maritime @hexbear.net jackmarxist [any] @hexbear.net 1y ago

The Soviet Akula-class Submarines(Typhoon-class)

The Typhoon class, Soviet designation Project 941 Akula (Russian: Акула, meaning "shark", NATO reporting name Typhoon), is a class of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines designed and built by the Soviet Union for the Soviet Navy. With a submerged displacement of 48,000 tonnes, the Typhoons are the largest submarines ever built, able to accommodate comfortable living facilities for the crew of 160 when submerged for months on end

Construction

The submarine was designed by Sergei Nikitch Kovalyov who was a submarine designer at the Leningrad-based Rubin submarine design bureau.

He was the Chief Designer for the following submarines:

Pr. 658 (NATO Hotel),
Pr. 658M (NATO Hotel II),
Pr. 667A Navaga (NATO Yankee),
Pr. 667B (NATO Delta I),
Pr. 667BD (NATO Delta II),
Pr. 667BDR (NATO Delta III),
Pr. 667BRDM (Delta IV),
Pr. 941 Akula (NATO Typhoon).

Kovalyov and his team started work on Project 941 in 1972.

A 1/10 scale fully automated model was built at the Admiralty Shipyard in Leningrad. It tested the feasibility of such an unorthodox design.

Service

The ocean under the arctic ice is the perfect place to hide a submarine. The ice, shallow waters, and the different salinities play havoc with sonar, to the extent where it's essentially impossible to detect another submarine.

The project was developed with the objective to match the SLBM armament of Ohio-class submarines, capable of carrying 192 nuclear warheads, 100 kt each, but with significantly longer range. To accommodate this increase in range, Soviet SLBMs were substantially larger and heavier than their American counterparts (the R-39 Rif is more than twice as heavy as the UGM-96 Trident I; it remains the heaviest SLBM to have been in service worldwide). The submarine had to be scaled accordingly.

The Typhoon carried 20 missiles, 4 more than their Delta counterparts, but 4 less than the American Ohios.

Reloading looked like this