Peresvet laser complex

magnumcromagnon wrote:

magnumcromagnon wrote:Peresvet may actually be a nuclear-pump-laser, and its acknowledgement may have been indirectly confirmed back in 2012 in Russian scientific literature. It would make practical sense that a nuclear powered laser would also be a nuclear-pump-laser as well. It was confirmed the power was 1MW (like what I speculated) which leads me to believe that it is indeed Peresvet.

In 2012, the source [1] reported that in the RFNC-VNIITF (Snezhinsk) a gas laser pumped by a nuclear reactor operating at the atomic xenon transition with a wavelength of 2.03 μm was created. The output energy of the laser pulse was 500 J at a peak power of 1.3 MW. This device is the most compact in terms of the volume of active gas medium used (specific laser radiation energy was 32 J / dm³)

https://translate.yandex.com/translate?url=https%3A%2F%2Fru.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2F%D0%9B%D0%B0%D0%B7%D0%B5%D1%80_%D1%81_%D1%8F%D0%B4%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B9_%D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%87%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B9&lang=ru-en

A 520 J pulsed gas laser (laser module) was created, pumped by fission products of uranium nuclei, operating at the atomic transition of xenon 5d [3/2] 1 -> 6p [3/2] 1 , with a wavelength of 2.03 mum. The experiments were carried out on the BARS-5 + RUN-2 complex (Fast aperiodic self-quenching reactor and Reactor neutron multiplier). The specific energy of laser radiation obtained in the experiments was ~ 32 J / dm 3 at an efficiency of ~ 3% (the ratio of the output energy of the laser pulse to the energy transferred to the gas medium by fission fragments).

- Russian Federal Nuclear Center --- All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Technical Physics named after Acad. E.I. Zababakhina, Snezhinsk, Chelyabinsk region, Russia

http://journals.ioffe.ru/articles/14525

Some wild guesses here. But Im guessing one of the reasons why Peresvet's program got greenlighted is because the laser is boosted with other forms of electromagnetic radiation, including microwaves and gamma radiation, which might allow it to perform the duties of DEW and ECM all in one package. So theoretically speaking Peresvet may actually be both a Laser and a Maser.

 

Nuclear-pumped lasers

Since the late 1960s, work began on the creation of high-power nuclear-pumped lasers in the USSR. Initially, the specialists of VNIIEF, IAE im. Kurchatov and Research Institute of Nuclear Physics, Moscow State University. Then scientists of MEPhI, ¬VNIITF, IPPE and other centers joined them. In 1972, the VNIIEF excited a mixture of helium and xenon with uranium fission fragments using the VIR 2 pulsed reactor

. experiments are being conducted at the TIBR-1M reactor, in which the laser radiation power was about 1-2 kW. In 1975, on the basis of the VIR-2 pulsed reactor, a two-channel laser unit LUNA-2 was developed, which in 2005 still worked, and it is possible that it still works. In 1985, a neon laser was pumped for the first time in the world at the LUNA-2M installation.



LUNA-2M installation


In the early 1980s, VNIIEF scientists, to create a nuclear-laser element operating in continuous mode, developed and manufactured a 4-channel laser module LM-4. The system is excited by a neutron flux from the BIGR reactor. The duration of the generation is determined by the duration of the irradiation pulse of the reactor. For the first time in the world, continuous generation in nuclear-pumped lasers was demonstrated in practice and the efficiency of the transverse gas pumping method was demonstrated. The laser power was about 100 watts.




Installation LM-4


In 2001, the LM-4 installation was modernized, receiving the designation LM-4M / BIGR. The operation of a multi-element nuclear laser device in continuous mode was demonstrated after 7 years of preservation of the installation without replacing optical and fuel cells. The LM-4 installation can be considered as a prototype reactor-laser (RL), possessing all its qualities, except for the possibility of a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.

In 2007, instead of the LM-4 module, the eight-channel laser module LM-8 was put into operation, which provided for the sequential addition of four and two laser channels.




