K3 Leninsky Komsomol Update (Pictures)
 

For those who are interested

K3 has now been put back into the sea and moved to a floating dry dock to start phase two of her restoration to become a museum.

Hopefully the restoration period wont take more than a year or two but who knows this is down to how much money is available and for those who follow this submarine its been well over a decade in the making to get her to this point.


Statistics:

352 feet long 25 feet wide 18 feet draft
Crusing depth 320 meters (1050ft) Test Depth 480 meters (1825ft)
Surfaced Displacement: 3,000 tons
Submerged displacement: 5,000 tons
Surfaced speed: 15 knots
Submerged speed: 31 knots

Brief history:

Laid down in 1954 the same year as Nautilus went under way on nuclear powered the K3 took some 3 years to complete being launched from Sevmash in 1957 being comissioned in 1958, her home port of Zapadnya Litsa was home port at one time to the ill fated Kursk K141.

In 1962 the submarine made the first transit of a Soviet submarine to the north pole upon her return she was formally named Leninsky Komsomol upon her return she lay idle for nearly 5 years barely going to sea.

In 1967 while in transit a fire broke out in the hydraulic systems sadly 39 crew died

The rest of her career was pretty uneventful she did track an american SSBN that had left Rota Spain only to be intercepted by another American SSN.

In 1988 she was decommissioned and laid up at Gremikha awaiting her fate and in 2006 she was slated for restoration something that remains on going

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4369/...38b08027_z.jpgK3 Moving by Blair Shaw, on Flickr

Both reactors have been removed so she is a dead vessel

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4368/...7e251b84_z.jpgK3 Moving by Blair Shaw, on Flickr

Two harbour tugs are keeping a close eye on her after the events of her sister submarine K159 its no wonder.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4375/...2fce22d6_z.jpgK3 Moving by Blair Shaw, on Flickr

Barely seaworthy but 3 vessels crowding her from what im told during the transit only 2 men were permitted inside at any one time (after 9 out of 10 died on K159 when she sank)

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4419/...482ccf96_z.jpgK3 Moving by Blair Shaw, on Flickr

Lining her up for the floating dry dock

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4368/...07d72a23_z.jpgK3 Moving by Blair Shaw, on Flickr

In she goes she has to be exact otherwise she could potentially break her back after all she has been cut in two already.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4411/...ed1ed629_z.jpgK3 Moving by Blair Shaw, on Flickr

In position and the tugs are gone pump out begins

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4398/...7b0b6073_z.jpgK3 Moving by Blair Shaw, on Flickr

Almost high and dry here you can see the torpedo tubes and also the section which was cut out and plugged (used to be reactor compartment)

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4410/...6b03f08c_z.jpgK3 Moving by Blair Shaw, on Flickr

Frontal view of the first Soviet nuclear submarine

Great pictures and narrative, as usual. :Kaleun_Thumbs_Up: The " November " attack Sub was part of the new construction of " Hotel " Ballistic missile and " Echo " guided missile submarine classes of submarines that all came into service about the same time as the November. These are of course the NATO designations for the classes.

You had mentioned that the The November is slated to become a museum. Given that the Project 627 November was the former Soviet Union's first nuclear powered submarines and the subsequent nuclear accidents in their history on submarines, how safe is it to be aboard one while touring it ? The most notable example of a serious reactor accident was aboard The Hotel class K19 on July 4th, 1961 in which all 7 members of it's engineering crew and a divisional officer died within a month of the accident. 15 more crew members died within 2 years from the after exposure. Although the nuclear fuel has undoubtedly been removed, is there any danger of radioactive contamination ?




Thanks for posting the Pictures and narrative.

Wow... great post! :up:

The HEN's 1st generation soviet submarines were rushed into service sometimes on trails with builders still on board, the real issue with these boats was lack of backups and also lack of adequate safety equipment, plus poorly manufactured parts.

On paper the November class would out class Nautilus in almost every aspect but the reality is much different corners were cut and this caused a lot of delays and issues with the boats.

The Project 627 and 627A (one as a Project 645) (Kit in Russian) were the first to enter the service of the Soviet navy, followed very quickly by the Project 658 Hotel class (K-19 being the first) these were the first generation of Nuclear powered Ballistic missile submarines (not the first submarines to carry ballistic missiles that belongs to the Project AV611 or Zulu IV class submarines)

K19 was later bought by the Billionaire Vladimir Romanov although she is now scrapped part of her remains as to where no one knows, but Vladimir Romanov served on K19 during his service in the Soviet Navy.

As a side note it was only discovered that the project AV611 or Zulu IV existed as a ballistic missile platform after the USS Grenadier along with several P2V ASW aircraft pinned down one for nine hours forcing it to come to the surface where naturally it was photographed, the USS Grenadier would be given a Unit Citation for their work.

Back on track the last of the trio the Echo class would see some dubious action K108 came to grief after a collision with the USS Tautog, K22 Collided with USS Vogue the latter was towed to Crete, K45 & K56 collided with trawlers, K1 Grounded while submerged near Cuba, the list goes on just about every single Echo class boat suffered some accident.
The last of the class commissioned in 1966 they were all withdrawn in the 1990's.

Later models of submarines the 2nd generation on wards were safer and had built in safety systems and suffered fewer accidents, tragically the Oscar II K141 Kursk would buck the trend on that one.

