"Ash" (submarine). Multipurpose nuclear submarines of project 885 "Ash"

Like other military equipment, the world's submarines are historically divided by the years of production for generations. Not only six decades passed from "Nautilus" and "Lenin Komsomol" to modern missile-carrying multi-purpose low-noise "Sea wolves" and "Borei", for this time four generations of submarine-nuclear ships have been replaced. The Russian Navy has already received Severodvinsk (K-560) project 885 "Ash", a submarine with a nuclear power plant of the fourth generation. Three more similar ships have been laid (Kazan, Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk), three more are on the way. Until the end of the decade, they are likely to be at least ten. A new nuclear submarine descended from the stocks, photos of this event were published by the media around the world, sometimes with benevolent comments, but more often as an illustration of Russia's growing military activity. Perhaps this opinion is justified, and our country, arming itself, shows aggressive intentions? Everything is known in comparison, for example, the values of military budgets and the composition of fleets.

Goals and objectives

The current situation in the world, despite the absence of an ideological confrontation, has escalated to a "hot" level, comparable to the pre-war expectation of the period of the Caribbean crisis. The independent policy pursued by the Russian leadership in defending the country's geopolitical interests causes irritation of "Western friends". On the example of some states, torn by internal conflicts, exacerbated by a completely destroyed economy, one can judge the intentions and desires of external forces to take any measures, including direct military intervention, in order to achieve their goals. The preliminary phase of such aggressive actions is diplomatic pressure, accompanied by threats of the use of force. The US military budget is huge, it is confidently approaching the astronomical and unprecedented level of 700 billion dollars. The Russian Federation can not spend so much money on defense, so it costs less, reacting to threats asymmetrically. The Yasen submarine is an example of a strategic approach, according to which a perfectly acceptable parity is achieved without financial strain. Although it is also impossible to say that they are cheap.

History of the fourth generation

The general appearance of the fourth generation nuclear submarines, in general, was formed in the late seventies. At that time, the confrontation between the two superpowers was not masked by talk about the benefits of democracy, but had a completely frank character of an irreconcilable conflict between the two political and economic systems. The main naval weapons of the United States were aircraft carriers, personified the entire military power of the West. The second "sword" threatened the Soviet Union was the nuclear submarine. In connection with these two troublesome circumstances, the last-generation nuclear submarine, in repelling possible aggression, could theoretically fulfill two main tasks: fighting heavy aircraft carrying ships accompanied by escorts and destroying enemy submarines. You can add one more important function: applying a guaranteed retaliatory strike. The USSR assumed the obligation not to use nuclear weapons first. It was planned to create another type of submarine, a universal ship, also called multi-purpose. This is what the submarines of project 885 Yasen, embodied in metal after the collapse of the USSR, in the 21st century. The political system in the country has changed. Probable enemy remained the same.

Unification and universalization

KB "Malachite" in the USSR since the fifties was engaged in the development of the newest submarines with an atomic power plant. The new submarine was developed here, in Leningrad. The technology of the fourth generation differs not only in the year of the release of engineering documentation. Innovative ideas have been applied a lot, they are also conceptual in nature, and concern specific technical features. The Soviet Navy operated many submarine projects, which made it difficult for them to service, train crews, repair, and even manufacture itself. There was a perfectly logical idea to maximally unify the design of the submarine in such a way that it could perform a number of tasks previously only available to specialized ships, or, at least, on the basis of a single sample, to be able to create units for various purposes. Such an atomic submarine was cheaper (people tried to save money in the USSR), and crew training was simplified.

One and a half cases is like?

A conventional submarine, atomic or diesel, built in accordance with the classical layout, consists of a rugged hull containing everything necessary to carry out combat missions, and a light shell covering the ballast tanks. There are, of course, multi-hull submarine cruisers ("Shark", for example), but they are very large and expensive, so their use is highly specialized, and the task was just to create a multipurpose ship. According to the original scheme, the "Ash" project was built. The submarine has one and a half bodies. What does it mean? Of course, it is impossible to cut a strong case, it contains all weapons, mechanisms and machines, control devices, an atomic reactor, and many other things, including a crew. But with the outer shell engineers from KB "Malachite" acted boldly. They cover only the bow of the ship, not counting the superstructure above the missile shafts. The front tank of the main ballast is located in the inter-corpus space, ten more are distributed as follows: 5 CGB are located in the seventh compartment and 4 (plus an additional one, designed for fast immersion) in the fifth, missile. Containers filled with air or water occupy the annular space, bordering equipment and weapons. But the shipbuilders did not stop with the layout features.

Reactor

In the sixth compartment is the "heart" of the ship, the nuclear reactor. It is here that a huge amount of heat energy is generated, heating the steam, rotating the turbines. The submarines of the project "Ash" are equipped with a special power plant built on an integrated monoblock scheme. Due to this, all the heat generated in the primary circuit (directly in contact with the fuel elements) is localized, and long pipelines are not necessary to lead anywhere. The installation is compact, its power is two hundred megawatts, and it is less "fonite" (this is already a question of stealthiness). The reactor is very reliable, this requirement is dictated by the difficult access to its zones, the period of guaranteed operation is set by a time of at least thirty years.

