Submarines of the project "Ash"
How Russian fourth-generation nuclear submarines were created and what they were capable of
A little over a year ago, the Naval fleet Russia entered the K-560 submarine Severodvinsk - the first multi-purpose submarine of the Yasen project, aka the 885 project. And the first submarine, laid not in the Soviet Union, but already in Russia: the Severodvinsk bookmark took place in 1993.
For obvious reasons, the construction of the first ship of the project "Ash" stretched over 20 years. But despite this, “Severodvinsk” as the main submarine of the project and the rest of the submarines, which should be put into service before the 2020 year, fully meet the challenges of the times, and the concept of the modern navy. Although the fate of the fourth-generation submarines was very, very difficult ...
We need fourth generation submarines!
The beginning of work on fourth-generation submarines can be attributed to the second half of the 1970-x. The topic was taken up simultaneously in the USSR and in the USA - the main rival powers of the bipolar world competed with each other in all areas.
In the Soviet Union, three main design bureaus were engaged in designing the next-generation submarines: Leningrad Rubin and Malachite and Nizhny Novgorod Lazurit. In accordance with the then prevailing naval doctrine in the new generation, nuclear submarines of all three basic types were to appear: with ballistic missiles, with cruise missiles and multi-purpose. The first and second, as usual, were engaged in “Ruby”, the third - in “Malachite” and “Lazurite”.
Designers "Rubin" was to create a nuclear submarine cruiser with cruise anti-ship missiles. It is these boats in the West called the "killers of aircraft carriers." The Lazurit specialists took up the creation of an anti-submarine submarine - the same as that developed a bit earlier in the same design bureau of the 945 "Barracuda" submarine with a titanium hull. And in “Malachite” they worked on the most promising project - a multi-purpose submarine capable of carrying on board both torpedoes, cruise missiles, and torpedoes.
Creating a new generation of weapons, unless it is conducted in a war, is never fast. So work on the new Soviet submarines dragged on until the second half of the 80's. In proportion to the effort and improvement of the characteristics of future boats grew and their price, and the complexity of construction and maintenance. And finally, the moment came when it became clear: it would not be possible to maintain the former multiplicity of strike submarines in the Russian Navy. It was necessary to look for an option that would be able to combine the capabilities of both torpedo submarines, and boats with cruise missiles, and anti-submarine submarines.
Create one of the three good submarines
This option ultimately became the project 885 "Ash" Leningrad KB "Malachite". The new "malachite" submarines were to become the first Russian submarines of such a wide specialization. However, this decision, being completely revolutionary for our country, was successfully applied in other states. And the changing configuration of world politics and the obvious change of calls that the navy has to accept, said that such universal boats would very soon take the lead in the fleets of the whole world.
The basis for the Malachite project - and at the same time the boats that were to be replaced by the new submarine - were the multipurpose submarines of the 705 (K) Lyra and 971 Schuka-B projects and the 949A cruise missiles “ Antey "aimed at combating aircraft carrier links. It was clear that in appearance, which provided the greatest underwater speed, the new boats would be similar to the Lyra and Pike-B, and in size, allowing them to deploy cruise missile launchers, to the Antei.
Project 705K. Photo: topwar.ru
But there were no such projects in the USSR before. In fact, the designers of “Malachite” had to repeat the feat of Mikhail Koshkin, designer of T-34, to create a universal submarine in a burst of illumination, capable of solving practically any tasks, except maybe strikes with ballistic missiles. It is not surprising that such a difficult task required more time for its implementation. The project, which could be launched in the series, was only ready for 1990 year. That is, just when the country ceased to exist, ordered such an unusual submarine. And it was completely incomprehensible who, how and when would give the order to start building a new submarine of the 885 “Ash” project, which was to become the basis of the submarine fleet of the USSR - a state that was no longer there.
Twenty years and nine days of the prehistory of the first "Ash"
Despite the catastrophic blows that the new Russian authorities inflicted on their main and only allies, the army and the navy, there were cold heads in the country who understood that if no new boats were laid now, then perhaps no one will ever build them. And they managed to get 21 of December 1993 of the year on Sevmash to lay the first submarine of the 885 “Ash” project. The new boat was added to the lists of the Navy ships on 11 days earlier - December 10 1993 of the year, and received the K-560 board number.
