Yur subz r rusted. kthxbai.If you entered adulthood, as I did, in the mid-to-late '80s, you perhaps remember the DoD's scaresheet, Soviet Military Power, which contained grainy spyphoto pics of the Russkie's newest submarine, the Typhoon-class.
Well, you don't need grainy spyphoto pics to get a good look at the villain of The Hunt For Red October anymore; now you can just go to the intertubes...
19 comments:
Ooh ooh ooh look at the kitty!
What sub?
:-P
What a rust bucket!
Those came out while I was riding around in a Trident - the very superior US version. Since we had some good intel on them and our missions were similar (and therefore our op areas were different), we didn't pay too much attention to them. Victor III's were a whole 'nother matter - we kept track of Victor III sightings many thousands of miles away.
Keith
Still have a box full of those yearly documents, both the Soviet and Chinese variants. Kinda fun to read nowadays...
Good example of the difference between Capitalism and Communisum.
No Capitalist worth her/his salt would allow such a huge investment degrade to that point. Go tour the WWII era USS Yorktown (CV-10)in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
Spotless, I mean you could have eaten off the flight deck.
There appears to be pictures of the reactor compartment in there! Jesus! That is something you'll never see in the United States. To this day what an US nuclear sub reactor compartment looks like is a classified secret. To even talk about it will land you in Club Fed.
And here the Russians are letting you just wander around.
As a Naval tourist it appears I'm living in the wrong country.
@Anonymous,
Yes you can eat off the flight deck but: "Sadly, USS Yorktown won't be with us much longer. Her hull is rusted through in places, her flight deck is crumbling, and the ranks of World War II fast carrier veterans who serve aboard her as volunteer guides grow thinner with each passing year." http://www.covnews.com/news/article/11164/
The USS Laffey at Patriots Point just got repaired to the tune of 6 million, the Yorktown will require at least that soon.
Tam, I think we're the same age. I remember those "OMG! the bear is superior to us!" releases too. What I loved most were the "artists impression" of the newest baddest hardware the reds were going to stormroll us with. Comparing the hype of what the T-80 was supposed to be with what it really is like the letdown of 'new coke'.
About the rust? It is amazing how much work is necessary to keep a ship from rusting away. The salt water is insidious.
Looks like the world's largest piece of crap. -- Lyle
Pity the photos are only from the dock. Only one is able to show some sense of the scale of this sub.
It's also fun to realise that, as big as atomic subs are. even this one is only twenty-five percent longer than the WWII Japanese I400 class, with its complement of six planes stowed below deck. That beast could have carried the Nautilis as deck cargo.
@John A: follow the link to the English Russia page ad scroll; there are interior shots
I was going to put this one up as an illustration of the size of the thing.
Supposing the USN was tracking these things well enough, how hard would it be to kill one? Something tells a single torpedo's total Pk is going to be pretty low.
Alright, someone would probably get a free vacation to Leavenworth if they coughed up a useful answer to that, but I'm curious just the same.
Jim
Those interior shots look like early 50's industrial design, with early 70's furniture. There are so few pieces of aluminum or stainless steel, that they really stand out amongst all that rust. Notice the analog dial phones. Hard to believe that was the inside of a first line nuclear submarine. Wow. Almost looks like steampunk. Maybe steampunk done on the really cheap!
... how hard would it be to kill one?
The Typhoon is essentially two Delta class subs strapped together with an extra hull wrapped around them. Add to this that the missile and torpedo bays are outside the main hulls, and they're pretty tough.
Wow... that was an eye opener.
Lots of old school analog but back then it was the norm and HV equipment never gets small.
Gmac
How hard is it to kill? Think SKINC...
Sub Kiloton Insertable Nuclear Component.
Exempted from Nuclear Arms Treaties. Designed to kill Oscars...
cap'n chumbucket
"You can't leave a crater in the ocean" as they used to say. ;)
I remember those booklets. As a former Intel Specialist, I had to keep track of these things. Working for NATO was a schizo environment. The US would always be late on the tracking intel because of Security, so we would use Norwegian intel. I would find myself murmering, "damn Americans..." and then catch myself.
For a visual reference:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Typhoon_class_Schema.svg
To sink this thing, you'd either have to pop the seals on one of the propeller shafts, or nuke it. You gotta love Russian engineering.
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