Typhoon Class Submarine: The Largest Submarine Ever Built - Megaprojects

hello Rory welcome back to a brand new episode of mega-projects this one is all about the typhoon-class submarine I've heard of this it's like the biggest submarine ever built it's an insane project I think it has a swimming pool inside stuff like that anyway we're gonna jump into it so let's get started [Music] in the frigid depths below the Arctic Circle a monster glides effortlessly through the dark water and objects larger than anything ever seen below the waves I mean oh wow how big is a whale compared to a submarine six times longer that a blue whale very gay and armed to the teeth with the kind of weaponry that leads to only one thing nuclear war what first appeared in the 1970s almost gone now but it still retains its hallowed status as the largest submarine ever put to sea and by some distance the Soviets named it the Akula class meaning shark but we know it better by the name given to it by NATO the typhoon class submarine I feel like NATO should have just translated it directly from shark the shark submarine would have been you know cooler what rolled him out of the Saburo to Venus shipyard in 1979 was quite simply a different level the typhoon class submarine had been designed as a direct challenger to the ohio-class of the United States this was at the height of the Cold War with both sides frantically attempting to match each other in every possible way and we've talked about this in previous mega projects just the amounts of innovation that came out of the Cold War in terms of like ways to kill each other but also cool technology related to ways to kill each other pretty extraordinary the typhoon-class submarine came to public prominence in the West Dilys thanks to the 1984 book at 1990 film The Hunt for Red October in which a brooding Soviet captain played wonderfully by Sean Connery goes rogue and that is a fantastic movie if you haven't seen it recommended and people often make fun of me for having seen no classic movies I have seen The Hunt for Red October it's great is he defecting or does he have a sights set on the destruction of the American East Coast I'm not gonna give you any more details it's worth a watch not only as an excellent film but as an insight into what life must have been like on board a typhoon-class submarine while the Soviets had of course kept much of the mechanical systems well under wraps they also wanted the world to know it existed this is all part of the psychological warfare of it now on parade October introduced the wider public to these fearsome monsters for the so let's take a look at the submarine itself first of all it was enormous at 175 metres 574 feet it is only slightly longer than its American counterpart while the width or beam as nautical folk like to refer to it is 23 metres 75 feet compared to just 13 metres 42 feet on the ohio-class you might not think that 10 metres makes much of a difference that it really really does it can sometimes be difficult to compare the submarine simply by looking at their length or their beams so we often focus on water displacement this is the amount of water that the submarine effectively replaces when it is submerged imagine you know putting it in a big really big swimming pool all the water that flows over the side is essentially the size of your submarine and this this is where the typhoon glass stands head and shoulders above anything else at a colossal 48,000 tons it has a displacement of two and a half times the ohio-class 10 meters difference two and a half times the water displacement it was huge so why did the Soviet Union need such a vast Leviathan of a submarine I'm gonna guess here that it was to show up well there are two main reasons we're going to go into the weapons carried on board in more detail shortly but let me start by saying that the missiles carried were significantly bigger than those of the Americans their power was roughly the same but the American engineering was ahead at least in how compact they could make a nuclear bomb the typhoon-class submarine needed to be enormous in order to accommodate the enormous bombs on board simple maths really the second reason was far less practical and certainly more ego driven this may have been secondary to the capacity needed but no doubt Soviet leaders rather enjoy the fact that this submarine was bigger than anything ever created the Cold War game of cat-and-mouse it does have a lot of intriguing aspects to it but simple prestige played a huge role anyone familiar with the space race will know that today only one typhoon-class submarine the Dmitri Donskoy remains in active duty this was also the very first to be built and currently operates as a test platform for the more modern of Aluva missiles to further typhoons the arc angle esc' and the sever star have been held in reserve for the last 15 years [Music] okay so present-day out of the way let's jump back to the start the Soviet Union had fallen slightly behind in terms of submarines in the Cold War the introduction of the ohio-class submarine in the late 70s at a reported cost of two billion dollars adjusted for inflation was a significant turning point for nuclear submarines this was not a submarine designed to wage battle beneath the waves rather this was a ballistic missile submarine capable of single-handedly wiping nations off the face of the earth they were a fearsome rival and didn't Soviets know it at the time the Soviets ride heavily on the Delta class submarines though they would have been the envy of almost every nation around the world the Soviets knew that they had to keep up with the Americans records from the Soviet Union are always sketchy at best but when it came to the production of weaponry it remains a closely guarded secret we believe it was 1979 when the first typhoon-class submarine left the shipyard to begin live testing and it was officially commissioned in 1981 much of what the Typhoon's did with their time will simply never know because it's classified and just remains that way anyway perhaps luckily for everybody the 1980s saw the beginning of the end of the Cold War the days of Cuban Missile Crisis when the world apparently teetered on the edge of nuclear war were thankfully long gone while both the Soviets and the Americans still needed to strut their stuff and flex their mighty muscles every now and again change was in the air in 1986 at the Reykjavik summit US President Ronald Reagan and his Soviet counterpart Mikhail Gorbachev began a series of steps that would limit the number of nuclear weapons held in both countries of the 31st of July 1991 they signed the start 1 treaty limiting both countries to only 6,000 nuclear warheads atop a maximum of 1,600 intercontinental missiles now let's be really clear here that's still enough missiles to destroy the world many times over but you know I guess it was the symbolism that counted and you know one less nuclear missile is still a good thing just under five months later on to some 25th 1991 you probably know what happens the Soviet Union was officially dissolved so what did this mean for these dreadnaughts of the Seas well at first really missile as a new Russia step forward it needed to retain its impressive submarines but it quickly became apparent that the need for such submarines was actually coming to an end while slightly odd facts about the arms reductions treaties was that when the first typhoon was withdrawn from duty in 1991 and scrapped shortly thereafter it was done so with the financial aid of the United States yep Russia's old foe was now effectively paying to help remove its most terrifying weaponry I guess you know kind of money well spent there isn't it the shark or typhoon was a submarine that could remain submerged for a hundred and twenty days and even longer when absolutely necessary just nuclear submarines are seriously cool right but despite its girth life was still cramped within this metal shell there were however some surprising additions please let's talk about the inside swimming pool I really figure or like this it was like a plunge pool or something if they had additions they would make these long dives a bit more manageable each submarine cave with a small swimming pool sauna and gym and when I say a swim ball I really mean a 2 metre long pool so you're not really doing any laps in it but plunging into cold water after a sauna has always been a much-loved Russian tradition so well why not unlike most other submarines the typhoon-class have two central pressurized hulls instead of just one with three smaller above them one for the