Installation LM-8


The laser reactor is an autonomous device that combines the functions of a laser system and a nuclear reactor. The active zone of a laser reactor is a set of a certain number of laser cells placed in a certain way in a neutron moderator matrix. The number of laser cells can range from hundreds to several thousand pieces. The total amount of uranium is from 5-7 kg to 40-70 kg, linear dimensions 2-5 m.

VNIIEF carried out preliminary assessments of the main energy, nuclear-physical, technical and operational parameters of various versions of laser reactors with a laser radiation power of 100 kW and above, operating from fractions of a second to continuous operation. Reactor lasers with heat storage in the reactor core at start-ups, the duration of which is limited by the permissible heating of the AZ (heat-capacitive radar) and continuous radar with the removal of thermal energy outside the AZ




Heat capacitive radar and continuous radar


Presumably, a laser reactor with a laser power of about 1 MW should contain about 3,000 laser cells.

In Russia, intensive work on nuclear-pumped lasers was carried out not only at VNIIEF, but also at the Federal State Unitary Enterprise State Scientific Center of the Russian Federation - A.I. Leipunsky ”, as evidenced by patent RU 2502140 for the creation of a“ laser-laser reactor with direct pumping of fission fragments. "

Specialists of the SSC RF IPPE developed an energy prototype of a pulsed reactor-laser system - an optical nuclear-pumped quantum amplifier (OKUYAN).

Laser module based on the BARS-5 reactor and a cassette of 37 channels in the laser module

OKUYAN based on the BARS-6 reactor


Remembering the statement of the Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia Yuri Borisov in the last year’s interview with the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper (“We received laser systems that make it possible to disarm a potential enemy and hit all those objects that serve as the target for the laser beam of this system. Our nuclear scientists learned how to concentrate energy necessary to engage the respective arms of the enemy virtually instant, in a matter of seconds ") , we can say that the BLK" Relight "not equipped with small c Chassis Basic nuclear reactor, power supply laser, a laser reactor in which fission energy is directly converted into laser radiation.

Only the aforementioned proposal makes it possible to place Peresvet BLK on an airplane. No matter how you ensure the reliability of the carrier aircraft, there is always a risk of an accident and a plane crash with the subsequent spread of radioactive materials. However, it is possible that there are ways to prevent the spread of radioactive materials when the carrier falls. And the flying petrel in a cruise missile cruise missile we already seem to have.

Based on the foregoing, it can be assumed that the probability of the implementation of the Peresvet BLK in version 3 based on a nuclear-pumped laser can be estimated as high.

It is not known whether the installed laser is pulsed or continuous. In the second case, the time of continuous operation of the laser and the breaks that must be carried out between the operating modes are in question. I would like to hope that a continuous laser reactor is installed in the Peresvet BLK, the operating time of which is limited only by the supply of refrigerant, or not limited if the cooling is provided in any other way.

In this case, the output optical power of Peresvet BLK can be estimated in the range of 1-3 MW with the prospect of increasing to 5-10 MW. It is hardly possible to hit a nuclear warhead even with such a laser, and a plane, including an unmanned aerial vehicle, or a cruise missile, is completely. It is also possible to ensure the defeat of virtually any unprotected spacecraft in low orbits, and it is possible to damage sensitive elements of spacecraft and higher orbits.

Thus, the first goal for Peresvet BLK may be the sensitive optical elements of the US missile attack warning satellites, which can act as an element of missile defense in the event of a US disruptive strike .

conclusions

As we said at the beginning of the article, there are a fairly large number of ways to obtain laser radiation. In addition to the ones discussed above, there are other types of lasers that can be effectively used in military affairs, for example, a free-electron laser, in which it is possible to widely vary the wavelength up to soft x-ray radiation and which just needs a lot of electric energy produced by small-sized nuclear reactor. Such a laser is being actively developed in the interests of the US Navy. However, the use of a free electron laser in Peresvet BLK is unlikely, because at present there is practically no information on the development of such lasers in Russia, apart from participation in Russia in the European free electron x-ray program.

