Typhoon - the largest submarine ever

574 feet of length 48,000 tons of displacement two nuclear reactors and the unique design inside which are weapons that can burn the whole continents to the ground these submarine cruisers became the most powerful weapons banners of the Soviet Navy power and symbols of the Cold War fear today we are exploring the legend of nuclear leviathans by the end of the 1960s nuclear parity between the USA and the USSR was fully formed it was obvious to each of the parties that any attempt of a strike against the enemy would lead to a counter strike the result of which would be complete mutual destruction in addition the attempts to reduce the risk of a nuclear war led to the preparation of special agreements to limit the number of weapons the nuclear race went from a quantity to a quality format both countries sought to create a more powerful effective and long-range systems primarily the ballistic missiles and of course their most important type submarine launched missiles placed in a hidden and dangerous submarines the result of this work in the United States was the ugm 96 Trident this solid propellant missile had a range of up to 4,600 miles or 7400 kilometers and carried six 100 kiloton nuclear warheads a real monster of its time of course the US Navy launched a large project to create a new carrier for this weapon the result of this work with the flagship of the u.s. submarine fleet the ohio-class ballistic missile submarines at the same time work was carried out in the USSR the strategic plans of both countries at sea were similar and Soviet engineers also set about creating the newest strategic missile no less powerful to the Trident they succeeded the new AR 39 missile had a range of 5,200 miles or 8300 kilometers and carried 10 warheads but these achievements had their price the rocket was 60% larger and its mass of about 200,000 pounds or 90 tons exceeded frightens mass by almost three times giving unsurpassed combat performance this huge and heavy rocket became a real challenge for the submarine creators challenges didn't end on the missiles the new submarine had to be able to execute very long term missions including the ones to the outlet region to ascend from under the ice several metres thick and to launch the missiles very quickly it was obvious that no conventional design could satisfy such requirements the development of the typhoon-class submarine began in the early 1970s and the rubin design bureau engineers were to create the revolutionary vessel to solve the whole complex of tasks the designers had to completely revise the large submarine design ideology the result of white research was a completely new design which was technically a catamaran the idea was sophisticated but simple too large pressure hulls made of titanium alloys were built in parallel inside the vessel inside them are located two crew quarters power plants and most of the equipment in addition inside the separate pressure hulls there were torpedo and aft compartments as well as the central control post of the boat the main weapon of the cruiser 20 ballistic missile silos were placed in the space between the large halls there was enough room for them now all these structures are surrounded by steel hull coated with special material that makes the boat most healthy the cruiser has a huge reserve of buoyancy almost half of its displacement is the ballast water this was done specifically to minimize the draft of the vessel in ports as well as significantly increased the lifting force during the ascent the typhoon submarines were planned to navigate in the Arctic and these solutions allowed them to break through the ice up to 200 1/2 meters thick obviously such a huge ship needs a lot of energy the typhoon is equipped with two 190 megawatt nuclear reactors as well as additional steam turbine installations this powerplant gives 50 thousand horsepower to each of the two huge 7 bladed propellers hidden by the Ference that reduced the noise they are able to accelerate the giant to speeds up to 25 knots for 30 miles per hour naturally the huge size of the ship and this new design had an influence on the work conditions of the crew due to the large internal volume they placed recreation zones a gym a swimming pool a sauna and other bonuses incredible for the submarine fleet as a result sailors began to call these boats floating hotels due to this as well as the large number of other solutions the typhoons are able to carry out military operations lasting up to six months the safety level is also very high due to the placement of compartments in separate pressure hulls the probability of the submarine destruction is minimal even when receiving very serious damage for example according to the expert reports a torpedo explosion that destroyed the Kursk submarine would most likely not have caused serious damage to the typhoon class cruisers in addition in 1991 a training missile exploded inside a launch silo of one of the vessels of this class our hungies the explosion and the fire that could destroy an ordinary submarine