Ministry of Defense decided to put the "Shark" on scrap metal?
29 September it became known that the world's largest nuclear submarines of the 941 Avenue Shark, which are in service with the Russian Navy, fell victim to underfunding, the Russian-American START-3 agreement and new Russian developments. The Russian Defense Ministry has decided to write off and dispose of these strategic submarine cruisers before 2014. Alternative options for the service of submarines are not considered because of the high cost of their implementation, which means that the boats will go for scrap. According to the Ministry of Defense of Russia, the country's nuclear shield will not suffer from this decision.
The military gave explanations that it was impossible to use nuclear submarines for their intended purpose due to the signing by Russia and the United States last year of a treaty on the limitation of strategic offensive arms - START-3, while at the same time, the conversion of 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 be converted into all-season sea trucks or gas tankers.
Typhunov’s career (according to the NATO classification), according to Russian Defense Ministry officials, was destroyed by the new submarines of the Borey project, which are being built on Sevmash and adapted for new Bulava ballistic missiles. Their successful trials make the maintenance of larger and more expensive submarines pointless. The crews of the Borey submarines are 1,5 times smaller than those of the Typhoon, and the costs of maintaining these boats differ. At the same time, the Borey is a more advanced submarine of a smaller size, which is much more difficult to detect, the military argues its decision. The Ministry of Defense believes that any alterations of boats of Project 941 will require the investment of tens of billions of rubles, and it is better to spend this money on the construction of new ships for fleet.
The submarine project 941 "Shark"
According to Sevmash experts, the options for rebuilding these submarines to transport oil, liquefied gas or cargo under the northern ice would not be very expensive for Russian polar ports. Meanwhile, Alexander Konovalov, president of the Institute for Strategic Assessment, thinks differently. In his opinion, the time of the “Typhoons” is irrevocably gone. Today it is a giant submarine, the largest in the world, with a triple hull and very expensive to operate. In addition, there are simply no missiles for them. According to him, the disposal of these submarine cruisers will cost the state several hundred million rubles, which is much cheaper than the re-equipment of submarines for any other needs.
Since the middle of the 1990-s, the production of the main armament for these submarines of ballistic missiles of the P-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, the decision was made to replace all solid-propellant P-39 rockets with a new more compact Bulava rocket. A few years later, all the P-39 missiles in the Russian fleet’s arsenal were declared unsuitable for further exploitation due to the failure of their accelerating stages — solid fuel is subject to more rapid decay than liquid.
Since then, the only submarines of the 667 BRDM "Dolphin", which were armed with the P-29RMU2 ballistic missiles known as "Sineva", remained the basis of our country's nuclear deterrence component. Currently, the Russian Navy has 6 of such submarines: the 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 768 warheads, that is, exactly half of the limit allocated to our country.
So the role of the signing by the Russian side of the START-3 treaty in the fate of the Sharks is also great. This treaty limited the US and Russian nuclear arsenals to 1550 warheads. Moreover, only the new submarines of the Borey project together with the submarines of the Dolphin project can accommodate more than 1100 warheads, which leaves the remaining components of the Russian nuclear triad — the Strategic Missile Forces and the far aviation only 400 charges. There is simply no place for the three remaining nuclear submarines, Project 941, because only one boat 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 Russia's nuclear arsenal.
The submarine project 941 "Shark"
Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry has already disposed of 3 from 6 of existing submarines of this project in accordance with the old strategic arms limitation treaty, START-2. In Russia, it was decided that maintaining the data of a submarine in operational condition costs the Russian budget very expensive - about one 300 million rubles annually were spent on one submarine cruiser.
History emergence
Strategic missile submarine cruisers of the 941 Ave. have been developed at the Leningrad Central Design Bureau "Rubin" since the beginning of the 1970's. The appearance of these boats in the 80 of the last century became a real world sensation. Each boat consisted of 2's separate robust hulls that were connected by transitional locks, 3's robust modules, and 20 launcher shafts that were located between the hulls. All this was also united by a light body. Two strong submarine hull ran parallel to each other. They were located residential crew compartments, control systems and life support, reactors. In one of the three robust modules there was a compartment with 6 torpedo tubes, 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, even from the beyond depth of the dive. The length of the submarine was 172 meters, and width - 23 meters.
