![]() Navy still operates forty-three Los Angeles–class boats, though fourteen newer Seawolf- and Virginia-class submarines still beat out the Akula in discretion. You can check out an Office of Naval Intelligence comparison chart of submarine acoustic stealth here. However, the most important improvement was to stealth-the new Akulas were now significantly quieter than even the Improved Los Angeles–class submarines, although some analysts argue that the latter remain stealthier at higher speeds. Both variants had six additional external tubes that could launch missiles or decoy torpedoes, and a new Strela-3 surface-to-air missile system. This was followed by the heavier and slightly longer 971A Akula II class in the form of the Vepr in 1995, which featured a double-layer silencing system for the power train, dampened propulsion systems and a new sonar. However, even as the Soviet Union collapsed, it launched the first of five Project 971U Improved Akula I boats. Navy pressed ahead to build the even stealthier Seawolf-class submarine to compete. ![]() Soviet shipyards pumped out seven Akula Is while the U.S. The Akula could also carry up to twelve Granat cruise missiles capable of hitting targets on land up to three thousand kilometers away. Four 533-millimeter torpedo tubes and four large 650-millimeter tubes could deploy up to forty wire-guided torpedoes, mines, or long-range SS-N-15 Starfish and SS-N-16 Stallion antiship missiles. Navy submarines, particularly ballistic-missile submarines. The Akula I submarines-designated Shchuka (“Pike”) in Russian service-were foremost intended to hunt U.S. On the other hand, the Akula’s own sensors were believed to be inferior. American submariners could no longer take their acoustic superiority for granted. Navy, though, the Akula was nearly as stealthy as the Los Angeles class. Powered by a single 190-megawatt pressurized water nuclear reactor with a high-density core, the Akula could swim a fast thirty-three knots (thirty-eight miles per hour) and operate 480 meters deep, two hundred meters deeper than the contemporary Los Angeles–class submarine. A crew of around seventy could operate the ship for one hundred days at sea. The 111-meter-long vessel was distinguished by its elegant, aquadynamic conning tower and the teardrop-shaped pod atop the tail fin which could deploy a towed passive sonar array. Even the limber holes which allowed water to pass inside the Akula’s outer hull had retractable covers to minimize acoustic returns. The attack submarine’s propulsion plant was rafted to dampen sound, and anechoic tiles coated its outer and inner surface. The large Akula, which displaced nearly thirteen thousand tons submerged, featured a steel double hull typical to Soviet submarines, allowing the vessel to take on more ballast water and survive more damage. ![]() The new design benefited from advanced milling tools and computer controls imported from Japan and Sweden, respectively, allowing Soviet engineers to fashion quiet seven-bladed propellers. After the prolific Victor class and expensive titanium-hulled Sierra class, construction of the first Project 971 submarine, Akula (“Shark”), began in 1983. The vessel was launched on 4 September 1907.Intelligence provided by the spies John Walker and Jerry Whitworth in the 1970s convinced the Soviet Navy that it needed to seriously pursue acoustic stealth in its next attack submarine. The design was presented to the Marine technical committee in late 1905 and was ordered in 1906.Īkula was built at the Baltic shipyard in Saint Petersburg. The boat was designed by Ivan Bubnov and was an amalgam of the previous Minoga and the Kasatka-class submarine designs. ![]() Akula saw service during World War I and sank in November 1915 after hitting a naval mine. 1,900 nmi (3,500 km 2,200 mi) (surfaced)Ĥ × 18-inch (457 mm) torpedo tubes (bow) and 4 Drzewiecki drop collarsĪkula ( Russian: Акула meaning shark) was a submarine built for the Imperial Russian Navy.Russian submarine Akula, armored cruiser Rurik in the background
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