History knows many cases when ideas and projects that were not implemented in life could significantly change the history and development of mankind as a whole.
One of these ideas was developed on paper, but it never came to construction and production - this is the idea of creating transport and landing submarines.
In the Soviet Union, in principle, as in other countries at the time of the outbreak of World War II, submarines could either act for their intended purpose or transfer a small group of troops or agents to their destination.
At the end of 1941, when the troops of the Red Army were surrounded on the Crimean peninsula, in the city of Sevastopol, they began to receive support with ammunition, food and military units, and civilians were evacuated from the surrounded city. The supply of provisions and ammunition, as well as the evacuation of people, was carried out with the help of surface ships, but due to powerful opposition and complete domination of the enemy both at sea and in the air, the loss of surface ships of the Soviet Union became catastrophic, almost no one returned from relief operations. Then they connected submarines to the operations, during the siege they delivered more than 4,000 tons of food and ammunition, evacuated about 1,500 people with relatively small losses.
The experience of using the submarine fleet for the delivery of food and ammunition, as well as for the transfer of a large number of people, led the command of the Soviet Navy to the idea of creating a new class of submarines for the transfer of landing troops and the transportation of large cargo. Projects were proposed for creating underwater barges for transporting various cargoes of large tonnage, which could be moved to their destination by a conventional submarine or underwater tug of Project 605. Submarine barges under the project could be built in large numbers, due to the simplicity of the barge itself. There were practically no problems with the creation of underwater barges, but there was a problem of transporting barges to their destination, due to the impossibility of quickly solving this problem, the Navy command abandoned this project.
At the end of July 1942, the development of Project 607, a small cargo submarine, began. According to the project, the submarine could deliver up to 250 tons of cargo and 100 tons of fuel, there were folding loading cranes for loading and unloading cargo. But unfortunately, in 1943, when the project was fully ready for production, the situation on the fronts changed radically, and the need for such cargo boats disappeared and the project was frozen. But here I would like to note that the project was completely ready to go into mass production, and no problems were found in the implementation of the project.
After the end of the war, in order to quickly respond to the threat that arose, in the Soviet Union, the Rubin Design Bureau (TsKB-18) in 1948, by order of the Navy command, developed project 621 - an airborne transport submarine cruiser.
It was a completely new concept for building a submarine with two decks:
- carrying capacity of 1,550 tons (on board there could be ten tanks, 12 trucks with three trailers, four cars, 12 85-mm artillery pieces, two 45-mm guns, three LA-11 aircraft, ammunition, fuel and provisions.
- landing in the amount of 750 people;
armament of underwater docks:
- two twin anti-aircraft 57-mm automatic cannons;
- one 25-mm anti-aircraft automatic cannon;
- machine tools for rockets, ammunition 360 units;
The same design bureau developed project 626 in 1952, which was a reduced version of project 607 for carrying out amphibious transport operations in Arctic conditions.
Main characteristics of project 626:
- carrying capacity of 300 tons (up to five tanks and a fuel supply to them, or a landing in the amount of 165 people, or ammunition and provisions)
- armament: two 533-mm torpedo tubes, four torpedoes ammunition, two P-25 anti-aircraft guns.
In 1956, the Rubin design bureau developed Project 632 - an underwater minelayer capable of carrying up to 100 new PLT-6 mines and transporting 160 tons of various fuels. The mines were stored either in the "wet" version or in the "dry" version.
Project 632 was soon transferred to TsKB-16, due to the heavy workload of TsKB-18. By 1958, the project was ready for serial production, but the Central Committee of the CPSU adopted a seven-year program for the construction of ships and submarines, and Project 632 was not included in it and the project was frozen.
Its place is taken by project 648, developed by TsKB-16 in 1958 on the basis of project 632. The submarine could take on board up to 1000 tons of fuel, 60 tons of drinking water, 34 tons of provisions in the calculation of providing 100 people for three months.
The project 648 submarine could transfer fuel under water, aviation fuel could receive seaplanes, evacuate up to 100 people and transport up to 120 landing people.