It must be understood that the assessment of the probability of applying one or another solution to the Peresvet BLK is given conditionally: the presence of only indirect information obtained from open sources does not allow us to draw conclusions with a high degree of reliability.

It is possible that the conclusion about the high probability that the Peresvet BLK uses a laser with a nuclear pump is partially made not only on the basis of objective factors, but also on the underlying desire of the author. For if Russia really created a laser with a nuclear pumping power of megawatts or more, this opens up extremely interesting prospects for creating weapons systems that can radically change the face of the battlefield. But we will talk about this in another article.

PS In order to eliminate questions and disputes about the influence of the atmosphere and weather on the operation of lasers, it is highly recommended to study the book by A. S. Boreisho, “Powerful Mobile Chemical Lasers,” at least Chapter 6, entitled “Propagation of Laser Radiation at Operational Distances”.


https://topwar.ru/167342-sekrety-kompleksa-peresvet-kak-ustroen-rossijskij-lazernyj-mech.html

thegopnik wrote:God magnum the translation is driving me nuts. Like that it is hardly possible to hit a nuclear warhead, plane, uav and cruise missile than after listing all that it says is completely.


Any fluent russian speaker here?  I cant tell
if they saying it is barely possible or it is saying it is completely possible to destroy those targets.

kvs wrote:The article chokes on the idea of flying a nuclear driven laser on a plane because of potential contamination during an accident.
This is an example of small-think.  During WWIII nobody will care about any contamination since there will be plenty of it coming
from all the mushroom clouds.   So if putting a nuclear laser in flight can save a city from being glassed, then no second thought
will be given about deploying such a system.  It is really simple cost vs. benefit analysis.  Also, contaminated crash sites can be
cleaned up.  So all reservations and concerns about reactors crashing is just so much anti-nuclear hysteria.  

It is evident that the Peresvet system can be mounted on a jet.   It is unlikely to weigh more than 30 tons.  We also do not know
if the current Peresvet reactor is the final variant.  Burevestnik makes me think that some substantial progress has occurred in
downsizing of reactors.  

magnumcromagnon wrote:

kvs wrote:The article chokes on the idea of flying a nuclear driven laser on a plane because of potential contamination during an accident.
This is an example of small-think.  During WWIII nobody will care about any contamination since there will be plenty of it coming
from all the mushroom clouds.   So if putting a nuclear laser in flight can save a city from being glassed, then no second thought
will be given about deploying such a system.  It is really simple cost vs. benefit analysis.  Also, contaminated crash sites can be
cleaned up.  So all reservations and concerns about reactors crashing is just so much anti-nuclear hysteria.  

It is evident that the Peresvet system can be mounted on a jet.   It is unlikely to weigh more than 30 tons.  We also do not know
if the current Peresvet reactor is the final variant.  Burevestnik makes me think that some substantial progress has occurred in
downsizing of reactors.  

It's interesting how people freak out about anything nuclear. People are afraid of nuclear material contaminating if there's a crash, but their not worried about a +100 ton aircraft full of kerosene crashing and causing a massive forest fire, which under the right conditions uncontrolled fires give you whats going on right now in Australia.

Another key subcontractor to RFYaTs-VNIIEF that can be identified from this documentation is NII NPO Luch in Podolsk (Moscow region), yet another organization belonging to Rosatom. It is responsible for an adaptive optics system needed to compensate for atmospheric turbulence that the laser beam encounters on its way to space.[19] Adaptive optics systems typically use a beacon illuminator laser that creates an artificial guide star by shining a low-power laser into the atmosphere. Light from the beam is then reflected back by components in the upper atmosphere and measured by a so-called wavefront sensor that determines atmospheric turbulence between the laser complex and the target. This information is then used to drive the adaptive optics, which consist of one or more deformable mirrors that can adjust the high-power laser beam that is subsequently aimed at the target. The use of an adaptive optics system also reduces the time that the laser needs to be maintained on the target to achieve its goal.

