Vekilov S. Sh., Mitikov U. A., Timoshenko Zh. I.

Oles Honchar Dnipropetrovsk National University

MILITARY TECNOLOGY IN PEACEFUL PURPOSES

Unfortunately, human history is a history of wars, the conquest of the territory, its redistribution. The main resource of any war are people. As we know, the strongest, most agile, and that who best-armed wins in the war. But everyone are individuality. Everyone has his own family, love, values – hardly anyone wants to lose at least part of it. So today is very actually using military resources for peaceful purposes.

Here are some of variants which have been using now:

1. Peaceful nuclear explosions

During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union conducted a series of nuclear explosions for peaceful purposes. Although it sounds rather ironic,but it is true. TheUnited States started Operation Ploughshares (Operation Plowshare) with the aim to use nuclear explosions for civilian purposes. During that Dr. Edward Teller (Edward Teller), the creator of the hydrogen bomb conceived as a «geographical engineering» digging properties of nuclear explosions had to be used to form channels and harbors, as well as to facilitate the creation of mines. The program began in 1961 and ended in 1971 and during that period the Americans blew up 29 nuclear bombs. Unfortunately, the tests had to be discontinued due to unexpectedly high amounts of radioactive fallout (scientists thought that underground nuclear explosions, reduce it), but also because of following the explosions groundwater pollution.

The Soviet Union had its own project, called simply «Recycling program of nuclear explosions in the national economy». The program was much larger than the one that took place in the U. S., and its implementation was blew up as much as 122 bombs. As well as the Americans, the Soviet Union also abandoned this failed project.

2. Artillery, which is fighting against avalanches.

Usually we consider that shelling is a good method of killing people and destroying cities. However, officials of the U. S. Forest Service, ironically, used the destructive properties of artillery to save lives. This application is for controling avalanches and induction of preventive small avalanches to prevent the gathering of large, uncontrolled avalanches.

At first the service representatives used howitzers remaining from the era of the World War I, to induce these controlled avalanches. After the World War II, the U. S. Army has provided Forest Service recoilless rocket launchers, which were easier to assemble and easier to transport.

Currently recoilless rocket launchers are the most frequently used weapon to control avalanches. There is also a version for civilian use under the name «launcher Lavigne» (Avalauncher). It shoots compressed air instead of artillery shells. Other countries have also their own artillery systems to deal with avalanches.

3. Russian nuclear bombs provide electricity to the U. S. homes

This application is probably the epitome of the biblical story about turning swords into plowshares. Russian nuclear missiles that could send the world back into the Dark Ages, but instead brought light into American homes for almost 20 years, according to the Russian – American program «Megatons to Megawatts» (Megatons to Megawatts Program).

American company is engaged in the implementation of the peace agreement, called «Uranium Enrichment Corporation» (United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC)). On the web site of the company has been stated that since the beginning of the program in 1990, using nuclear bombs has been producing up to 10 percent of U. S. electricity. At the moment, the company managed to process more than 19,000 warheads. The company hopes to add at least another thousand warheads to this number to the end of the program, which will be held this year.

Following this example, I think that we can use the old models of cold, automatic and other weapons as raw material for steelmaking. The fact that some of the details of various parts of weapons must have good mechanical properties and hence have high contents of expensive chemicals that are used for doping it. Over the past two centuries a number of weapons has been produced that lots of it can be safely refused on an industrial scale, cut into chips to create briquettes, or else used as substitutes alloying elements, which can significantly save costs for industry.

Nowadays, is there any real reason to fight against everything or everyone? Let’s use things that were created for war, for good purposes to improve the quality of life and for world peace.