As for the nuclear contamination problems now the fuels (which were likely removed in the 90's) have gone along with the entire reactor compartment the risk of radiation contamination just walking through or around the submarine is negligible, you can see the reactor compartment has been cut out and a plug inserted they did the same with the Redoubtable in France its as safe as walking through a diesel boat i have not had any issues walking through nuclear submarines.

A lot of the contamination from nuclear reactors like what we saw at Chernobyl for example comes from Thorium 232 Caesium 137 and Iodine 131 which have half lives in decades not centuries or millennia (239Pu has a half life of 24,110 years found in commercial reactors)

But reactors like the type installed on submarines use little amounts or Uranium no where near the size of a power plant to give you an idea the nuclear reactor on board a submarine is about the size of a compact car but yet emits between 25,000-50,000Shp

This is how close you can get to a nuclear reactor that is live although in shut down mode it still emits radiation.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4367/...a247dbb0_z.jpgOK650B by Blair Shaw, on Flickr

This is a Russian OK650-B which is the mainstay reactor for most of the Russian fleet powers everything from the Typhoon and Oscars down to Victor's and Akula's currently being phased out with the new build submarines like Borei and Yasen moving to more advanced pressurised water reactors.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4398/...7b0b6073_z.jpg

was that the reactor they left on the ice flow? :o

Just kidding :D

K27 a project 645 November was scuttled in 33 meters of water in the kara sea

Thanks for not only the answer Blair but also The detailed Information on the various submarines and nuclear material. Cmdr.Buele Balderson was in command of the Sturgeon-Class attack submarine Tautog when it collided with K108 and Balderson was placed on the beach ( lost his command ) after the incident. He left the Navy and became a minister, later passing away in February of 1984 from the effects of Rheumatic fever when he was a child. He was 53 at the time.

I wasn't sure if there might have been residual radiation with this November class submarine as nuclear propulsion was new to the Soviet Navy and corners were cut, regarding safety in trying to catch up to the U.S Navy. Admiral Hyman Rickover, father of nuclear propulsion in the U.S was said to be a tyrant and difficult to deal with. While that may be true, Rickover always stressed safety and incrementalism in the designs of his nuclear reactors and there is no known reactor accidents in the U.S Navy.


Thanks for the Information Blair.

Indeed the Rickover way saved a lot of lives the man should be applauded not vilified, the problem is the Russians believed that the Americans and British after the end of the Great Patriotic war there was a belief in Russia that both America and Britain wanted to carry it on into Russia.

Stalin once said Numbers have a quality all of their own the Russians new they couldn't match the technology platform to platform so instead they would out build them numerically.

Problem is we see many accidents and cost cutting exercises real tight deadlines and well its a recipe for disaster, the white sea canal for example around 25,000 people died building that (and still is of no strategic use)

The west builds things like fine watches the Russians Build things with a hacksaw and hand file.

The early submarines while on paper out class the western boats in reality have huge short comings which cost a lot of lives, sadly the battle of ideologies which will bankrupt a country and leave the world open to one single dominant super power

The reality is Russia could afford to loose a few in order to catch up there's none of this HSE / OSHA establishment bodies in Russia it is still very matter of fact just get it done and we don't care how or who gets hurt or killed.

On the other side to this Russian captains were reprimanded (as was Zateyev later on) for not ramming a submarine if they had the chance too the admirals of the day were more "don't worry about the damage we will pay for it" truthfully Tautog's commanded shouldn't have been reprimanded at all.

Back in the cold war days of submarine warfare ... the Russians had a tactic called "Chicken dance" whereby if they detected a USN submarine or any sub would do ... they were ordered to steer straight for the contact they had on sonar.

Just one problem back in the early days you had to use hand calculators to determine the distance and the depth was usually just a quick guess. Now they have computers with all the information to make a better educated guess.

Hench the term, "Chicken dance" was born on who would chicken out first and turn from the Russians.

What coolant is used for this one? I seem to remember the Akula (Pike) had a liquid metal coolant...

Thanks for posting :salute:

British and Americans call the manoeuvre crazy Ivan

The OK650-B reactor series are powered by 235 Urainium with Boron control rods as neutron absorbers they are a pressurised water reactor

Project 705 and 705K lira or Al'fa had the lead bismuth reactors of two types OK550 which powered the latter 3 boats and the BM-40A which powered the first 4 units this would lead to issues because they are two totally different designs and by different bureaus, they were also the only class to my memory that were fitted with liquid metal cooled reactors.

The Project 971 Shchuka uses the OK650B and also an upgraded modernised OK650M

OK650 reactors power the following units:

Project 945 & 945A Sierra I&II
Project 667BDRM & 09787 Delta IV & Delta special project vessel
Project 955 & 955A Borei & Borei modified
Project 685 Plavnik Mike class
Project 941 & 941UM Typhoon and Typhoon Modernised
Project 1910 Uniform is believed to be powered by OK650B reports unconfirmed
Project 971 971I 971U & 971M Akula Akula I Akula I improved Akula II (sometimes called Akula III)
Project 949, 949A, 949AM & 09852 Oscar I, II,III & Special mission modified Oscar

@Kapitan the DeltaIV (667BRDM) did not have an OK-650 reactor, but an dual reactor complex OK-700A.
http://russianships.info/eng/submari...ct_667bdrm.htm

Crazy Ivan was after the Russians figured out that they were being followed by USN SSN's and would turn to see if they had any contacts in their baffles. Now they have sonar on mast called hindsight and don't have to turn so often.

Chicken dance was different in that someone was going to flinch first.

Indeed they are my mistake there

As for chicken dance i wasn't aware of that ! as they say learn something new every day thanks :)