for this giant were an inconvenient incident and the reason to return to the port for repairs for the event of a disaster with risk of losing the boat there are two rescue chambers on board that allows to quickly evacuate the entire crew of in average 160 people now of course the main weapon of this Leviathan the typhoon class submarines are capable of carrying up to 20 ballistic missiles are 39 according to the NATO classification SS nx20 sturgeon being the largest and the heaviest submarine launched missiles in the world they are equipped with 10 individual guided warheads with a yield of 100 kilotons each the boat is able to rapidly launch all the missiles even from the depths of 180 feet or 55 metres and strike the enemy with 200 nuclear bombs at once a serious reason to think twice before attacking a country owner of such a sub later the missiles were modernized and already in the 21st century the typhoons became the main test sites for the new SS and 30 Bulevar missiles of course of both of this size isn't meant to conduct close combat with ships and others Marines however for this case the typhoon received six torpedo tubes capable of firing conventional torpedoes or special rocket torpedoes to produce ships of this size the self Marsh plant had to be significantly upgraded specifically for them a new construction site was built which became the largest object of this type in the world six football fields can be placed on its roof and the height and interior space would easily allow to place a 20-story building inside it was there when in 1976 the Assembly of the first heavy cruiser TK 208 was started and in the 1980 it was launched at the same time an image of a shark appeared on its boat given the name to the whole class that's why in Russia this submarine class is called Akula or shock while NATO calls it typhoon the construction of the sub was carried out at such an intensive pace that in July of 1991 it already entered the test programme meeting its American rival the ohio submarine by one month at the end of the same year the cruiser entered service with the Soviet fleet in total in the period before 1989 the cold northern waters saw another five ships of this class the operation of the subs was very intense and they had a good performance in 1987 the third vessel of this family the submarine simbirsk set off for the long mission in the Arctic the boat spent almost half a year at sea and during that time even managed to change the crew the replacement was delivered to it by an icebreaker the voyages of course were not always simple in 1986 simbirsk collided with the British submarine HMS splendid but both boats didn't receive serious damage in 1991 a rocket explosion which I mentioned earlier occurred on near Hongik submarine also back in the mid 80s one of the boats got caught in the fishing nets well what can I say nobody had caught a shark this big ever before and of course the typhoons were the authors of probably the most epic and very scary pictures of several ballistic missile launches when the boat launched its entire almost at once there was no apocalypse though the launches were a part of weapons disposal and the missiles self-destructed mid-air the typhoon submarines were a very dangerous weapon and along with their class brothers the ohio submarines they are considered to be the real symbols of the Cold War in a sense the fear of those weapons made the leaders of both nuclear superpowers to calm down and start negotiations for peace however the operation of these sea monsters was a difficult and costly work the collapse of the USSR and practically the complete lack of funding for the Navy nailed the subs to the shore during the following years most of them were withdrawn from the fleet and some boats were disposed of in 2017 there was only one giant in operation which has been modernized and named Dmitri Donskoy this submarine is now the main platform for testing the new weapons primarily the boulevard ballistic missiles it is likely that by the mid-2020s all typhoons will retire passing the title of the main sea nuclear predators to the new generation of borei-class submarines the more modern and efficient but smaller in size such sea giants as the nuclear submarines of the project 941 Pakula the world will probably never see again they fulfilled their duty by showing the terrible power of the nuclear fleet they did not allow anyone to use this power and now they will take their rightful place in the history of shipbuilding sea sailing and military operations [Music] [Music]

Channel: Horizon

Views: 1,449,340

Rating: 4.7778163 out of 5

Keywords: ssbn typhoon, soviet submarine, typhoon submarine, typhoon submarine documentary, akula class, akula submarine, shark submarine, tzar submarine, giant submarine

Id: agUwlSJUtbc

Length: 10min 46sec (646 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 24 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/dempom]

What are those two aft doors by the screws? What are those for?

[u/scanlan_MVP]

P a v a r o t t i i i comin' out their asses!