The exact type of high-power laser used by Peresvet remains known. One Russian analyst recently concluded that the most likely type was a nuclear-pumped laser, among other things because of RFYaTs-VNIIEF’s close involvement in the country’s nuclear weapons program.[21] Another recent Russian article, citing only “scientific forums,” says Peresvet most likely uses an explosively pumped iodine photodissociation laser, a type of laser in which a detonator is activated to dissociate perfluoroalkalyl iodides in the gain medium and raise the resulting iodine atoms to the energy levels needed to produce a laser beam.[22] RFYaTs-VNIIEF has a long history experimenting with this type of laser and considered it for use in the Soviet-era Terra-3 laser complex, an anti-missile laser system that never reached operational status. It is also the one recommended for use in the 2013 RFYaTs-VNIIEF patent that is likely related to Peresvet. The patent holders, several of whom have a background in the development of this type of laser, claim it has a longer range than two other types that could potentially be used, namely alkali metal vapor lasers and fiber lasers. The reasons given for that are its ability to work in pulsed rather than continuous wave mode and its operating wavelength (1.315 µm, in the near infrared), which allows the beam to easily pass through the atmosphere.

Work continues on ground support facilities for Peresvet under contracts signed between the Ministry of Defense of Russia and the military construction company Main Military Construction Directorate No. 5 (GVSU No. 5) on October 10, 2017 and June 14, 2018. This can be done from contracts published on the Russian public procurement website, which contain the index 14TS034 and list objects with the designation “2146”. Four of the deployment facilities of the Peresvet complex can now be identified by existing contracts:

2146/1: in the 54th missile division near Teykovo
2146/2: in the 39th missile division near Novosibirsk
2146/3: in the 35th missile division near Barnaul
2146/5: in the 14th missile division near Yoshkar-Ola

The existence of the Peresvet deployment facility near Barnaul (in the Altai Territory) was not previously known. Shelter for laser systems can be seen on Google Earth west of the closed military town of Siberian, located about 25 kilometers north of Barnaul. The location of another object (2146/4) remains unknown at present. The only other strategic missile forces armed with Yars missiles are the 29th missile division near Irkutsk and the 42nd missile division near Nizhny Tagil, but the current images do not show cover for laser systems in these areas.

GarryB wrote:

Would make an interesting computer game... Trump wants coffee at 3am near the end of his third term in office (he is an evil dictator of course and the bad guy in the game...) and accidentaly pushes the red button and starts WWIII... you are a soldier in a TOPOL or Yars unit... you launch your missiles and then your unit splits up... you have a fuel truck and large trucks that can accommodate a group of armed men. Head to the Urals to some secret base there in the mountains and wait things out... After a few years and the dust has settled you head out to find what survived... a bit like Exodus I suppose but perhaps more positive... much less destruction.  It then becomes a case of establishing communication with various cities and restoring Russia back to something that can feed its people and defend its new borders....

Big_Gazza wrote:Interesting article on Peresevet (and the airborne Sokol-Eshelon and fixed-facility Kalina):

https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3967/1

Interesting exerts:

Another key subcontractor to RFYaTs-VNIIEF that can be identified from this documentation is NII NPO Luch in Podolsk (Moscow region), yet another organization belonging to Rosatom. It is responsible for an adaptive optics system needed to compensate for atmospheric turbulence that the laser beam encounters on its way to space.[19] Adaptive optics systems typically use a beacon illuminator laser that creates an artificial guide star by shining a low-power laser into the atmosphere. Light from the beam is then reflected back by components in the upper atmosphere and measured by a so-called wavefront sensor that determines atmospheric turbulence between the laser complex and the target. This information is then used to drive the adaptive optics, which consist of one or more deformable mirrors that can adjust the high-power laser beam that is subsequently aimed at the target. The use of an adaptive optics system also reduces the time that the laser needs to be maintained on the target to achieve its goal.

