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SOVIET COLD WAR
ATTACK SUBMARINES
Nuclear classes from November to Akula
EDWARD HAMPSHIRE
ILLUSTRATED BY ADAM TOOBY
NEW VANGUARD 287
SOVIET COLD WAR ATTACK
SUBMARINES
EDWARD HAMPSHIRE
ILLUSTRATED BY ADAM TOOBY
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
• Soviet naval strategy and nuclear-powered attack submarines
• Submarine design and construction
4
WEAPONS SYSTEMS AND SENSORS
•
•
•
•
•
•
Torpedoes
Anti-submarine guided missiles
Mines
Other weapons
Sonar
Radar and electronic equipment
8
NOVEMBER CLASS (PROJECTS 627, 627A AND 645)
• Design development
• Construction programme
15
VICTOR CLASS (PROJECTS 671, 671RT, 671RTM, 671 RTMK) 19
• Design development
• Construction programme
• In-service modifications
ALFA CLASS (PROJECT 705)
• Design development
• Construction programme
25
MIKE CLASS (PROJECT 685)
• Design development
• Construction programme
28
SIERRA I AND II CLASSES (PROJECTS 945/945A)
• Design development
• Construction programme
30
AKULA CLASS (PROJECT 971)
• Design development
• Construction programme
34
OPERATIONAL SERVICE
• Accidents
• Service summaries
38
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
47
48
SOVIET COLD WAR ATTACK
SUBMARINES
INTRODUCTION
Soviet naval strategy and nuclear-powered attack submarines
The development of nuclear-powered submarines armed with conventional
torpedoes (‘attack submarines’) began almost by accident in the first years
of the Cold War, as a way to make use of a one-off submarine design, the
purpose of which had disappeared with the death of Stalin. Even then, it
took another decade before nuclear-powered attack submarines moved from
behind the shadow of ballistic and cruise missile-firing boats. However, by
the end of the Cold War, nuclear-armed attack submarines – now armed with
torpedoes and torpedo-tube launched missiles – had become the backbone
of the Soviet submarine fleet, with a pedigree of impressive innovation in
propulsion, materials and weaponry.
Nuclear propulsion for submarines had been actively discouraged by Soviet
leaders in the early post-war years, fearful that devoting such resources to this
technology would divert expertise and resources away from the pre-eminent
requirement to develop the nuclear bomb. However, development work did
start on a submarine that would be armed with a single, large nuclear-armed
torpedo, the T15, designed to destroy key NATO naval harbours such as
Pearl Harbor or Gibraltar. In the Autumn of 1952, Stalin finally agreed to
the development of a nuclear-powered submarine, but it would primarily
act as the prototype launching platform for the T15 nuclear torpedo. This
design became the November class (Project 627). On Stalin’s death, it seemed
that this strange submarine design and its huge,
harbour-destroying torpedo would die with its
progenitor. Given that the first was already under
construction, Admiral Kuznetsov, the head of
the Soviet Navy, agreed to retain the submarine
on the condition that it became a conventional
torpedo-firing boat. The design was therefore
hastily recast with ordinary torpedo tubes.
However, this boat was still a prototype with no
guarantee of series construction.
This changed when the Soviets realised that
the United States was beginning to mass-produce
its own nuclear-powered attack submarines. In
1955, the Soviet Council of Ministers approved
The November class was
the Soviet Union’s first class
of nuclear-powered attack
submarines. (Getty Images)
4
the building of additional modified November
class boats, eventually producing a class of 13.
In addition, an experimental boat developed from
the November class, the Project 645, was built
that used a liquid-metal heat exchange medium in
its reactor rather than water.
Stalin’s successor, Nikita Khrushchev, was
sceptical about the need for a large surface fleet
and forced the cancellation of a number of missile
cruiser designs. In 1958, however, he agreed to the
mass production of nuclear-powered submarines,
alongside the development of numerous guided-
missile types. He considered attack submarines to
be less important than ballistic and cruise-missile-firing nuclear submarines
and, as a result, attack boats were the third priority, with fewer hulls
being projected. Khrushchev was a guided missile enthusiast (with a son
working at one of the major guided missile design bureaux) and, although he
acknowledged the need for some attack boats, clearly saw ballistic and cruise-
missile-firing submarines as his first priority. Early design work therefore
began on the second generation of nuclear-powered submarines. Whilst this
was underway, it became clear to the Soviet leadership that the main means
by which NATO naval forces could attack the USSR with nuclear weapons
was shifting. Previously the key threat had been from carrier-borne strike
aircraft equipped with nuclear bombs, but it was now moving to nuclear-
powered submarines carrying ballistic missiles (known as ‘SSBNs’ in NATO
parlance, the SS denoting a submarine, B ballistic missile firing and N nuclear
propelled). The best way to counter such vessels was with torpedoes and the
nuclear-powered attack submarine began to develop a much higher profile.
Construction therefore shifted away from cruise-missile-firing boats – the
pre-eminent underwater ‘carrier killers’ – to the second generation of attack
boats, which would become the pre-eminent ‘SSBN killers’.
Nuclear-powered submarines completed by the Soviet Union
Ballistic missile firers Cruise missile firers
Torpedo firers (‘attack
(‘SSBNs’)
(‘SSGNs’)
submarines/SSNs’)
1958–69
1970–79
1980–91
20 (25%)
52 (57%)
17 (29%)
40 (50%)
12 (13%)
8 (14%)
20 (25%)
27 (30%)
33 (57%)
The USS
Andrew Jackson
of
the Lafayette class SSBNs. It
was submarines such as this
that spurred the Soviets into
increasing the production
of nuclear-powered attack
submarines. (US Department
of Defense)
Total
80
91
58
The second generation of Soviet nuclear-powered attack submarines
consisted of two separate designs. The Victor class (Project 671) was a
logical development of the November class and incorporated a number of
improvements and technical developments, including a new hull shape, single
shaft propulsion, a new sonar and the ability to engage other submarines
underwater as well as just surface vessels. For much of the rest of the Cold
War, the Victor class, and its later variants, became the backbone of the
Soviet attack submarine fleet with 48 completed between 1967 and 1992.
The other second-generation submarine design was a much more radical
vessel – the Alfa class (Project 705). In effect, it re-thought the concept of the
submarine from the bottom up. Not only was a liquid-metal reactor chosen
(developed from the experimental Project 645 submarine), and a light and
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