K-141 is down. The Kursk, an Antyey type 949A nuclear attack
submarine, was lost in the Barents Sea. The Kursk, one of eight active
Oscar II class submarines, was the pride of the Russian navy and the
leading edge of the new Northern Fleet.
Commissioned in 1995, the Kursk was the Northern Fleet’s most
powerful weapon. It made a high-profile voyage to the Mediterranean in
September 1999 and was due to return later this year as part of a
planned Russian nuclear task group deployment to the Middle East. The
August Russian naval exercise in the Barents Sea was designed to provide
the West with good reason to remember the Kursk.
Reports now show the exercise was intended to showcase the Kursk as
she performed her two primary roles, killing American carriers and
submarines. The Russian navy exercise also drew a small crowd of
interested observers in the form of two U.S. Los Angeles attack
submarines, loitering in the shallow polar sea over 50 miles from the
Kursk.
That fateful morning the Kursk reportedly completed a successful
firing of her main killer, the Chelomey Granit missile, NATO code-named
SS-N-19 Shipwreck. The Kursk and her sister boats carry 24 Shipwreck
missiles. The missiles are stored on each side of the huge submarine in
banks of 12, hidden between the layers of the boat’s thick twin hull
skin. The Shipwreck missiles are stored in launching tubes external to
the inner pressure hull where the 118 crewmembers worked and lived.
The Shipwreck missile fired by the Kursk that Saturday morning
contained a 1,600-pound conventional warhead. It reportedly scored a
direct hit against a Russian hulk target over 200 miles away. The
Shipwreck is intended to strike U.S. carriers but can also be targeted
against U.S. cities. Russian naval sources indicate that the Shipwreck
missile can be armed with an H-bomb warhead equal to one half million
tons of TNT, more than enough to flatten Los Angeles or New York City.
That fateful August Saturday, in the dim afternoon light of the
arctic summer sun, the Kursk began her last performance, the simulated
destruction of a U.S. submarine using the 100-RU Veder missile. The
Veder, NATO code-named SS-N-16A Stallion, is a rocket-boosted torpedo.
The Stallion is launched from the huge 26-inch diameter torpedo tubes
installed on each Oscar II class submarine.
The Stallion is so secret that no picture of the weapon has ever been
published. The Stallion is fired from the submarine’s torpedo tube but
flies like a missile. The Stallion rocket booster ignites underwater
once the weapon is clear of the submarine, sending the missile to the
surface. The missile then flies to the target under rocket power where
it finally ejects a lightweight torpedo at supersonic speed.
The mini-torpedo then uses its own little parachute, slowing to drop
gently into the water directly above the target. The mini-torpedo then
homes in on the target submarine for the final kill. The conventional
Stallion fired by the Kursk was armed with a mini-220 pound explosive
warhead. Jane’s Defense reports that the missile can also be armed with
a mini-nuclear warhead equal to 200,000 tons of TNT.
According to Jane’s, the last moments of the Kursk were recorded as
she prepared to fire the Stallion. Seismologists in Norway told Jane’s
that a monitoring station registered two explosions at the time the
Kursk sank. The first registered 1.5 on the Richter scale. A second,
stronger explosion measuring 3.5 on the Richter scale equivalent to one
to two tons of TNT was recorded just over two minutes later.
The Stallion rocket motor may have ignited inside the sealed torpedo
tube just before firing. The Stallion may have jammed itself inside the
torpedo tube as it was fired. In any event, the underwater rocket
appears to have ignited inside the inner manned pressure hull.
The force of the Stallion rocket motor would have twisted the huge
torpedo tube, melting through the metal walls within seconds. Just
enough time for alarms to sound and men to die. Then the small 220-pound
warhead exploded, blowing a gaping hole in the twisted skin of the
attack submarine. The submarine immediately fell forward as the icy
water rushed to fill the forward weapon bay.
The last moments of the Kursk and most of her crew were filled with
fire and ice as the vessel plunged into the cold arctic depths. The
rush of cold water did not extinguish the fire since the Stallion rocket
booster was designed to burn without air. The exploding warhead would
have sent huge flaming chunks of the rocket booster into the forward
weapon control room.
The force of the 14,000-ton submarine striking the bottom on the
damaged torpedo bay was the final blow, detonating one of the many
weapons inside upon impact. The force of the explosion inside the twin
hull submarine ripped the starboard side open back to the sail. The
manned areas forward of the reactor compartment, including the control
room and living quarters, rapidly flooded, leaving no time for personnel
in those compartments to escape.
This may not be the end of the story. There are now suggestions that
the West should help Russia raise the Kursk. Yet, despite being broke,
Russia continues to build and deploy the Oscar II submarine force.
There are seven active Oscar II class boats. The latest, K-530 the
Belgorod, is still under construction at the Severodvinsk Shipyard.
Budget cutbacks have slowed progress on the boat to a standstill but
construction continues. There are rumors that China is interested in
buying K-530.
The Kursk sailed the Mediterranean in late 1999 as a show of flag to
Russian allies such as Syria, Libya and Serbia. At the same time the
Kursk was touring the Mediterranean in 1999, a Pacific Fleet Oscar II
submarine was quietly cruising the western seaboard of the United
States, within missile range of California, Oregon and Washington.
While we all mourn the passing of K-141 and her crew, we should also
reflect on exactly what her mission was.
