On September 29, it became known that the world's largest nuclear submarines, project 941 "Akula", which are in service with the Russian Navy, have become a victim of underfunding, the Russian-American START-3 treaty and new Russian developments. The Russian Ministry of Defense made a decision to write off and dispose of these strategic submarine cruisers until 2014. Alternative options for the service of the nuclear submarine are not considered due to the high cost of their implementation, which means that the boats will go for scrap. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the country's nuclear shield will not suffer from this decision.
The military explained that it is impossible to use nuclear submarines for their intended purpose due to the signing of a new treaty on the limitation of strategic offensive arms - START-3 by Russia and the United States last year, at the same time, the alteration of the boats would cost the military budget a pretty penny. At the same time, the "Northern Machine-Building Enterprise", which was engaged in the construction of these submarines, believes that they could convert them into all-season sea trucks or gas tankers.
The career of the Typhoons (according to NATO classification), according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, was also destroyed by the new submarines of the Borey project, which are being built at Sevmash and adapted for the new Bulava ballistic missiles. Their successful testing makes the maintenance of larger and more expensive submarines meaningless. The crews of the Borey submarines are 1.5 times less than those of the Typhoon, and the costs of maintaining these boats also differ. At the same time, "Borey" is a more advanced submarine cruiser, of a smaller size, which is much more difficult to find, the military argue for their decision. The Ministry of Defense believes that any alteration of the boats of Project 941 will require an investment of tens of billions of rubles and it is better to spend this money on the construction of new ships for the fleet.
Project 941 nuclear submarine "Shark"
In the opinion of Sevmash specialists, the options for rebuilding these submarines to transport oil, liquefied gas or cargo under the northern ice for Russian polar ports would not be very expensive. Meanwhile, Alexander Konovalov, president of the Institute for Strategic Assessments, thinks differently. In his opinion, the time of "Typhoons" is irrevocably gone. Today it is a giant submarine, the largest in the world, with a triple hull and very expensive to operate. Among other things, there are simply no missiles for them. According to him, the disposal of these submarines will cost the state several hundred million rubles, which is much cheaper than re-equipping submarines for any other needs.
Since the mid-1990s, the production of the main weapons for these nuclear submarines of ballistic missiles of the R-39 series has not been carried out. For the most part, this was due to economic considerations; there was simply not enough money for these purposes. In 1999, it was decided to replace all R-39 solid-propellant missiles with a new, more compact Bulava missile. A few years later, all the R-39 missiles in the arsenal of the Russian fleet were found unsuitable for further operation due to the failure of their booster stages - solid fuel is subject to more rapid decay, unlike liquid.
Since then, in fact, only submarines of the project 667 BRDM Dolphin, which were armed with R-29RMU2 ballistic missiles, known as Sineva, remained the basis of the naval component of our country's nuclear deterrence. Currently, the Russian Navy has 6 such nuclear submarines: Bryansk, Verkhoturye, Yekaterinburg, Karelia, Novomoskovsk and Tula. Each of these submarines is capable of carrying up to 128 nuclear warheads, and the entire fleet is fully capable of taking on board 768 warheads, that is, exactly half of the limit allotted to our country.
So the role of the signing of the START-3 Treaty by the Russian side in the fate of the "Sharks" is also great. This treaty limited the US and Russian nuclear arsenals to 1,550 warheads. At the same time, only on the new submarines of the Borey project, together with the submarines of the Dolphin project, more than 1,100 warheads can be accommodated, which leaves only 400 charges for the rest of the Russian nuclear triad - the Strategic Missile Forces and long-range aviation. Within these boundaries, there is simply no room for the three remaining nuclear submarines of project 941, because only one submarine of this class is capable of carrying 120-200 nuclear warheads on board, and the entire fleet of boats is able to eat almost ¼ of the nuclear arsenal permitted by Russia.
Project 941 nuclear submarine "Shark"
Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry has already disposed of 3 out of 6 existing submarines of this project in accordance with the old START-2 Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty. In Russia, it was decided that maintaining these nuclear submarines in a combat-ready state is very expensive for the Russian budget - about 300 million rubles were spent on one submarine annually.
History of appearance
Heavy missile submarine strategic cruisers, project 941, have been developed at the Rubin Central Design Bureau in Leningrad since the early 1970s. The appearance of these boats in the 80s of the last century became a real world sensation. Each boat consisted of 2 separate robust hulls that were connected by gateways, 3 robust modules and 20 launcher silos that were located between the hulls. All this was also united by a light body. The two sturdy hulls of the submarine ran parallel to each other. They housed the crew's living quarters, control and life support systems, and reactors. A compartment with 6 torpedo tubes was located in one of the three durable modules, the other two modules occupied the central post and the aft compartment. The submarine was equipped with a huge rescue chamber, which allowed the entire crew of the submarine cruiser to surface to the surface, even from extreme diving depths. The nuclear submarine was 172 meters long and 23 meters wide.
The comfort of the submarine at that time seemed just fabulous. The boat was equipped with a small gym and even a sauna, in which all crew members, including conscripts, could take a steam bath. The huge missiles with which the submarines were armed were the most powerful not only in our country, but also abroad. One salvo of "Akula" was equal in nuclear power to the 2nd divisions of the Strategic Missile Forces, which were armed with single-block missiles "Topol".
A division of such TAPRK (heavy nuclear submarine missile cruisers) was able to inflict irreparable damage on any enemy. That is why these nuclear submarines were separated into a separate strategic system, which in NATO was called "Typhoon". For these submarines, a special infrastructure was created in Zapadnaya Litsa on the Kola Peninsula, where the submarines were based. To support their activities in the USSR, special satellites were developed. The money invested in this project was simply huge, but it was used to develop such a unique strategic system, which simply did not exist in the world in terms of invulnerability and efficiency. The Sharks were supposed to carry out their combat duty under the cover of the Arctic ice cap, and they could deliver their deadly blows directly from the North Pole.
