munition. About its characteristics – in the material.
Infrastructure protection
This project, at the direction of the Ministry of Defense, was carried out by nuclear scientists from the All-Union Institute of Experimental Physics in “Arzamas-16”. It took less than a year to create the experimental sample. Structurally, it is an ordinary nuclear charge of low power, to which a block with an isotope of beryllium – a source of fast neutrons – has been added.
When such a device is detonated, a thermonuclear reaction is triggered. In addition, up to 80 percent of the energy comes from the fast neutron flux and only 20 percent from other damaging factors.
It is hoped that this will make the bomb an effective weapon for destroying infantry in armored vehicles and shelters. Fast neutrons penetrate all barriers, unlike X-rays or gamma rays.
In addition, the infrastructure of major cities, inevitably destroyed by conventional nuclear weapons, will be preserved. It is believed that enemy weapons will also survive, meaning they can be studied or used.
But people would die. Neutrons ionize tissues, causing radiation sickness. According to calculations, an explosion with a power of one kiloton in a radius of 500 meters immediately kills all living things. Two kilometers away – for a few days.
However, tests show that the neutron munition is not as effective as expected. A kiloton bomb completely destroys buildings at a distance of up to one kilometer from the place of explosion, and the metal structures of buildings and armor of military equipment become sources of induced radioactivity, and quite long-term.
This puts an end to plans to use enemy property. In addition, due to the strong scattering of neutrons in the atmosphere, the extent of radiation damage is small compared to a conventional nuclear charge of the same power.
Cosmic interception
The second main goal of developing a neutron weapon is to use it as one of the elements of anti-missile defense. At high altitude, the shock wave of conventional nuclear weapons is weak due to thin air, it simply does not exist in space, and the radiation is quickly absorbed by the missile casing.
The only thing that can hit an ICBM is an electromagnetic pulse. Where there is no atmosphere, nothing can stop the flow of neutrons.
The most powerful neutron charge ever tested is the five-megaton B-71 warhead on the American LIM-49A “Spartan” interceptor missile. During the tests, another advantage of the new type of ammunition was revealed: a powerful flash of soft X-ray radiation hits the enemy’s nuclear weapons.
The x-rays instantly heat the body material to vaporization, causing an explosion. To enhance this radiation, the inner casing of the warhead is made of gold.
The USSR and the US believed that the neutron weapon could be used for other tasks. For example, both countries are developing specific weapons to destroy bunkers where the top military-political leadership hides. However, nothing is known about the results of these studies.
Limited series
The neutron bomb never became a wonder weapon. Both Moscow and Washington quickly came up with a defense: sheets with a high content of boron, which absorbs neutrons well, were added to the armor. Later, multilayer samples with elements of depleted uranium began to be produced.
Since then, care has been taken to ensure that the armor does not contain chemical elements that produce strong induced radioactivity under the influence of neutron irradiation.
As a result, relatively few neutron munitions have been produced. Production was curtailed in the mid-1980s. It is known that the US today has a small arsenal of these weapons. Russia, France and possibly China also have technology. However, in open sources there is no information about ready-made warheads in the armies of these countries.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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