On the eve of the next anniversary of the sinking of the Kursk, Russian taxpayers were presented with a new bill: the first deputy head of Rosatom, Ivan Kamenskikh, publicly raised the issue of lifting two nuclear submarines from the bottom of the Arctic seas.

Moreover, he did this not at his corporation, but as part of an international conference on the problems of the Arctic, which was organized on board the Yamal nuclear icebreaker during its passage from Varandey to Tiksi along the Northern Sea Route.

According to Kamensky, who delivered a report on "Environmental Problems of Dismantling Nuclear Power Plants in the Arctic", in the near future it is necessary to make a decision on the recovery or final disposal of the nuclear submarine B-159, which sank in 2003 while being towed in the Barents Sea. And - the emergency K-27, which back in 1982, by an unspoken decision, was deliberately flooded off the eastern coast of Novaya Zemlya. It is necessary to determine the future fate of these potentially dangerous objects in order to "guarantee a favorable ecological state of the Barents and Kara Seas." As they say, before the opening of the international conference, this issue was raised at the Security Council of the Russian Federation, which took place in Naryan-Mar.

"I think that the issue of these nuclear submarines should be resolved in 2012," Ivan Kamenskikh told reporters. where these boats are sunk, will not arise ... ".

The two nuclear submarines whose fate has now been brought to the attention are not the only losses of this kind in the oceans. Since the middle of the last century, when nuclear missiles and torpedoes began to enter the arsenal of the submarine fleet, and then ships with nuclear power plants, as a result of accidents and disasters, eight nuclear submarines and one diesel-electric submarine with nuclear weapons ended up at the bottom of the seas. Most of them died at depths of one and a half kilometers or more. Giant pressure and impacts on the ground lead to the inevitable destruction of the strong hull, which seriously complicates or completely eliminates the possibility of lifting them.

In this sense, the fate of the diesel boat of the Pacific Fleet K-129 is indicative. She went missing under mysterious circumstances while on active service off the Hawaiian Islands in March 1968. The then leadership of the USSR concealed this loss - even from the families of submariners (and there were 98 people in the crew). And only seven years later, information was leaked to American newspapers that the dead Soviet submarine was secretly discovered by the US Navy at a depth of more than four kilometers, and then a top-secret operation "Jenefer" was undertaken to retrieve it. But this attempt was not entirely successful - the damaged hull of the boat broke during the rise, and the booty in the form of nuclear warheads and secret codes, which the CIA and the Pentagon so counted on, slipped out of their hands.

A little over two months after the Soviet K-129 "missing" in the Pacific Ocean, in the Central Atlantic, in the Azores, under the same mysterious circumstances, the American nuclear submarine "Scorpion" (Scorpion) forever went into the abyss - with the entire crew (99 submariners), a nuclear reactor and two nuclear-armed Astor torpedoes. The exact coordinates of her death have not been disclosed so far, although this place has been established and carefully examined using special devices. The depth of the ocean at this point is 3600 meters, the hull of the boat consists of several fragments, there is no talk of their extraction.

The Scorpion was the second consecutive loss in the US nuclear submarine fleet. Three years earlier, on April 10, 1963, the nuclear submarine Thresher (SSN-593) was lost in the North Atlantic. Her team of 112 sailors and 17 civilians were conducting deep-sea tests of the ship 220 miles east of Boston after it had been factory refurbished and upgraded. An experimental nuclear power plant was installed on the Thresher, and the maximum depth was determined at 400 meters. The wreckage of the lost ship was found by search engines at a depth six times greater than the maximum ...

As for the three dead nuclear submarines from the Soviet Navy, they all sank at depths many times greater than the depth of immersion allowed for them. The K-8 torpedo nuclear submarine carried a reactor and special ammunition to the bottom of the Bay of Biscay. The strategic K-219, which crashed on the eve of the historic meeting between Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan in Reykjavik, reduced our nuclear potential by 15 ballistic missiles. Together with them at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean - two nuclear reactors. But the depth at this point, remote from shipping lanes, is more than 5500 meters. And any noticeable change in the radiation background has not yet been noticed.

But with the K-27 the situation is different. She did not sink, but was deliberately sunk almost thirty years ago in Stepovoy Bay off the eastern (Kara) coast of Novaya Zemlya. So, alas, secretly got rid of emergency nuclear facilities in those years. Few people know, but in the vicinity of K-27 in the coastal waters of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, another 14 submarine reactors were flooded, of which six were with unloaded nuclear fuel. In the same place, in the Tsivolki Bay, 125 fuel assemblies were sunk along with the emergency reactors of the Lenin nuclear icebreaker.

