K-226 Orel Problems
K-266 "Orel" is a Russian nuclear-powered missile submarine cruiser of Project 949A "Antey" , part of the 11th submarine division of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy. According to the Ministry of Defense, according to the project, submarines of this type were supposed to operate secretly, evading enemy sonars.
The coat of arms on the submarine's conning tower. It was the coat of arms of Volgograd, not Orel. In the nineties a submarine of the same name was laid down at Sevmash for this project, but it was not completed and stood at the Sevmash berth for a long time, and then was completely scrapped. Oleg Kuleshov went "straight to the answer to the riddle. Back in 1984, the 587th crew was formed. Submariners served on submarines of projects 949 and 949A: Krasnoyarsk, Orel, Smolensk, Omsk and others. In 2005, after the disbandment of the crew of the nuclear submarine B-502 "Volgograd", the agreement on patronage relations was transferred to the 587th crew, and from that moment on the crew received the unofficial name "Volgograd". Everything is very interesting and confusing!"
In 1991-1993, the boat bore the name "Severodvinsk". She was launched on May 22, 1992, on June 3 she was reclassified as a nuclear submarine cruiser, and on December 30 of the same year she entered service. On February 5, 1993, it became part of the Northern Fleet based at Zapadnaya Litsa . On April 6, 1993, it was renamed “Eagle” in honor of the city of the same name. Since then, some of the nuclear submarine crew are necessarily natives of the Oryol region . The Oryol city administration maintains friendly relations with sailors. The cruiser's pennant depicts the coat of arms of the Oryol region.
"When the Project 949A Antey nuclear submarine missile carrier K-226 Orel “Eagle” was laid down in 1989, both shafts that rotate the propellers consisted of separate parts, fastened with bolts and couplings. All parts should be solid, like on the Kursk, but on the Orel they are hollow. Quartz sand was poured inside. According to the designers’ calculations, such shafts should not be inferior in strength to cast ones, but at the same time they are lighter, less noisy, cheaper and easier to manufacture,” a representative of the military-industrial complex familiar with the situation told Izvestia 31 October 2012,.
Hollow shafts required lightweight screws, he said. But development of new propellers stopped after the collapse of the USSR, and in 1992 the boat was launched with new shaft lines, but with the old heavy propellers.
"During the sound tests, everything went fine, although the technicians noted an increased load on the shaft line. After the K-226 was transferred to the fleet, problems began. The shafts at the attachment points were bent above normal and began to rub against the walls,” said a representative of the military-industrial complex.
He also explained that as a result of friction when moving underwater, with increasing speed, the submarine began to emit a characteristic sound, clearly audible by Russian and foreign acoustic stations. "The boat must act secretly, evading enemy sonars, and the “Eagle” thundered across the entire Barents Sea. As the speed increased, the sound intensified to the point that the crunch drowned out the entire background environment around the acoustics. The Americans and British gave the submarine the nickname “Roaring Cow,” Izvestia’s source said.
The shaft defect forced the Northern Fleet command and the Russian Navy High Command to limit the K-226’s activities to the Barents Sea. During its 20 years of combat, the submarine entered combat service only in 1995 and 1996. Moreover, it was not difficult to detect it, and American Los Angeles and British Trafalgar were constantly following it.
They tried to solve the problem several times using local methods, but calculations showed that it was necessary to completely change both shaft lines. However, their production at the Barrikady plant (Volgograd) was suspended, says Izvestia’s interlocutor.
Therefore, in 2001, they decided to install solid cast shafts from the Kursk, which by that time had been raised and disposed of. This did not fundamentally solve the problem, since the old shafts bent the walls to such an extent that with the new parts the submarine continued to rattle. "In general, the components and mechanisms of the submarine cruiser are in good condition, because it practically never went to sea. The technology for manufacturing shafts has now made significant strides forward, so we will make solid-cast shafts,” the representative of the defense industry promised.
The High Command of the Navy told Izvestia in 2012 that until 2005, the shaft lines on the Orel did not cause any complaints. But that year, during the campaign, an emergency occurred - an explosion in the trim tank, which led to significant damage, including in the shaft lines. They had to be restored at a shipyard. "In principle, the difference in noise indicators is small: if with a working line a cruiser was detected at a distance of one nautical mile, then with a faulty one - one and a half miles. “I don’t know where the Americans heard their Roaring Cow,” said a representative of the Navy High Command.
In addition to the chassis, the K-226 will receive new information, navigation and communication systems, and hydroacoustic equipment. Strike power will also increase: new Onyx anti-ship supersonic missiles will replace the outdated Granites. The Central Design Bureau of Marine Equipment "Rubin" (St. Petersburg), which designed and brought to serial production all Project 949A boats, refused to comment on the fleet's plans. And the vice-president of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, Konstantin Sivkov, explained to Izvestia that defects in the construction of ships and vessels are a common occurrence.
The Orel underwent modernization in 2013. As the Ministry of Defense told Izvestia, they replaced one line of shafts (the system that transmits rotation to the propeller), removed in 2001 from its twin, the lost Kursk. Also subject to replacement is the line of the second propeller, which was taken from the third “brother”, which remained unfinished and nameless. In addition, the K-226 will receive new missile weapons and on-board radio electronics. The modernization in 2013, lasting from 2014-2016 - it included reactors refueling, electronics & weapons upgrades as well as repairs of the damaged shaft tunnels & replacement of the "Kursk" shafts with new ones.