"Severodvinsk" - namely, the name of the new boat acquired by its birthplace - became the first warship laid down in post-Soviet Russia. But for the first few years it seemed to everyone who was involved in the construction of new ships for the Russian fleet that it would be the last. Because the boat was mortgaged, and then, it seems, they forgot. In any case, the financing of the construction of this submarine, like all other boats laid earlier, in the last years of the Soviet Union, slowly but surely faded away. And by the year 1996 came down completely: the construction of the boat was stopped for eight long years.
During this time, quite a few events happened that determined the further fate of the boat. In 2001, it was decided to redesign the boat already under construction on the 08850 project - with new equipment and upgraded weapons. At the same time it was planned that the refined and completed boat would be launched after four years. But this time could not be sustained. By this time, they had only time to complete the formation of the solid body of Severodvinsk, and the launching was postponed for another five years.
The new deadlines turned out to be more realistic - not least because the management and employees of Sevmash, seeing that their efforts were not only not in vain, but were again in great demand, worked with all their might. 15 June 2010 of the year “Severodvinsk” left the berth shop in the floating dock “Sukhona”, and nine days later, on June 24, the boat was launched into the water.
On the first sea trials, the submarine came out only over a year later - 12 September 2011 of the year. And after more than two years, 30 December 2013, “Severodvinsk”, which managed to make 14 sailing to the sea with a total duration of 222 day, several thousand miles and make more than a hundred dives, was officially adopted by the Russian Navy. It’s possible to say that the date is round: exactly 20 years have passed by this time - and 9 more days ...
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin and Deputy Defense Minister Yury Borisov at the ceremony of laying the fourth-generation nuclear submarines at the PO Sevmash enterprise in Severodvinsk. Photo: / RIA News
Family of Seven "Ash"
24 July 2009, when there was still a year before the launch of Severodvinsk, the same submarine of the same class, Kazan, was laid at the same enterprise, Sevmash. More precisely, almost the same: for the years that have passed since the first X-ray of 16 was laid out, the project has been significantly upgraded. So, both Kazan and the following submarines are considered to be built according to the 08851 project, also known as Yasen-M.
There are no significant differences in the design between Severodvinsk and its actual sister-spikes of the 08851 project. Experts mention only the optimized contours of the boats of the modernized project, which should have a positive impact on speed and noise. But in the equipment there are more than enough differences! After all, even at the Severodvinsk some types of equipment incorporated in the project at the time of their actual installation were replaced by more modern ones, what can we say about Kazan and other boats.
The first and most important difference between the boats of the 885 and 08851 projects is the element base. In the “stuffing” of the first “Ash”, which is natural for a boat designed at the sunset of the USSR, there were a lot of units, mechanisms and devices that were manufactured at the enterprises of the fraternal Soviet republics. It was not possible to completely abandon the elements actually released in foreign countries by the time the first boat was equipped, although much has already been replaced by Russian components and assemblies. But on the “Kazan” Russian everything - as they say, from the first rivet to the last posting. And not just Russian, but brought, upgraded or designed over the past 10 – 15 years. It is not by chance that in open sources one can find a lot of information about Severodvinsk, which often appeared earlier than the boat itself left the slipway shop. But about “Kazan” and others - almost nothing.
Meanwhile, today in the family "Ash" is listed as five submarines. In addition to the first "Severodvinsk" and the head "Kazan" is the submarine "Novosibirsk", "Krasnoyarsk" and "Arkhangelsk".
Novosibirsk, which has been assigned the K-573 tail number, was laid on Sevmash four years after Kazan: July 26, 2013. According to forecasts, it should be put into service no later than 2019 of the year, and some optimistic experts believe that earlier, perhaps, already in 2017.
K-571 “Krasnoyarsk” was laid down in the North Sea shipyard a year after Novosibirsk, July 24 2014. And less than a year later, 19 March, 2015, Arkhangelsk was also founded there. Both of these boats should be commissioned no later than 2020 of the year - at the same time as two more submarines of the project "Ash", which are planned to be laid before the end of this year. The laying of the last, seventh boat of the project, according to the general director of Sevmash Mikhail Budnichenko, is scheduled for 2016, and the entry into service is for 2023 year.