From time to time, on the instructions of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and Roshydromet, hydrographic and other vessels visit this area (as a rule, along the way) to measure the radiation background and assess the state of protective barriers. Judging by information from open sources, there was no particularly disturbing information from them. But what will happen tomorrow, no one can say. Therefore, the proposal voiced by the deputy head of Rosatom Ivan Kamensky may be to the liking of not only nuclear scientists and the military. This is the rare case when even environmentalists, who a priori dislike everything atomic, can give a voice in support.

In the 55 years since the use of nuclear reactors in the submarine fleet, eight nuclear submarines have sunk (irretrievably lost): two American, four Soviet and two Russian.

In 2001, the Kursk was raised from a depth of 108 meters with two nuclear reactors.

The nuclear submarine "Komsomolets", which was lost in 1989 in the Norwegian Sea, was sealed at a depth of 1680 meters with a special composition.

Deep sea losses

• Submarine Thresher (SSN-593) - the first US submarine of the new class "Permit" with an experimental nuclear power plant. The maximum diving depth is 400 meters. She was lost on April 10, 1963 with all on board (112 sailors and 17 civilian specialists) during deep-sea testing in the North Atlantic (220 miles east of Boston) after 9 months of factory repairs and modernization. Fragments of the hull were found at a depth of 2600 meters.
• Submarine Scorpion (torpedo, with one reactor and two nuclear-armed Astor torpedoes), USA. She died on May 22, 1968 with the entire crew (99 submariners) under unclear circumstances during military service near the Azores in the central Atlantic. Fragments of the hull were found at a depth of 3600 meters.
• Nuclear submarine K-8 (torpedo, with one reactor), USSR. During the exercises, "Ocean" crashed and sank from the surface (April 12, 1970) in the Bay of Biscay at a depth of 4680 meters. 52 submariners were killed.
• Nuclear submarine K-219 (with two reactors and 15 ballistic missiles - up to 50 nuclear warheads), USSR. On October 6, 1986, she sank from a surface position in the mid-Atlantic as a result of an explosion of propellant components. 4 crew members died, the rest of the submariners were evacuated. The depth of the ocean at the point of death (Sargasso Sea) is more than 5500 meters.
• Nuclear submarine K-278 "Komsomolets", USSR. The only combat deep-sea nuclear submarine in the world. A durable titanium alloy body made it possible to dive to 1000 meters. As a result of a fire in the seventh compartment, she surfaced and after four hours, having lost her buoyancy, she sank near Bear Island in the Norwegian Sea. 42 submariners were killed. In the zone of active fishing at a depth of 1680 meters, there was a nuclear reactor and two torpedoes in nuclear equipment. The original lifting plans were abandoned. In 1992-1995 it was sealed with a special hardening composition right at the bottom.
• Nuclear submarine K-27 (with two fast neutron reactors), USSR. After a reactor accident and several years of sedimentation, on the basis of an unspoken decision, it was flooded in 1982 in Stepovoy Bay off the eastern coast of Novaya Zemlya at a depth of 33 meters.
• Nuclear submarine K-141 "Kursk" (with two reactors, without nuclear weapons), Russia. She died along with all those on board (118 people) on August 12, 2000 during planned exercises in the Barents Sea at a depth of 108 meters. In November 2001, she was raised from the bottom (with the exception of the first torpedo compartment destroyed by the explosion), docked and disposed of.
• Nuclear submarine K-159 (withdrawn from service), Russia. She sank on August 30, 2003 in the Barents Sea near Kildin Island at a depth of 248 meters while being towed to a salvage site. 9 out of 10 technical crew members were killed.

The idea of ​​a submarine itself appeared in the 15th century. This idea came to the brilliant head of the legendary Leonardo da Vinci. But, fearing the devastating consequences of such a hidden weapon, he destroyed his project.

But this always happens, if the idea already exists, then sooner or later humanity will embody it. For more than half a century, submarines have been plying the seas and oceans. And, of course, from time to time they get into accidents. Of particular danger in this case are nuclear submarines equipped with nuclear power plants. Let's talk about their failures.

USS Thresher

The first nuclear submarine to sink in history was the American USS Thresher, which sank in the already distant 1963. Built three years earlier, she was the first Thrasher-class submarine of its kind.

On April 10, the USS Thresher was taken out to sea to test deep-sea dives and test the strength of the hull. For about two hours, the boat sank and periodically transmitted data on the state of its systems to headquarters. At 09:17 USS Thresher stopped communicating. The last message read: "... limiting depth ...".

