Towards the end of the 1940s, the nuclear program in the USSR was developing at an impressive pace. Resources for this task have never been spared. This was largely due to events in Japan, on the cities of which the Americans dropped two atomic bombs at once . It was necessary to hurry so as not to be in the place of the Japanese.
In 1949, the first bomb was tested ... and it turned out right away that there were only slow-moving Tu-4s for delivery to a potential enemy. But even then it was clear that this, to put it mildly, was not an option. Firstly, these aircraft were very outdated and could not defend themselves against those interceptors that were in service with the United States. Secondly, the pilots did not want to scatter: after completing the assignment, they had one way out - to try to jump with parachutes over the territory of Mexico.
This situation did not suit anyone in the country's leadership. Numerous investigations were begun in the field of creating delivery vehicles, and one of the most impressive was the T-15. This torpedo, if she had to “work,” could have demolished the entire east coast of the United States.
Why exactly a torpedo?
This was due to the fact that the submarine was most of all in the USSR fleet. Already during the Great Patriotic War, it was repeatedly proved that they can make their way to the very coast of the enemy, and in the event of a probable atomic war this was vital. Even if the Americans dared to implement their DropShot plan, the T-15 torpedo would become an effective weapon of retaliation.
But to make a decision is one thing, and it is much more difficult to bring it to life: the largest diameter of torpedo tubes on Soviet submarines is 500 mm, and the diameter of the “miniature” atomic bomb is all one and a half meters. How to be The sailors really wanted the appearance of a torpedo of adequate size, but the atomic scientists insisted on the contrary.
Core developers
Who was the head of the T-15 project? The torpedo was proposed by V. Alferov. He took an active part in creating the first atomic bomb, so he had experience. It was he who immediately after the tests "pushed" his vision of the problem, and insisted on developing a large torpedo under the "hydrogen" charge.
It should be noted here that the fleet was not informed of such a decision at all. The fact is that Alferov was not popular among sailors, since he was the initiator of the persecution of Admiral Kuznetsov. So a paradoxical situation arose when naval weapons were developed exclusively by "ground" forces.
It is believed that the notorious academician Sakharov was the direct author of the project. The T-15 super torpedo (power of 100 megatons!) Was to be used to strike on the east coast of the United States. It was assumed that during the explosion of the “Tsar Torpedo” such a wave would arise that all the enemy’s infrastructure would be washed away, not only the coastal, but even that located in the very depths of the land. To this day, the T-15 torpedo of Sakharov is considered the most powerful weapon of this class, even if it was never adopted.
Estimated Layout
The fleet was informed about the new weapons only in 1953, and the sailors themselves were not enthusiastic about it. The fact is that on the submarines that were supposed to carry such torpedoes, the entire first compartment turned into a giant apparatus for launching this shell. Thus, the T-15 torpedo is the only case in world practice when a separate class of submarines was developed to transport a single shell. True, the characteristics of the latter were such that they fully covered the costs.
The total length of the device is more than 20 meters. Among other things, provided for the presence of two bow torpedo tubes 533 mm, designed for self-defense. There was so little space left that the crew would have had only two torpedoes (there was no reserve).
Estimated T-15 Characteristics
So, what was the difference between the T-15? The torpedo could hit anyone with its monumental size. Its length was 23 meters, and the weight reached 40 tons. Moreover, the mass of the warhead directly accounted for four tons. Everything else is a huge rechargeable battery, the resources of which were enough to develop a speed of about 29 knots. It was assumed that the cruising range could be up to 30 kilometers. What was the "filling" of the T-15? The torpedo, most likely, could carry only a thermonuclear warhead on board.
The latter was developed by a separate design bureau under the leadership of Khariton Yu. B. The bombing could be carried out both by a contact fuse and by telemetry. The first option was recommended for those cases if, in the case of an ongoing nuclear war, the boat would have been noticed by enemy forces. In this case, there was a threat that the T-15 Sakharov torpedo had already left the torpedo tube, but the submarine itself could have been destroyed by then. To control the firing, the specially created Tantalum complex was used for this.