The Typhoon project was so secret that the American intelligence services had no information about its implementation. American writer Tom Clancy, close to the Pentagon, was so impressed by this submarine that he even wrote the novel The Hunt for Red October, which was later filmed by Hollywood. In this film, Sean Connery played the role of the commander of the Soviet nuclear submarine "Shark", who wanted to hijack a boat in the United States. The Americans assigned the Typhoon classification to the boats of this project, hitting the very spot, this was the name of the system that included these submarines.
Project 941 nuclear submarine "Shark"
TAPRK project 941 "Akula" - the world's largest nuclear submarines, developed at TsKBMT "Rubin". The assignment for their development was issued in 1972, the first submarine of the series was laid down at Sevmash in June 1976, and it was launched in September 1980. Before its launch, an image of the Shark was applied in the bow of the nuclear submarine below the waterline; later, special stripes with the image of a shark also appeared on the uniform of the crew of submariners.
In total, from 1981 to 1989, 6 submarines of this class were built in the USSR. A feature of their design was the presence of 5 habitable durable hulls inside the light hull, 2 of which were the main ones, were located parallel to each other and had a maximum diameter of 10 meters. These two hulls implemented the catamaran scheme in the nuclear submarine. In front of the ship, between 2 strong hulls, there were missile silos, which were first located in front of the wheelhouse. In addition, the boat had 3 more separate sealed compartments: a torpedo compartment, a control compartment with a central post and a stern mechanical compartment.
Project 955 nuclear submarine "Borey"
These submarines were able to develop a speed of 25 knots under water, dive to a depth of half a kilometer. With a total length of 172.8 m and a width of 23.3 m, these boats had a maximum underwater displacement of 48,000 tons. The autonomy of their navigation was 180 days, and the crew consisted of 160 people, of whom 52 were officers. The "Sharks" armament consisted of 6 torpedo tubes of 533 mm caliber. for various types of torpedoes, including missile-torpedoes "Waterfall", as well as 20 ballistic three-stage solid-propellant missiles R-39 and R-39U. In 1986, it was decided to develop their improved version - the R-39UTTKh "Bark" missile, but by 1998, after 3 unsuccessful launches, the Ministry of Defense decided to abandon the development of this missile, which was 73% ready by that time.
Project 955 submarine "Borey" (according to NATO classification Borei or Dolgorukiy after the launch of the first ship of the series). These boats belong to a new series of Russian nuclear submarines of the SSBN class (strategic missile submarine). It is planned to build 8 such submarines by 2017. The length of the nuclear submarine is 160 m, the width is 13.5 m, the maximum underwater displacement is 24,000 tons. The maximum diving depth is up to 400 m, the underwater speed is up to 29 knots, the autonomy of navigation is 90 days, the crew of the submarine is 107 people, including 55 officers.
Today, Sevmash is building 3 boats of this series - "Alexander Nevsky", "Vladimir Monomakh" and "St. Nicholas". Construction of the first nuclear submarine in the series "Yuri Dolgoruky" began on November 2, 1996, on April 15, 2007, the boat was taken out of the shops, on February 12, 2008, it was launched, on June 19, 2009, the nuclear submarine went to sea for the first time and began to carry out factory sea trials. … The second ship of the series "Alexander Nevsky" was laid down on March 19, 2004, on December 6, 2010 it was launched, the date of delivery of the nuclear submarine was set in 2012.
The Ministry of Defense denied reports about the write-off of "Sharks"
The Russian Ministry of Defense did not take a decision on the decommissioning and disposal of the strategic nuclear submarines of Project 941 "Akula", RIA Novosti reports, citing a high-ranking source in the military department. According to him, all the submarines are in the combat formation of the Russian Navy. How long the world's largest nuclear submarines will be in service with the country, the agency's source did not specify.
Submarines of the Akula project were built in the USSR in 1976-1989. In total, six ships were built under this project, three of which are currently in the Russian Navy - "Dmitry Donskoy", modernized according to the 941UM project, "Arkhangelsk" and "Severstal". "Dmitry Donskoy" is currently used as an experimental ship for testing the promising R-30 "Bulava" sea-based intercontinental ballistic missile.
According to a RIA Novosti source, "Dmitry Donskoy" will in any case remain in the Navy "for a sufficient amount of time" and will be a reserve ship for testing Bulava ballistic missiles. Severstal and Arkhangelsk are currently in reserve and stand at the quay wall of the Severodvinsk shipyard Sevmash. "The problem is that these boats do not have standard R-39 missiles in service. After 1991, Yuzhmash has not produced them (a Ukrainian company that produced R-39 and R-39U missiles - note from 'Lenta.ru') ", - said the source of the agency.
Reserve submarines are currently awaiting a decision on their further fate. Earlier it was reported that the military department could make a decision either on the modernization of Severstal and Arkhangelsk under the 941UM project, or on the decommissioning and disposal of ships. In May 2010, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, Vladimir Vysotsky, announced that two reserve submarines of the Akula project would serve in the Navy until 2019. At the same time, he noted that "they have very large modernization capabilities."
On September 29, 2011, the Izvestia newspaper wrote, citing a source in the Russian Ministry of Defense, that Project 941 submarines would be decommissioned and disposed of by 2014. The reason for the decision to decommission the ships was the adoption of Project 955 Borei submarines, scheduled for late 2011 - early 2012, and the terms of the Russian-American Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-3), which limits the number of deployed nuclear warheads for each of the sides 1550 units.
