9 ms·

A Classic of Soviet Engineering - The Typhoon-class sub

83 points by anateus 16y ago

Luc 16y ago
A visit to Wikipedia actually confirms this story (I was sure it was a joke before): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_class_submarine#Description_and_history http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_class_submarine#Descrip... "Typhoon class submarines feature multiple pressure hulls that simplify internal design while making the vessel much wider than a normal submarine. In the main body of the sub, two Delta class pressure hulls lie parallel with a third, smaller pressure hull above them (which protrudes just below the sail), and two other pressure hulls for torpedoes and steering gear."
- sdfx 16y ago
  In the discussion page of this article is a link to a schematic drawing - although it's obviously hard to tell how accurate this depiction is: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Typhoon_class_Schema.svg http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Typhoon_class_Schema....
- td 16y ago
  On a tangent: I wonder why wikipedia doesn't list the articles on boats by their original Russian names, but uses their NATO calling instead. Now you have the article "Typhoon sub" which is actually about Akula class submarines, and the article "Akula class submarine", which is about a submarine the Russians call "Shchuka".
  - StuffMaster 16y ago
    I don't think the USSR published the names, so whatever NATO called things became the de facto name for the rest of the world.
  - jacquesm 16y ago
    Part of that is that wikipedia is US centric (even it it tries to be NPOV in things like names this definitely leaks through), another part is that the majority of the editors would not be able to verify source in Cyrillic. The same happens happens with the names of towns and of people all over wikipedia so it's no surprise to see it happen with the names of classes of submarines.
arethuza 16y ago
On the subject of "Classics of Soviet Engineering", what about the Soyuz rocket family: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_%28rocket_family%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_%28rocket_family%29 Still going strong after 40+ and its first launch due from ESA's spaceport in Q4 2010: http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Launchers_Home/SEMXN619Y8G_0.html http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Launchers_Home/SEMXN619Y8G_0.html
pvg 16y ago
You're probably better off looking at pictures of an actual, unromanticized Typhoon/Akula, even if you don't read Russian. http://community.livejournal.com/ru_submarine/17486.html http://community.livejournal.com/ru_submarine/17486.html
- anateus 16y ago
  Those are quite nice. I like final photo: http://pics.livejournal.com/igor113/pic/001e72eq http://pics.livejournal.com/igor113/pic/001e72eq Translation (not exactly direct, but keeping close): Submariner! Relieved yourself? Clean up after yourself! And kindly requested, Close the door of the head. People live in this section (Violators will be severely punished!) I'm not sure why I find this amusing.
  - pvg 16y ago
    A lot of the signage is pretty hilarious but I was hoping (rightly, I'm very glad to see) people less lazy than myself would translate it.
- varjag 16y ago
  These two are decommissioned and are being cut apart.
  - pvg 16y ago
    As are just about all of the rest of them.
  - jedc 16y ago
    That explains why they're in such awful shape. I was a submarine officer in the US Navy and we would never allow any boat to look like this; literally rusting all over the place. That said, holy st the Russians built huge boats.
    - varjag 16y ago
      Maintenance bill on Typhoon class has been enormous, by any nation's standard. In neglect, they quickly fall apart. The rockets they were designed to carry are no longer in production either, so the whole class should be slashed by the end of the decade.
jacquesm 16y ago
For all the mocking you have to hand it to the Russians, they designed that thing on a budget that was probably a very small fraction of what the design of its American counterpart cost and it was just as deadly. Don't underestimate engineering because it is done in a less than elegant way, if the problem got solved and the device fulfilled the requirements and it was within the budget then it was a good design. As for the under water stab at the MIG 29, that was a design where the Russian designers probably outdid their Western counterparts in many ways. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAxx3T53TxM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAxx3T53TxM
- anateus 16y ago
  Just to clarify, that joke is in fact a Russian joke. I think the MiG-29 was an accidental stand-in that telegraphs whenever it was my Dad heard the joke. I bet it was told about the Mig-21 before it, too (which even more clearly than its successor was far superior to western planes of its era).
- pvg 16y ago
  It's surprisingly easy to meet a budget in a totalitarian state where even if not necessarily your life but your well-being, the education of your children and basic needs are dependent on it. I'm a Russian and I imagine I'm reasonably cognizant of actual Soviet achievements. The notion that these were reached by plucky engineering and can-do spirit rather than, largely, oppression and coercion is absurd.
  - jacquesm 16y ago
    > It's surprisingly easy to meet a budget in a totalitarian state where even if not necessarily your life but your well-being, the education of your children and basic needs are dependent on it. Yes, that's true. > I'm a Russian and I imagine I'm reasonably cognizant of actual Soviet achievements. ok > The notion that these were achieved largely by plucky engineering and can-do spirit rather than, largely, oppression and coercion is absurd. Whether oppression and coercion were part of it is not something I can or would like to comment on, I assume it was because of what I know about a bit of that from people working for defense projects in the 'sovblock' before the fall of the wall. But that does not detract from the quality of the engineering. I think that the budgetary constraints forced the Russian engineers to look for the simpler, and often more reliable solutions whereas their Western counterparts often took a more development oriented approach.
mitjak 16y ago
Ok, just to reiterate: there is a gym and a pool on board.
troels 16y ago
It's like the PHP of the cold war. Ugly as hell and patched together by barely fitting parts. But it gets the job done.
- protomyth 16y ago
  Depends how noisy it was and would the USA/UK be able to sink it before the shooting starts.
  - InclinedPlane 16y ago
    Quite so. In reality, almost all of the Soviet nuclear missile subs were nearly continuously shadowed by American hunter killer subs, but the reverse wasn't true. In the event of an actual nuclear war very few of the Soviet missile boats would have survived, while almost all of America's would have. Nevertheless, it turns out that land based ICBMs can also be made highly survivable so even given this any US/USSR exchange of nuclear weapons would have been devastating to both sides, regardless of how many subs survived.

