The appearance of a series of Soviet multipurpose nuclear submarines with a steel hull of project 971 "Shchuka-B" (NATO designation - "Akula") "caused shock among representatives of Western naval intelligence". This is written by American national defense expert Harry Kazianis in an article for the 19fortyfive publication.
Submarines of project 971 "Shchuka-B" were a strategic and technological breakthrough of the highest level. Their appearance, which meant the end of the era of superiority of the US Navy and its NATO allies, was ahead of Western experts' forecasts.
The West did not assume that the USSR could create a submarine with such low acoustic signature for at least another 10 years. As a result, they had to quickly revise the doctrine and technology of anti-submarine warfare.
Soviet engineers put the stealth of the underwater ship above other indicators - speed and maximum diving depth. As a result, submarines of project 971 "Shchuka-B" turned out to be very effective and continue to serve in the Russian Navy in the XXI century.
According to Kazianis, the developers at the "Malakhit" Design Bureau created one of the most successful submarine projects in modern history. Its feature is a double-hull construction.
The internal hull houses the crew, reactor and all critical systems. The external hull is lighter, with a significant distance between them, which increases the survivability of the submarine.
Another achievement of the creators of "Akula" was the low acoustic signature. The USSR secretly received complex multi-coordinate milling machines with numerical program control (CNC) from Toshiba Corporation and Kongsberg Vaapenfabrikk. The new equipment produced large propellers with a large angle of inclination.
As a result, the blades of submarines cut through the water with less cavitation. It is believed that this illegal transfer of technology allowed the USSR to make a leap in the development of noise reduction technologies.
The lead submarine K-284 joined the Pacific Fleet of the USSR Navy in 1984. Currently, submarines of project 971 "Shchuka-B" are equipped with "Caliber-PL" missiles.
"Akula" characteristics:
- Surface speed - 11.6 knots
- Submerged speed - 33 knots
- Operating depth - 520 m
- Maximum depth - 600 m
- Autonomy - 100 days
- Crew - 73 people
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