Soviet submarines of the Cold War

[RETAC21]

Outstanding pics here:

The Alfa: https://imgur.com/a/alfa-WyJ20

"Although many in the West thought that these boats could dive to over 700 meters, their test depth was 400 meters, the same as the American Thresher/Permit SSNs.  The Pr. 705 boats were designed to have a test depth of 700 m, but due to quality control issues and escalating costs, the pressure fittings of components that penetrated the pressure hull were only rated to 400 m.  It was possible for these submarines to dive to 700 m, but it caused minor damage and could only be repeated a few times before repairs would be needed."

The Akula: https://imgur.com/a/pr-971-shchuka-b-nato-akula-pZCb0

The Typhoon: https://imgur.com/a/pr-941-akula-nato-typhoon-xi3P3

 

[lucklucky]

https://www.deepstorm.ru

[RETAC21]

In French: https://www.soumarsov.eu/index.html

[Yama]

Way cool. Didn't know that Soviets moved to natural circulation reactors during CW already.

[Stuart Galbraith]

According to 'The Silent Deep', Soviet Submarines were getting VERY quiet at the end of the cold war. To the point where everyone was really glad the cold war ended when it did, because they were turning into holes in the water. Likely their acoustic systems were still deaf as a post though.

[RETAC21]

4 minutes ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

According to 'The Silent Deep', Soviet Submarines were getting VERY quiet at the end of the cold war. To the point where everyone was really glad the cold war ended when it did, because they were turning into holes in the water. Likely their acoustic systems were still deaf as a post though.

This is a bit of an exaggeration, which was played by US admirals to get funding for Seawolf:

There were a number of developments that allowed the US/UK to remain competitive, such as computers and improved processing capabilities but, above all, poor manufacturing techniques on the Soviet side, which declined as the USSR fell into disarray. Some stuff helped them (see Toshiba/Kongsberg scandal) but other hindered them (manufacturing of gearings for reduction gear, mismatches between improvements and real hardware, etc)

Of course, the oceans weren't as transparent as they are made to be by each side propaganda and there was plenty of ground for surprises, like an Alfa class submarine counter detecting a Swiftsure class boat and following it up for days using its speed advantage.

[Stuart Galbraith]

Yes, but it wasnt American admirals saying it, it was Royal Navy Sonar operators and submarine captains.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silent-Deep-Royal-Submarine-Service/dp/0241959489

 

Edited December 5, 2024 by Stuart Galbraith

[bojan]

Aaron from SubBrief, former USN submarine sonar operator also noted that IIRC Akulas, Kilos and other "late-gen" Soviet subs were incredibly quiet and very, very hard to  detect.

[Stuart Galbraith]

They were good boats. In that book I referenced, one RN submarine commander was given a walk around a Victor III in Murmansk I think in the early 1990's, and he was impressed. They were solid, well put together boats. And that was basically the first gen taking advantage of the Toshiba Kongsberg milling equipment. They were not even the best the Soviets were putting in the water at the end.

It was an anxiety the  USN had about 10 years ago, when the first of the Yasens was put in the water, again, very quiet. One US admiral even went so far as to put a model of one outside his office as the threat to meet.

[RETAC21]

55 minutes ago, bojan said:

Aaron from SubBrief, former USN submarine sonar operator also noted that IIRC Akulas, Kilos and other "late-gen" Soviet subs were incredibly quiet and very, very hard to  detect.

That is true but also note that he mentions that the noise levels became higher over time due to poor maintenance. Also, the Victor III improved over time, the later ones being better silenced than the earlier boats, but again, poor maintenance made them noisier as they aged.

[Yama]

I have heard the same, that Akulas were quiet when new, but as they aged they became noisier.

Victor III's are also notable for not having a string of serious accidents, unlike many other Soviet boats, seems the long production run allowed to track down all the bugs. Couple are still in service.

[RETAC21]

12 hours ago, Yama said:

I have heard the same, that Akulas were quiet when new, but as they aged they became noisier.

Victor III's are also notable for not having a string of serious accidents, unlike many other Soviet boats, seems the long production run allowed to track down all the bugs. Couple are still in service.

The Victors in general proved to be the most successful class, with no accidents that lead to a hull loss and good reliability as well as good growth capacity.

The Walker spy ring must have been a shock to the Soviet navy once they realized the vulnerability of their boats and the error of not proceeding with Project 991 which emphasized silencing, but adapting the Victor III shows the growth potential of the design, which also became a cruise missile shooter.

I posted this before, but it's still pertinent: https://www.iusscaa.org/articles/brucerule/

Edited December 6, 2024 by RETAC21

[RETAC21]

Assessment of the Akula by the British 1988:

https://x.com/pinstripedline/status/1902075570264928458

[Stuart Galbraith]

Curious that last comment about Polyarny.

[Tim Sielbeck]

 

[RETAC21]

Don't want to lose this: https://thinpinstripedline.blogspot.com/2024/05/royal-navy-classified-submarine.html