When theory diverges from practice
The main technical characteristics of the torpedo carrier were approved at the end of 1953. By July 1954, a preliminary draft of the submarine was ready, on board which was supposed to be a nuclear torpedo T-15. By the end of the year, it was reviewed by the first instance and recommended further documentation for discussion. Only then admiral Kotov, who at that time was the commander of the USSR Navy, was admitted to the project. It was then that other fleet commanders were brought into the course of affairs.
Expert Conclusions
They formed an expert commission, which was supposed to deal with the general expediency of this kind of project. It immediately became clear that the leadership of the Navy did not like not only the Soviet nuclear torpedo T-15, but also the characteristics of the submarines on board which it was supposed to be placed such weapons. Experts rightly noted that the cost of such a missile carrier is awkwardly high, it must always be maintained in combat readiness, and it will be very difficult to do this with such dimensions of a torpedo.
In addition, the crew of the submarine actually turned into suicide bombers: with an explosion of a charge with a capacity of 100 Megatons, they, along with the submarine, would simply be torn to pieces, since they would have managed to move a maximum of 100 kilometers from the epicenter.
As a result, it was finally decided that the Soviet T-15 torpedo was a rather dubious project, and it would be more expedient to create such weapons that could be used through conventional 533-mm torpedo tubes. In March 1955, all surveys were thrown precisely into this area. The T-15 nuclear torpedo itself remained only on paper.
What came to replace the T-15?
She was replaced by a torpedo T-5. Also atomic, but already possessing adequate dimensions. True, the developers had to overcome a lot of difficulties. For example, for a long time it was not possible to “teach” a torpedo not to stray from the desired depth. Moreover, during sea trials, she in four cases out of 15 could initiate the fuse “independently”.
In addition, for the normal functioning of the warhead, which was extremely capricious due to the large amount of electronics, a temperature of 5-20 degrees Celsius was required. Given the fact that our submarines were often beyond the Arctic Circle, the requirements looked extremely difficult.
Despite this, already in April 1955, tests of the warhead of the new torpedo were carried out on Novaya Zemlya. They blew it up at sea, at a depth of about 12 meters. A weakened charge was used, the power of which did not exceed three kilotons. It should be noted that the warhead, which was equipped with a “cobalt” T-15 torpedo, was never tested in real conditions. And this is understandable: the power of “product B”, also known as “Kuzkina mother”, did not exceed 60 megatons. Engineers and the military simply did not dare to test the charge twice as powerful.
By the way, in the not so distant past, our country was developing a new ICBM based on the Proton missile, whose power was supposed to exceed ... 150 megatons. But even this project did not go beyond the drawings because of its ultimate power. Until now, no one can confirm or deny the possibility of an uncontrolled chain fusion reaction when testing weapons of such power.
State tests
State tests of the successor to the T-15 were launched in 1957. According to their program, three stages were planned: one shot with a "blank", the second with a full-fledged combat torpedo, but without atomic filling, and the third with a real detonation of a T-5 with a nuclear warhead.
All stages were successful, but revealed a lot of problems, including some deviation of the projectile from the course, as well as some malfunctions in the control systems. Despite this, all the negative aspects were insignificant, the program for creating nuclear torpedoes was finally successful.
End of story
They were adopted in 1958. They released them in a limited edition in the city of Alma-Ata. But already in 1960, production was completely curtailed. There were many reasons. Firstly, the "galloping" development (only five years) could not affect the driving performance, which was noticeably lower than that of those torpedoes that were already armed. Secondly, it was in 1960 that special serial 533-mm torpedoes began to enter the troops, in which a nuclear warhead could be used. It was because of this that the development of special weapons of this type was curtailed.
At the same time, the T-15 torpedo, the characteristics of which we described, as well as the T-5, gave Soviet science a lot of valuable information, which was subsequently repeatedly used to create special ammunition.