Typhoon class submarine - Definition and Overview

Career
Ordered:
Laid down:
Launched:
Commissioned:	December 12 1981
General Characteristics
Length	175 m
Beam	23 m
Draft	12 m
Displacement	Surfaced: 23,200-24,500 tons Submerged: 33,800-48,000 tons
Propulsion	2 pressurized-water nuclear reactors 2 propellers
Complement	163 men
Armament:	4 630 mm torpedo tubes 2 533 mm torpedo tubes 20 RSM-52 ballistic missiles
Speed	Surfaced: 12 knots Submerged: 27 knots (about 50 km/h)
Maximum Depth	400 m

The Typhoon-class submarine is a ballistic missile-carrying, nuclear-powered submarine (SSBN) deployed by the Soviet Navy in the 1980s. With a displacement of up to 48,000 tons, the Typhoon is the largest submarine class ever built. The name stems from the use of the word "typhoon" (тайфун) by Leonid Brezhnev in a 1974 speech while describing a new type of nuclear ballistic missile submarine. The Typhoon class was developed under Project 941 as the Russian Akula-class (the Russian word for "Shark", although NATO uses the name Akula class to designate Russian Bar-class subs).

Typhoon-class subs feature multiple pressure hulls that simplify internal design while making the vessel much wider than a normal submarine (in the main body of the sub, two Delta-class pressure hulls lie parallel with a third, smaller pressure hull above them). Typhoon subs are quieter (partly due to the vessels' massive size) and yet more maneuverable than their predecessors. Additionally, the Typhoon class features six torpedo tubes: two are designed to handle SS-N-15 missiles or Type 53 torpedoes, and the other four are designed to launch SS-N-16 missiles, Type 65 torpedoes, or mines.

Six Typhoon class submarines were built with each carrying 20 R-39 (SS-N-20) missiles with 10 nuclear warheads each. The construction of an additional vessel was cancelled. Two or three of these boats are still in service with the Russian Navy.

A fictional modified Typhoon-class submarine, Красный Октябрь (Red October), is the subject of the Tom Clancy novel The Hunt for Red October.

See also

• ICBM
• Nuclear warfare
• Nuclear strategy
• Submarine
• Submarine launched ballistic missile

References

• National Geographic: Typhoon class (http://www.nationalgeographic.com/k19/sub_detail_sov5.html)
• NATO Code Names for Submarines and Ships (http://www.ais.org/~schnars/aero/nato-shp.htm)
• Haze Gray (http://www.hazegray.org/features/russia/typhoon.htm)
• NRDC Nuclear Notebook - Russian Nuclear Forces, 2004 (http://www.thebulletin.org/issues/nukenotes/ja04nukenote.html)