Soviet Space Based Nuke
The USSRs Secret FOBS system and the R-36O Rocket
The Soviet Union had a brilliant Space-based nuclear weapon, the Fractional Orbital Bombardment System, housed on a SS-18 R-36 Rocket it could strike anywhere.
In the last moments of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Nikita Khrushchev falsely stated; “We can launch missiles not only over the North Pole, but in the opposite direction, too… Global rockets can fly from the oceans or other directions where warning facilities cannot be installed. Global missiles cannot be spotted in time to prepare any measures against them.” In April 1962, just a year after the eyeball-to-eyeball standoff of the Cuban missile crisis, the Soviet Strategic Missile Troops (RVSN) came through with an idea of a truly “Global Rocket”- an unlimited range intercontinental ballistic missile. The idea was that a missile could simply lob a warhead into low earth orbit and the weapon could then de-orbit over a given target as it passed over. This was designated the Fractional Orbital Bombardment System (FOBS), and given the code 8K69. Soviet weapons designers stated' "Orbital rockets, compared with ballistic provide the following benefits: unlimited range, allowing rout goals elusive for ICBMs; opportunity to defeat the same objective with the two mutually opposite directions; less time of orbital flight, the impossibility of the enemy predicting the target of impact, The main advantage of orbital rockets lies in its ability to effectively overcome the enemy missile defense.”
The weapon was taken from a modified R-36 (NATO designation SS-18 "Satan") missile. The R-36 was the best in the Soviet arsenal in the early 1960s and was the standard silo-based ICBM. The two-stage missile stood some 33m (110feet) high and weighed over 200 tons when fueled with its liquid propellant. By 1964 the first weapons were produced. First flight was December 1965; by 1968 the weapon had been fired in some 19 mostly successful test flights which included sending dummy inert warheads into outer space. A Strategic Rocket Regiment with 18 operational weapons was formed at Tyuratam in 1969. The site was appropriate as it was co-located with the Baikonur Cosmodrome, where the Soviets launched their missions into outer space. These weapons, designated the R-36O (for orbital) were placed on alert deep inside 40m deep hardened silos. They were armed with a single engine-equipped warhead unmanned spacecraft that carried a nuclear weapon capable of generating a 2.4megaton explosion (about 184-times the size of the Hiroshima bomb). This regiment had an awesome capability and was very specialized. It was tasked with being the first strike unit- to decapitate western soft targets such as Washington DC, London, Paris, etc with very little notice. The SS-18 series of weapons were envisioned for a 22-year lifespan.
These weapons were obviously never fired in anger and withdrawn from service in 1983 in accordance with the SALT-II treaty which prohibited weapons in space. The R-36O missiles were dismantled and their silos destroyed. The Soviet Union went away but the new Russian government inherited its weapons systems. About three dozen similar (but not capable of space orbit) R-36M missiles are still in Russian silos although they are untargeted. The R-36 was however seen for what it was- a good cheap way to launch satellites and was used as such. It went on to form the Tsklon family of Soviet satellite rockets
Sources
Russian Space Webs retrieved June 20, 2008 http://www.russianspaceweb.com/baikonur_r36.html
Kapyar.ru retrieved June 20, 2008 http://www.kapyar.ru/index.php?pg=227
Warfare.ru retrieved June 20, 2008 http://warfare.ru/?linkid=1702&catid=265
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