TK-208 Under construction in the late 1970’s showing her double hull layout When we compare the two submarines you can see just how much larger the typhoon is to the Ohio.Ĭomparisons are based on publicly available information The Soviet boat on the other hand while being substantially larger and of the same era was only able to carry 20 missiles, this was more to do with the size and weight of the missile and equipment. Today 14 Ohio class submarines carry the Trident D5 missile while the other 4 have been converted to carry up to 154 tomahawk cruise missiles, with over 40 years of service the boats of the Ohio class are due to decommission in the late 2020’s and early 2030’s. The Ohio would be bigger than any previous submarine built for the United States Navy, and be by far the most advanced submarine fielded by any nation at that time.Ģ4 Ohio’s were initially planned however only 18 were ever built, they were designed to carry 24 trident missiles 8 more than any previous submarine has ever carried. Later the Royal Navy would follow suite with the Vanguard class replacing the Polaris armed Resolution class. With the United States making the announcement in the 1970’s of the trident program, the Soviets knew that a new class of submarine would undoubtedly follow, this would ultimately culminate in the very impressive Ohio class submarines. The typhoon is also able to carry the Korund as well as SS-N-15 & 16 anti-submarine missiles. The typhoon was typically armed with several types of torpedoes namely the 53-65K, SET-65 SAET-60M, USET-80 and the VA-111 Skhval. NOTE: Specifications are from publicly available sources.īesides the 20 nuclear missiles the submarine had six 533mm torpedo tubes with a further 22 reloading shots in the torpedo compartment. To give you a comparison of the missiles this table was created using open-source information exact figures remain classified both east and west.Ĭomparison of missiles of the Soviet Typhoon class and the USN & RN Navies 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 kommentar(er)
