The last time the author returned to the topic of non-nuclear submarines of the Russian Navy was in January 2018, that is, more than a year ago. Let's see what has changed since then.
So, a year ago, the basis of our non-nuclear submarine forces was 15 diesel-electric submarines of the 3rd generation of project 877 "Halibut", of which, according to the author, 12 were in the fleet, and 3 were under repair. Unfortunately, the author turned out to be too optimistic in his assessment. The fact is that two diesel-electric submarines of the Pacific Fleet, "St. Nicholas the Wonderworker" and "Nurlat", which he counted "ready for a campaign and battle," were in fact endlessly awaiting repairs at Dalzavod. Moreover, one of the diesel-electric submarines, which he considered being repaired, apparently also ended up in sludge. We are talking about the diesel-electric submarine "Yaroslavl", which served in the Northern Fleet.
The ship was planned to be delivered for medium repairs with modernization back in the 4th quarter of 2016, but, apparently due to various crises and revisions of the budget of the Ministry of Defense, there was no money for this. As a result, the diesel-electric submarine was decommissioned, but repairs at Yaroslavl have not yet begun.
Thus, in fact, at the beginning of 2018, the Russian Navy had 10 "Halibuts" in service, 3 in the slop and 2 in repair. What has changed?
From the good: in March 2018, the repair of the Dmitrov diesel-electric submarine was completed and it returned to the Baltic Fleet. As for the rest, the situation has predictably worsened - one of the oldest boats of this type, Vyborg, has left the system and is awaiting re-equipment into a museum ship. That we will have more ships-museums is just fine, but the failure of even an old boat, given their general deficit in the Russian Navy, of course, is frustrating.
Thus, today we have 14 "Halibuts" left, of which 3 of the oldest boats (entered service in 1988) are in sludge, which is unlikely to ever be abandoned. Moreover, their only "contemporaneous" "Vyborg", which until recently remained in the BF, also "retired". Most likely, this is where the history of the "original" project 877, to which all these 4 ships in the Russian Navy belonged, should be considered complete: the rest of the boats in the fleet are modifications of Project 877 (877LPMB, 877M, 877EKM and 877V) …
We can say that in 2019 the fleet has 11 "Halibuts" left, of which 10 are in service: 6 serve in the Far East, 3 - in the Northern Fleet and 1 - in the Baltic. The Black Sea "Alrosa" is being repaired in Sevastopol, and its return to the fleet is expected in 2019. Everything would be fine, but initially it was planned to complete the repairs in 2015, then in 2017, then in 2018 …. And now they promise to hand over the boat this year. Well, let's hope that this promise will still be fulfilled, especially since the leadership of the Russian Federation has nevertheless designated the restoration of the shipbuilding capacities of the Crimea as one of the most important tasks - maybe after that something will get off the ground.
If Alrosa is nevertheless returned to the fleet, it will leave the Black Sea and go to the Baltic Sea, so that the total number of diesel-electric submarines in the BF again, as before the departure of Vyborg, was 2 units. Then the Black Sea Fleet will completely lose Project 877 diesel-electric submarines, but this is just not important, because in the period 2014-16. He was armed with 6 more modern and powerful ships of Project 636.3. In fact, today it is the Black Sea Fleet that is the strongest in diesel-electric submarines among the 4 military fleets of the Russian Federation.
In one of the iterations of the GPV 2011-2020, the construction of another 6 diesel-electric submarines of project 636.3 for the Pacific Fleet was announced. The need for this was realized after it became clear that the serial construction of the newest diesel-electric submarines of the 4th generation "Lada" of project 677 would be impossible to deploy until the early 30s, and perhaps never at all, because the lead boat collided with the number of problems that categorically did not want to be solved.
As you know, boats 636.3, with all their merits, were modernized "Varshavyankas", which themselves were an export version of "Halibuts". These ships are better and stronger than the diesel-electric submarines of project 877 that have remained with us, but they, of course, are no longer at the forefront of military-technical progress. It would be legitimate to say that the boats of Project 636.3 are morally obsolete. Nevertheless, it is obvious that the "Halibuts" do not have to be in service for so long, because even the "youngest" boat of this type, "Mogocha", has been serving for a quarter of a century. And, since the serial construction of Project 677 did not work out, the resumption of production of diesel-electric submarines 636.3 for the Pacific Fleet was completely uncontested.
However, plans are one thing, and fulfilling them is completely different. It became obvious that the gigantic planned spending on GPV 2011-2020. in the amount of 20 trillion. rubles, most of which should have been "mastered" in the period 2016-2020, the country cannot afford. As a result, the leadership of the Russian Federation was forced to abandon the GPV 2011-2020, replacing it with a new GPV 2018-2027. Unfortunately, the details of the new state armaments program were not disclosed in the general press, only one thing is known for certain - its funding will be much more modest than it was planned for the previous GPV. However, there was also a spoonful of honey in the ointment - it was planned to stay at the achieved level, that is, the costs of GPV 2018-2027. it was calculated that the RF Armed Forces will not be financed worse than now.
Nevertheless, since we were talking about limiting funding, then, naturally, there were concerns about the fate of 6 diesel-electric submarines of project 636.3 for the Pacific Fleet. Moreover, despite the obvious release of the production capacities of JSC "Admiralty Shipyards", after the construction of the Black Sea diesel-electric submarines, only 2 new ships were laid down. We are talking about the B-274 "Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky" and about the B-603 "Volkhov", the official laying of which took place on July 28, 2018. The author of this article began to seriously fear that the matter would be limited to these two boats …
But it looks like things might still end well. So, the first good news: on March 28, 2019, the launching ceremony of the lead diesel-electric submarine of Project 636.3 for the Pacific Fleet took place.
But the best part is that the bmpd blog, in an article dedicated to this joyful event, also said that work on the construction of the next two diesel-electric submarines of the same project had already begun, and that the ships, named Magadan and Ufa, are at the stage of forming blocks and conducting hydraulic tests”. The official laying will take place later, in 2019, and bmpd reports that the indicated dates are in full compliance with the previously signed contract for the construction of this series of diesel-electric submarines.
Thus, it can be stated that at least 4 of the 6 planned diesel-electric submarines will still be built and will become part of the Russian Navy. But with the two outermost ships of the series, the situation is not so clear - so far it is only known that the fifth submarine is planned to be called "Mozhaisk", and the naming of the sixth ship has not yet been approved, and there is no information about their upcoming bookmark. But, strange as it may sound, it is quite possible that this is not at all sad, but the most joyful news.
It's all about the progress of diesel-electric submarines of project 677 "Lada".
The above-mentioned "Halibuts", as well as the "Varshavyanka" created on their basis, were diesel-electric submarines of the 3rd generation, that is, of the same technological level as the American nuclear-powered Los Angeles and the Soviet Pike-B. At the same time, both "Halibuts" and "Varshavyanka", of course, were inferior to their atomic "older sisters" in many of their characteristics: they had a much more modest underwater speed, incomparably less autonomy, relatively weak sonar systems … But with all this, "Halibuts "And" Varshavyanka "had one and only, but colossal advantage: much less noise.
As a result, diesel-electric submarines, under certain conditions, could play the role of a highly effective "hunter for nuclear submarines" - while patrolling in a given area, "Halibut" was quite capable of detecting Los Angeles before the more powerful SAC of American Atomarines detects a quieter domestic non-nuclear submarine … And, again, diesel-electric submarines of projects 877 and 636, taking advantage of their low noise, in some situations could attack an enemy ship's order more effectively than the same "Pike-B". In general, our non-nuclear submarines have deservedly received the nickname "Black Hole". And besides this, diesel-electric submarines are much more modest in size and cost than a multipurpose nuclear submarine, and this, of course, also mattered.
But scientific and technological progress does not stand still. The USSR and the USA began to create multipurpose nuclear submarines of the next, 4th generation: we had Ash, in America - Seawolf, and then Virginia. Against them, diesel-electric submarines of the 3rd generation no longer had the former advantage (and most likely did not have any advantage at all), so the issue of creating a diesel-electric submarine of a new type was on the agenda, whose combat capabilities allowed it to occupy the same niche in relation to the Seawulfs. and "Ash", which "Halibut" held in relation to "Los Angeles" and "Pike".
Unfortunately, the creation of diesel-electric submarines of the 4th generation in the USSR began with a certain delay: work on the 677 Lada project was started only in 1987. This predetermined all subsequent difficulties of the project. We began to develop the Yasen MAPL in 1977, and by the collapse of the USSR it was largely completed, so in 1993 we managed to lay down the lead submarine of the series. But the work on the "Lada", obviously, in 1991 was still at an early stage, which is why it was created for the most part already in the "dashing 90s" with all the ensuing "joys", including chronic underfunding, the collapse of cooperation chains, etc..d. etc.