83 points by anateus 16y ago

Luc 16y ago

A visit to Wikipedia actually confirms this story (I was sure it was a joke before): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_class_submarine#Description_and_history http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_class_submarine#Descrip... "Typhoon class submarines feature multiple pressure hulls that simplify internal design while making the vessel much wider than a normal submarine. In the main body of the sub, two Delta class pressure hulls lie parallel with a third, smaller pressure hull above them (which protrudes just below the sail), and two other pressure hulls for torpedoes and steering gear."

sdfx 16y ago
In the discussion page of this article is a link to a schematic drawing - although it's obviously hard to tell how accurate this depiction is: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Typhoon_class_Schema.svg http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Typhoon_class_Schema....
td 16y ago
On a tangent: I wonder why wikipedia doesn't list the articles on boats by their original Russian names, but uses their NATO calling instead. Now you have the article "Typhoon sub" which is actually about Akula class submarines, and the article "Akula class submarine", which is about a submarine the Russians call "Shchuka".
- StuffMaster 16y ago
  I don't think the USSR published the names, so whatever NATO called things became the de facto name for the rest of the world.
- jacquesm 16y ago
  Part of that is that wikipedia is US centric (even it it tries to be NPOV in things like names this definitely leaks through), another part is that the majority of the editors would not be able to verify source in Cyrillic. The same happens happens with the names of towns and of people all over wikipedia so it's no surprise to see it happen with the names of classes of submarines.

