There was the TOZ-81

They even had a laser pistol
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_laser_pistol

Just firing something that big would put quite a bit of force back into the craft plus the weight would be huge just to test if something will fire in outer space.

As for pistols I can see that for the Soviets. Landing, possibly days away from rescue, in dangerous territory, its a no brainier..

I would like to see a laser test to see exactly how far away we could “shoot” something in orbit. Fire a low level laser at a test target. Both in different orbits just to test out accuracy.
The USSF Space plane could be used as a test bed for this. It releases a target then it can fire at it even years later.

One can certainly appreciate the desire of Canada for a sovereign launch capability given the frosty nature of recent relations between President Trump and Canada’s imported Prime Minister, but building a pad is only going to get it part-way there. It’ll need a Canadian-designed-and-built rocket too.

There’s a Canadian outfit called NordSpace working on both small (500 kg) and medium (5,000 kg) orbital launch vehicles, but it is also building its own spaceport facilities and not at the Maritime Launch Services (MLS) site where the newly-announced Canadian government-funded launch pad is to be built. The MLS site is near Canso, Nova Scotia. The NordSpace site – which it calls the Atlantic Spaceport Complex – is near St. Lawrence, Newfoundland and Labrador.

MLS isn’t in the rocket-building business, but has at least tentative agreements with UK-based Skyrora (XL vehicle), South Korea-based Innospace (Hanbit Nano vehicle), and Canada-based Reaction Dynamics (Aurora-8 vehicle) to use its spaceport. Skyrora hasn’t launched its rocket yet and neither has Reaction Dynamics (RD). Innospace’s Hanbit Nano has launched once, unsuccessfully, from Brazil’s Alcantara spaceport.

These are not large launch vehicles. All are less capable than the Rocket Lab Electron. Hanbit Nano’s payload capacity is only 90 kg. to Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO). RD’s Aurora-8 is intended to put a maximum of 200kg into SSO. The Skyrora XL is intended to put 315 kg into SSO. Hanbit Nano and Aurora-8 are both powered by hybrid engines using solid fuels and liquid oxidizers – LOX in the case of Hanbit Nano and hydrogen peroxide in the case of Aurora-8. The Skyrora XL is a liquid fuel rocket that uses RP-1 fuel and hydrogen peroxide oxidizer. Skyrora is hoping to get its first launch off later this year from the UK’s Saxavord launch site. Innospace has been making deals with several spaceports recently, but there is, as yet, no word on when or where Hanbit Nano will next attempt flight. RD’s Aurora-8 is not expected to launch for the first time until 2028.

When NordSpace will first attempt an orbital launch is also uncertain. It is planning to launch a sub-orbital vehicle named Taiga later this month. But there are dates currently on offer for the launch of either the 500 kg-class Tundra vehicle or the much larger 5,000 kg-class Titan.

One can speculate that the NordSpace Tundra and Titan are more PowerPoint-y than, say RD’s Aurora-8 at this point. That seems likely given that NordSpace was only founded in 2022. That might have been behind the choice of MLS’s site for the new Canadian government pad. Or there might have been some other politically-based reason for that choice. Whatever the case, it seems Canada won’t have a soup-to-nuts sovereign launch capability until at least 2028 – and most probably later, given the vicissitudes of rocket development.

Of course if some or all of Western Canada should chose to secede from Canada in the interim, then it will be an appreciably diminished Canada that inherits that sovereign space launch capability – and only then if the Maritime Provinces remain part of whatever Canadian entity is centered on Ontario. Should Quebec also leave Canada, the Maritimes will be physically cut off from Ontario. While both NordSpace and Reaction Dynamics are to have launch facilities in the Maritimes, NordSpace is headquartered in Ontario and Reaction Dynamics in Quebec. In quite a number of ways, Canada is living in interesting times these days and its native space industry is no exception.

Salyut was armed, as well as at least one other Soviet spacecraft. Part of that was in response to the US planning (and never deploying) the weirdly named Dyna-Soar, as their spooks (KGB, GRU) figured it was going to be a manned spy satellite, and they wanted an on-orbit fix, just in case.

Since the breakup of the USSR, there have been tons of oddities come out, some almost unbelievable. The armed Salyut? Yawn – another Russkie weapon.

Kevin: Do a search on Behind the Black for Nova Scotia and you will get the real dope on both proposed Canadian spaceports.

The first payload of Energiya was the Polyus Skif-DM demonstrator.

Energia flew fine….the problem was the TKS-ferry/FGB tug. That was atop Polyus proper.

It was supposed to do a 180 and push Polyus to orbit…like our Shuttle orbiter ‘s OMS pods.

But it did a 360, and shoved the complex down instead.

Some suggest Gorby ordered that. There are photographs out there that show disdain on his face towards their space professionals. He and Putin Proxmire types.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/space-launch-pad-nova-scotia-9.7130406

Not much later, Soviet hubris had grown to such an extent that it essayed a campaign of dominance targeting Afghanistan, first by backing the overthrow of the King by a socialist and then, when he proved insufficiently pliable, a formal invasion and installation of a reliable native puppet as head of state. It was all downhill for the Soviet Union after that.

Now, of course, Putin has done something directly analogous in Ukraine and the result for the Russian Federation seems as though it will be identical – though much bloodier and also quicker, start-to-finish.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TP-82

You had an article on this correct Bob