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Kviris Palitra, Georgia
June 11 2012
Nadiradze's missile made people in Tbilisi worry
by Irakli Aladashvili
[translated from Georgian]
People in South Caucasus, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, and Iran saw flight
of Aleksandre Nadiradze's Topol in night sky
The majority of Tbilisi's residents (and not just them) stared at the
night sky 7 June, trying to determine what that strange illumination
was: A bright spot was advancing in the sky, leaving a trail behind
it. Then there was a flash, it started to spiral, and finally the
light disappeared.
What could this strange "celestial object" possibly have been?
Multiple theories were proposed, starting with the explosion of a
comet and ending with an alien spaceship crash. Meanwhile, the cause
of the strange illumination in the night sky was completely ordinary:
These were the final seconds of the operation of a stage engine of a
missile launched from earth....[ellipsis as published]
The command of the Russian Defence Ministry's Strategic Missile Forces
issued an official report the next day, stating that a Topol
intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from the Kapustin Yar
test site in Astrakhan Oblast at 2139 hours Moscow time [1739 GMT].
Its dummy warhead hit a hypothetical target at the Sary-Shagan test
range in Kazakhstan.
According to Russian generals, the main goal of the test was to
examine the flight performance of this type of missile after multiple
years of storage.
The Soviet Union began deploying the Topol mobile intercontinental
ballistic missiles in 1985 and Russia still had 360 Topol mobile
complexes in its arsenal by 1996.
The Georgian president [Enhanced Coverage LinkingGeorgian president [
-Search using:Biographies Plus NewsNews, Most Recent 60 DaysMikheil
Saakashvili] Enhanced Coverage LinkingMikheil Saakashvili] -Search
using:Biographies Plus NewsNews, Most Recent 60 Dayssaid in one of his
recent speeches that, during the August 2008 war, the Russians fired
into Georgian territory Iskander [missiles] designed by our compatriot
Nadirashvili.
While it is true that two Iskander tactical missiles hit our territory
during the August war (one in downtown Gori and the other near
Vaziani), they were not designed by our compatriot.
There is no one named Nadirashvili among the constructors of missile
systems. However, Aleksandre Nadiradze, a great constructor and our
compatriot, is frequently mentioned in Soviet and world rocket
scientist circles along with [late Soviet rocket engineer Sergey]
Korolev and [late German rocket scientist Werner] von Braun.
In 1977, as the chief constructor of the Moscow Thermotechnical
Institute, Aleksandre Nadiradze began designing a solid-fuel
intercontinental ballistic missile that would be deployed on a wheeled
chassis and would therefore be mobile. Unlike the ballistic missiles
placed inside silos, whose location coordinates were traceable by US
satellites with a margin of error of a mere couple of meters,
Nadiradze's wheeled missiles would "hide" in Russia's vast taiga and
be launched towards the United States from the least likely locations.
The new mobile missile system was dubbed Topol. It became the most
modern and dangerous nuclear weapon. US presidents still take account
of it, and this will continue for another 10-15 years.
Preparing the Topol for launch only takes a couple of minutes. The
chassis that has seven axes stops and the missile container moves into
a vertical position. The missile moves several meters above the
container and then the rocket engine of the 45-ton three-stage
ballistic missile's first stage starts. Once the solid fuel burns out
in each of the stages, [the stage] detaches from the missile's body.
What the residents of Tbilisi saw on the night of 7 June was probably
the last seconds of the operation of a rocket engine from a stage that
had detached from the missile.
Once all three stages detach, the nuclear warhead that weighs about a
ton continues to fly towards the target. Its power is the equivalent
of 0.55 megatons of TNT.
It is noteworthy that the Topol designed by Aleksandre Nadiradze
carried a nuclear warhead created by Armenian constructor Samvel
Kocharyants. It was capable of wiping a provincial US town off the
map.
[translated from Georgian]
June 11 2012
Nadiradze's missile made people in Tbilisi worry
by Irakli Aladashvili
[translated from Georgian]
People in South Caucasus, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, and Iran saw flight
of Aleksandre Nadiradze's Topol in night sky
The majority of Tbilisi's residents (and not just them) stared at the
night sky 7 June, trying to determine what that strange illumination
was: A bright spot was advancing in the sky, leaving a trail behind
it. Then there was a flash, it started to spiral, and finally the
light disappeared.
What could this strange "celestial object" possibly have been?
Multiple theories were proposed, starting with the explosion of a
comet and ending with an alien spaceship crash. Meanwhile, the cause
of the strange illumination in the night sky was completely ordinary:
These were the final seconds of the operation of a stage engine of a
missile launched from earth....[ellipsis as published]
The command of the Russian Defence Ministry's Strategic Missile Forces
issued an official report the next day, stating that a Topol
intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from the Kapustin Yar
test site in Astrakhan Oblast at 2139 hours Moscow time [1739 GMT].
Its dummy warhead hit a hypothetical target at the Sary-Shagan test
range in Kazakhstan.
According to Russian generals, the main goal of the test was to
examine the flight performance of this type of missile after multiple
years of storage.
The Soviet Union began deploying the Topol mobile intercontinental
ballistic missiles in 1985 and Russia still had 360 Topol mobile
complexes in its arsenal by 1996.
The Georgian president [Enhanced Coverage LinkingGeorgian president [
-Search using:Biographies Plus NewsNews, Most Recent 60 DaysMikheil
Saakashvili] Enhanced Coverage LinkingMikheil Saakashvili] -Search
using:Biographies Plus NewsNews, Most Recent 60 Dayssaid in one of his
recent speeches that, during the August 2008 war, the Russians fired
into Georgian territory Iskander [missiles] designed by our compatriot
Nadirashvili.
While it is true that two Iskander tactical missiles hit our territory
during the August war (one in downtown Gori and the other near
Vaziani), they were not designed by our compatriot.
There is no one named Nadirashvili among the constructors of missile
systems. However, Aleksandre Nadiradze, a great constructor and our
compatriot, is frequently mentioned in Soviet and world rocket
scientist circles along with [late Soviet rocket engineer Sergey]
Korolev and [late German rocket scientist Werner] von Braun.
In 1977, as the chief constructor of the Moscow Thermotechnical
Institute, Aleksandre Nadiradze began designing a solid-fuel
intercontinental ballistic missile that would be deployed on a wheeled
chassis and would therefore be mobile. Unlike the ballistic missiles
placed inside silos, whose location coordinates were traceable by US
satellites with a margin of error of a mere couple of meters,
Nadiradze's wheeled missiles would "hide" in Russia's vast taiga and
be launched towards the United States from the least likely locations.
The new mobile missile system was dubbed Topol. It became the most
modern and dangerous nuclear weapon. US presidents still take account
of it, and this will continue for another 10-15 years.
Preparing the Topol for launch only takes a couple of minutes. The
chassis that has seven axes stops and the missile container moves into
a vertical position. The missile moves several meters above the
container and then the rocket engine of the 45-ton three-stage
ballistic missile's first stage starts. Once the solid fuel burns out
in each of the stages, [the stage] detaches from the missile's body.
What the residents of Tbilisi saw on the night of 7 June was probably
the last seconds of the operation of a rocket engine from a stage that
had detached from the missile.
Once all three stages detach, the nuclear warhead that weighs about a
ton continues to fly towards the target. Its power is the equivalent
of 0.55 megatons of TNT.
It is noteworthy that the Topol designed by Aleksandre Nadiradze
carried a nuclear warhead created by Armenian constructor Samvel
Kocharyants. It was capable of wiping a provincial US town off the
map.
[translated from Georgian]