Omega (

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

: омега) (1965-) was a Soviet program for developing high-power laser weapons for

air defense Anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) is the counter to aerial warfare and includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It encompasses surface-based, subsurface (Submarine#Armament, submarine-lau ...

purposes, similar to the

Terra-3 Terra-3 (Russian: терра–3) was a Soviet laser testing centre, located on the Sary Shagan anti-ballistic missile (ABM) testing range in the Karaganda Region of Kazakhstan. It was originally built to test missile defence concepts, but these ...

laser. The scientific director of the Omega program was A. M. Prokhorov. Practical work was carried out by Strela Design Bureau, (later -

Almaz The Almaz () program was a highly secret Soviet Union, Soviet military space station program, begun in the early 1960s. Three crewed military reconnaissance stations were launched between 1973 and 1976: Salyut 2, Salyut 3 and Salyut 5. To co ...

History

Boris Vasilyevich Bunkin (Raspletin's deputy) and his brother Fedor Vasilievich Bunkin (employee of Prokhorov) showed that low-flying targets could be destroyed with a

neodymium Neodymium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Nd and atomic number 60. It is the fourth member of the lanthanide series and is considered to be one of the rare-earth element, rare-earth metals. It is a hard (physics), hard, sli ...

-emitting glass laser with an active medium volume of approximately . General Designer of the KB-1 Academician Alexander Andreevich Raspletina and Prokhorov raised the idea before the CPSU Central Committee and the

USSR Council of Ministers The Council of Ministers of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( rus, Совет министров СССР, r=Sovet Ministrov SSSR, p=sɐˈvʲet mʲɪˈnʲistrəf ˌɛsˌɛsˌɛsˈɛr), sometimes abbreviated as Sovmin or referred to as the ...

. The proposal received support in the defense department of CPSU-CC and in the Military-Industrial Commission (MIC) of the USSR Council of Ministers. On February 23, 1967, a Decree was issued, and on June 26 the MIC signed on. These documents determined the direction of work, the composition of the researchers and the creation of a laser complex, which received the code name "Omega". The laser energy required to hit an air target was determined the same as the total kinetic energy of a

surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-ai ...

warhead A warhead is the section of a device that contains the explosive agent or toxic (biological, chemical, or nuclear) material that is delivered by a missile, rocket (weapon), rocket, torpedo, or bomb. Classification Types of warheads include: *E ...

, some 10

megajoules The joule ( , or ; symbol: J) is the unit of energy in the International System of Units (SI). In terms of SI base units, one joule corresponds to one kilogram- metre squared per second squared One joule is equal to the amount of work done ...

. The laser was based at

Sary Shagan Sary Shagan (; ) is an anti-ballistic missile testing range located in Kazakhstan. On 17 August 1956 the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union authorized plans for an experimental facility for missile defence located at Sary Shagan, on the w ...

testing range.

Omega Complex

In 1972, Omega-2 elements began to be delivered to facility 2506. The laser locator (based on ruby lasers) was put together with a high-power simulator based on

glass lasers. The chief designer was Sukharev Ye. M. at Almaz Central Design Bureau. For the first time, the laser location of the aerodynamic target was carried out, its image was constructed, a target spot was evaluated, the precision of the simulator was estimated, and the effect of the atmosphere on the propagation of laser radiation was investigated. The studies indicated that the project was infeasible. A new experimental Omega-2M 73T6 complex began, in which a high-power

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalent bond, covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in a gas state at room temperature and at norma ...

open type generator with high-power pumping (BGRF) was evaluated. The locator was built on the basis of the television system TOV Karat-2. The chief designer was L.N. Zakharyev, his deputy and Yu. A. Konyaev, the responsible manager of all the works. On September 22, 1982, for the first time in the USSR, a radio-controlled target RUM-2 B was hit by laser radiation. Further tests confirmed the result. A mobile version of the 74T6 laser complex was developed. However, the device could not surpass the existing ZRK.

References

Literature

Sary-Shagan and Kyshtym - visiting Soviet military laboratories
{{Military testing centers in Kazakhstan Missile defense Space weapons Military lasers Science and technology in the Soviet Union Military installations of the Soviet Union Military history of Kazakhstan