The diesel-electric submarine "Lada" contained a huge number of innovations, it was about the creation of a fundamentally new ship. Less displacement than diesel-electric submarines of project 636, less crew, but at the same time maintaining the same weapons. Single-hull design (the second hull was retained only in the rear of the diesel-electric submarine), a new electric motor, GAK, BIUS, new coating, new means of noise reduction, similar in principle to those used on the Ash, new batteries that were supposed to provide submerged range 650 miles at economic 3 knots versus 400 miles at "Varshavyanka".
The lead boat "St. Petersburg" was laid down in 1997, and was able to be commissioned only in 2010, but the very first tests showed that almost nothing of the main innovations is working as it should.
The "Lithium" combat information system was junk. Wonderful, in theory, SJC "Lira", which included not only a classic antenna located in the bow of the boat, but also additional lateral ones located directly on the diesel-electric submarine hull, as well as a towed antenna, did not meet the declared characteristics. The newest type of rechargeable batteries, which were supposed to provide "Lada" with more than one and a half times superiority in cruising range, for some reason gave out power at the level of 60% of the planned one.
The hopes that these were all childhood diseases that would be quickly corrected did not come true. In the end, the Saint Petersburg was handed over to the fleet, but it was in trial operation, and two serial boats laid down behind it, Kronstadt and Velikie Luki, were generally stopped by construction and re-mortgaged according to the revised project 677D in 2013 and 2015 biennium respectively. Nevertheless, even by that time it was not clear how much the problems that plagued St. Petersburg had been overcome. On the one hand, there were isolated reports of certain successes of St. Petersburg. But on the other hand, in 2016, RIA Novosti reported with reference to an unnamed representative of the Russian Navy that the fleet command decided to abandon the further construction of diesel-electric submarines of project 677. On the one hand, of course, the "unnamed representative" is not the most authoritative source, but there was also a much more serious symptom, indicating the failure of project 677.
The fact is that on September 7, 2016, a contract was signed for the construction of the "magnificent six" diesel-electric submarines of project 636.3 for the Pacific Fleet. It is clear that “to conclude a contract” and “to build” are fundamentally different concepts, but the fact is that if in 2016 the problems of the lead ship of Project 677 were solved, or at least there was a firm belief that the serial 677D boats would come out to an acceptable level, then what was the point in building obsolete diesel-electric submarines of the previous project for the Pacific sailors? Although the diesel-electric submarines of project 636.3 represent a deep modernization of the Varshavyanka, in terms of their combat qualities, of course, they are not boats of the 4th generation.
All this indicated that a bold cross was put on the Ladakh, and therefore the periodic pop-up messages that the fleet might order 2 more boats of this type that flashed in 2017 were not taken seriously. In addition to the above, there were two more reasons for this. Firstly, this news, as a rule, did not come from the representatives of the Navy, but from the leaders of JSC "Admiralty Shipyards", who could pass off wishful thinking. And secondly, at that time, the new GPV 2018-2027. had not yet been approved, so any thoughts about what exactly the fleet would ultimately order were more like fortune-telling on the coffee grounds than any reliable information.
True, the Deputy Commander of the Russian Navy V. Bursuk also spoke about the Ladakhs: according to him, the fleet was still going to order Project 677 boats in a large series. But here, most likely, it was about those happy times when an air-independent power plant would be created for Lada. Taking into account the impasse in which our designers found themselves, trying to design such an installation, the words of the fleet lock looked like a polite euphemism for the expression "When the cancer whistles on the mountain." This was all the more unpleasant because, according to some sources, St. Petersburg was gradually getting rid of its shortcomings. So, "on the Internet", in July 2018, news appeared, with reference to the words of the head of the USC that the protracted trial operation is still coming to an end, and that the lead ship of the 677 series will be transferred to the fleet in 2019.
However, on September 20, 2018, as many as three interesting events took place. First, the second diesel-electric submarine of the series was launched, laid down under the 677 project in 2005, suspended by construction in 2009 and re-laid under the 677D project in 2013 - we are talking about the B-586 "Kronstadt". Secondly, Igor Vilnit, general director of the Rubin Central Design Bureau of MT, made a very unexpected message. According to him, the diesel-electric submarine "Saint Petersburg" in the end not only confirmed all the declared characteristics, but even surpassed them. And finally, thirdly, the General Director of JSC Admiralty Shipyards has once again announced the construction of two more diesel-electric submarines under the 677D project, and, according to him, the signing of the contract is planned for 2019.
