Akula/Typhoon Class

[rhinochopig]

Funnily enough I was talking to a ex-colleague this weekend. He pointed me at this...

http://www.engineering.com/DesignerEdge/DesignerEd...

Seems the high speed sub is far from dead.

[QuantumTokoloshi]

Article on moving the subs for refurbishment.

http://defensetech.org/2014/09/09/russia-releases-...

[Talksteer]

Hooli said:

V8 Fettler said:

Does Russia have the capability to decommission the reactors?

I think I've read they've got them all stored safely outdoors, by the sea up in an arctic port somewhere.

Remove fuel, remove filters, the rest isn't really very scary. A reactor pressure vessel is typically protected by a polythene bag once extracted from the sub.

If it wasn't for the bloody Brent Spar greenies we could just do the most cost effective and environmentally sound method of disposal which would be sinking in deep ocean.

[hidetheelephants]

Talksteer said:

Remove fuel, remove filters, the rest isn't really very scary. A reactor pressure vessel is typically protected by a polythene bag once extracted from the sub.

If it wasn't for the bloody Brent Spar greenies we could just do the most cost effective and environmentally sound method of disposal which would be sinking in deep ocean.

Why would you dump usable steel in the sea? Electropolish most of the crap off, recycle the clean bits and the rest can be cubed and kept in dry storage for 300 years, by which time it can be used for razor blades along with the rest. Many of nuclear power's ills are attributable to Muller's linear no-threshold theory, which was not proven then and is not proven now.

[Dr JonboyG]

rhinochopig said:

There a few things wrong with your 'evidence' :

1. The reason they didn't build more is the same reason why we didn't build lots of Concords or the US B2s - they were simply too expensive to build and maintain. Even the Russians called them the Golden Fish due to their cost.
2. Their recent sub designs do incorporate a lot of the S&T that was trialled on the Afla class.
3. The Americans did 'copy' the concept to a degree - the Seawolf class was /is a highly advanced, deep diving, and fast Attack Sub designed specifically to counter the threats from the Alfa and its possible successors. And do you know what, even without the Ti hull and huge levels of automation that the Alfa sported the US found them too expensive to build and run, which supports my first point.
4. They did build more of them:

K-64 1968 1969 1971 decommissioned
K-123 1967 1976 1977 decommissioned
K-316 1969 1974 1978 decommissioned
K-432 1967 1977 1978 decommissioned
K-373 1972 1978 1979 decommissioned
K-493 1972 1980 1981 decommissioned
K-463 1975 1981 1981 decommissioned

And cleverer people than me obviously thought they were a threat as US and the Yanks spent several hundred million pounds/dollars designing new torps to specifically counter the threat they posed.

Cheers

Rhino (Former Principal Designer on the Astute Class SSN)

That's me told!

[Clivey]

I've not read through it all yet (too much to do!) but they are, without any exaggeration whatsoever, staggeringly awesome machines. I'm a child of the (late) '80s but remember looking at Cold War military hardware and tech in sheer wonder. Thanks for the link OP!