Russian submarine K-141 Kursk
Encyclopedia : R : RU : RUS : Russian submarine K-141 Kursk
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| Career |
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| Ordered: | ||
| Laid down: | 1992 | |
| Launched: | 1994 | |
| Commissioned: | December 1994 | |
| Fate: | Lost at sea August 12, 2000 | |
| Homeport: | Vidyaevo, Russia | |
| Stricken: | ||
| General Characteristics | ||
| Displacement: | 13.400 t, 16.400 t | |
| Length: | 154.0 m | |
| Beam: | 18.2 m | |
| Draft: | 9.0 m | |
| Propulsion: | 2 nuclear reactors OK-650b, 2 steam turbines, 2/7-bladed props | |
| Diving depth: | 300 to 600 meters [by various estimates] | |
| Speed: | 32 knots (59 km/h) submerged, 16 knots (30 km/h) surfaced | |
| Range: | ||
| Complement: | 44 officers, 68 enlisted | |
| Armament: | 24 x SS-N-19/P-700 Granit, 4 x 533 mm and 2 x 650 mm bow torpedo tubes | |
Background
Construction of the Kursk began in Severodvinsk, near Arkhangelsk, in 1992. She was launched for the first time in 1994 and formally commissioned in December of that year. The ship was "baptized" by an Orthodox priest in 1995. The Kursk was the last of the large Oscar-II class submarines to be designed and approved in the Soviet era. At 155 metres in length, and four stories high, it was the largest attack submarine ever built. The class had also been described as "unsinkable" on account of its double hull. The outer hull, made of high-nickel high-chrome content steel just 8.5mm thick, had exceptionally good resistance to corrosion and a weak magnetic signature which helped prevent detection by Magnetic Anomaly Detection (MAD) systems. There was a two-metre gap to the two-inch-thick steel inner hull.Kursk formed part of the Russian Northern Fleet. The Fleet had suffered tremendous cutbacks through lack of funding throughout the 1990s. Many submarines had been brought into docks along the Barents Sea and left to rust. All but the most essential frontline equipment was inadequately serviced, including search and rescue equipment. Sailors of the Northern Fleet had gone unpaid in the mid-1990s due to money being re-appropriated before reaching the Arctic North. However, the end of the decade represented something of a renaissance for the fleet. In 1999 Kursk had carried out a successful reconnaissance mission in the Mediterranean, spying on the United States Navy's Sixth Fleet during the Kosovo War. The training exercise of August 2000 was to be the largest summer drill since the collapse of the Soviet Union ten years before, involving four attack submarines and the Fleet's flagship Peter the Great amongst a flotilla of smaller ships.
Explosion
- redirect
The Kursk sailed out to sea to perform an exercise of firing dummy torpedoes at Pyotr Velikiy , a Kirov-class battlecruiser. On August 12, 2000 at 11:28 local time (07:28 UTC), the missiles were fired, but an explosion occurred soon after on the Kursk. The exact reasons of the explosion are currently unknown, versions including torpedo self-detonation, diversion act, and collision with another submarine. The chemical explosion blasted with the force of 100-250 kg of TNT and registered 2.2 on the Richter scale [link]. The submarine sank to a depth of 108 metres, approximately 135km (85 miles) off Severomorsk, at . A second explosion 135 seconds after the initial event measured (between 3.5 and) 4.4 on the Richter scale, equating 3-7 tons of TNT [link] Either this explosion or the earlier one propelled large pieces of debris far back through the submarine, hinting at an explosion of massive proportions.
Rescue Attempts
Though a rescue attempt was made by British and Norwegian teams, all sailors and officers aboard the Kursk were lost. The first investigations suggested that most of the crew had died within minutes of the explosion, however journal entries show that many survived in the rear of the ship for hours after the blasts. The Kursk was eventually recovered from her grave by a Dutch team and using the lift barge Mammoet and 115 of the 118 dead were recovered and laid to rest in Russia. Russian officials have strenuously denied claims that the sub was carrying nuclear warheads. When the boat was raised by a salvage operation in 2001 there were considerable fears moving the wreck could trigger explosions.
According to Raising the Kursk broadcast by the Science Channel: "In June of 2002, the Russian Navy recovered the Kursk's bow section. Shortly afterwards, the Russian government investigation into the accident officially concluded that a faulty torpedo sank the Kursk in the Summer of 2000."
See also
- Major submarine incidents since 2000
- Russian subs sunk in August: Kursk (2000), K-159 (2003), AS-28 (2005)
- Submarines destroyed by hot-running torpedoes: HMS Sidon (P259) – USS Scorpion (SSN-589) – Russian submarine Kursk
- Igor Spassky - The designer of the Oscar-II class
External links
- () [Some pictures of Kursk submarine]
- [Kursk Lifting Operation: official information channel (in English)]
- [Kursk Lifting Operation: official information channel (in Russian)]
- [History Channel Modern Marvels: Inviting Disaster DVD set (includes The Sinking of Kursk)]
- [Project 949 Granit / Oscar I Project 949A Antey / Oscar II]
- [BBC: Kursk mistakes haunt Russia]
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| Oscar-class submarine |
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Project 949 Granit (Oscar-I) All Northern Fleet K-525 Minskiy Komsomolets | K-206 Murmansk |
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Project 949A Antey (Oscar-II) Northern Fleet K-148 Krasnodar | K-119 Voronezh | K-410 Smolensk | K-266 Orel (ex-Severodvinsk) | K-186 Omsk | K-141 Kursk Russian Pacific Fleet K-132 Belgorod | K-173 Chelyabinsk | K-150 Tomsk | K-456 Kasatka |
| List of Soviet and Russian submarine classes |
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