At the beginning of 2014, the nuclear submarine was docked at the defense shipyard OJSC Zvezdochka Ship Repair Center to carry out work to restore its technical readiness. After completion of the repairs, the service life of the nuclear submarine will be extended by 3.5 years. Although, according to the contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense, the repair of the boat was scheduled for 2 years, the military department asked the shipbuilders to reduce the repair period by six months to ensure the combat readiness of the nuclear submarine group. Zvezdochka specialists made appropriate changes to the work schedule.
At the end of 2014, all work on the cruiser was carried out according to schedule. All equipment subject to repair and modernization outside the submarine was dismantled. Particular attention in the modernization order was paid to repair work on propeller shafts and propellers, other units and shaft line devices. The repair plan included restoring the ship's survivability systems, bottom-side fittings, drainage systems, high-pressure air, testing the main ballast tank, and also, together with defense research institutes and design bureaus, updating weapon systems.
On April 7, 2015, during welding work, a rubber seal caught fire. At about 14:00, as a result of welding work, the rubber seal between the light and durable hull in the area of the 9th compartment caught fire, causing heavy smoke. The fire area was about 20 m˛. At that moment, there were 13 crew members on the nuclear submarine, all of them were evacuated. The ammunition from the boat was unloaded in the fall of 2013 during dry docking, and the nuclear fuel was unloaded in the summer of 2014, before the start of repairs. There were no fuels and lubricants on the boat at the time of the fire. After the fire spread to the ballast compartment , management decided to partially flood the submarine in dry dock due to the impossibility of extinguishing the fire. In this case, the boat was not disabled - the durable hull remained hermetically sealed, and water only entered the space between the durable and light hulls, where the fire occurred. The nuclear submarine equipment remained untouched by water. At 18:00, a dock operation was started to raise the water level, and by 22:00 the last fires were extinguished.
The damage from the fire on the Orel nuclear submarine, according to preliminary estimates, exceeds 100 million rubles, a source in the interdepartmental commission to investigate the causes of the incident told TASS 08 April 2015. “The damage, according to preliminary estimates, exceeds 100 million rubles,” said the agency’s interlocutor. He confirmed that the main cause of the fire was a violation of safety measures during hot work on the submarine's hull. The source also noted that the fire damaged the submarine’s diving and ascent system. “As a result of the fire, the cable routes of the demagnetization device, which reduces the magnetic and electromagnetic fields of the ship, the soundproofing coating of the main ballast tanks and the pressure hull were burned. The submarine’s immersion and ascent system was also damaged,” the agency’s interlocutor said.
In January 2016, the boat began to be prepared for the April launch and testing. It was planned to return to service by the end of 2016. On October 3, 2016, as reported by the press service of the Zvyozdochka Ship Repair Center, the boat, after scheduled repairs, was launched in Severodvinsk and was supposed to be back in service by the end of 2016. However, this did not happen, and on March 14, 2017, the press service of the Russian Navy officially announced that the fleet would receive the Orel SSGN only in 2017.
The return of the boat to service after scheduled repairs was postponed to the end of April 2017. On April 6, 2017, she left the waters of the Zvezdochka ship repair center after the longest repair since launching and began the transition to her permanent base. The Zvezdochka shipbuilders restored the technical readiness of all ship systems - the mechanical part, electronic weapons, hull structures and the main power plant. Both reactors were recharged with fresh nuclear fuel, and specialists from the Zvezdochka Ship Repair Center carried out complex work to correct the Orel's factory design defect - restoring the technical characteristics of the nuclear-powered ship's notorious shaft lines.
According to media reports, including the Zvezda TV channel, the P-700 Granit missile systems were replaced by the P-800 Oniks with the possibility of replacing them with Caliber cruise missiles, however This information is not confirmed by authoritative sources.
The crew of the cruiser under the command of Hero of Russia, Captain 1st Rank Sergei Novokhatsky, and the factory commissioning team led by the responsible commissioner Mikhail Pozhinsky checked all the ship's systems at sea testing grounds. Upon completion of the tests, the Orel APRK will begin performing combat service tasks.
One of the most prominent participants in the fifth anniversary Main Naval Parade in Kronstadt 15 August 2021 was the nuclear-powered submarine missile cruiser "Eagle". It, along with the nuclear-powered missile submarine "Prince Vladimir" and the multi-purpose nuclear submarine "Vepr", was on static display in the Kronstadt roadstead. All three submarines were built at Sevmash, so they were well known to Severodvinsk residents. But for residents of St. Petersburg and Kronstadt, as well as guests of these cities, seeing three nuclear submarines at once is a rare opportunity. And it’s difficult to see these nuclear-powered ships in Severodvinsk itself - if they come in, it’s only for repairs.
The Northern Fleet's Project 949A nuclear-powered missile submarine Orel "Antey" fired a Granit anti-ship cruise missile in the Barents Sea September 14, 2021. This was reported by the press service of the Russian Ministry of Defense. The target position imitated a large surface ship of a mock enemy. The target was at a distance of more than 100 km from the missile launch point. The missile system itself is capable of hitting targets at a distance of up to 500 km, overcoming missile defense. The cruiser "Eagle" successfully completed the task, demonstrating high professionalism and naval training. Note that the shooting area was previously closed to civil shipping and aviation flights.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
