When the Dmitry Donskoy, Russia’s final Typhoon-class submarine, was officially taken out of service, it signified the end of a unique and remarkable chapter in naval history, albeit a very quiet goodbye. For an extended period, these giants of the deep had been intriguing not only the experts in the armed forces but also the laymen due to their gigantic dimensions and the fact that they were the living embodiment of the heyday of the Cold War.
Such a design was first conceived after the US started putting into service its Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines. The Soviets were desperately looking for a reply—maybe a ship that could give a counterattack in such a way that, if a nuclear war were to happen, the enemy would be hit badly. It was under this condition that the Project 941 Akula was born – though the Western world called it by a name that would become one of the most famous: Typhoon.
The Rubin Design Bureau, led by Sergey Kavalev, was responsible for creating the first Typhoon back in 1976. These submarines were not only a means of enforcement by the Soviet Union, but also proof of their capability to build something with features that were unprecedented with respect to size, security, and power.
The contracting was really massive. Measuring approximately 175 meters long and with a displacement of almost 48,000 tons when underwater, the Typhoons were bigger than most of the surface warships of World War II. Their designs – as opposed to the standard ones – featured two parallel pressure hulls and three more compartments for the crew and operations, all of them covered by a huge external shell.
Such a configuration gave them super strength. What could be a fatal damage on another sub, a Typhoon might be able to survive most of the time. The twenty R-39 Rif missiles, each equipped with several nuclear warheads, were located between the two main hulls, where the core of their strength was.
The life inside was also different. Due to their very large interiors, these submarines could provide facilities almost luxurious according to naval criteria—a small pool, a sauna, and even a gym. These were not frivolities but necessities that made it possible for the 160 crew to survive several months under Arctic ice. Because of their huge buoyancy, the Typhoons could break thick ice to surface in frozen seas and thus be there quietly waiting for the command that, of course, nobody hoped would come.
The first of the class, TK-208—later called Dmitry Donskoy—was introduced in 1981, followed by five other boats. They became, in an instant, the embodiments of Cold War bravado so muso ch that Tom Clancy’s well-known novel The Hunt for Red October was partly inspired by them.
Nevertheless, the actual careers of these terrifying ships were mostly very peaceful. They mainly performed deterrence patrols, which were routine in nature and were at times quiet incidents, such as the rocket explosion on board the TK-17 Arkhangelsk in 1991. In a way, their real function was symbolic, that is, colossal acknowledgments of the nuclear balance.
In the end, it was not a fight that decided their destinies but the downfall of the Soviet Union. Cutting down the budget, old missile systems, and arms control agreements contributed to the gradual obsolescence of these beasts. By the beginning of the 2000s, only Dmitry Donskoy was left to be used actively and was later turned into a test platform for the Bulava missile.
Starting from 2005, she made test launches and performed for years as a training and trial vessel. Nonetheless, she was eventually phased out, and even those non-full-time duties became economically unfeasible.
A Typhoon decommissioning is definitely a very complex process. First, each reactor has to be taken apart with great care, and the huge steel hull, which is thicker than that of the majority of surface warships, is gradually being cut into pieces. Presently, she is at the side of her retired sisters, Arkhangelsk and Severstal, waiting for the long and expensive removal process. On the other hand, the name will still be there in the new Borei-A class, which are smaller and quieter submarines designed to fulfill the modern requirements.
Typhoons are still talked about in history as they are the largest submarines ever constructed, and nothing has come close to their magnitude even in the present day. They were built in an era when size and robustness were considered the last resorts to survival. Although the oceans have been quiet without them, their saga still goes on and will always be there—these hulking, grim giants that to this day are the Cold War naval history’s darkest shadows.