2023-07-06 08:18:01
They ran in the eighties times of the Cold War and arms race. The USA was the queen of the seas and the USSR, at the hands of a newcomer Yuri Andropov, longed to catch up with its competitor. The result was a ‘Soviet naval rearmament’ based on the following maxim of the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Sergey Gorshkov: «There will come a day when the ocean decides the fate of the world. Large military and industrial states that do not have a corresponding naval force will not be able to maintain their role as a great power for long. ABC replicated his words in a report dated December 1, 1982 and entitled “Submersibles and the Merchant Navy, two powerful assets of the USSR.”
Aces up your sleeve
At that time, ABC reported that the Soviet Union was immersed in its “most colossal undertaking since 1950”, a “gigantic effort” that would bear fruit by the end of the decade. The first trick that the Kremlin had put on the table was the creation of a “civilian navy at the service of the State” capable of leading international trade across seas and oceans. The newspaper defined it as a weapon destined to destabilize the economy of the great North American rival. “The West has suddenly discovered that this navy, which monopolizes a large part of world traffic and causes constant headaches for shipowners, has been transformed into a fearsome paramilitary instrument.”
The second ‘ace’ up the Kremlin’s sleeve was one that sounds very familiar to us today: “the spectacular progress achieved in the field of submersibles.” The numbers from Russia supported the fears: construction of 377 submarines had begun, including 180 nuclear-powered ones. The figure clearly exceeded the 115 of the US Army. In addition, the Andropov government had stressed that the second part of the plan pursued “as the ultimate goal the construction of gigantic aircraft carriers similar to those of the United States by the end of the decade.”
The latter were, of course, necessary units, since the aircraft carriers that the USSR had only allowed the movement of helicopters and vertical takeoff aircraft. “They do not have devices prepared for cable braking nor do they have catapults on the decks like the North American models,” confirmed ABC. Russian expectations were to build 60,000-ton nuclear-powered models with an air force of 60 planes each. The truth is that they arrived very late, since forty years had passed since the North American aircraft carriers changed the course of the Second World War in the Pacific in battles like Midway. Although better late than never.
three colossi
While awaiting the arrival of the long-awaited aircraft carriers, the Kremlin was betting on the stealth and firepower that submarines could offer. “There are three classes that undoubtedly constitute the main threat to the surface naval forces of the Atlantic Alliance operating on the high seas,” revealed ABC. The types ‘Alpha‘, first detected in the Baltic, were the most popular. “It is easily detectable by noise, but in its favor it has two unique characteristics,” explained the editor. The first was a immersion capacity three times that of its North American counterparts. The second, an enviable browsing speed. This is how the newspaper explains it:
“This Soviet unit can dive to a depth of 3,000 feet, give or take about 1,000 meters. This is an incredible feature compared to other submersibles whose possibilities range between 300 or 400 meters. The same nuclear submarines do not have the capacity to carry out immersions greater than 400 meters. The speed achieved by these units is another of its key features. They can reach a speed of 50 knots per hour, totally submerged. This speed, about 95 kilometers per hour, is just double that of other submersibles. Thanks to this extraordinary mobility, the ‘Alpha’ class submersibles have a speed superior to that of the Mark 48 torpedoes used by the US Navy.
The secret of the ‘Alpha’ was a titanium alloy hull, which translated into greater strength in exchange for less weight. Its purpose was to destroy enemy ships with a torpedo hit. And it is that, in the event of a conflict against the US, they could quickly reach the allied lines of communication, go into their rear and give a good account of their most powerful vessels. As if that were not enough, its ability to go down to a depth of 1,000 meters made it a combat tank, since the explosives intended to destroy submarines were harmless at that depth.
If the ‘Alpha’ were the prey dogs that would fight on the front line of battle, the submersibles type ‘Oscar‘ were his older brothers posted to the rear. These submarines –among which was the ‘Kursk’– had the capacity to launch cruise missiles and were ideal for diverting the land defenses of the Americans from the seas. «The range of its missiles reaches up to 200 miles, compared to 20 for the classic projectiles. That is, it can attack enemy ships at a distance of 370 kilometers, always remaining submerged,” added ABC. At present there are still some active units of its initial model (‘Oscar I’) and its evolution (‘Oscar II’).
The last submersible that ABC was referring to is a titan of the seas that is still active: the ‘class submarines.That’s it‘, eventually renamed by NATO as ‘Typhoon’. “It is currently the largest submersible in the world, one and a half times larger than any Western one,” the newspaper revealed. And he was right. The ship is a whopping 175 meters long, 23 meters wide and can displace 33,800 tons. Numbers that are not even close to their younger brothers. Furthermore, she is extremely silent thanks to her propulsion system and has the ability to carry ballistic missiles. “They are gigantic leviathans, the largest of their kind,” specified this newspaper. Six were built, of which two are in reserve, and one active.
Disaster
This is how ships like the ‘K-141’ (‘Kursk’), called ‘The Pearl of the Tsar’s Crown’ by the press of the time, were born. An exaggeration, since the truth is that this submersible of the ‘Oscar’ class was not as big as the ‘Typhoon’ or as modern as the ‘Akulas’. With all this giant was more than new -it was built between 1992 and 1994-, extremely fast -30 knots on the surface and 32 in immersion-, hard as a stone -its hull was 8.5 millimeters thick- and had a fearsome weaponry consisting of 24 missile launchers of different types and four torpedo tubes. It was, in short, an underwater explosives store.
“He was at the forefront of the Russian defense. It worked with two nuclear reactors, measured 150 meters in length, had the height of a six-story building, and was more than twice the size of a jumbo jet,” explains the National Geographic chain in its report ‘The Kursk nuclear submarine disaster’ . The ship gained fame from an accident that, these days, evokes that of the ‘Titan’ submersible, but the truth is that its brothers were much more powerful.
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