The seven submarines of the Yasen and Yasen-M projects should cost the Russian budget a total of 258 billion rubles. The most expensive, as is usually the case with new projects, were the head boats - “Severodvinsk” and “Kazan”: each of them cost 47 billion rubles. The remaining five boats are worth less - just 32,8 billion rubles each. However, against the background of the total amount of appropriations for the construction of new warships for the Russian Navy, which should be allocated before 2020 year - and this is 4 trillion rubles! - This price does not look too high. Moreover, our fleet has not received new atomic multipurpose submarines for a very long time - since 2001, when the submarine K-335 “Gepard” of the project 971 “Pike-B” entered service.
Submarine "Kazan", which tested the prototype of the SJC "Irtysh-Amfora", Severodvinsk. Photo: pilot.strizhi.info
Atomicin, which in Russia has not yet been
Atomicin, which in Russia has not yet been
What are the submarines of the project "Ash" (together with the "Ash-M") in terms of design, equipment and weapons? And in what way is their affiliation not to the well-proven third generation of submarines, but to the new, fourth?
Start with the design. The submarines of the “Ash” project are one-and-a-half, i.e. the light outer hull covers the inner solid not completely, but only partially: spherical - in the bow, light superstructure - in the center, in the felling area and starting from rocket mines to the stern. This is an absolute innovation for domestic nuclear submarines, which have always been a double-body. To go to such a radical step designers have forced the demands of the military to make the boat as less noisy as possible, and therefore as inconspicuous as possible. After all, it is the external light hull that plays the role of a kind of resonator for all the noise that a submarine can make.
The durable hull of the boat is divided into nine compartments. In the first, whose length is 12 m, is the central post - so to speak, the brain of the boat. And from here the exit to the strong cabin is laid, to the emerging rescue chamber, in which the whole crew of the "Ash" can fit - 90 people. The second compartment length 9,75 m - torpedo. Such an unusual arrangement of torpedo tubes — almost in the middle of the boat, and even at an angle to the longitudinal axis — has also never been used on domestic multipurpose nuclear submarines. As a rule, torpedo tubes are located in the nose section - but on the Yasen it is all occupied by the antenna of the hydroacoustic complex. The third compartment length 5,25 m occupy general ship devices and mechanisms, the fourth, 9-meter, reserved for medical and residential premises.
Remarkably, the second, third, and fourth compartments account for almost half of the total length of the robust hull, and it is here that there is practically no light hull - not counting the superstructure. But further, starting from the fifth rocket compartment of length 12,75 m, the boat becomes a classic double-hull, while the robust hull sharply decreases in diameter. The sixth compartment with a length of 10,5 m - reactor, seventh and eighth, having a length of 12 m - respectively, the turbine and auxiliary.
Missiles, torpedoes and torpedoes
But by itself, a boat without weapons and control systems is just a metal hull, even if it was designed to meet the most modern requirements. A submarine becomes a real warship when all the equipment intended for combat operations is installed on it.
And from this point of view, the submarines of the project "Ash" have surprisingly powerful equipment! Perhaps we should start with eight rocket mines, the caps of which are located behind the wheelhouse fence. In them are located the transport and launch containers of cruise missiles of the operational-tactical complex “Onyx” - the main weapon submarines of projects 885 and 08851. Each mine contains four containers with cruise missiles, so that the total ammunition of the boat is 32 missiles. Moreover, on-site Onyx, if necessary, you can install strategic long-range cruise missiles X-101 (or X-102, if the missile has a nuclear warhead).
In addition, the standard armament of the Yasen submarines includes the Caliber missile system, which includes anti-ship cruise missiles, cruise missiles to destroy ground targets and anti-submarine missiles. All these elements can be fired from the torpedo tubes of the boat or from the transport and launch containers in the launch shafts.
Finally, we should not forget about the traditional armament of submarines - torpedoes. The submarines of the project "Ash" are used specially created for them universal deep-sea self-guided torpedoes UGST: their ammunition is 30 pieces. Moreover, all the torpedoes of the traditional 533 mm caliber: the use of heavier 650 mm torpedoes on this project’s boats was already abandoned during the construction of the Severodvinsk, although they were still present in the draft design of the boat.
