orbital development flights of small Soviet spaceplane?

[phrenzy]

For no particularly good reason I've been spending this Saturday evening reading the 1983 edition of "SOVIET MILITARY POWER" and something under the space systems section caught my eye.

This section describes two reusable shuttle type programs under development, one described as comparable to the space shuttle (but not named) is obviously Buran but it also mentions another program. The second program (also unnamed) is described as a smaller spaceplane that (here is the kicker) has undergone developmental orbital test flights. It goes on to say that it should be operational within a decade (~1993).

The only thing that comes to mind that comes close to fitting this description is Spiral... except my limited understanding of that mig program was that it was long dormant by the 80's and never had any orbital flights (was it even supposed to be an orbital spacecraft?) and certainly was not going to be operational in a decade.

It's glaringly vague, possibly because it was a very public report and DOD didn't want to give away too much of what it knew and also probably because it's a report that's famous for talking up the soviet threat to justify defense budget expansion through presenting many straw bogey men.

Is this a much hyped up account of spiral stretched to the breaking point of credulity or something well known that I'm just not up to date on?

If anyone knows the answer I'm sure someone here does. I doubt I've discovered anything too clever but it's bugging me trying to come up with a match for for this cryptic entry.

EDIT: do you think this might be a confused reference to the sub scale buran prototypes? It certainly sounds like a seperate smaller program though.

 

[flateric]

Google "BOR-4"

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

http://www.buran-energia.com/bor/bor-desc.php

 

[phrenzy]

Do you think this is a deliberate conflation with bor? I suppose technically it is a spaceplane project but there is a clear implication that the soviets were aiming at something that would become operational (that the larger and smaller craft would operate simultaneously), bor seems to be a stepping stone sub-scale test craft for buran.
Unless they were talking about the hurricane interceptor mentioned in the link above.

 

[phrenzy]

I forgot to add that I think your probably right. I suppose my alive question really is, if they were referring to bor, was it confusion or deliberate talking up of Soviet doings leading to the claim that it would be an operational space craft.

Unless they were referring to hurricane, which would make the assessment seem more fair but was that really realistically going to fly by 1993?

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

I've seen no evidence that the "Uragan" project existed.

 

[phrenzy]

It would be easy to dismiss it as a silly claim except this is pretty highly vetted and edited official DOD release not mimeographed book written by an enthusiast.

Do your assessment would be that it is referring to bor and that there was simply confusion as to its goals and association with buran?

Reading this book you would think the soviets were wildly ahead of the US in almost every category of defense. I know that this was it's purpose but it's an interesting read none the less. I love 80's material that projects Soviet plans beyond 1991.

 

[flateric]

I've seen no evidence that the "Uragan" project existed.

it didn't

 

[quellish]

It would be easy to dismiss it as a silly claim except this is pretty highly vetted and edited official DOD release not mimeographed book written by an enthusiast.

Do your assessment would be that it is referring to bor and that there was simply confusion as to its goals and association with buran?

Reading this book you would think the soviets were wildly ahead of the US in almost every category of defense. I know that this was it's purpose but it's an interesting read none the less. I love 80's material that projects Soviet plans beyond 1991.

Keep in mind that Soviet Military Power was largely a propaganda product which helped justify US military spending. As far as I recall there were no outright lies, but there were certainly exaggerations and some of the estimates were not realistic at all.


With that in mind, the SMP reporting on a military mini shuttle was derived from US observations of the BOR-4 tests. Later editions of SMP included photos of BOR-4 recovery. From what the US could observe, BOR-4 appeared to be unrelated to Buran development.

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

As I understand it -


BOR-4 was planned already as a re-entry test vehicle using the "Spiral" shape as a representative spaceplane, though Spiral itself was long since defunct. It was repurposed to test protective tiles intended for Buran.


There were also some Zenit test launches of large dummy loads in the size range of a production size BOR-4 which the US interpreted as related to the BOR-4, and came up with the idea of Uragan on Zenit launcher being in final testing stages.


And not least, NASA did tests of the BOR-4 aerodynamic shape (as HL-20) and concluded it possessed excellent characteristics, and it formed the basis of various NASA Langley studies.


The US might have known of one or more of the other contemporary spaceplane proposals e.g. Chelomei's LKS or Molniya's OK-M.


Given that the US already knew of Buran, they speculated as to the likely role of a second spaceplane configured like BOR-4. They weren't too far off base - the USSR was indeed obsessed with possible miilitary roles for the US Space Shuttle.

 

[phrenzy]

That pretty much answers my question. If they thought bor was a development vehicle for something other than buran or something in its own right that would explain the statements. From the minimal reading I've now done this seems like the only thing put into orbit fitting this description.
Some of the cryptic allusions to space based ASATs and other things have inspired me to do a lot more reading

Anyone know if the earlier or later editions ate significantly different? I Really like it, I'm thinking of buying the others.

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

Oh and don't forget from 1976-1978 Mikoyan were flying the 105-11 manned test vehicle to explore low-speed handling and landing of the Spiral design.

 

[blackstar]

You should get a copy of Bart Hendrickx book on Buran:

http://www.amazon.com/Energiya-Buran-Soviet-Shuttle-Springer-Exploration/dp/0387698485/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1404042316&sr=8-2&keywords=bart+hendrickx

The U.S. intelligence community misunderstood the relationship of the small spaceplane to the Buran. Hendrickx has some of that. There are quite a few declassified CIA documents that cover the subject as well.

 

[phrenzy]

I was about to complain about the ~$85 price tag at the Amazon link until I had a look on eBay for a cheaper copy and only found cupped for between $140-280. It looks quite good though so I'll have to remember it when I come into some money (not that I don't already have books coming out of by ears piled from the floor to the ceiling in places).

Unfortunately my universities otherwise amazing library is very sadly lacking in this sort of material.

 

[blackstar]

Borrow it through interlibrary loan.