Soviet submarine K-131
History | |
---|---|
Soviet Union | |
Name | K-131 |
Laid down | 31 December 1964 |
Launched | 6 June 1966 |
Commissioned | 30 September 1966 |
Decommissioned | 1994 renamed K-192 |
Status | Laid up; awaiting scrapping |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Echo II-class submarine |
Displacement |
|
Length | 115 m (377 ft 4 in) |
Beam | 9 m (29 ft 6 in) |
Draught | 7.5 m (24 ft 7 in) |
Propulsion | 2 × pressurized water nuclear reactors, 30,000 shp (22,400 kW) turbines, two shafts |
Speed |
|
Complement | about 90 officers and men |
Armament |
|
K-131 was a Project 675 (NATO reporting name Echo II-class submarine) of the Soviet Navy's Northern Fleet, she was also redesignated K-192.[1]
Design and description
The Echo II class was a nuclear-powered cruise-missile submarine, which could carry up to eight anti-ship missiles, designed to strike any aircraft carrier-borne nuclear threat. The missiles could be either conventional or nuclear and all eight fired within twenty minutes. The submarine would need to be surfaced and carried an array of electronics, radar and sonar to feed data to the missile while en route to its target. K-131 also had six 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes forward and four 406 mm (16 in) torpedo tubes aft.[2]
With a
Operational history
Fire
On 18 June 1984,[4] while under the command of Captain First Rank E. Selivanov, K-131 suffered a catastrophic fire while on patrol in the Norwegian Sea off the Kola Peninsula.[3] A short circuit in an electrical switchboard in the eighth compartment ignited the clothes of an electrical officer, and spread first to other equipment in that compartment, then into the seventh compartment. Before it was extinguished, the fire had killed 13 men.
Aid
The fire affected one of the two reactors, forcing the submarine to surface. Using K-131's fresh water supplies, the submarine's crew managed to reduce the temperature in the burning compartments from 150 °C (302 °F) to 108 °C (226 °F), but by this time the Soviet
Fate
After returning to the Soviet Union, K-131 was anchored in
References
- ^ "RUSSIAN K-159 SUBMARINE ACCIDENT". www10.antenna.nl. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
- ^ "Project 659 / Echo I Project 675 / Echo II". www.fas.org. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
- ^ a b c d "The Russian Northern Fleet Nuclear submarine accidents". spb.org.ru. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
- ^ "Soviet and Russian Peacetime Submarine Accidents". andysvault.narod.ru. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
- ^ "Was a nuclear-able Soviet sub near Norway’s coasts during a deadly 1984 fire?" author Thomas Nilsen. June 19, 2018
- ^ title "Decommissioning of nuclear submarines at Polyarny" Author Igor Kudrik. February 19, 1997.
Bibliography
- Polmar, Norman & Noot, Jurrien (1991). Submarines of the Russian and Soviet Navies, 1718–1990. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-570-1.
- Vilches Alarcón, Alejandro A. (2022). From Juliettes to Yasens: Development and Operational History of Soviet Cruise-Missile Submarines. Europe @ War (22). Warwick, UK: Helion & Co. ISBN 978-1-915070-68-5.