When they found it, it turned out that it fell apart into six parts, and all 112 crew members and 17 researchers died. The reason for the death of the boat is called a factory marriage in the welding of the hull, which could not withstand the pressure, cracked, and the water that got inside caused a short circuit in the electronics. The investigation will establish that the shipyards where the USS Thresher was serviced had extremely low quality control, and in addition, deliberate sabotage could occur. This was the reason for the death of the submarine. Her hull still rests at a depth of 2560 meters east of Cape Cod.

USS Scorpio

In the entire history of the US Navy, only two submarines have been definitively and irrevocably lost. The first was the USS Thresher mentioned above, and the second was the USS Scorpion that sank in 1968. The submarine sank in the Atlantic Ocean near the Azores. Literally five days after the accident, she was supposed to return to the base in Norfolk, but she did not get in touch.

In search of the USS Scorpion, 60 ships and aircraft set off, which found a lot of interesting things, including a sunken German submarine from World War II. But the sought-after boat was discovered only five months later at a depth of 3000 meters. The entire crew of 99 perished. The causes of the disaster are not completely known, but there is a version that one of the torpedoes could explode on board the boat.

USS San Francisco

But the case of the American boat USS San Francisco is just the story of a miraculous rescue. On January 8, 2005, a collision occurred 675 kilometers southeast of Guam. At a depth of 160 m, San Francisco collided with an underwater rock.

The rock broke through the ballast tanks, so that the ship could go to the bottom very quickly. But by the joint efforts of the team, they managed to maintain buoyancy and raise the USS San Francisco to the surface. The hull was not broken, and the nuclear reactor was not damaged.

At the same time, there were victims. Ninety-eight crew members received various injuries and fractures. Mate Second Class Joseph Allen died of head injuries the next day.

Let's move on to the Soviet submarines. The submarine K-8, which sank in the Bay of Biscay on April 12, 1970, was the first such loss of the Soviet fleet.

The cause of death was a fire in the hydroacoustic cabin, which began to spread rapidly through the air ducts and threatened to destroy the entire ship. But he was saved by simple human heroism. When the sailors from the first shift of the main power plant realized that the fire continued to spread, they drowned out the nuclear reactors and battened down all the doors to other compartments. The submariners themselves died, but did not let the fire destroy the submarine and kill the rest. A nuclear reactor did not release radiation into the ocean.

The surviving sailors were taken on board by the Bulgarian motor ship Avior, which was just sailing nearby. Captain 2nd rank Vsevolod Bessonov and 51 members of his crew died fighting the fire.

K-278 "Komsomolets"

The second sunken Soviet nuclear submarine. K-278 "Komsomolets" also destroyed the fire that broke out on board on April 7, 1989. The fire broke the tightness of the boat, which quickly filled with water and sank.

The sailors managed to send a signal for help, but due to damaged electronics, they were able to receive and decipher it only from the eighth time. Some crew members managed to get out and swim to the surface, but they ended up in icy water. As a result of the disaster, 42 sailors died, and 27 survived.

K-141 "Kursk"

We have already written in more detail about the mysterious sinking of the Kursk submarine, the strange behavior of the Russian authorities and questions that no one has yet answered. So now let's focus on the main points.

On August 2, 2000 at 11:28 a.m., the systems of the cruiser Pyotr Veliky recorded a strong bang, followed by a slight shake of the ship. "Kursk" participated with the cruiser in the exercises of the Northern Fleet and six hours later was supposed to get in touch with him, but disappeared.

After almost two days, the submarine will be found at a depth of 108 meters, already at the bottom. All 118 crew members were killed. The reasons for the death of the Kursk are still not completely clear, since the official version of the fire in the torpedo room raises too many questions.

Ukraine is out of competition

If any conclusion can be drawn from all these stories, it is to understand that the work of submariners is harsh and dangerous. And Ukrainians know how to cope with any dangerous work. Therefore, despite the fact that we do not yet have a submarine fleet, this is a matter of time. As soon as Ukraine has free resources for its creation and development, it will be created.

And we have plenty of strong sailors, whose Cossack ancestors sailed on seagulls all the way to Turkey, and whose fathers and grandfathers served on Soviet submarines, we will find in abundance. Ukraine usually has no shortage of heroes.