Of course, doubts still remain - are the general directors of Rubin and Admiralty Shipyards wishful thinking? If we recall, for example, how many times I. Vilnit talked about "well, almost completely finished" anaerobic installation, which was developed by his Central Design Bureau, then optimism about the fate of project 677 decreases sharply and multiples.
But on March 28 of this year, Igor Mukhametshin, Deputy Commander-in-Chief for Armaments of the Russian Navy, announced that the production of the Lada diesel-electric submarines of Project 677 (probably, we are talking about 677D) will be resumed. And by no means in the bright capitalist future, but in the very near future: according to I. Mukhametshin, the documents for the conclusion of the contract are already being prepared by the relevant specialists of the military department.
It is clear that you will not be full with promises, and that you should start rejoicing in an amicable way after the completion of the contract for the construction of a series of diesel-electric submarines of project 677 (677D), or at least the completion of the trial operation of St. Petersburg. Nevertheless, given the above, we can say that the state of the program of non-nuclear submarines of the 4th generation inspires cautious optimism.
And further. Recently, a number of articles on anaerobic installations have appeared on "VO", under the influence of which a part of the respected audience could get the impression that classic diesel-electric boats are completely outdated, and are unable to operate successfully in high-intensity conflicts today. But in reality, of course, this is not the case. Undoubtedly, submarines with VNEU will have certain tactical advantages. But the combat potential of domestic "black holes" has always been highly valued, and the next-generation ship, which has the best HAC, less noise and many other advantages, will be an extremely dangerous underwater enemy, even with classic diesel-electric power. Especially if work on lithium-ion or other large-capacity batteries will be crowned with success, which will significantly increase the autonomy of domestic diesel-electric submarines.
In general, the near future of our non-nuclear submarine fleet looks like this. Apparently, in the Baltic, our submarine forces will be represented by two "Halibuts", "Alrosa" and "Dmitrov" - both of them have been repaired and modernized (more precisely, "Alrosa" is still in the process) and we can hope that with the proper maintenance the ships will "stretch" for another 8-10 years or so. The Black Sea Fleet, which has recently received 6 new Varshavyankas of Project 636.3, will not receive replenishments from ships of the same class in the foreseeable future. The Pacific Fleet, which has 6 Halibuts, is likely to be gradually re-equipped with 636.3 new builds - that is, as the Varshavyanka arrive from the Admiralty Shipyards, the old Project 877 boats will be removed from the fleet. Although it cannot be ruled out that some of them will still remain in the ranks, and for some time the total number of diesel-electric submarines of the Pacific Fleet will exceed today's 6 units. The Northern Fleet will also be replenished with new boats - today it has only 3 "Halibuts" and "St. Petersburg". Most likely, both boats of the 677D project, which are currently under construction, will go exactly to the north in order to bring the total number of diesel-electric submarines to 6 units. And, most likely, new diesel-electric submarines of the same project will also go to the Northern Fleet in order to form a compound of 6 boats of the same type there. However, it cannot be ruled out that the existing contract for 6 diesel-electric submarines of project 636.3 for the Pacific Ocean will be reduced to 4 units, and the newest Lada will be supplied to the Pacific Fleet instead of the remaining two.
Thus, it can be assumed that "under the curtain" of the existing GPV "Halibuts" will completely leave the Russian Navy, but at the same time the total number of diesel-electric submarines will even increase: if today, in fact, we have 11 "Halibuts", 6 "Varshavyanka" and one "Lada", which never came out of trial operation, then by 2028 we can expect 8 "Ladas" (2 on the Baltic Fleet, and 6 on the Northern Fleet) and 12 "Varshavyanok" (6 on the Black Sea Fleet and TF). Of course, we need a much larger number of them, especially against the background of the landslide reduction of the submarine submarine, but it is doubtful that funds will be found for this. Still, to implement this program, we need to build five new diesel-electric submarines of project 677 and four - 636.3 over the next decade, not counting the commissioning of two diesel-electric submarines of project 677D and 636.3, which are currently in different stages of construction.
