Whiskey class submarine
Scheme of Whiskey-class submarine |
| Class overview |
| Preceded by: |
Zulu-class submarine |
| Succeeded by: |
Quebec-class submarine
Romeo-class submarine |
| Built: |
1949–1958 |
| Completed: |
236 |
| General characteristics |
| Displacement: |
(typical):
1,080 tons surfaced
1,350 tons submerged |
| Length: |
76 m (249 ft 4 in)
83.3 m (273 ft 4 in) (Whiskey Long Bin) |
| Beam: |
6.3 m (20 ft 8 in) to 6.5 m (21 ft 4 in) |
| Draft: |
4.9 m (16 ft 1 in) |
| Propulsion: |
Diesel-electric |
| Speed: |
18.5 knots (34.3 km/h) surfaced
13 knots (24 km/h) submerged
7 knots (13 km/h) (snorkelling)
(cruise missile carrying variants presumably slower) |
| Range: |
13,500 nmi (25,000 km) surfaced
6,000 nmi (11,000 km) submerged |
| Complement: |
54 (more on the cruise missile variants) |
| Armament: |
6 × 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes (4 bow, 2 stern
12 torpedoes or 22 mines)
1 × 25 mm (0.98 in) AA gun (Whiskey I, II, and IV)
1 × 57 mm (2.2 in) AA gun (Whiskey II)
1 × SS-N-3 cruise missile (Whiskey Single Cylinder)
2 × SS-N-3 cruise missiles (Whiskey Twin Cylinder)
4 × SS-N-3 cruise missiles (Whiskey Long Bin) |
Whiskey-class submarines (known in the Soviet Union as Project 613, 644, and 665) are a class of naval submarines that the Soviet Union built in the early Cold War period.
Design
The initial design was developed in the early 1940s as a sea-going follow on to the S-class submarine. As a result of war experience and the capture of German technology at the end of the war, the Soviets issued a new design requirement in 1946. The revised design was influenced by the German Type XXI submarine and was developed by the Lazurit Design Bureau based in Gorkiy.
Patrol variants
Between 1949 and 1958 a total of 236 of an envisaged 340 [1] submarines of this type were commissioned into the Soviet Navy. The vessels were initially designed as coastal patrol submarines. These patrol variants are known in the west as Whiskey I, II, III, IV, and V and were called Project 613 in the Soviet Union.
- Whiskey I − twin 25 mm guns in conning tower
- Whiskey II − twin 57mm guns and twin 25mm guns
- Whiskey III − guns removed
- Whiskey IV − 25 mm guns - fitted with snorkel
- Whiskey V − no guns - streamlined conning tower and snorkel
Missile variants
In the 1950s and 1960s some Whiskey submarines were converted to guided missile submarines. These boats had the capability to fire one to four SS-N-3 Shaddock cruise missiles. In 1956, the first prototype was ready. It was a regular Whiskey-class submarine which was fitted with a launch tube aft of the sail that contained a single SS-N-3 anti-ship missile. This vessel was known in the west as Whiskey Single Cylinder. Between 1958 and 1960, six additional Whiskey-class submarines were converted to carry guided missiles. These boats had two missile tubes behind the sail, and were known in the west as the Whiskey Twin Cylinder (Soviet designation:Project 644).[2]
Between 1960 and 1963, six boats received an extended sail that could contain four Shaddock missiles. These were called Whiskey Long Bin in the West and Project 665 in the Soviet Union.[2] All guided missile variants of the Whiskey class had to surface in order to fire their missiles. The boats of the single and twin cylinder class also had to raise their missile tubes, which were normally positioned horizontally.
The "Long Bin" boats did not handle well, the missile launchers caused stability problems and water flow around the missile fittings was very noisy (Weir and Boyle 2003). All were soon retired from service. Four were converted to radar picket boats Project 640 (which were called Whiskey Canvas Bag). Two vessels were converted to submarines for 'fishery research' and 'oceanographic research' purposes. In the Soviet navy, the patrol variants of this class were replaced by Romeo-class submarines. The guided missile variants were replaced by Juliet-class submarines.
Production programme
The Soviet Union built a total of 236 or 215 Whiskeys (sources vary). VADM Burov, head of the Soviet Defense Ministry's Shipbuilding Institute from 1969-1983 confirms 215 units built.[3] The building programme is shown below.[4]
| Year |
Gorkiy |
Nikolayev |
Baltic |
Komsomolsk |
Total |
| 1951 |
1 |
- |
- |
- |
1 |
| 1952 |
4 |
5 |
- |
- |
9 |
| 1953 |
19 |
11 |
- |
- |
30 |
| 1954 |
29 |
14 |
- |
1 |
44 |
| 1955 |
37 |
18 |
8 |
4 |
67 |
| 1956 |
26 |
15 |
4 |
4 |
49 |
| 1957 |
- |
9 |
3 |
2 |
14 |
| 1958 |
- |
- |
1 |
- |
1 |
| Total |
116 |
72 |
16 |
11 |
215 |
Patrol submarines of the Whiskey class were exported to:
- Albania (four vessels, all retired)
- Bulgaria (two vessels, retired)
- China (five vessels, and another 21 built locally from parts provided by the Soviet Union, known as Type 03, all now retired)
- Egypt (seven vessels, retired)
- Indonesia (twelve vessels, and two as a source of spare parts, retired)
- North Korea (four vessels)
- Poland (four vessels, 1962-1986, retired)
- ORP Orzeł (292)
- ORP Bielik (295)
- ORP Sokół (293)
- ORP Kondor (294) - 10 June 1965 raising of the banner, 30 October 1985 lowering of the banner.