"Thresher"

The American SSN-593 Thresher was the first nuclear submarine to sink. On April 10, the submarine went to sea to conduct deep diving and test the strength of the hull at the maximum depths for it. Thresher sent a message about readiness for diving at 7:30, after which he got in touch several more times, reporting on the condition of the boat and the depth reached. The last message was received at 09:13: "We have a positive increasing angle ... Trying to purge ...". After that, the boat did not communicate anymore. Photos from the crash site showed that the submarine broke into several parts and took with it the lives of the entire crew - 112 people and 17 researchers. The remains of the Thresher still rest 350 kilometers east of Cape Cod at a depth of 2560 meters. The main cause of the disaster is considered to be a crack in the hull through which the boat was filled with outboard water.

"Scorpion"

The second nuclear submarine that the US Navy lost was the SSN-589 Scorpion. The boat sank on May 21, 1968, 740 kilometers southwest of the Azores at a depth of 3,000 meters. The submarine was searched for five months by almost 60 ships and aircraft, but to no avail. Sonar recording helped to find the remains of the Scorpion: at one of the stations, a signal similar to the destruction of the boat hull under pressure was detected. The search area narrowed, and soon the boat was found at a depth of 3047 meters. The cause of death has not yet been established, according to one of the versions, one of the torpedoes could explode. The bodies of 99 crew members remained forever at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

K-8 became the first nuclear submarine lost by the Soviet Union. During combat duty in the Mediterranean, a fire broke out in the hydroacoustic cabin. The ship's commander began to fight for the safety of the boat, but the fire began to spread through the air ducts. The composition of the first shift of the main power plant distinguished itself with courage and heroism: seeing that the flame was about to go through other compartments, they closed the doors and drowned out the nuclear reactors. At the cost of their lives, they prevented an explosion that would destroy the entire boat and release radioactive elements into the ocean. Most of the crew escaped thanks to the Bulgarian motor ship Avior, which was nearby and took the survivors on board. K-8, together with Captain 2nd Rank Vsevolod Bessonov and the bodies of 51 other members, rests at a depth of 4680 meters, 490 kilometers northwest of Spain.

K-278 "Komsomolets"

The nuclear submarine K-278 "Komsomolets" died on April 7, 1989 while returning from the third combat service. As a result of the fire, the tightness of the boat was broken, outboard water rushing inward dragged the ship itself and part of its crew to the bottom. In addition, as a result of the accident, a signal for help was received, and was deciphered only from the eighth time. Those divers who managed to get out of the burning submarine ended up in icy water and were forced to wait for help. As a result of the disaster, 42 people died, 27 survived. During the proceedings over the disaster, the leadership of the Navy accused designers and shipbuilders of the imperfection of the boat. The latter, in turn, declared inept and sometimes even illiterate actions of the crew. The date of the death of the nuclear submarine "Komsomolets" was proclaimed in the Russian Federation as the "Day of Remembrance of the dead submariners."

K-141 "Kursk"

One of the most mysterious disasters of the twentieth century is the death of the Kursk nuclear submarine. On August 12, 2000, the submarine took part in the exercises of the Northern Fleet. At 11:28 a.m., equipment on the cruiser Pyotr Veliky detected a bang, after which the ship shook. "Kursk" did not get in touch at the set time - 17:30, and the next morning a group of ships went in search of the missing submarine, and at 04:51 "Kursk" was found lying on the ground at a depth of 108 meters. Together with the boat, all 118 crew members were killed. The cause of the death of the submarine was a fire in the torpedo room, which caused the torpedoes themselves to detonate.

The death of submarines. In the first half of our century, sailing in submarines was a very risky undertaking. Before the war in 1939, they were lost every year mainly due to oversight or design flaws, and even excluding those that went to the bottom clearly due to hostilities in World War II, more than a hundred of them disappeared at the same time.

Over the past fifty years, however, technology has advanced a lot, and as a result, since 1945, two dozen submarines have sunk. This is good news.

Now for the bad news: some of these disappearances seem to have been linked to forces beyond human comprehension - alien forces lurking deep in the ocean.

1968 gives us the three clearest examples of this series. Launched in December 1959, the American submarine Scorpion was a 3,000-ton leviathan of the deep, equipped with an atomic engine. The pride of the American navy, the ship was flawless in its service and was considered one of the most reliable in the entire Navy.

In February 1967, after eight years of work, Scorpio was slightly patched up. Norfolk Shipyard and, after successfully completing a series of post-repair inspections, was assigned to the US Mediterranean Flag Group in March 1968.

She served faithfully until May, when, along with the entire crew of ninety-nine people, on the way back to Norfolk, she suddenly disappeared. The route was simple and routine, and on the twenty-fifth of May, two hundred and fifty miles from the Azores, the Scorpion transmitted standard traffic signals - and it turned out that this was the last contact with the submarine. In the following days, all attempts to establish radio contact with the submarine failed.