However, due to the difficulties of transferring fuel and the increased interest in nuclear propulsion, the project was frozen in 1961. The 648M project appears with two nuclear reactors with a capacity of 6000 l / s. each, which increased the autonomy of diving up to 25 days and ensured the operation of diesel-electric engines up to 80 days. But this did not help the project win a place in the sun.
The next project, which received the approval of the command of the Navy - Project 664.
The project of a large nuclear submarine - a minelayer with transport and landing capabilities was launched in 1960, the work was carried out by TsKB-16. The boat could carry up to 350 people of the amphibious group or up to 500 people for 5 days. The boat could carry up to 1000 tons of fuel, 75 tons of drinking water, up to 30 tons of provisions.
But soon, due to the complexity of performing all the functions of the submarine in one building - mining, transporting goods and people, work on the project was suspended in 1965. In the future, due to the priority construction of missile submarines, the project is completely frozen.
Main characteristics of the project:
- displacement of 10150 tons;
- speed 18 knots;
- immersion depth 300 meters;
- sailing autonomy 80 days;
- length 141 meters;
- width 14 meters.
The command of the Navy needed submarines capable of secretly delivering cargo and troops, and the work on the design of submarines of this class was continued. In 1965, work began on project 748 - a transport and landing submarine.
The boat according to the project could carry out the delivery of up to 1200 people or twenty pieces of equipment, as one of the options - delivery to a given point of a reinforced marine battalion with 3 amphibious tanks PT-76, 2 BTR-60, 6 mortars. But the customer, the Ministry of Defense, did not accept the order, and the project was frozen.
Main characteristics of the project:
- displacement of 11,000 tons;
- speed 17 knots;
- immersion depth 300 meters;
- sailing autonomy 80 days;
- length 160 meters;
- width 21 meters.
In 1967, design work on a large transport and landing submarine - a minelayer was continued, the new project received serial number 717, TsKB-16 continued to work on the basis of projects 748 and 664. It was supposed to be the largest submarine cruiser at that time with the ability covert delivery of 800 people and 4 armored personnel carriers, or up to 20 tanks and armored personnel carriers, could carry out the evacuation of civilians, troops and the wounded.
When considering the project in 1972, the Ministry of Taxes puts forward a new requirement for the submarine - the rescue of the crews of sunken ships and submarines. Consideration of the revised project was postponed to the end of 1976.
At that time, the priority construction of missile submarines was underway in the Soviet Union, and as it turned out, to build a project 717 submarine, it was necessary to use the power from submarines under construction with nuclear weapons on board and nuclear reactors. Therefore, the Ministry of Defense suspended project 717, and it was no longer considered.
Main characteristics of the project:
- displacement 17,500 tons;
- speed 18 knots;
- immersion depth 300 meters;
- length 190 meters;
- width 23 meters;
- draft 7 meters;
- a team of 111 people;
- sailing autonomy 75 days, with a landing party 30 days, with wounded and civilians - 10 days;
Armament:
- six 533-mm torpedo tubes, 18 ammunition units;
- two mine tubes, 250 ammunition units;
- two 23-mm anti-aircraft gun mounts;
This ended the era of transport and landing submarines, but history also knows projects for the creation of underwater tankers to deliver fuel to hard-to-reach places and ships on the high seas.
So, in 1960, a project 681 underwater tanker was designed, it was intended primarily for the auxiliary fleet and the civilian fleet, with a displacement of 24,750 tons, and two nuclear reactors.
In 1973, TsKB 16 began designing an underwater tanker of Project 927, but none of the projects went into production.
Once again, interest in submarine tankers was shown in the 90s, TsKB-16 began designing an underwater tanker capable of delivering fuel in Arctic conditions. The tanker could transport up to 30,000 tons of fuel and carry up to 900 standard freight containers. The tanker was fully loaded in 30 hours. However, the financial crisis and the collapse of the Soviet Union left the project without a chance of being embodied in metal.
