Project 651

[Kapitan]

Project 651 Juliette class SSG



Ex Northern fleet submarine K24 moored in Peenemunde Germany on display to the public she is the last of her type in the world.

The project 651’s started life as part of an answer to a problem, the problem was American and NATO carrier battle groups, Sergei Gorshkov knew he could not compete platform for platform with the west but he did know he could at least even the odds with a sea denial force, but how does he do that? Well simply use the newest technology of the day the cruise missile and put it on lots of different platforms, Ships Aircraft and submarines.

In the west there is no such type of submarine although you could loosely argue that regulus was a cruise missile the reality of that is they were for strategic operations unlike the Project 651 which were built for tactical reasons.

The project 651 boats were built between 1960 and 1968 it was planned that 35 would be built however construction stopped at just 16 by the time the last boat had finished completion they had already been made obsolete by the forth coming Charlie class, what’s more no more conventional submarines carrying cruise missiles would be built the project 651 was to be the last of this entire type of submarine.

Built in the 1960’s to be almost back up to the delayed nuclear powered Project 659’s (Echo class later project 675 Echo II) and were designed after the 659’s, the first generation of cruise missile submarines were modest affairs, having to surface to locate their targets by radar, and then remain surfaced in order to fire and offer guidance to the missile this made them vulnerable to air attack, The first generation of submarines were certainly of low quality the need to keep up with the west was more pressing that of safety matters.


Picture of the Snoop slab radar which can turn 180 degrees to track locate and lock onto surface targets, it is also used to offer guidance to the missiles once they have been fired.

The radar offered tracking of multiple surface targets to the range of around 160km, designed to track surface ships and attack them with the P5 (SS-N-3c Shaddock) cruise missile.
The P5’s had a respectable range of around 750km although they would only travel just below the speed of sound, the C variant the project 651’s carried were the more advanced than the surface ships and had greater range, it also allowed for the missile to be updated onto target by a crude link data system as initially it was flying by inertial navigation, this made the P5’s very strong opponents indeed, what’s more they were also capable of delivering either a 1000kg warhead of conventional explosives or a 250kt Nuclear warhead, each submarine carried four P5’s in two twin mounted launchers in the outer hull.


The picture shows how the launchers were arranged on board the submarine, although these likely housed the P500 (SS-N-12 Sandbox) missile as the submarines were upgraded during the late 1970’s early 1980’s

The Data from the radar would be processed on board the submarine, what is more the Project 651’s were not going to be operating alone many submarines, ships and aircraft all were to take part, data would come from every angle and have to correlated in order of priority, in the 1970’s the Soviets launched Okean one of the largest exercises ever under taken it proved their systems worked, and quietly was admired by the western powers.

The 651’s would get information fed back from the radar to a small room off the control room it would be displayed on a screen like this:


The radar screen for the Snoop slab radar system which can track multiple surface targets simultaneously.

Generally operating in groups backed up by nuclear attack submarines and also other missile carriers such as the project 659’s and later the more advanced project 670 Skat (NATO code name Charlie) the idea was to volley fire their missiles in order to over whelm the defences of the enemy ships in order to neutralise the threat the posed.

While the cruise missile is of importance and the submarines main arm it is not the only weapon it carries, in the forward section of the boat there are six 21 inch torpedo tubes which also have a total of eighteen reloads these can fire conventional or nuclear torpedoes, aft there are four 16 inch torpedo tubes with another four reloads making this submarine a formidable opponent against surface ships.


Forward 21 inch torpedo tubes showing the traditional arrangement of two across and three down, this is also one of the largest spaces in the submarine.



Aft torpedo room showing her 16 inch tubes like the western boats these would have been made redundant by the 1980’s, you can also see the size difference between the 21 inch torpedo tubes and the 16inch tubes.

Moving into the second compartment you find the living compartments for the officers and also the senior rates they are compartmentalised so unlike a lot of western boats officers have their own shared cabin, what is also to note is the fact that Soviet / Russian boats are not normally as heavily crewed as western boats the project 651’s had a crew of around 80 men which would include some 12 officers, 16 petty officers and up to 54 enlisted men, the main reason behind the 651’s having a lot of crew was her missiles, today a submarine of comparable size but with a different mission role the project 877/636 Kilo has a crew of just 53.

Moving aft you come across the control room this is one room where it seems to be a confusing mess, valves, bulkheads crew stations in an archaic layout generally litter the starboard side making, while navigation, sonar control room and weapons information are separated into small compartments on the port side.


The navigation compartment which is next to the fire control and information suite as below, in the picture you can see a torpedo direction computer, this allows inputted data to formulate weapons firing solutions.



The wall of wheels each valve has a different task, one man would crew this section at all times in case emergency blow had to be initiated.