The exact type of high-power laser used by Peresvet remains known. One Russian analyst recently concluded that the most likely type was a nuclear-pumped laser, among other things because of RFYaTs-VNIIEF’s close involvement in the country’s nuclear weapons program.[21] Another recent Russian article, citing only “scientific forums,” says Peresvet most likely uses an explosively pumped iodine photodissociation laser, a type of laser in which a detonator is activated to dissociate perfluoroalkalyl iodides in the gain medium and raise the resulting iodine atoms to the energy levels needed to produce a laser beam.[22] RFYaTs-VNIIEF has a long history experimenting with this type of laser and considered it for use in the Soviet-era Terra-3 laser complex, an anti-missile laser system that never reached operational status. It is also the one recommended for use in the 2013 RFYaTs-VNIIEF patent that is likely related to Peresvet. The patent holders, several of whom have a background in the development of this type of laser, claim it has a longer range than two other types that could potentially be used, namely alkali metal vapor lasers and fiber lasers. The reasons given for that are its ability to work in pulsed rather than continuous wave mode and its operating wavelength (1.315 µm, in the near infrared), which allows the beam to easily pass through the atmosphere.

GarryB wrote:What is interesting is that the vehicle actually looks like a TOPOL ICBM launch TEL vehicle.

They also make a large refuelling truck the same shape as the TOPOL TEL so groups of vehicles can go on extended drives anywhere they like... they have extra vehicles the same shape as the TELs that can be used as accommodation for the crews and command units, plus also fuel in the refuelling trucks and of course convoy escort vehicles... I would think the current Vodnik type vehicles could be replaced by something with an automatic 57mm grenade launcher or high velocity gun... obviously their focus will be to get to a safe place and launch their missiles as quickly as possible and then perhaps scatter.

Would make an interesting computer game... Trump wants coffee at 3am near the end of his third term in office (he is an evil dictator of course and the bad guy in the game...) and accidentaly pushes the red button and starts WWIII... you are a soldier in a TOPOL or Yars unit... you launch your missiles and then your unit splits up... you have a fuel truck and large trucks that can accommodate a group of armed men. Head to the Urals to some secret base there in the mountains and wait things out... After a few years and the dust has settled you head out to find what survived... a bit like Exodus I suppose but perhaps more positive... much less destruction. It then becomes a case of establishing communication with various cities and restoring Russia back to something that can feed its people and defend its new borders....

magnumcromagnon wrote:
Ha ha this 'western expert' is super late. I already concluded that it was a pulsed nuclear-pumped laser nearly a full year before he did, and he looks like he cribbed/plagiarized 'findings' heavily from internet forums, but that's the level of Sovietology expertise found in the Western world. He seems to completely missed the fact that Peresvet is likely not just a Laser but highly likely a Graser and a Maser to boot. A direct beam Graser/Maser would not have any trouble frying the electronics of PGM's with high amp electrical currents, as well as completely disrupt communications between PGM's and their launch platforms. Peresvet is in fact a combination of DEW and ECM, even though the Graser/Maser aspect technically falls underneath the label of 'direct energy', it would operate more like ECM than DEW. There's also significant evidence that supports that Peresvet is a highly accurate tracker and guiding sensor for ASAT weapons against space objects.


It'll likely share the same TEL as Topol-M's eventually, as the the current carrier of Peresvet lacks strategic mobility. The heavy MAZ Topol truck looks like it could carry more than the single reactor on Peresvet, perhaps it could hold a second reactor, perhaps 1 emitter on the front end and another on the tail end of the trailer. Imagine 2 reactors with 1-10MW output, and 2 emitters both covering 2 separate 180 degree hemisphere's of the sky.

GarryB wrote:

I always liked the old armoured trains... I remember seeing a video from what must have been the 60s or 70s with a train with Shilkas and twin 14.5mm HMG mounts and various old tank gun turrets etc etc and it was rolling around a curved track firing an enormous amount of ordinance off to one side on a big flat open plain... awesome.

So two Peresvets and the cruise or ballistic missile carriages and perhaps four TOR carriages evenly spaced along the train and of course BMPT turrets and 2S38 turrets providing heavy fire power and excellent target detection performance... perhaps a few airships floating around providing a clear view of the airspace and ground around the rail lines...