News of new developments in the military-industrial complex

Mikhail Kotov — on the reasons for the three attempts and the significance of the new Russian heavy-class launch vehicle

On the eve of Cosmonautics Day, on April 11, the Russian Angara-A5 heavy-class launch vehicle made its first launch from the Vostochny cosmodrome. However, it was possible to realize this only on the third attempt. But the Orion upper stage was put into a reference orbit, then it separated from the third stage of the launch vehicle and delivered the Gagarinets small satellite, developed by a private company, to low Earth orbit. After that, a mock-up of the payload was placed into geostationary orbit.

GDELS, the European division of General Dynamics, introduced a heavy version of the Piranha armored personnel carrier, developed in Switzerland in the 1970s and has since undergone several stages of modernization.

A marine drone with American and Soviet parts was found off the coast of Romania

An unusual marine drone was discovered in the Black Sea off the coast of Romania. It combines Soviet and American details.

Unmanned platforms have been developed for Russian sappers for any task

Robotization is becoming the main direction of the development of technology used by sappers — such a conclusion can be drawn following the results of the Day of Innovations of the Engineering Troops, which was held on April 12 at the Karbyshev Military Engineering Academy. At the event, manufacturers presented a wide range of ground-based drones. They should make the work of sappers safer and more efficient, whose profession is considered one of the most dangerous among military specialties. For more information about promising developments in this area, see the Izvestia article.

It is known that the latest modification of the Vepr mine clearance combat vehicle is equipped with the latest TMT-S roller minesweepers. Such trawls allow you to trawl both conventional anti-tank mines and modern anti-ship and anti-bottom mines. The latter are actively used by the armies of the member countries of the North Atlantic Alliance.

The adjacent territories of Ukraine and Russia are gradually turning into a giant "combat laboratory" for testing and testing a wide variety of concepts for combating the massive use of UAVs - a problem that is not even overdue, but overripe.

The special military operation became a test for Russian anti-aircraft gunners and their equipment, an occasion to confirm the high characteristics of domestic anti-aircraft systems and make them even more perfect. On the eve of the Air Defense Forces Day, celebrated on April 14, TASS selected significant events that happened during the special operation in the Russian air defense.

The APU uses prototypes that have not been tested by any NATO country

Ukraine is being used as a testing ground for new models of weapons and military equipment of Western companies in combat conditions. Moreover, promising systems that have not yet been adopted in NATO countries are being transferred to the Armed Forces.

There are certain oddities in the recent launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile from the Kapustin Yar strategic Missile range of the Russian Armed Forces. Military and political commentator Yuri Podolyaka writes about this in his Telegram channel.

The Pentagon is going to work out a scenario in space for the rapid deployment of a satellite orbital grouping in response to the threat posed by spacecraft of a potential enemy. During the exercises, the US military will use two satellites that private aerospace companies will develop specifically for this mission. Thus, the United States wants not only to "send a signal" to other countries that they will be able to quickly resist "aggression in orbit", but also to show exactly how they will do it.

A system of UAV bases will be built along the coast of the Arctic Ocean

The waters of the Northern Sea Route and the coast of Kamchatka will be patrolled by drones — for this purpose, a system of UAV bases will be built there, a source told Izvestia in the Ministry of Defense. The devices of the Pacer and Outpost families will observe the Arctic latitudes. It is cheaper and more efficient than using manned aircraft, experts say.

Chinese scientists have assessed their capabilities to implement the project of a promising space nuclear reactor with an electric capacity of one and a half megawatts. This is an installation with a liquid metal coolant and a gas turbine, which by weight and dimensions fits on a medium-class launch vehicle. Several prototypes of its critical components have already passed successful ground tests. But many of the necessary technologies require either international participation or intensive funding to refine.

The ExoMars project has been in limbo for the past two years. On the one hand, the European Space Agency promised to find resources to reformat the Rosalind Franklin rover mission, because without Russian participation, the rover lost its landing platform. On the other hand, it takes a lot of money and time. Finally, ESA has decided on all the nuances and signed a contract to perform the necessary work. The mission has become noticeably more expensive and will be delayed for several more years.

Russia is rolling out a new heavy launch vehicle "Angara-A5"

Russia has launched a new heavy launch vehicle Angara-A5 from the Vostochny cosmodrome into space. This is the most important event in the Russian space industry in several decades. How does the new carrier differ from the legendary Proton, what tasks will the new Angara perform and what significance does it have for the whole country?

Like any universal platform, the MZKT-490100 became the ancestor of a whole family of special purpose vehicles, such as reconnaissance, medical, communications and electronic warfare vehicles, and many others.

NASA has selected three private companies: Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost and Venturi Astrolab, which will compete for the right to build a lunar rover for the Artemis mission. There are special requirements for it — this is a new type of device that should work on the Moon for a long time. Therefore, $ 4.6 billion and 10 years were allocated for its creation.

The characteristics of modern UAVs make it possible to conduct reconnaissance and destroy targets not only tactically, but also at the operational level. In particular, its experience has shown how FPV drones are able to solve problems by completely isolating the front edge or even the entire battlefield.

A communication system has been created with switching control channels right in flight

The developers of the Piranha FPV drones have created a multi-frequency communication system that allows these drones to bypass enemy electronic warfare systems, Izvestia found out.

Western media reports on the publication by North Korea of photographs and videos demonstrating a new medium-range hypersonic missile system, which uses a solid-fuel rocket accelerator and a wedge-shaped hypersonic overclocking glider in the head (GCH).

The drone will soon be put into mass production, the MiS design bureau reported

In the special operation zone, a new strike and reconnaissance hexacopter MiS-35 began to be used, which is a hybrid of an FPV drone, Mavika and a Ukrainian agricultural heavyweight drone Baba Yaga. This was reported to TASS by the MIS Design Bureau (KB).