Aviation Naval Warfare Land Systems Small Arms Space By Flag By Year By Tag

Dmitri Donskoi (TK-208)

1981 COLD WAR MODERN NAVY

History of Dmitry Donskoy (TK-208)

In the 1970s, the West was entangled with the Soviet Union in the East in a "cold war". The Soviet Union rose during World War II, especially after Germany invaded the country through Operation Barbarossa. With the Germans within earshot of Moscow, the Soviet capital, the Soviets managed to stop the German onslaught through good luck and a massive outburst of man, machine, and patriotism.

The Soviets seized most of eastern Germany and eventually conquered Berlin, only to find a dead Adolf Hitler waiting for them. In any case, the war propelled the Soviet Union into the undisputed superpower of the modern world, followed by a "cold war" in the parts of the world that would be their battlegroundsmainly between the United States and Russia (South Korea in the 1950s, 1950s Vietnam in the 1970s).

Rumors quickly spread in the Pentagon that a new weapon was being built behind the "Iron Curtain" - a supposedly massive and undetectable nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (essentially a suspense novel "The Hunt for This Ship") "The True Story Behind") laid on June 30, 1976, completed in 1981 at the Severodvinsk shipyard near Arkhangel on the White Sea as lead ship of the "Akula" or "Shark" class, and completed on June 29, 1976 Commissioned into service in December 1981 "TK-108" (six submarines of the class will be completed in total) Leonid Brezhnev is said to have used the word "typhoon" to describe a new submarine, So NATO aptly used the term as her reporting title. When the Soviet Union first allowed the submarine to be in public, it quickly became a feared Cold War weapon for the world's pro-Western navies.

Later TK-189 was named after the 13-year-old Grand Duke of Moscow 59 Renamed "Dmitry Donskoy".

At the heart of the submarine is its propulsion system, which allows it to move in a deep sea environment and evade American "hunter-killer" ships and race to reach possible firing positions. The power is provided by two nuclear water reactors and two turbine transmission assemblies. Reactor and turbine gear assemblies are installed on each main hull. Each nuclear water reactor produces 190 megawatts of power and drives 2 x 50,000 hp steam turbines and 4 x 3,200 kW turbo generators.

2 x 800 kW diesel generators are used as backup propulsion and the system is connected to the propeller shaft. The two propellers are seven-bladed, fixed-pitch and ducted.

Revolutions in the communist countries of Eastern Europe took place in 1989, and the Soviet Union itself disintegrated in 1991. In 1990, Dmitri Donskoi was supposed to be overhauled in drydock in Severodvinsk. The overhaul was delayed due to a lack of funding following unrest across the region, although she returned to service with what is now the Russian Navy in 2002. It was used to launch the Bulava test rocket in the White Sea in 2005.

She continued to perform such test missions in the North Sea until 2010, and was in partial service.

Despite the collapse of communism in Russia, reliable information about Akula-class ships remains vague even today. Their operations are expected to continue until the second half of the century, according to a government statement. The most widely accepted information is that all six completed ships of this class are currently listed as "unused" and at least three of them (TK-202, TK-12 and TK-13) have been scrapped, which are apparently Comes with some US and UK style support.

TK-17 and TK-20 remain in inactive "reserve" status. A seventh ship, the TK-210, was laid in 1986 but scrapped before its completion in 1990 to fill a funding gap after the collapse of the Soviet Union.