The subterranean nuclear combat boat was probably the most fabulous secret military project of the USSR.
They had been dreaming of creating a subterranean combat vehicle for long, similar projects were in Germany too. In 1934 a German genius Ritter made a project of a vehicle moving on land, underground and even underwater 100 m deep and deliver a huge amount of explosives under Mazhino line. Another inventor V. fon Vern patented his model of a subterrain vehicle. He promised to make a vehicle for 5 persons capable to move underground with speed of 7 km/h and carry 300 kg of military load. However the project was closed in the beginning of WWII. None of these wonder machines came out beyond the drafts.
When Wehrmacht was defeated the documents came to the USSR. On their basis in the time of N. Khruschev Soviets finally created an acting model of a subterranean boat. During its first test in the Urals the boat sailed along the mountain with a speed of a pedestrian. During the second test the boat exploded and turned to be immured together with the crew in the mountains. In the time of Brezhnev having understood all foolishness and mercilessness of the project it was eventually cancelled.
Some facts: the subterranean boat had a titanium body with a nibbed nose and stern 3,8 m in diameter and 35 m in length.
The crew consisted of 5 persons. Besides it could take 15 persons more and a tonne of explosives aboard.
The “Mole” under the mountain “Bagodat”
Meanwhile in Germany..
“Combat mole” – a mole was a prototype for the boat…
the last pic is the schematics of RORSAT reconnaissance satellite =))
But it looks like a earth boring machine eh?
No, it doesn’t not look like a boring machine and it contains a nuclear reactor.
man… imagine having to sit in one of those things, if the constant shaking didn’t drive you nuts the noise would be deafening.
Fantasy….. You can’t do it. the earth that the machine displaces MUST “go” somewhere. You could see it, and hear it coming from a mile away.
And in many cases, like the TBM’s of today (tunnel boring machines) they would be incredibly slow.
So thats why the only thing from this post, that actually exists, is the RORSAT. Plenty of these cold war relics (now defunct) still remain on high orbit
It is pretty funny, though, when you think of all the crazy shit that’s been tried by the USSR, Germany, England, France, and the USA to find a better stick. There were some utterly ridiculous things tried! Some are laugh out loud funny when I see them! It’s like, “WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!”
You will never know if a concept works, untill you actually built it uh?