Technical Data

Compartments: 10

Reactors

Two pressurised water reactors, Model VM-A, 2 x 70 MWt (2 x 17 500 hp).

Naval Architect

Principal builder: S.N. Kovalev.

Construction Yard

The submarines were built at shipyard no. 402, Sevmash Machine Building Factory in Molotovsk (now Severodvinsk) in the period from 1958 to 1964. In the period between 1963 and 1967, the Northern Fleet's six Hotel class submarines were modified in Severodvinsk and D-4 type missile complexes were installed to carry R-21 missiles with a range of 1 400 km.[191] The two Hotel class submarines belonging to the Pacific Fleet were rebuilt into torpedo submarines during the same period at the ship building yard Bolshoy Kamen in Shkotovo.

Bases:

The Hotel class submarines belonging to the Northern Fleet are now laid up in Oleniya Bay at naval shipyard no. 10 Shkval, at Gremikha and at the naval shipyard in Murmansk.[192]

Individual Submarines

Northern Fleet:

K-19,

factory no. 901. Laid down on October 17, 1958. Launched on April 8, 1959. Commissioned on November 12, 1960. On July 4, 1961, there was a reactor accident resulting in the removal and replacement of the reactor compartment (no. 901).[193] This work was carried out in Severodvinsk in the period from 1962 to 1964. The two damaged reactors with their fuel were dumped in Abrosimova Bay in the Kara Sea in 1965.[194] The submarine suffered a further reactor accident on February 24, 1972, in wich 28 of the crew lost their lifes.[195] After this accident, K-19 was rebuilt as a communications submarine. Because of her numerous accidents, K-19 received the nickname Hiroshima. The submarine was decommissioned in 1991 and is now based in Polyarny.[196]

K-33,

factory no. 902. Commissioned on July 5, 1961. Decommissioned sometime between 1988 and 1990.

K-16,

factory no. 905. Commissioned on June 15, 1963. Decommissioned sometime between 1988 and 1990.

K-40,

factory no. 904. Commissioned on December 28, 1962. From 1977, the submarine was used as a communications vessel with the ship's registration number KC-40. Decommissioned sometime between 1988 and 1990.

K-149

Ukrainsky Komsomolets, factory no. 907. Commissioned on February 12, 1964 and decommissioned sometime between 1988 and 1990.

K-145,

factory no. 906. Commissioned on December 19, 1963. After a few years, the vessel was modified to carry six ballistic missiles. The submarine was decommissioned sometime between 1988 and 1990, and is now moored at the Sevmorput naval shipyard in Murmansk.[197]

Pacific Fleet:

K-55,

factory no. 903. Commissioned on August 12, 1962; now laid up in Pavlovsk.[198]

K-178,

factory no. 908. Commissioned on June 30, 1964 (?). At the North Pole for the first time on September 29, 1963. Now laid up in Pavlovsk.[199]

Foto, 31 kb.

Endnotes

[191] Krasnaya Zvezda, January 28, 1995, with reference to the magazine Russkoe orushiye (Russian Weapons) which in turn refers to the book Post-War History of the Soviet Navy (1945-1991) by Rear-Admiral Georgy Kostev. Return
[192] Kværner Moss Technology a.s., Disposal of Russian Nuclear Submarines, January 19, 1996. Return
[193] Pravda, July 1, 1991, and Krasnaya Zvezda, December 26, 1992. Return
[194] Yablokov, A. V., Facts and problems related to radioactive waste disposals in seas adjacent to the territory of the Russian Federation, Moscow 1993. Return
[195] Osipenko, L., Zhiltsov, L., and Mormul, N., Atomnaya Podvodnaya Epopeya, 1994. Return
[196] Mormul, N. Notes, 1995. Return
[197] Ibid. Return
[198] Handler, Joshua, Greenpeace, Radioactive Waste Situation in the Russian Pacific Fleet, Nuclear Waste Disposal Problems, SubmarineDecommissioning, Submarine Safety, and Security of Naval Fuel, Page 44, Washington D.C., October 27, 1994. Return
[199] Ibid. Return