The comfort of the submarine at the time seemed just fabulous. The boat was equipped with a small gym and even a sauna in which all the crew members could bathe, including sailors and conscripts. The huge missiles with which the submarines were armed were the most powerful not only in our country, but also abroad. One salvo of the Shark was equal in nuclear power to the 2 divisions of the Strategic Missile Forces, which were armed with the Topol monoblock missiles.
The division of such TAPRK (heavy nuclear submarine missile cruisers) was able to inflict irreparable damage to any enemy. That is why the data of nuclear submarines were allocated to a separate strategic system, which in NATO was called "Typhoon". Under these submarines, a special infrastructure was created in the West Face on the Kola Peninsula, where submarines were based. To ensure their activities in the USSR, special satellites were developed. The money invested in this project was simply enormous, but they developed such a unique strategic system, which was simply not equal in invulnerability and efficiency in the world. Bearing their combat duty "Sharks" should have been under the guise of the Arctic Arctic ice cap, and they could deliver their deadly strikes 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 Klensey, close to the Pentagon, was so impressed with 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 submarine "Shark", who wanted to steal a boat in the United States. The Americans assigned the classification "Typhoon" to the boats of this project, hitting the very point, this was the name of the system that included these submarines.
The submarine project 941 "Shark"
Characteristics of the submarine project 941
The 941 “Akula” TAPRK is the world's largest nuclear submarine developed at Rubin TsKBMT. The task for their development was issued in 1972 year, the first submarine of the series was laid on Sevmash in June 1976 of the year, its launch into water took place in September 1980 of the year. Before its launching into the water in the nose of the submarine, below the waterline, an image of the Shark was painted, and later on the uniform of the crew of the submariners also appeared special stripes depicting a shark.
In total, 1981 submarines of this class were built from 1989 to 6 in the USSR. A feature of their design was the presence inside the light 5 case of habitable durable buildings, 2 of which were the main ones, were parallel to each other and had the largest diameter 10 meters. These two hulls were implemented in the submarine scheme of the catamaran. In the front of the ship, between the 2's solid hulls, there were missile shafts, which were first located in front of the wheelhouse. In addition, the boat also had 3 separate hermetic compartments: a torpedo, control compartment with a central post and aft mechanical compartment.
Submarine project 955 "Borey"
These submarines were able to develop underwater speed in 25 nodes, to 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 the maximum submerged displacement of 48 000 tons. The autonomy of their voyages was equal to 180 days, and the crew consisted of 160 people, of whom 52 were officers. The structure of the "Shark" were 6 torpedo tubes caliber 533 mm. for various types of torpedoes, including the Vodopad rocket-torpedoes, as well as 20 ballistic three-stage solid-fuel rocket R-39 and R-39U. In 1986, it was decided to develop their improved version - the P-39UTTH Bark missile, but by the 1998 year, after 3 unsuccessful launches, the Defense Ministry decided to abandon the development of this missile, ready for that moment by 73%.
The future of the Russian submarine fleet of the 955 submarine
Submarine Ave. 955 "Borey" (according to the NATO classification Borei or Dolgorukiy after the launch of the first ship of the series). These boats belong to the new series of Russian submarines of the SSBN class (strategic missile submarine cruiser). Before 2017, it is planned to build 8 of such submarines. The length of the submarine is 160 m., The width of 13,5 m., The maximum underwater displacement - 24 000 t. The maximum depth of the dive to 400 m., Submerged speed - up to 29 nodes, the autonomy of the submarine - 90 man, including 107 officers.
Today 3 boats of this series “Alexander Nevsky”, “Vladimir Monomakh” and “St. Nicholas” are being built on Sevmash. Construction of the first in the series of submarines "Yuri Dolgoruky" began 2 November 1996, 15 April 2007, the boat was withdrawn from the workshops, 12 February 2008, it was launched, 19 June 2009, the first submarine went to sea and began to carry out factory running tests . The second ship of the “Alexander Nevsky” series was laid on 19 March 2004 of the year, 6 December 2010 of the year was launched, the deadline for the submarine is determined by the 2012 year.