At first they decided that the whole thing was some kind of technical malfunction, no one believed that a misfortune had happened, but time passed, and the Scorpion never appeared on the surface. He was officially declared not to have arrived at the port of destination by the deadline and an intensive search began.

Several weeks passed, no trace of the submarine was found. The ship was classified as lost, and the search was abandoned at the end of June.

After the official announcement of the loss of the ship, rumors began to circulate among American newspapers about magnetic tapes in the hands of the Navy, on which radio conversations with the Scorpion were recorded, and from them it is allegedly clear that shortly before his disappearance the submarine was pursuing some unusual target, moving at a speed exceeding the capabilities of any earth-made ship.

The Navy refused to comment on these rumors and at the same time supported the rumors about the possible participation of the Russians in the whole tragedy. When the search ship Mizar announced in August 1966 that the crumpled wreck of the Scorpion had been photographed and identified, lying on the shelf in 10,000 feet of water four hundred miles west of Azores, the Navy declined to comment on that, or even indicate whether they previously knew about the place of the death of the ship.

The excitement of the press increased when, in the trial that followed the investigation, some of the materials were classified and never released, which clearly indicated that the Pentagon did not want public participation in this case.

At the end of the court hearings, no final decision had been made, although the Navy itself was quite content to conclude that the sinking of the ship was the result of a tragic combination of human oversight and mechanical failure.

All speculation about alien intervention in this tragedy and speculation about the unusual object that was mentioned in the last report from the submarine were carefully suppressed.

Whether the last voyage of the Scorpion was the only one in the registry of oddities in 1968, it still remained remarkable enough for history. But in reality, the American submarine was only the third of the missing under almost the same circumstances - the other two disappeared with an interval of two days at the beginning of the same year.

On the morning of January 26, the Israeli submarine Dakkar, with a crew of sixty-five sailors, contacted its home port and its destination, Haifa, saying that it was moving on schedule and would arrive on time. The ship had only recently undergone a successful refit and refit in the English Don of Portsmouth and was now returning to Israel via the Mediterranean.

As it turned out, Dakkar never returned, and this optimistic message was his last message.

Searches involving thirty ships and a dozen aircraft from five countries turned up nothing, and the Israeli Maritime Court was unable to reach a conclusion on the reasons for the sinking of the ship.

However, precisely at midnight on the twenty-sixth of January, on a fishing boat from the Greek part of Cyprus, fishing forty miles to the north-east of the last position of the Dakkar, a large luminous oval object was seen silently sliding under the bow from the starboard side.

It is certain that it was not an ordinary submarine or some huge marine animal, and the fishermen, having learned about the fate of the Israeli submarine, came to the conclusion that what they saw was somehow connected with its loss.

The disappearance of the Dakkar and its entire crew was only the first part of a double tragedy, which seems like complete nonsense, if you do not take into account the version of the participation of aliens. At almost the same time, in the Mediterranean Sea, 1000 miles to the west, the French submarine Minerva disappeared during a combat exercise.

The vessel was only forty feet deep when, on the twenty-seventh of January, it signaled to a French aircraft circling over the exercise site that it was going to dive to find out what strange object on radar had apparently been chasing the submarine for several minutes. .

At a depth of one hundred and ninety feet, the submarine suddenly became silent. Together with a crew of fifty-nine, she was declared lost, presumably sunk at a place where the depth reached eight thousand feet. Even less has been said about the strange object.

Given all the circumstances of the case, the idea of ​​a connection seems perfectly logical - the only problem is that then something very unpleasant will have to be recognized: the intervention of unknown forces, the existence of which, at least officially, is still not recognized by any government in the world.

The sinking of submarines

Water and cold. Darkness.
And somewhere above the knock was metal.
There is no strength to say: we are here, here ...
Hope is gone, tired of waiting.

The bottomless ocean keeps its secrets securely. Somewhere out there, under the dark vaults of the waves, lie the wreckage of thousands of ships, each of which has its own unique fate and tragic death.

In 1963, a column of sea water crushed the most modern American submarine "Thresher". Half a century ago, it was hard to believe in this - the invincible Poseidon, drawing strength from the flame of a nuclear reactor, capable of circumnavigating the globe without a single ascent, turned out to be weak, like a worm, before the onslaught of a ruthless element.

“We have a positive increasing angle ... We are trying to purge ... 900 ... north” - the last message from the Thresher is unable to convey all the horror that the dying submariners experienced. Who could have imagined that a two-day test voyage escorted by the Skylark rescue tug could end in such a disaster?