torpedo room at the front one in the middle for the control room and one of the back for the rudder machinery the two main pressurized holes were a unique design and each housed one reactor and one turbine which would enable the submarine to continue operating if one hull was compromised and needed to be locked down but this was a design forced upon them by the vast size of the missiles that were to be carried it would have been simply impossible for a delta class submarine to carry what be typhoons did [Music] it certainly it was a big boy but it's size really wasn't what NATO was worried about when the submarine appeared as I said earlier this was a ballistic missile submarine not particularly fast na particularly agile it wasn't the TAC class submarines that both the Soviets and the Americans were using while it certainly had the capability to defend itself if attacked underwater its primary use was to act as a mobile nuclear launch pad capable of punching through thick ice firing its missiles off quickly before disappearing again with little trace now I've spoken a lot about the size of the submarine and much of it is because of the 20r 39s known to nato as the SS m20 sturgeon missiles each which had 10 nuclear warheads this was an intercontinental missile with a fearsome reputation weighing 75 tonnes each with a length of 16 meters and a diameter of 2.4 meters 7.9 feet you begin to understand why this was the biggest submarine ever constructed dead ten of these 75-ton missiles are born with ten nuclear warheads in them is it's absurd these missiles at a range of 5,200 miles 8300 kilometers and had a blast yield of between 100 and 200 kilo tons each warhead alone was five to ten times more powerful than what was dropped on Nagasaki at the end of World War two and there were 200 of them now if you know ending the world wasn't enough it also came with six torpedo tubes with a casual 22 torpedoes on the submarine if underwater combat was required I do feel be like hey guys stop attacking me or I will blow up the world now not only did these submarines carry an arsenal capable of destroying significant portions of the world's the engines themselves when you clear the typhoon class submarines ran on to okay six-five 9vv pressurized nuclear reactors using twenty to forty five percent enriched uranium which in turn power to VV type steam engines which could each produce thirty seven megawatts power this total of seventy four megawatts would be enough to power seven thousand four hundred homes in New York City the submarine could travel at a reported maximum speed of twenty two point two two knots or twenty five point five seven miles per hour or forty one point one five kilometers an hour while on the surface and twenty seven knots 31 miles per hour fifty kilometers per hour when submerged now I say these numbers are reported because official speeds have never been released by the Soviets or later the Russians of course whether they remain classified just like everything else but if these are roughly accurate it would make it slightly faster than the American ohio-class submarines there's one story in particular involving a typhoon submarine that was almost passed into legend at this point but it remains frustratingly underreported in September 1991 TK 17 known as Arkhangelsk was ordered to execute a test launch of one of its r39 s without the nuclear weapons of course captain igor grishko of ordered his submarine into the white sea close to the Finnish border and set coordinates for a target thousands of miles away on the Checotah Peninsula this was nothing more than a routine maneuver and one that this submarine had done many times before as the countdown reached 1 it's fair to assume that nobody on board had any inkling as to what was about to happen instead of the swoosh of a missile soaring to the surface they were greeted with the worst possible noise a Submariner can hear an explosion rocked the submarine alarms began blaring frantically now you don't need me to tell you that being onboard a submerged submarine after an explosion must be pretty hellish doing so while also carrying two nuclear reactors and live nuclear warheads a whole lot of them would not only be catastrophic for the crew it could also spell doom for the surrounding area captain grish Cove ordered the ballast tanks be blown an emergency system that shoots in the submarine quickly to the surface at this point the full damage was not known but after surfacing the crew were able to assess the carnage simply by looking down into the submarine from the open hatch and it wasn't a pretty sight several fires were raging towards the bow unfortunately exactly where the other 19 are 39 still sat in stead of launching the missile had partially exploded within its tube and its rocket fuel was quickly spreading across the surface of the boat now at this point spare a thought for captain grish cough you have a closely guarded state secret under your control which is now on fire flames that were quickly moving towards the nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons on board it wasn't clear how many had died already but the fate of the 160 men who remains lay in his hands along with the unimaginable fear of several nuclear explosions his actions that day remained some of the most courageous and quick thinking by any captain you're likely to ever see with a gaping hole in their submarine you'd think that the worst possible course of action would be to dive I mean if you punch a hole in a heavy object in water is gonna sink the captain grish cough he was thinking differently so the disbelief of the croup he ordered the submarine dive once again and warns those in the front hull to expect flooding with extraordinary skill and courage the crew of the submarine carried out his order perfectly and guided the stricken submarine beneath the surface once again when the submarine resurfaced moments later the fires had been extinguished still in serious danger as the Arkhangelsk managed to limp home and the threat of nuclear disaster eventually disappeared many throughout the Soviet Navy felt captain grish cough should be commended for his extraordinary quick thinking but he never was this was a very politically sensitive time in the Soviet Union coming just a month after the failed coup against Mikhail Gorbachev the missile test had been planned to demonstrate an air of normality but such a close call was not the kind of event that the Soviets wish to publicize and it was quickly swept under the carpet captain igor grishko died in 2018 aged 67 his heroic actions still shrouded in secrecy so we know that one of these Titans remains in active service but have we seen the last of this type of mega submarine this is of course pretty difficult to predict but right now it seems pretty unlikely the type in class submarines were designed to carry the kind of weapons that just don't exist anymore nuclear missiles are significantly more compact so something of that size doesn't really make a whole lot of sense yeah there's also I mean there's also less of a dick measuring contest going on because there's you know not the Cold War anymore yes the Soviets needed something to carry around that amount of weaponry but as we said earlier kind of the title of largest submarine in the world was a pretty big draw to them but the reality is we've moved from the age of enormous weaponry to something much more discreet where stealth and speed is a lot more important than size the type in class submarines may have entered the world the only time when the technology and political drive was there to do so another reason they began to fall out of favor was the huge costs associated not just with building them but with the general upkeep their replacement the borei-class submarines cost about half as much and still pack a hell of a punch in recent years emanated from the Kremlin about refitting the Dmitry Donskoy a modern use but this remains to be seen the days of the typhoon class might soon be over and we may never see the likes of it again if you can forget the fact that they were essentially designed to destroy the world we can only marvel at such creations or has this habit of pushing humanity to unimaginable Heights and what lurks menacingly deep in the oceans during the 80s and 90s in particular was exactly that so I really hope you enjoyed this episode of mega projects if you did please do smash that like button below and don't forget to subscribe for brand new videos twice per week at the moment and your suggestions are welcome below and thank you for watching [Music] [Music]