arethuza 16y ago

On the subject of "Classics of Soviet Engineering", what about the Soyuz rocket family: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_%28rocket_family%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_%28rocket_family%29 Still going strong after 40+ and its first launch due from ESA's spaceport in Q4 2010: http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Launchers_Home/SEMXN619Y8G_0.html http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Launchers_Home/SEMXN619Y8G_0.html

pvg 16y ago

You're probably better off looking at pictures of an actual, unromanticized Typhoon/Akula, even if you don't read Russian. http://community.livejournal.com/ru_submarine/17486.html http://community.livejournal.com/ru_submarine/17486.html

anateus 16y ago
Those are quite nice. I like final photo: http://pics.livejournal.com/igor113/pic/001e72eq http://pics.livejournal.com/igor113/pic/001e72eq Translation (not exactly direct, but keeping close): Submariner! Relieved yourself? Clean up after yourself! And kindly requested, Close the door of the head. People live in this section (Violators will be severely punished!) I'm not sure why I find this amusing.
- pvg 16y ago
  A lot of the signage is pretty hilarious but I was hoping (rightly, I'm very glad to see) people less lazy than myself would translate it.
varjag 16y ago
These two are decommissioned and are being cut apart.
- pvg 16y ago
  As are just about all of the rest of them.
- jedc 16y ago
  That explains why they're in such awful shape. I was a submarine officer in the US Navy and we would never allow any boat to look like this; literally rusting all over the place. That said, holy st the Russians built huge boats.
  - varjag 16y ago
    Maintenance bill on Typhoon class has been enormous, by any nation's standard. In neglect, they quickly fall apart. The rockets they were designed to carry are no longer in production either, so the whole class should be slashed by the end of the decade.

jacquesm 16y ago

For all the mocking you have to hand it to the Russians, they designed that thing on a budget that was probably a very small fraction of what the design of its American counterpart cost and it was just as deadly. Don't underestimate engineering because it is done in a less than elegant way, if the problem got solved and the device fulfilled the requirements and it was within the budget then it was a good design. As for the under water stab at the MIG 29, that was a design where the Russian designers probably outdid their Western counterparts in many ways. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAxx3T53TxM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAxx3T53TxM

anateus 16y ago
Just to clarify, that joke is in fact a Russian joke. I think the MiG-29 was an accidental stand-in that telegraphs whenever it was my Dad heard the joke. I bet it was told about the Mig-21 before it, too (which even more clearly than its successor was far superior to western planes of its era).
pvg 16y ago
It's surprisingly easy to meet a budget in a totalitarian state where even if not necessarily your life but your well-being, the education of your children and basic needs are dependent on it. I'm a Russian and I imagine I'm reasonably cognizant of actual Soviet achievements. The notion that these were reached by plucky engineering and can-do spirit rather than, largely, oppression and coercion is absurd.
- jacquesm 16y ago
  > It's surprisingly easy to meet a budget in a totalitarian state where even if not necessarily your life but your well-being, the education of your children and basic needs are dependent on it. Yes, that's true. > I'm a Russian and I imagine I'm reasonably cognizant of actual Soviet achievements. ok > The notion that these were achieved largely by plucky engineering and can-do spirit rather than, largely, oppression and coercion is absurd. Whether oppression and coercion were part of it is not something I can or would like to comment on, I assume it was because of what I know about a bit of that from people working for defense projects in the 'sovblock' before the fall of the wall. But that does not detract from the quality of the engineering. I think that the budgetary constraints forced the Russian engineers to look for the simpler, and often more reliable solutions whereas their Western counterparts often took a more development oriented approach.

mitjak 16y ago

Ok, just to reiterate: there is a gym and a pool on board.

troels 16y ago

It's like the PHP of the cold war. Ugly as hell and patched together by barely fitting parts. But it gets the job done.

protomyth 16y ago
Depends how noisy it was and would the USA/UK be able to sink it before the shooting starts.
- InclinedPlane 16y ago
  Quite so. In reality, almost all of the Soviet nuclear missile subs were nearly continuously shadowed by American hunter killer subs, but the reverse wasn't true. In the event of an actual nuclear war very few of the Soviet missile boats would have survived, while almost all of America's would have. Nevertheless, it turns out that land based ICBMs can also be made highly survivable so even given this any US/USSR exchange of nuclear weapons would have been devastating to both sides, regardless of how many subs survived.