The cause of the Thresher's death remains a mystery. The main hypothesis: when diving to the maximum depth, water entered the strong hull of the boat - the reactor was automatically shut down, and the submarine, deprived of its course, fell into the abyss, taking 129 human lives with it.

Rudder feather USS Tresher (SSN-593)

Soon the terrible story was continued - the Americans lost another nuclear-powered ship with a crew: in 1968, the ship disappeared without a trace in the Atlantic multi-purpose nuclear submarine "Scorpio".

Unlike the Thresher, with which an underwater sound connection was maintained until the last second, the death of the Scorpion was complicated by the lack of any clear idea of ​​​​the coordinates of the crash site. An unsuccessful search continued for five months, until the Yankees deciphered data from the deep-sea stations of the SOSUS system (a network of US Navy hydrophone buoys for tracking Soviet submarines) - a loud bang was found on the records dated May 22, 1968, similar to the destruction of a strong submarine hull. Further, the approximate location of the lost boat was restored by triangulation.

Wreckage of USS Scorpion (SSN-589). Deformations from the monstrous water pressure (30 tons / sq. Meter) are visible

The wreckage of the Scorpion was discovered at a depth of 3,000 meters in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, 740 km southwest of the Azores. The official version connects the death of the boat with the detonation of the torpedo ammunition (almost like the Kursk!). There is a more exotic legend, according to which the Russians sank the Scorpion in retaliation for the death of the K-129.

The mystery of the sinking of the Scorpion still haunts the minds of sailors - in November 2012, the US Navy Submarine Veterans Organization proposed a new investigation to establish the truth about the death of the American boat.

In less than 48 hours, as the wreckage of the American "Scorpion" sank to the seabed, a new tragedy happened in the ocean. On the experimental nuclear submarine K-27 The Soviet Navy got out of control a reactor with a liquid metal coolant. The nightmarish unit, in whose veins molten lead boiled, “polluted” all compartments with radioactive emissions, the crew received terrible doses of radiation, 9 submariners died from acute radiation sickness. Despite a severe radiation accident, the Soviet sailors managed to bring the boat to the base in Gremikha.

K-27 was reduced to a non-combatable pile of metal with positive buoyancy, exuding deadly gamma rays. The decision on the future fate of the unique ship hung in the air, and finally, in 1981, it was decided to flood the emergency submarine in one of the bays on Novaya Zemlya. For the memory of posterity. Maybe they will find a way to safely dispose of the floating Fukushima?

But long before the “last dive” of K-27, the group of nuclear submarines at the bottom of the Atlantic was replenished submarine K-8. One of the first-born of the nuclear fleet, the third nuclear submarine in the ranks of the USSR Navy, which sank during a fire in the Bay of Biscay on April 12, 1970. For 80 hours there was a struggle for the survivability of the ship, during which time the sailors managed to shut down the reactors and evacuate part of the crew aboard the approaching Bulgarian ship.

The death of K-8 and 52 submariners became the first official loss of the Soviet nuclear fleet. At the moment, the wreckage of the nuclear-powered ship rests at a depth of 4680 meters, 250 miles off the coast of Spain.

In the 1980s, the USSR Navy lost a couple more nuclear submarines in combat campaigns - the strategic missile submarine K-219 and the unique "titanium" submarine K-278 Komsomolets.

K-219 with a torn missile silo

The most dangerous situation developed around K-219 - on board the submarine, in addition to two nuclear reactors, there were 15 R-21 submarine-launched ballistic missiles with 45 thermonuclear warheads. October 3, 1986 there was a depressurization of the missile silo number 6, which led to the explosion of a ballistic missile. The crippled ship demonstrated fantastic survivability, having managed to emerge from a depth of 350 meters, having damage to its strong hull and a flooded fourth (missile) compartment.

* in total, the project assumed 16 SLBMs, but in 1973 a similar case already took place on K-219 - an explosion of a liquid rocket. As a result, the "unfortunate" boat remained in service, but lost launch silo No. 15.

Three days after the rocket explosion, the nuclear-powered ship, armed to the teeth, sank in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean at a depth of 5 kilometers. The victims of the disaster were 8 people. It happened on October 6, 1986
Three years later, on April 7, 1989, another Soviet submarine, the K-278 Komsomolets, sank to the bottom of the Norwegian Sea. An unsurpassed ship with a titanium hull, capable of diving to a depth of over 1000 meters.

K-278 "Komsomolets" at the bottom of the Norwegian Sea. The photographs were taken by the deep-sea apparatus "Mir".

