The world's fastest submarine has a top speed of 82.8 kilometers per hour, or 44.7 knots. This is a world record that has stood for many decades. It was set by the Soviet military submarine K-222, originally known as the K-162. Its development began back in 1959, and in 1969 it was commissioned and equipped with cruise missiles with nuclear warheads. In addition to its high speed, it had a number of other interesting features that were innovative at the time of its creation.
The K-222 submarine has become the fastest in the world. Photo source: dzen.ru
K-222: the fastest submarine
The K-222 is a second-generation Soviet nuclear submarine armed with P-70 Ametist missiles and equipped with a nuclear power plant. Its length was 106 meters. For comparison, the length of the largest submarine in the world is 173 meters.
As mentioned above, the development of the project began in 1959 by order of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Council of Ministers of the country. The project was developed until 1961, after which construction began in 1962 at the Sevmash plant in Severodvinsk.
The K-222 submarine had a titanium hull 106 meters long. Photo source: atomic-energy.ru
The project contained many new ideas. For example, the lightweight titanium alloy hull was an innovation at the time, as well as the ability to launch cruise missiles from an underwater position. At that time, submarines with underwater missile launches did not yet exist. Among other features of the submarine was an improved nuclear power plant. P-70 Ametist anti-ship cruise missiles were specially developed for armament, which could carry both conventional high-explosive fragmentation warheads and nuclear warheads with a capacity of 200 kt.
The K-222 was created primarily to combat enemy ships at a long distance. In particular, the submarine could hit aircraft carriers. It must be said that the range of the missiles was relatively small – only 100 km. However, this drawback was compensated by the ability to launch from under water. This ensured the element of surprise.
The fastest submarine in the world
Tests in 1969 showed that the submarine was even faster than the engineers who designed it had expected. It was able to reach a speed of 42 knots instead of the planned 38. However, work on the submarine continued, and by 1971 it was reaching a speed of 44.7 knots with the reactor running at full power. Since then, no other submarine has been able to surpass this speed.
The K-222 nuclear submarine reached a speed of 82.8 kilometers per hour. Photo source: hdpic.club
For comparison, the speed of Seawolf, one of the fastest American submarines, is only 35 knots, or 64 kilometers per hour. How did Soviet engineers manage to achieve such results? Obviously, several factors played a role. These include a powerful power plant, the correct hydrodynamic shape, and two propellers in the stern.
It can be assumed that the K-222 submarine was a serious threat to the United States and other NATO countries, especially during the Cold War. But in fact, despite a number of features and advantages, this submarine cannot be called successful. That is why it was the only one created under Project 661 “Anchar”.
Why the K-222 submarine was unsuccessful
K-222 was not in service for very long. One of the main problems was that it was very complex and expensive to operate, while its construction was also very expensive. Due to high speeds, it developed severe structural stress. But these are far from all the problems that were revealed during operation. It also turned out to be very noisy – inside the control room, the noise level reached 100 decibels. This is almost the same noise level as in a nightclub with powerful equipment.
The K-222 submarine turned out to be very loud. Photo source: dzen.ru
The high noise level occurred not only at maximum speeds. The problem arose already at a speed of 35 knots. The reason was the turbulent nature of the flow around the submarine. It is easy to guess that it was very difficult for the crew to be inside it for a long time. But most importantly, the noise deprived the submarine of stealth.
The fatal incident for K-222 was an incident that occurred in September 1980 during maintenance of the nuclear reactor. As a result, in 1984 the submarine was decommissioned and laid up in Severodvinsk. In 1989, K-222 was excluded from the Navy and transferred to the reserve. In 2010, the boat was disposed of at the Zvezdochka ship repair center. Thus ended the story of the fastest submarine in the world.
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But it cannot be said that the creation of K-222 was completely meaningless. The experience gained during the development of Project 661 was subsequently used by engineers to design second- and third-generation SSGN submarines. Further work was carried out in the direction of reducing the main disadvantages of the K-222 – high cost and noise. The result of the concept development was the 670 Skat project. In addition, work continued on creating serial boats with titanium hulls.