History, Development, and Use of the Project 671 "Victor" Class Nuclear Attack Submarine

 

 

Brief Operational History

The PLA (podvodaya lodka atomnaya or Atomic Powered Submarine) or 'Victor I' as it was known in the West, first went to sea in 1967.  It was a second generation nuclear submarine that had many innovative features that made it superior to the November class in almost every category.

It was the fastest pressurized-water reactor until the advent of the American Los Angeles class.  With its streamlined teardrop hull the Victor I was also much quieter than its counterparts.  Its hull was also covered with a special coating known as 'Clusterguard' that reduced its ability to be detected by sonar.  Its bow hydroplanes are also retractable so that at it can maintain its silence at high underwater speeds or whenever running on the surface.

The submarine can carry up to 18 533mm (21 inch) torpedoes, but its basic combat load is a mix of eight 533mm (21 inch) anti-shipping torpedoes, ten 406mm (16 inch) anti-submarine torpedoes, two 533 (21 inch) nuclear torpedoes with 15 kiloton warheads, and two SS-N-15 anti-submarine torpedoes with a 15 kiloton yield.  In place of this it can carry 36 AMD-1000 ground mines.

The Victor I design was upgraded in 1974.  This improved version was produced at the Gorki shipyard and was called the Victor II.  It featured an improved communications system and two anti-submarine torpedo launchers in the bow that fire the SS-N-16 missile.  To accommodate these changes the ship was lengthened by placing a 6.1 meter (20 feet) extension ahead of the sail.  Despite these upgrades the Victor II marks a point in history where the Soviets were the farthest behind the West in hunter-killer submarines technology.

In 1976 another version of the Victor submarine was launched at the Admiralty shipyard.  NATO analysts was initially thought it to be a new class of submarine entirely and was designated the 'Uniform' class.  Later it was learned that it simply a new version of the Victor and correctly called the Victor III.

The Victor III was developed because of the information supplied to the Soviets by the Walker spy ring in the United States.  These traitors gave the Soviets a great deal of information on US anti-submarine warfare capabilities and let them know how easy it was to detect the louder Soviet submarines.  In addition to being far quieter, the Victor III was longer than either of its predecessors and had a larger crew complement as well.  It was the first Soviet submarine to mount a towed sonar array which was housed in a large bubble at the rear of the submarine..

In the late 1980's the Victor's were used by the Northern and Pacific fleets.  The Northern fleet operated 13 Victor I's, 5 Victor II's, and ten Victor III's.  The Pacific fleet operated 3 Victor I's, two Victor II's, and 11 Victor III's.  These numbers changed with the end of the Soviet Union and the financial troubles that followed.  All boats of the Victor I class were decommissioned between 1994 and 1996.  All Victor II class boats were decommissioned between 1995 and 1996.  Only 14 of the 26 remaining Victor III boats still remain in service, but are expected to be withdrawn when their reactors reach the end of their useful lives.

Tactical Use and Limitations

The Victor submarine was the first Soviet submarine designed with a teardrop hull.  This helped it attain very high underwater speeds and remain very quiet.  In addition to this, the Victor was much more reliable than its predecessors - the November class.  The submarine was covered in an anechoic coating known in the West as 'Clusterguard'.  This gave it an equivalent noise signature of an American 'Sturgeon' class submarine.

Its use in a potential conflict would have been to hunt down enemy ships or submarines.  When armed with nuclear tipped torpedoes the submarine would have attempted to strike at carrier battle groups.

Deployment Chronology

Here you can see what ship the Victor replaced and what submarine eventually replaced it.  You can find out more about these submarines by clicking on the links below.  It should be noted that the Soviet nuclear attack boat line went two directions in the late 1960's.  One school branch led to the ultra-fast and deep diving Alfa, while the other went to the more conventional Sierra class.  In any event they both represent further advances in Soviet nuclear submarine program.

Sources Cited

Here are some of the most informative sources that we have used in compiling this information for you.  We hope you can find them as useful as we have.

• The Encyclopedia of World Sea Power, Edited by Chris Bishop, published by Crescent Books, New York, 1988