Alas, no outrageous performance characteristics saved Komsomolets - the submarine fell victim to a banal fire, complicated by the lack of clear ideas about the tactics of fighting for survivability on non-kingston boats. In flaming compartments and icy water, 42 sailors died. The nuclear submarine sank at a depth of 1858 meters, becoming the subject of a furious debate between shipbuilders and sailors in an effort to find the "guilty".

New times brought new problems. The bacchanalia of the "free market", multiplied by "limited funding", the destruction of the supply system of the fleet and the massive layoffs of experienced submariners inevitably led to disaster. And she did not keep herself waiting.

August 12, 2000 did not get in touch Nuclear submarine K-141 "Kursk". The official cause of the tragedy is the spontaneous explosion of a "long" torpedo. Unofficial versions range from a nightmarish heresy in the style of "Submarine in Troubled Waters" from the French director Jean Michel Carré to quite plausible hypotheses about a collision with the aircraft-carrying cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov or a torpedo fired from the American submarine Toledo (the motive is unclear).

Nuclear submarine cruiser - "aircraft carrier killer" with a displacement of 24 thousand tons. The depth at the site of the submarine's sinking was 108 meters, 118 people were locked in the "steel coffin" ...

The epic with the unsuccessful operation to rescue the crew from the Kursk lying on the ground shocked all of Russia. We all remember the face of another scoundrel with admiral's shoulder straps smiling on TV: “The situation is under control. Contact has been established with the crew, air supply has been organized to the emergency boat.”
Then there was an operation to raise the Kursk. Sawed off first compartment (for what??), found letter from captain Kolesnikov…was there a second page? Someday we will know the truth about those events. And, for sure, we will be very surprised at our naivety.

On August 30, 2003, another tragedy occurred, hidden in the gray twilight of naval everyday life - it sank during towing for cutting old nuclear submarine K-159. The reason is the loss of buoyancy, due to the poor technical condition of the boat. It still lies at a depth of 170 meters near the island of Kildin, on the way to Murmansk.
The question of raising and disposing of this radioactive heap of metal is periodically raised, but so far the matter has not moved beyond words.

In total, the wreckage of seven nuclear submarines lies at the bottom of the oceans today:

Two American: "Thresher" and "Scorpion"

Five Soviet: K-8, K-27, K-219, K-278 and K-159.

However, this is far from a complete list. In the history of the Russian Navy, a number of other incidents were noted that were not reported by TASS, in each of which nuclear submarines perished.

For example, on August 20, 1980, a severe accident occurred in the Philippine Sea - 14 sailors died fighting a fire on board K-122. The crew was able to save their nuclear submarine and bring the charred boat in tow to their home base. Alas, the damage received was such that the restoration of the boat was deemed inappropriate. After 15 years of sludge, K-122 was disposed of at the Zvezda Far East Air Plant.

Another severe case, known as the "radiation accident in Chazhma Bay" occurred in 1985 in the Far East. In the process of recharging the nuclear submarine reactor K-431, the floating crane swayed on the wave and "pulled out" the control grids from the submarine's reactor. The reactor turned on and instantly went into an outrageous mode of operation, turning into a "dirty atomic bomb", the so-called. "pop". In a bright flash, 11 officers standing nearby disappeared. According to eyewitnesses, the 12-ton reactor cover flew up a couple of hundred meters and then fell back onto the boat, almost cutting it in half. The fire that started and the release of radioactive dust finally turned the K-431 and the nuclear submarine K-42, which was standing nearby, into incapacitated floating coffins. Both emergency nuclear submarines were sent to scrap.

When it comes to accidents on nuclear submarines, one cannot fail to mention the K-19, which received the speaking nickname "Hiroshima" in the fleet. The boat has been the source of serious problems at least four times. The first military campaign and the reactor accident on July 3, 1961 are especially memorable. K-19 was heroically saved, but the episode with the reactor almost cost the life of the first Soviet missile carrier.

After reviewing the list of dead submarines, the layman may have a vile conviction: the Russians do not know how to manage ships. The accusation is a no-brainer. The Yankees lost only two nuclear submarines - the Thresher and the Scorpion. At the same time, the domestic fleet lost almost a dozen nuclear submarines, not counting diesel-electric submarines (the Yankees have not been building diesel-electric boats since the 1950s). How to explain this paradox? The fact that nuclear-powered ships of the USSR Navy were controlled by crooked Russian Mongols?

Something tells me that the paradox has a different explanation. Let's try to find it together.

