The first SSBN class in Soviet service, i.e. "Big, Radioactive, Nasty and that's just the submarines" This is supported by some very strange activity surrounding the boat before she put to sea note The boat was ordered back on patrol in the middle of her usual rest and refit cycle, and had taken aboard about 10-15 more people than was normal for her final voyage speculation goes that these were KGB men under order from hard-liners to take over the boat and launch a nuclear missile at Hawaii in a False Flag Operation intended to cause a nuclear exchange between China and the US, her failure to make scheduled position reports, and the US Government returning some items to post-Soviet Russia that could not have been recovered from the small section that was supposedly raised. A conspiracy theory claims that K-129 exploded while trying to nuke Hawaii. The CIA "refuse to confirm or deny" whether they have any documents on this raising, the location remains classified, as does what they recovered. Was then, with help from Howard Hughes partially or fully raised by the Glomar Explorer, the deepest salvage operation of all time. It appears to have imploded after going below crush depth. A US spy satellite briefly detected the infrared signature of Soviet ballistic missile fuel burning near her wreck's final location (which remains classified). A search by the Soviet Pacific Fleet seemed to have no idea where K-129 might be, when ballistic missile subs were required to report their position at regular intervals. Sunk in mysterious circumstances off Hawaii in 1968, with the loss of all on board. The plans were sold to China in 1959 and one may still be in PRC service. Nevertheless, they had an excellent safety record, something practically unheard of in the Red Fleet, and were kept in service until the late 80s.Īll were out of service by 1990 and some were sold for scrap purposes to North Korea. Noisier than was practical for a nuclear deterrent force, many of these ended up in the Baltic Fleet, where they could be better protected. Three were converted, each to different variants, for testing of later missiles. 14 were later refitted for the R-21/SS-N-5, which could be launched underwater. The first three carried the R-11FM, but the later ones had R-13/SS-N-4 missiles. Fitted with a system that updated current position and launch settings automatically, reducing launch time to 72 minutes, needing to surface for only 12.Ģ3 were built in all, with six variants. The first dedicated Soviet boomers, although still conventionally-powered. "Carried" (it was rarely if ever deployed with them on board) two R-11FM missiles, which it had to launch from the surface. The design was revolutionary, allowing subs high speed underwater and would have influenced the outcome of the Second World War had it entered service earlier. The Project 611 design was based on the German Type XXI U-boat. The first Soviet submarines to carry ballistic missiles (in fact the first such subs in the world), being converted from attack submarines. They could manage an uncontrolled nuclear reaction, but not a controlled one- yet. "We all live on a Workers' Submarine"- Soviet Conventionally-Powered BoomersĪs with the US, the Soviet Union started off with conventionally powered missile submarines. In a mistake repeated in more than one pre-1989 techno-thriller, the Soviet Navy did not name its submarines, instead relying on an acronym for the size type (TK = "heavy cruiser", B = "Large" for example) followed by its service number. "Boomer" is a US slang term for a ballistic missile submarine, which we will use here. The Soviets developed longer range missiles for the "Delta"-class and then changed to a "bastion" strategy, keeping their subs close to the Soviet Union, supported by surface ships, aircraft and other subs.Īs of December 2014, Russia had in service 3 "Delta III" subs, 6 "Delta IV", 1 "Typhoon" (being used for missile trials) and 3 Boreys. The basic thinking behind all this seems to have been that having an actually deployed system was better for scaring the West than one that was military effective- or even safe (the "Hotel" class is a particular case in point). Their "second strike" doctrine required launch platforms that could stay undetected for long periods of time until they could launch their missiles at the USA, just as it was starting to get back on its feet after an initial exchange.Įarly Soviet missile subs were limited in missile range, forcing their deployment close to the US coast, which was potentially very dangerous in a war- for the crews, as the subs were also considerably noisier than Western ones. The Soviet Union were really into their ballistic missile carrying submarines. SAMs, torpedoes, Mnogo Nukes, no wonder it's such a Cool Boat.
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