Defense Ministry denied reports about the cancellation of "Sharks"
The Russian Ministry of Defense did not make decisions on the write-off and disposal of strategic nuclear submarines of the 941 Akula project, reports RIA News with reference to a high-ranking source in the military. According to him, all 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 source of the agency did not specify.
Submarines of the Shark project were built in the USSR in 1976-1989. In total, six ships were built under this project, three of which are currently listed as part of the Russian Navy - Dmitry Donskoy, upgraded to the 941UM, Arkhangelsk and Severstal projects. "Dmitry Donskoy" is currently used as a test ship for testing promising intercontinental sea-based ballistic missile P-30 "Bulava".
According to a RIA Novosti source, the Dmitry Donskoy will in any case remain in the Navy "there is still enough time" and will be a reserve ship for testing the Bulava ballistic missiles. Severstal and Arkhangelsk are currently in reserve and stand at the quay wall of the Severodvinsk shipbuilding enterprise Sevmash. “The problem is that these boats do not have any standard P-39 missiles in service. After 1991, they are not manufactured by Yuzhmash (a Ukrainian enterprise engaged in the production of P-39 and P-39 missiles - note 'Lenta.ru” ) ", - said the source of the agency.
Reserve submarines are currently awaiting a decision about their future. Earlier it was reported that the defense ministry could decide either to upgrade Severstal and Arkhangelsk on the 941UM project, or to write off and dispose of ships. In May, Vladimir Navyx Vysotsky, commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy, said that two reserve submarines of the Shark project would serve in the Navy until 2010. At the same time, he noted that "their modernization opportunities are very large."
29 September 2011 was published by the newspaper Izvestia, citing a source in the Russian Ministry of Defense, that the submarines of the 941 project will be written off and disposed of before the 2014 year. The reason for the decision to write off ships was the end of 2011 scheduled for the end of 2012, the launch of the Borey 955 submarine and the conditions of the US-Russia Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-3) limiting the number of deployed nuclear warheads of each of the sides of 1550 units.
The Russian Ministry of Defense did not make decisions on the write-off and disposal of strategic nuclear submarines of the 941 Akula project, reports RIA News with reference to a high-ranking source in the military. According to him, all 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 source of the agency did not specify.
Submarines of the Shark project were built in the USSR in 1976-1989. In total, six ships were built under this project, three of which are currently listed as part of the Russian Navy - Dmitry Donskoy, upgraded to the 941UM, Arkhangelsk and Severstal projects. "Dmitry Donskoy" is currently used as a test ship for testing promising intercontinental sea-based ballistic missile P-30 "Bulava".
According to a RIA Novosti source, the Dmitry Donskoy will in any case remain in the Navy "there is still enough time" and will be a reserve ship for testing the Bulava ballistic missiles. Severstal and Arkhangelsk are currently in reserve and stand at the quay wall of the Severodvinsk shipbuilding enterprise Sevmash. “The problem is that these boats do not have any standard P-39 missiles in service. After 1991, they are not manufactured by Yuzhmash (a Ukrainian enterprise engaged in the production of P-39 and P-39 missiles - note 'Lenta.ru” ) ", - said the source of the agency.
Reserve submarines are currently awaiting a decision about their future. Earlier it was reported that the defense ministry could decide either to upgrade Severstal and Arkhangelsk on the 941UM project, or to write off and dispose of ships. In May, Vladimir Navyx Vysotsky, commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy, said that two reserve submarines of the Shark project would serve in the Navy until 2010. At the same time, he noted that "their modernization opportunities are very large."
29 September 2011 was published by the newspaper Izvestia, citing a source in the Russian Ministry of Defense, that the submarines of the 941 project will be written off and disposed of before the 2014 year. The reason for the decision to write off ships was the end of 2011 scheduled for the end of 2012, the launch of the Borey 955 submarine and the conditions of the US-Russia Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-3) limiting the number of deployed nuclear warheads of each of the sides of 1550 units.
30.09.2011, 10:17:23 http://lenta.ru/news/2011/09/29/akula/
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