Almost all Soviet people remember how the government in the 1980s scared citizens with new terrible weapons invented by “rotting capitalism”. Political informants in institutions and teachers at school in the most terrible colors described how dangerous the neutron bomb accepted for arming in the USA poses to all living things. Do not hide from it in underground bunkers or behind concrete shelters. Bulletproof vests and stronger means of protection will not save from it. All organisms, in the event of a strike, will die, while buildings, bridges and mechanisms, with the exception of the epicenter of the explosion, will remain intact. Thus, the powerful economy of the country of developed socialism will fall into the clutches of the American military.
The insidious neutron bomb acted on a completely different principle than the atomic or hydrogen “king bomb”, which the USSR was so proud of. A thermonuclear explosion causes a powerful release of thermal energy, radiation and shock waves. Atoms carrying a charge, bumping into objects, especially metals, enter into interaction with them, are held by them, and therefore the enemy’s forces, hiding behind metal barriers, are safe.
Note that neither the Soviet nor the American military thought about the civilian population, all the thoughts of the developers of new types of weapons were aimed at destroying the enemy’s military power.
But the neutron bomb, the project of which was developed by Samuel Cohen, by the way, back in 1958, was a charge of a mixture of radioactive isotopes of hydrogen: deuterium and especially tritium. As a result of the explosion, a huge number of neutrons are released - particles that do not have a charge. Being neutral, unlike atoms, they quickly penetrated through solid and liquid physical barriers, bringing death only to organics. Therefore, such a weapon was called by the Pentagon “humane”.
As indicated above, the neutron bomb was invented in the late fifties. In April 1963, her first successful test at the training ground was conducted. Since the mid-70s, warheads with neutron charges have been installed on the American defense system against Soviet missiles at the Grand Forks base in North Dakota. What so shocked the Soviet government when, in August 1981, the US Security Council announced the serial production of neutron weapons? After all, it has been used by the American army for about twenty years!
Behind the Kremlin’s rhetoric about “world peace” was the concern that its own economy was no longer able to “pull” the costs of the military-industrial complex. After all, since the end of World War II, the USSR and the States have constantly competed in the creation of new weapons that can destroy a potential enemy. Thus, the creation of the
atomic bomb by the Americans led to the production of a similar charge and its carrier TU-4 in the USSR. In response to the Russian attack - the R-7A intercontinental nuclear missile - the Americans responded with the Titan-2 missile.
As “our answer to Chamberlain” back in 1978, the Kremlin instructed nuclear scientists at the classified facility “Arzamas-16” to develop and introduce domestic neutron weapons. However, they were unable to catch up and overtake the United States. So far, only laboratory work was underway, President Ronald Reagan announced in 1983 the creation of the Star Wars program. Compared to this grandiose program, a bomb explosion, even with a neutron charge, seemed like a shot of a baby clapperboard. Since the Americans disposed of obsolete weapons, Russian scientists forgot about it.