Channel: Megaprojects

Views: 863,016

Rating: 4.8769836 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: WZNTYkRZ8dM

Length: 17min 30sec (1050 seconds)

Published: Wed May 06 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/C4Cole]

"Hello my name is Simon Whistler and today on [Yet another YouTube channel he voices for] we will be discussing [Insert th topic of the video here]"

[u/harishrajan96]

How many Channel do you want ?

Simon : YES

[u/mynameisborromir]

This one broke me. Was one of the worst examples of content theft I've come across in any of my nerdy pursuits. I'm usually ok with some aspect of re-appropriation of open source stuff for the sake of a video but this one hurt for some reason. Not because it dumbed things down (which I did), but because it was just absolutely lazy.

People making money off of skim-coating skim coats of skim coats of thinly veiled skin coats and then posting it as "new content" is one of my least favorite things about the internet echo chamber we're currently living in. It's a read-through of the Wikipedia page, minus any primary source additions and minus anything technical that HI Sutton or someone might give.

I pay for YouTube but would something like this be "monetized"? If so, then they're outright stealing the content and regifting it, minus attribution and minus a single value-add. I haven't had this negative a reaction to something in quite a while. Most of these outlets add at least SOME nugget of new understanding and leave you with a sense that the author/creator got educated on a topic -- or perhaps learned enough to do a decent retelling. This added absolutely NOTHING to the overall knowledge base and if anything left things out of it to make it more palatable, or to make it shorter. Complete bilking/shafting of anyone that's done original content on the Typhoon before. Highly irritating, or even just straight up theft.

[u/pensacolaslim]

“Big son of a bitch”

[u/theKickAHobo]

Boomers literally only provide nuclear deterrence right? They don't do any other kinds of missions? Attack subs do everything else right?

[u/VFP_ProvenRoute]

Compare this to a video by the likes of Mustard or Scott Manley or Real Engineering. It's garbage.

[u/DerekL1963]

Another loser in need of views produces yet another video on the Typhoon class saying absolutely nothing that hasn't been said a thousand times before.

[u/accountscompiled]

This guy has an awesome channel, I wonder if he just set this up since we went into quarantine but absolutely would check it out if you like engineering or modern marvels

[u/riley_malt]

Cold this morning, Captain.