Juliett-class submarine

K-77, Juliett-class submarine
Class overview
Operators:  Soviet Navy
Preceded by: Echo I
Succeeded by: Charlie class
In commission: 1963–1994
Planned: 35
Completed: 16
Retired: 16
General characteristics
Type: Submarine
Displacement:
  • 3,174 long tons (3,225 t) surfaced;
  • 4,137 long tons (4,203 t) submerged
Length: 90 m (281 ft 9 in)
Beam: 10 m (31 ft 2 in)
Draft: 7 m (23 ft)
Propulsion:
  • two 4,000 shp (3.0 MW) D-43 and
  • one 1,750 shp (1.30 MW)
  • 2D-42 diesel engines,
  • two 3,000 shp (2.2 MW) PG-141 main and
  • two 500 shp (0.37 MW) PG-140 creep electrical motors,
  • two screws
Speed:
  • 16.8 kn (31.1 km/h) surfaced,
  • 18 knots (33 km/h) submerged (trial)
Range:
  • 9,000 nmi at 8 kn (17,000 km at 15 km/h) surfaced,
  • 18,000 nmi at 7 kn (33,000 km at 13 km/h) with additional fuel,
  • 810 nmi at 2.74 kn (1,500 km at 5.07 km/h) submerged
Endurance: 800 hours submerged, stores for 90 days
Test depth:
  • 235 m (775 ft) test,
  • 365 m (1200 ft) design
Complement: 82 (12 officers, 16 petty officers, 54 men)
Armament: Four SS-N-3 Shaddock (P-5 or P-6), or SS-N-12 Sandbox (P-500 4K-80 Basalt) nuclear-capable cruise missiles, six 533 mm (21-inch) bow torpedo tubes with 18 torpedoes, four 400 mm (16-inch) stern torpedo tubes with four torpedoes

The Project 651, known in the West by its NATO reporting name Juliett class, was a class of Soviet diesel-electric submarines armed with cruise missiles. They were designed in the late 1950s to provide the Soviet Navy with a nuclear strike capability against targets along the east coast of the United States and enemy combatants (aircraft carriers). The head of the design team was Abram Samuilovich Kassatsier. They carried four nuclear-capable cruise missiles with a range of approximately 300 miles, which could be launched while the submarine was surfaced and moving less than four knots (7 km/h). Once surfaced, the first missile could be launched in about five minutes; subsequent missiles would follow within about ten seconds each. Initially, the missiles were the inertially-guided P-5 (NATO reporting name SS-N-3c Shaddock). When submarine-launched ballistic missiles rendered the P-5s obsolescent, they were replaced with the P-6 (also NATO reporting name SS-N-3a Shaddock, though a very different missile) designed to attack aircraft carriers. A special 10 m2 target guidance radar was built into the forward edge of the sail structure, which opened by rotating. One boat was eventually fitted with the Kasatka satellite downlink for targeting information to support P-500 4K-80 "Bazalt" (SS-N-12 Sandbox) anti-ship cruise missiles.

The Juliett class had a low magnetic signature austenitic steel double hull, covered by two inch (50 mm) thick black tiles made of sound-absorbing hard rubber. They had exceptionally high reserve buoyancy, and were divided into eight watertight compartments:

A Juliett-class submarine
  1. the forward torpedo room
  2. living accommodations for officers and chiefs and the forward batteries
  3. the missile control room and batteries
  4. the control room
  5. crew berthing and batteries
  6. the forward engine room containing the diesels and generators
  7. the aft engine room with the electric motors
  8. the aft torpedo room.
U-461 (actually K-24) in U-boat Museum Peenemünde

Initial plans called for 35 submarines of this class. In fact only 16 were actually built, two - including the lead sub, by the Baltic Shipyard, St. Petersburg and the rest by the Krasnoye Sormovo Shipyard in Nizhny Novgorod. They were commissioned between 1963 and 1968, and served through the 1980s. The last one was decommissioned in 1994.

The Juliett was built due to expected delays in the continued production of the nuclear-powered Project 659 Echo I class submarines and 675 Echo II class submarines, with six and eight missile launchers, respectively. The Juliett was actually designed after the Echos.

Units

Juliett' class significant dates
# Shipyard Laid down Launched Commissioned Status
K-156 St. Petersburg November 16, 1960 July 31, 1962 December 10, 1963 Decommissioned September 1991 for scrapping[1]
K-85 St. Petersburg October 25, 1961 January 31, 1964 December 30, 1964 Decommissioned for scrapping[1]
K-70 Nizhniy Novgorod August 25, 1962 February 6, 1964 December 31, 1964 Decommissioned in 1994 for scrapping[1]
K-24 Nizhniy Novgorod October 15, 1961 December 15, 1962 October 31, 1965 Decommissioned in 1994, sold to Germany as maritime museum exhibit[1]
K-68 Nizhniy Novgorod January 25, 1962 April 30, 1963 December 28, 1965 Decommissioned in 1990 for scrapping[1]
K-77 Nizhniy Novgorod January 31, 1963 March 11, 1965 October 31, 1965 Decommissioned in April 1992 and sold as museum exhibit in U.S.[1] In 2009, the ship scrapped after sinking due to its poor material condition.[2]
K-81 Nizhniy Novgorod November 20, 1963 August 7, 1964 December 14, 1965 Decommissioned in 1994 for scrapping[1]
K-63 Nizhniy Novgorod March 25, 1962 July 26, 1963 June 12, 1966 Decommissioned in September 1991 for scrapping[1]
K-58 Nizhniy Novgorod July 15, 1963 February 2, 1966 September 23, 1966 Decommissioned 1990 for scrapping[1]
K-73 Nizhniy Novgorod August 1, 1964 May 31, 1966 December 15, 1966 Decommissioned in 1990 for scrapping[1]
K-67 Nizhniy Novgorod January 31, 1965 October 29, 1966 September 30, 1967 Decommissioned in 1994 for scrapping[1]
K-78 Nizhniy Novgorod July 25, 1965 March 30, 1967 November 1, 1967 Decommissioned in September 1991 for scrapping[1]
K-203 Nizhniy Novgorod December 23, 1965 June 30, 1967 December 2, 1967 Decommissioned in September 1992 for scrapping[1]
K-304 Nizhniy Novgorod August 6, 1966 November 24, 1967 August 21, 1968 Decommissioned in September 1991 for scrapping[1]
K-318 Nizhniy Novgorod March 29, 1967 March 29, 1968 September 29, 1968 Decommissioned in 1994 for scrapping[1]
K-120 Nizhniy Novgorod March 25, 1967 July 11, 1968 December 26, 1968 Decommissioned in April 1991 for scrapping[1]

In the movies

The Juliett unit K-77 while at the maritime museum in Providence, Rhode Island, was slightly stage modified and used to act as the Hotel I SSBN K-19 in the National Geographic movie "K-19 Widowmaker" starring Harrison Ford.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Korabli VMF SSSR, Vol. 1, Part 2, Yu. Apalkov, Sankt Peterburg, 2003, ISBN 5-8172-0072-4
  2. http://www.juliett484.org/juliett/news/archive/pressrelease081009.html

External links

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