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This
book is the first effort in an unclassified
Soviet publications to provide a comprehensive
overview of the Soviet military space program. Presented here are the classification of
the military space systems by functions performed
(Chapter 1), the analysis of the organizational
evolution of the Soviet space program (Chapter 2)
and the description of all observable satellite
systems of military or double destination
(Chapter 3). The incorporated annexes contain the
list of space program-related enterprises and the
description of the Soviet space launchers with
the pertinent launch statistics.
The analysis made shows that
the military aspects constantly dominated in the
space activity of the former USSR. Their
predominance was determined first by the
governing principle of the state policy to
achieve an all-round parity with the US. Being
non-realistic as a whole, it was first of all
implemented in the military field. Moreover, the
state space program, which had emerged in 50-s
from an ICBM developments, continues to be
implemented through the Armed Forces, what
creates preconditions for an infringement of
civil programs in favor of military ones.
Decades of the space activity
in the USSR resulted in creating dozens of space
systems, covering all the spectrum of military
applications, from a reconnaissance,
communications, command and control to a negation
of an adversary's satellites.
The orbiting nuclear weapons,
caused fears between 1950-s and 1960-s, lost to
ICBMs and failed to emerge. However, the USSR had
developed "global" missiles, which
entered an orbit for less than one full rotation.
With the orbital interceptor system commissioned
for operation in 1977, the USSR had become the
only state to posses an operational antisatellite
weapon.
Until recently the most group
of the Soviet spacecraft was formed by optical
reconnaissance satellites. The prolongation of
latter's lifetime enabled cutting their annual
number during the second half of 1980-s from
30-35 by half without observable harm to
coverage.
The support military space
systems, securing troops positioning,
communication, command and control, are kept
operational with the remarkable stability despite
political and economical shocks.
Before 1990-91 the diminishing
of annual rate of military space launches was
mainly due to the prolongation of satellite's
active lifetime and, partially, to the gradual
retiring of obsolete systems, nor to the lowering
of military space activity's priority.
The destruction of the USSR in
1991 does not itself mean changing space
priorities too. Despite tensions between former
Union republics, military programs will
apparently remain the centerpiece of the joint
space activity due to the particular role of the
military services in all space activities and
probable unwilling of other republics to leave
military space systems under the sole control of
Russia.
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