Echo class submarine

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Echo II redirects here. For the virus, see Echovirus 11.

Echo II class submarine

Echo class is the NATO reporting name assigned to the submarines created by six projects of the Soviet Navy. Echos are nuclear-powered guided-missile submarines, which are known in the Soviet and Russian Navies as Podvodnaya Lodka Atomnaya Raketnaya Krylataya (PLARK). (The United States Navy gives them the hull classification symbol SSGN.)

Projects 659 and 659T are known as the "Echo-I" class and projects 675, 675M, 675MU, and 675MKV are designated the "Echo-II" class. All six are externally very similar; Echo-IIs are about ten feet longer than Echo-Is.

All are decommissioned and laid up at various sites awaiting disposal.

[edit] General Characteristics

Displacement:
- I: 3731 tons surfaced, 4920 tons submerged;
- II: 4450 tons surfaced, 5760 tons submerged
Length: I: 111.2 m; II: 115.4 m
Beam: I: 9.2 m; II: 9.3 m
Draught: I: 7.6 m; II: 6.7 m
Diving Depth: 300 m
Speed: I: 29 knots ; II: 23 knots
Crew: I: 120 officers and men; II: 130 officers and men
Powerplant: Two 70MWt VM-A reactors
Armament:
- 4 SS-N-3 Shaddock or SS-N-12 Sandbox antiship cruise missiles,
- 4 533mm anti-ship/anti-submarine torpedo tubes.

[edit] Accidents

The Echo class had been involved in numerous accidents

June 1970, Echo-II (K-108), collision with USS Tautog (SSN-639) off Kamchatka Penn., fatalities unknown

14 June 1973, Echo-II (K-56), collision with "Academic Berg", 27 dead

26 September 1976, Echo-II (K-47), fire in compartment 8, Barents Sea, 8 dead

21 August 1980 an Echo I class (K-222), reactor fire, 90 naut. mil. E of Okinawa, 9 dead

18 June 1984 an Echo-II (K-131), fire in compartment 8, 13 dead

10 August 1985 an Echo-II class (K-431), reactor explosion while refueling, Chasma Bay, 10 dead

26 June 1989 an Echo-II (K-192), reactor accident, off Bear Island, Barents Sea, fatalities unknown.

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[edit] References

Echo-class submarine

Projects 659 and 659T (Echo-I) (all Soviet Pacific Fleet)
K-45 | K-59 | K-66 | K-122 | K-259

Projects 675, 675M, 675MU, 675MKV (Echo-II)
Northern Fleet
K-166 (K-71) | K-170 (K-86, KS-86) | K-47 (B-47) | K-172 (K-192) | K-1 | K-28 (K-428) | K-74 | K-22 (B-22) | K-35 | K-90 (K-111) | K-104 | K-125 | K-128 (K-62) | K-131 (B-131) | K-135 (K-235)
Soviet Pacific Fleet
fourteen (14) subs go here