Cuba and Syria ordered used Whiskey-class submarines for use as battery charging hulks. The guided missile and radar picket boats were never exported.
By 1982, only 60 boats remained in the Soviet Navy (45 active, 15 in operational reserve); all were retired by the end of the Cold War.
Incidents involving Whiskey-class submarines
- On 27 January 1961, S-80 was lost due to accidental flooding while the boat was submerged. The valve that should have prevented water from entering the snorkel did not work properly.
- On 24 November 1972, Royal Norwegian Navy's submarine "KNM Sklinna" had "contact" with what they presumed was a Whiskey-class submarine, after 14 days of "hunt" in the Sognefjord of Norway. Newly released military documents confirms this episode.[5]
- On 21 October 1981, S-178 was run down by the merchant vessel Refrizherator-13 in Golden Horn Bay, Vladivostok.
- On 27 October 1981, S-363 ran aground in Swedish territorial waters near the Karlskrona naval base.
- On 5 February 2007, the decommissioned S-194 took on water and sank off the coast of Denmark while being towed to become part of a naval museum.[6]
- In 2009 a previously unknown and unidentified sunken Whiskey class submarine was discovered within Swedish EEZ close to the island of Gotland. It was a decommissioned submarine which sank while under tow to be scrapped in Denmark. News of the discovery was not made public until March 2011.[7][8]
Notes
- ^ Voyenno-morskoy Flot SSSR 1945-1991, V.P. Kuzin & V.I. Nikolskiy, Istoricheskoye Morskoye Obshchestvo, Sankt Peterburg, 1996
- ^ a b Otechestvennoye Voyennoye Korablestroyeniye v tretem stoletii svoey istorii, V.N. Burov, Sudostroyeniye, Sankt Peterburg, 1995
- ^ Otechestvennoye Voyennoe Korablestroeniye v Tretem Stoletii Svoyey Istorii, 1995, ISBN 5-7355-0508-4
- ^ Conway's.
- ^ Aftenposten(Norwegian Language) (including pictures)
- ^ Dansk Dykkerservice ApS (Danish Language) (including pictures)
- ^ JP.dk
- ^ Forsvarsmakten.se
References
- Gardiner, Robert (ed.). Conway's all the World's Fighting Ships 1947-1995. London: Conway Maritime. ISBN 0851776051. OCLC 34284130. Also published as Gardiner, Robert; Chumbley, Stephen; Budzbon, Przemysław. Conway's all the World's Fighting Ships 1947-1995. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1557501327. OCLC 34267261.
- Weir, Gary E., and Boyle, Walter j. Rising Tide, The untold story of the Russian Submarines that fought the Cold War,Basic Books 2003
External links
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Whiskey-class submarine
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S-43 · S-44 · S-45 · S-46 · S-80 · S-140 · S-141 · S-142 · S-143 · S-144 · S-145 · S-146 · S-147 · S-148 · S-149 · S-150 · S-151 · S-152 · S-153 · S-154 · S-155 · S-156 · S-157 · S-158 · S-159 · S-160 · S-161 · S-162 · S-163 · S-164 · S-165 · S-166 · S-167 · S-168 · S-169 · S-170 · S-171 · S-172 · S-173 · S-174 · S-175 · S-176 · S-177 · S-178 · S-179 · S-180 · S-181 · S-182 · S-183 · S-184 · S-185 · S-186 · S-187 · S-188 · S-189 · S-190 · S-191 · S-192 · S-193 · S-194 · S-195 · S-196 · S-197 · S-198 · S-199 · S-200 · S-261 · S-262 · S-263 · S-264 · S-265 · S-266 · S-267 · S-268 · S-269 · S-270 · S-271 · S-272 · S-273 · S-274 · S-275 · S-276 · S-277 · S-278 · S-279 · S-280 · S-281 · S-282 · S-283 · S-284 · S-285 · S-286 · S-287 · S-288 · S-289 · S-290 · S-291 · S-292 · S-293 · S-294 · S-295 · S-296 · S-297 · S-300 Bryanskiy Komsomolets · S-325 · S-326 · S-327 · S-328 · S-329 · S-331 · S-332 · S-333 · S-334 · S-335 · S-336 · S-337 · S-338 · S-339 · S-340 · S-341 · S-342 · S-343 · S-344 · S-345 · S-346 · S-347 · S-348 · S-349 · S-355 · S-356 · S-357 · S-358 · S-359 · S-360 · S-361 · S-362 · S-363 · S-364 · S-365 · S-390 · S-391 · S-392 · S-393 ·
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Soviet and Russian submarines after 1945
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| Ballistic missile nuclear submarines – SSBN |
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| Cruise missile nuclear submarines – SSGN |
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| Nuclear attack submarines – SSN |
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| Conventional missile submarines – SSG or SSB |
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| Conventional attack submarines – SS or SSK |
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| Auxiliary submarines – SSA |
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