Assignment of compartments

Submarines of the "Ash" class have a strong case, divided into compartments, that they do not differ from all the others. There are nine of them, here is their list:

1 st - Central Control Center. In addition to the central command post, there is a rescue chamber here, in which, if necessary, the ship will be able to leave the crew, the hydroacoustic post and access to the wheelhouse. Torpedo tubes, in contrast to previous projects, are behind this compartment, giving way to the main "eyes" and "ears" of the ship - the antenna, which takes even the weakest signals and gives exhaustive information about the surrounding situation. Project 885 Yasen submarines are the most "sighted" ships of their class.

2nd torpedo, hence TA is charged, underwater projectiles themselves, as well as auxiliary equipment and electric drives of external pull-out devices.

3-rd, four-deck, saturated with instruments, general-purpose equipment (generators, coolers, ballast pumps, etc.)

4-th - household, cabin crew cabins and cabins, a mess-room, canteens, a medical center and other premises providing normal conditions during long distant campaigns are located here.

The 5th compartment is called rocket. In addition to the formidable weapons, as mentioned above, there is also a ballast tank.

6th - reactor, in addition to the power plant, is equipped with an auxiliary tank to compensate for the starting pulse.

The 7th compartment is called turbine. This is the place where the red-hot steam gives its energy to the shaft of the propeller. Still here are 5 CGB.

In the 8th, mechanical equipment is concentrated, and there is also a rescue hatch.

The 9th compartment is called the tiller. Translated from the marine language, this means that the horizontal and vertical rudders are controlled by means of hydraulic drives.

Invisibility

The nuclear submarine "Ash" was designed in such a way that detection of it was problematic. Usually the presence of a submarine in any zone of the world ocean is "calculated" according to several signs: the noise of propellers and mechanisms, the radiological trail, heat releases, and visually through transparent layers of water. It unmasks the ship and the magnetic field created by the metal. In order to reduce the visibility and danger of mine explosion with a detonator reacting to changes in static fields, ships in ports and in roadsteads are subjected to a demagnetization procedure. The case of the NS-885 project is made of a special steel alloy, close in properties to paramagnets. The noise is minimized, by 15 decibels they were reduced only due to the revolutionary layout of the power system. A special sound-absorbing coating also made the boat "quiet". Other solutions to reduce visibility have been applied. The propeller is one, it is made by a special technology, which ensures low noise of the stroke.

Armaments

Now about the main thing, about what types of weapons can, in case of need, apply "Ash". The submarine has on board eight silo-type launchers for Onyxov. Since the ship is versatile, they can be replaced by 3M54 ("Turquoise") or "Caliber" 3M14. Each PU can release 4 cruise missiles. Manages the complex of weapons system 3P-14P. The missiles can hit ground and surface targets, passing along a flat trajectory, which makes it difficult to detect them and the ABM's actions. In their design, the principle of the "wolf pack" is implemented, according to which an interface connection is established between the flying projectiles at the moment of entering the combat course. The rocket, which is above all others, assumes the role of leader, coordinating the actions of the whole group. In the event of its defeat by the anti-ballistic missile defense, the command function is automatically transferred to another unit. It is almost impossible to fight such a salvo of cruise missiles. For this "Ash" received a gloomy nickname "Assassin aircraft carriers."

The torpedo tubes are ten, all of them are on the sides of the second compartment just behind the central command post. Ammunition - 30 "Physicists-1" (caliber 533).

If necessary, the ship can install mines, carry out hydroacoustic countermeasures (for this, there are "Barriers" REPS-324) and perform other activities that complicate the operational activity of hostile naval forces.

General characteristics

Not everything that is on the ship, you can get information from open sources. Experts still have to judge by their appearance what this submarine is. Photos published in the media, allow you to conclude on the size, they are really considerable: the length is 140 meters. Displacement in the underwater position - almost 14 thousand tons. Speed parameters are also available, which this submarine boasts. Characteristics, as usual, differ depending on the degree of submergence of the hull, under the water the ship moves faster (31 knots), and on ascent develops 16 knots. The crew consists of 32 officers and 90 sailors and foremen. All of them, in case of danger and impossibility of struggle for survival, can leave the boat in the detachable rescue capsule located in the bow. The abundance of telescopic antenna systems towering over the felling is striking. They provide reliable communication with the command and other ships. Information is available on the presence on the boat of special equipment that creates an acoustic information channel, protected from interception. About how it works, there is no detailed information.

The claimed autonomy is a hundred days, but in reality, it seems, there may be more.

Technology and cost

The fact that ships belong to the same project does not at all mean their complete identity. Each new unit has certain advantages over the previous one due to the improvement of technology and the use of more modern types of equipment and weapons. Ships are not built as fast as some other types of equipment, especially such complex ones as the Ash project of the Ash project. Submarine "Severodvinsk", adopted by the Navy last year, cost the treasury 47 billion rubles. Kazan will also cost as much, but it is already known that this ship has improved contours, the equipment is modernized, and the noise is even lower. In addition, the production of all sub-units and components of submarines is now transferred to the territory of the Russian Federation, which reduces the risk of leakage of classified information about their device and increases independence from foreign suppliers. There is reason to believe that the cost of each subsequent unit will decrease as the technological cycle improves. This is always the case, but this phenomenon has another side. At the moment of achieving the greatest perfection, any technique is already becoming obsolete, and new developments are already ready for implementation, and this circle is repeated endlessly. Whatever the successful project 885 "Ash", the Russian design bureau probably already have other ideas. In a few years they will probably create a new submarine, the characteristics of which will be even better.