Project 945: Sierra class

ALAMO wrote:

Mir wrote:Yes those chairs are amazing!
Gorby and Yeltsi caused some terrific damage - esp to the navy!
Thankfully those 945's did manage to survive - they are still real game changers.

The 705 time is long gone.
Those were the chasers.
Not sure if you recall the operational principle of it, so let me remind you.
The project was a follow on of the Polaris program.
First of all, we are facing a mass falsification of common sources, citing it had about 4500km range.
It is utter bullshit.
Polaris when accepted for service, had a range of not more than 2300km.
The Lira program was settled to make an interceptor. A submarine capable to hunt down the incoming SSBNs, while those were outside the engagement envelope.
Once spotted/tracked by the other recon means, it was supposed to jump out of the patrol zone, chase/intercept it, before it can unleash the nuclear strike.
A combination of sustained 40+ knots speed with WA-111, with a nuclear warhead, made it possible to intercept the SLBM carriers well before they can ignite the missiles.
But as the Polaris program was in development either, the new missile versions gained the range, almost doubling it at the end.
It was already impossible to intercept it, before it can strike the Leningrad - a Moscow, perhaps.
So the whole concept turned obsolete, just the same way that MiG-25 concept of intercepting B-52, and burning through ECMs with its extremely powerful radar was obsolete when the low altitude tactics was implemented.  
That is why the whole series was retired so fast, the tactical useless combined with the fact that those were so heavy in new technology, that turned to be problematic in handle. A metal cooled reactor was not a gain either ...
Too complicated, too specialized.

GarryB wrote:Yes, it is funny that you mention I think that the west thinks the Alphas were the fastest but it was actually the Papas that were the fastest Soviet subs... but they were all very interesting in their own right...

I remember HATO commanders saying they detected Alphas coming towards their exercises from quite a distance but the depths they were running at and the speeds they were moving there wasn't anything they could do about them except nuclear depth charges...

GarryB wrote:

limb wrote:Can the sierra's carry torpedo tube launched kalibr anti-ship variant missiles? Do torp tubes need a major redesign to lanch such missiles? Why could the victors launch vodopad and viyuga anti-sub missiles, but not anti-ship missiles? I kind of wish russians stuck to 650mm tubes. They were guaranteed carrier killers and could accomodate larger anti-ship missiles.  Also, since russian subs other than the yasen are louder than the seawolf and virginia, 650mm torpedos would allow for a greater standoff range against carrier groups and US subs, and more area for US anti-sub aircraft to scan.

ALAMO wrote:
Retrofitting S-10 to conventional missiles would be second to useless, as it's guidance system was granting a CEP of around 150m.
Plus the missiles themselves are 40 y/o and made with the Soviet Union industrial base you would have to restore to keep them running.
But the point is, that all of them already have the subsystems to carry missile strikes. At least Moskovsky is reported to be converted for Calibrs already.

ALAMO wrote:Ch-55 is just the same story.
It is a very old missile, and I really doubt if they are even interested in reestablishing the production potential of it. It is possible they keep it operational for a while thanks to cannibalization, but make a run to substitute the parts produced in let's say Kirgizya? Naaah.
They took some 750 missiles out of Ukraine back there, so I suppose they were on duty till the Ch-555 appeared, and 101/102 followed. That is 20 years ago already. Time is not standing still