Bookmark the leading ship "Severodvinsk". Photo: militariorgucoz.ru
Very quiet submarine with very sharp hearing
Very quiet submarine with very sharp hearing
Special mention deserves the sonar complex of submarines of the project "Ash" - the eyes and ears of these multi-purpose submarines. It was for the main element of the complex, the spherical antenna Amphora, that the designers sacrificed the classical placement of torpedoes in the nose compartment. And for the first time in stories domestic submarine forces all processing of hydroacoustic information is carried out exclusively by software. For this, in particular, the Ajax-M digital data acoustic library is used. The whole hydroacoustic complex is sometimes mistakenly named after her, although in reality it bears the more complex name “Irtysh-Amfora-Ash”, since in this form it is intended for the submarines of the 885 and 08851 projects.
Despite the fact that such technical and software solutions that have been used abroad for a long time, were a novelty for Russian designers, the characteristics and combat capabilities of domestic developments are in no way inferior to foreign analogues. Moreover, this assessment is given not only and not so much by Russian experts, but primarily by their foreign colleagues. It was they who were the first to sound the alarm about the appearance of the Severodvinsk submarine as part of the Russian Navy. After all, the sonar complex of submarines of the project "Ash" allows these boats to detect the enemy before he does. Moreover, according to foreign experts, the nearest competitors of fourth-generation domestic submarines - the American "Sea Wolf" and "Virginia" are subject to such early detection using the Irtysh-Amfora-Yasen complex.
But not only the ability to "hear" the enemy scares foreign experts and seamen. No less unnerving and significantly lower than the previous domestic submarines, the noise of the submarines of the project "Ash". Separate efforts were made to achieve so low noise of the boat - and they were crowned with success. So, the main power plant of the boat - the KTP-6-185SP reactor with a water-water steam generating unit KTP-6-85 - is a single vessel in which the reactor and its first cooling circuit are mounted. Due to this decision, it was possible to get rid of large-diameter steam pipelines and circulation pumps, which provide a significant part of the noise of modern atomic submarines. True, this, unfortunately, does not apply to the first boat - “Severodvinsk”: they did not have time to produce a new integral reactor and installed run-in on third-generation submarines VM-11, which is much more noisy.
We have already said that it was possible to reduce the noise of the submarine due to the one-and-a-half structure. In addition, the submarines of the project "Ash" used an active noise cancellation system, which is equipped with the foundations of all critical nodes, and the traditional rubber-cord shock absorbers of devices and mechanisms have been replaced by much more efficient spiral cable, non-combustible. The main propeller, a seven-blade propeller of a special design, also works to reduce the noise level of the submarines of the “Ash” project.
Untranslatable Yasen
In a word, even taking into account the fact that more than three decades have passed from the start of designing the first fourth-generation submarine of the Yasen type to its entry into service, these submarines now fully correspond to modern tasks and challenges. Moreover, six of the seven submarines of the project will be built on its upgraded version, which involves the use of much more modern mechanisms and equipment than the original. According to both Russian and foreign experts, at least until the middle of the XXI century, submarines of the project "Ash" will be able to perform all the tasks assigned to them. And by that time - and there is every reason to hope for it - the fifth generation submarines, which, by the way, foreign experts initially attributed to "Ash", will already go into service with the Russian Navy: these new Russian submarines turned out to be very unusual.
By the way, a remarkable fact, indirectly indicating the actual attitude of foreign military to the project "Ash". Of all the Soviet and Russian naval submarines that were put into service, only these in the NATO classification are denoted by the same name - Yasen (sometimes on the project’s main boat, Severodvinsk). The formal explanation is simple: by the end of 80, all the 25 letters of the Latin alphabet, which the Soviet submarines traditionally denoted in the North Atlantic Alliance, have ended. That, however, did not prevent twice using, for example, the letter "T": in the word Typhoon - to designate submarine missile carriers of the 941 project "Shark", and in the word Tango - to designate submarines of the 641 project "Som". But, apparently, “Ash” turned out to be so breakthrough submarines that in the West they decided to leave their own name behind them - and quite rightly. The Russian submarine of the fourth generation was in all senses untranslatable.
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