Here is the control station for the diving planes it also gives the operator an indication of which angle the boat is trimmed at, unlike western boats such as the Oberon class these submarines had no autopilot, you can also see the depth gauge in the top right hand side of the picture.
The maximum depth the submarine could operate at was 375 meters with a much deeper crush depth of some 450 meters most of the time these submarines would only cruise around 250 meters.

Sonar is a key instrument of finding your way under water although this system has been removed from the one remaining boat left in the world the physical features have not been erased,



Above is the outer hull housing for the Tamil 5L (later 5M) feniks low frequency active / passive hull sonar which was one of many different types found on soviet boats, this type of active / passive sonar has no history you require a sharp eyed operator to notice intermittent sounds (normally other submarines) in a passive mode, the other issue with this type is the range capability, while being a large set the range of the system was only up to or around 10km.
The feniks system operated on a band range of 2 to 15KHz and have variable depth capability, notice unlike the foxtrots they do not have the tip on the top of the “bump” that tip houses yet another sonar system called herkules.

Another well used system on the submarine is the electronic warfare suite the project 651’s use the stop light system although not much is known about its capability its contents have also been removed from the submarine, it is believed that the electronic signature of a vessel could be found using this system and therefore tracked it could also function as a bearing to fire the missiles on thus meaning the 651’s could identify friend of foe in order to fire the missiles.

Moving aft in the submarine you find another crew space this is mainly for engineers and junior rates, with typical hot bunking procedures in place.

Further aft if the main diesel engine room, in here there are three main diesel engines two of which act as main drive engines and twin five blade screws, each engine puts out around 4,000shp while a smaller 1,750shp engine is used for power generation, this allows the submarine to run at a speed of 17 knots surfaced, but underwater they are powered by two 3,000hp electric motors for the main driving of the submarine and a two supplementary 500hp electric motors which not only operate as generators but also creep motors for silent operations, at flank speed the project 651’s could achieve speeds of 18 knots submerged.

The submarine was large some 90 meters long which is the same as the Foxtrot but the 651 is much wider at 10 meters, the submarine was also heavy fully submerged and fully loaded the submarine displaced 4,200tons as opposed to 3,000tons surfaced.
Underneath the flooring of most compartments are lead acid batteries which make up the bulk of the weight this allowed the submarine to remain submerged for up to 5 days (if used carefully), with the use of a snorkel mast the submarine never had to surface to replenish air or recharge batteries. At full speed the batteries could be drained in a matter of just a few hours.

The project 651’s had a rough range of 9,000 nautical miles at a steady speed of 8 knots, this meant operations would often take them into forward positions and into the mid-Atlantic theatre for example, the extra size would allow durations of sea time to be in excess of 2 months with a normal patrol lasting some 10 to 12 weeks whilst operating out of the Northern artic bases.

Despite the use of creep motors and thick rubber coating it is known these submarines were noisy the scoops for the missile jet blast in the hull would create hydrodynamic drag and create a lot of noise, coupled with the machinery not being properly isolated from the deck this meant the submarine could be heard quite a distance and indeed this was revealed to the Soviets in the 1970’s hence why we later see in the late 70’s and 80’s a move to home water operations.

The first two units were built in St Petersburg the remaining 14 boats all were built at Nizhny Novgorod the boats had long lives like most soviet boats some remained in service into the 1990’s with the last units paying off in 1994, by this time however they had been superseded by the much more advanced and powerful Project 949 boats (NATO Oscar I & II).

As mentioned and shown the boat has an aft torpedo room this was likely made redundant in the late 70’s and early 80’s as no other boats were built with such small torpedo tubes.
Today just one boat remains open for viewing in Peenemunde Germany the K24 she was assigned to the Northern Fleet and later the Baltic fleet laid down in October 1961 being launched at Nizhniy Novgorod December 1962 and finally commissioned October 1965, she is one of the oldest of the class yet she remained in service until mid-1994 some 32 years after completion.


K24 now called U434 sits idle at Peenemunde Germany as a tourist attraction

[Jimbuna]

[Cybermat47]

Okay, I know where I’m going after Laboe

[Mr Quatro]

I'm sure happy all the Russians did is spin their wheels ... no war is a happy war

[Kapitan]

Originally Posted by Cybermat47

Okay, I know where I’m going after Laboe

If your going to Laboe which is worth every moment of being there, near by in Fremahn Island is a cold war Era submarine a type 205 U11, not massively far past that is the HMS Otus an Oberon class in Sassanitz, and just after that is Peenemunde.

At Hamburg you also have a Russian Tango class submarine with another 60's era cargo ship the Cap San Diego nearby, Bremerhaven and Wilhelmshaven also have great museums depends how long you have really.