It is worth noting that an attempt to “blame” all failures on the difference in the number of nuclear submarines in the USSR Navy and the US Navy is obviously useless. In total, during the existence of the nuclear submarine fleet, about 250 submarines (from K-3 to the modern Borea) passed through the hands of our sailors, the Americans had somewhat less than ≈ 200 units. However, the Yankee nuclear-powered ships appeared earlier and were operated two to three times more intensively (just look at the SSBN operational voltage coefficient: 0.17 - 0.24 for ours and 0.5 - 0.6 for American missile carriers). Obviously, the whole point is not the number of boats ... But then what?
Much depends on the calculation method. As the old joke goes: “it doesn’t matter how they did it, the main thing is how they counted it.” A dense trail of accidents and fatal accidents stretched through the entire history of the nuclear fleet, regardless of the flag of the submarine.

On February 9, 2001, the USS Greenville rammed the Japanese fishing schooner Ehime Maru. 9 Japanese fishermen were killed, the US Navy submarine fled the scene without providing any assistance to those in distress.

Nonsense! - the Yankees will answer. Navigation accidents are everyday life in any fleet. In the summer of 1973, the Soviet nuclear submarine K-56 collided with the scientific vessel Akademik Berg. 27 sailors died.

But the Russian boats sank right at the pier! Here you are:
On September 13, 1985, K-429 lay down on the ground near the pier in Krasheninnikov Bay.

So what?! - our sailors may object. The Yankees had the same case:
On May 15, 1969, the US Navy nuclear submarine Guitarro sank right at the quay wall. The reason is simple negligence.

USS Guitarro (SSN-655) lay down to rest at the pier

The Americans will scratch their heads and remember how on May 8, 1982, the original report was received at the central post of the nuclear submarine K-123 ("submarine fighter" of the 705th project, a reactor with a liquid-metal reactor): "I see a silvery metal spreading over the deck." The first circuit of the reactor broke through, the radioactive alloy of lead and bismuth “stained” the boat so much that it took 10 years to clean the K-123. Fortunately, none of the sailors died then.

The Russians will only smile sadly and tactfully hint to the Americans how the USS Dace (SSN-607) accidentally "splashed" two tons of radioactive liquid from the primary circuit into the Thames (a river in the USA), "dirt" the entire Groton naval base.

Stop!

So we won't achieve anything. It is pointless to denigrate each other and recall unsightly moments from history.
It is clear that a huge fleet of hundreds of ships serves as rich ground for various emergencies - every day there is smoke somewhere, something falls, explodes or sits on stones.

The true indicator is major accidents leading to the loss of ships. "Thresher", "Scorpion",... Have there been other cases when nuclear-powered ships of the US Navy received heavy damage in combat campaigns and were permanently excluded from the fleet?
Yes, there have been such cases.

The shattered USS San Francisco (SSN-711). The consequences of a collision with an underwater rock at 30 knots

In 1986, the USS Nathaniel Green crashed on rocks in the Irish Sea. Damage to the hull, rudders and ballast tanks was so great that the boat had to be scrapped.

February 11, 1992. Barents Sea. The multi-purpose nuclear submarine "Baton Rouge" collided with the Russian titanium "Barracuda". The boats collided successfully - repairs on the B-276 took six months, and the history of USS Baton Rouge (SSN-689) turned out to be much sadder. The collision with the Russian titanium boat led to the appearance of stresses and microcracks in the strong hull of the submarine. "Baton Rouge" hobbled to the base and soon ceased to exist.

"Baton Rouge" goes to the nails

It's not fair! – the attentive reader will notice. The Americans have purely navigational errors, on the ships of the US Navy there were practically no accidents with damage to the reactor core. In the Russian Navy, everything is different: compartments are burning, molten coolant is pouring onto the deck. There are design miscalculations and improper operation of the equipment.

And it is true. The domestic submarine fleet has exchanged reliability for the outrageous technical characteristics of boats. The design of submarines of the USSR Navy has always been distinguished by a high degree of novelty and a large number of innovative solutions. Approbation of new technologies was often carried out directly in combat campaigns. The fastest (K-222), the deepest (K-278), the largest (Project 941 "Shark") and the most secretive boat (Project 945A "Condor") were created in our country. And if there is nothing to reproach "Condor" and "Shark", then the operation of the other "record holders" was regularly accompanied by major technical problems.

Was it the right decision: and diving depth in exchange for reliability? We have no right to answer this question. History does not know the subjunctive mood, the only thing I wanted to convey to the reader is that the high accident rate on Soviet submarines is not a miscalculation of the designers or crew errors. Often it was inevitable. A high price paid for the unique characteristics of submarines.

Project 941 strategic missile submarine

Memorial to fallen submariners, Murmansk