![]() ![]() The missile itself was to be large, far larger than anything currently in submarines in the west. The missile was to be fired using the D-19 missile firing complex which allows the missile to be fired Surfaced or Submerged. The missile was to be known by its GRAU index 3M65 (later 3M20 & 3R65) but to NATO this was to be known as the SS-N-20 Sturgeon. The design work on the Missile began in 1971 by Design station SKB 385 Mashinostroyeniya known as Makayev rocket design bureau. The design brief went out to both missile design stations and submarine design bureaus, the result was a missile much larger than anything in the Soviet arsenal at the time and a missile that was larger than trident. ![]() RSM-52 NATO SS-N-20 missile being loaded onboard TK208 late 1990’s The Weapons The incoming Delta I & II class fared much better (Delta III and IV are more improved) but still could not counter the new trident missile in terms of warheads and range thus a new solution and missile was needed. With the announcement of the incoming trident program in the United States the Soviets began radically rethinking their current strategy, the older boats, those of the Project 667A Yankee and Project 658 Hotel class submarines were simply not up to the job countering this new system. This submarine would also be a colossus of a machine dwarfing anything past or present and even today they remain the largest submarines ever built. In nearly every design of a ballistic missile submarine its main battery has usually been found aft of the sail housed neatly under a raised casing, this new submarine changed all that, this time these boats would have their main battery forward of the sail. Designed in the 1970’s along side the more numerous Project 667B BD BDR BDRM NATO Delta I II III IV boats, the Project 941 Akula NATO codenamed Typhoon was a radical departure from anything that we have seen before or since. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |