As with the U.S. Navy, after victory over the Axis was achieved in 1945, the Soviet Navy continued to take delivery of submarines designed before the war. However, Soviet submarine production during the war was slowed by the German occupation of much of the western portion of the country, includ-ing the Ukraine. The shipbuildinclud-ing yards of the Black Sea were devastated. The shipbuilding center of Leningrad (St. Petersburg) was surrounded and
besieged by the Germans for some 900 days. There were major construction yards that were away from the front at Molotovsk (Severodvinsk) in the Arctic, at Komsomol’sk on the Amur River in the Far East, and at Gor’kiy, far inland on the Volga River. But even their construction was impaired by the Ger-man siege of Leningrad and occupation of other western areas, which halted the flow of steel and components to these yards.
Those submarine designers of bureau TsKB-18 (later Rubin) in Leningrad who were not called to the front—with Leningrad being the front—
continued both limited design efforts for shipyards that were able to carry on submarine work, and some new designs. That bureau, formally estab-lished in 1926, had designed all Soviet submarines through World War II except for a small effort under the auspices of the security police, the NKVD. (See Appendix D.)
During the period of conflict—June 1941 to August 1945—Soviet shipyards produced 54 sub-marines of several classes. Whereas the U.S. Navy built only fleet boats during the war, multiple oper-ational requirements led the Soviets to build sub-marines of several designs, with the construction of four classes being continued after the war. (See table 2-2.) The war programs produced mainly coastal submarines of the malyutka (small) designs;
mid-size and large submarines were produced in smaller numbers. Sixty-two submarines of wartime programs were completed after the war.
TABLE2-2
Soviet War Programs Completed, August 1945–1951
Units Type Series* First Unit Displacement**
7 S IX-bis 1939 856/1,090 tons
1 Shch X-bis 1939 593/705 tons
53 M*** XV 1943 283/350 tons
1 Project 95 1946 —/102 tons
Notes: * bis indicates modification to basic design.
** Surface/submerged displacement.
*** Referred to as Malyutka (“small”) submarines.
The rehabilitation of the Soviet shipbuilding industry had been given high priority by Soviet dic-tator Josef Stalin in the postwar period. He approved the building of a major fleet, including aircraft carriers, battle cruisers, lesser cruisers,
destroyers, and submarines. At the end of the war, Soviet submarine designers and researchers con-centrated on increasing submerged speed, which was considered to be a decisive factor in naval war-fare. To achieve higher speeds for longer duration, the following approaches were taken: (1) increasing the propulsion (electric) motor power and the stor-age battery capacity; (2) providing diesel engine operation while submerged; and (3) employing tur-bine plants for submerged operations.51
The models for these efforts were mainly Ger-man submarines, especially a new Type VIIC sunk by Soviet forces in the Baltic in 1944 and subse-quently salvaged;52the submarines found in Ger-man shipyards as Soviet troops occupied the east-ern coast of the Baltic Sea; and the ten U-boats formally assigned to the Soviet Navy under the Potsdam Agreement. These ten were:
Type VIIC U-1057, U-1058, U-1064, U-1305 Type IXC U-1231
Type XXI U-2529, U-3035, U-3041, U-3515 Type XXIII U-2353
Several Western intelligence reports credit the Sovi-ets with having actually acquired several more Type XXI submarines: an intelligence review by the U.S.
Joint Intelligence Committee for the Joint Chiefs of Staff in January 1948 estimated that at the time the Soviets had 15 Type XXIs operational, could com-plete another 6 within two months, and could assemble 39 more within 18 months from prefabri-cated components.53Several German factories pro-ducing Type XXI components and the Schichau assembly yard at Danzig were occupied by the Sovi-ets when the war ended. There were a number of unfinished Type XXI U-boats in the Danzig yard, plus numerous sections and components. Appar-ently the unfinished U-3538 through U-3542 were already on the assembly ways at Schichau when Soviet troops entered the yard. In addition, there were relatively complete sections for at least eight additional Type XXI submarines in the yard.
Western estimates of the fate of these undersea craft are conflicting. One German engineer con-tends that at least two near-complete Type XXI sub-marines at Schichau were launched after the war under Soviet direction and towed to Kronshtadt.54
One of his colleagues, however, wrote that “The unfinished U-Boats were left in that state, but everything appertaining to them and their equip-ment was submitted to exhaustive study and research. . . .”55This appears to be closer to the truth; Soviet records and statements by senior designers indicate that the Type XXIs were employed in trials and tests and then scuttled or expended in weapon tests, as were the unfinished submarine sections.56
In addition, the Soviets had the opportunity to examine three contemporary British submarines of the “U” class that had been transferred to the USSR in 1944.57 Soviet sonar development also took advantage of technology available from British sur-face warships that had been loaned to the USSR during the war.
This bounty of submarine material was exam-ined minutely at a number of research institutes as well as at submarine design bureau TsKB-18. The first postwar design undertaken at TsKB-18 was Project 614, essentially a copy of the Type XXI. The design was not completed, because it was consid-ered to have insufficient “reliability,” that is, in the Soviet view, one combat patrol into a high-threat area did not justify the cost of the submarine.58 Many of the U-boat components and structures had been developed on the basis of a short service life, especially the high-pressure piping and batter-ies with thin lead plates.
But the Project 614 design process did cause intensive study of the construction and engineering
solutions employed by German designers. This led to a number of submarine technologies being pursued in the USSR, especially new types of steel and electric welding, which would permit a doubling of wartime operating depths, new ship control concepts, low-noise propellers, machinery shock installations, sonar, anechoic coatings for submarine hulls to reduce active sonar detection, and radar-absorbing materials to reduce detection of a snorkel head.
Of special interest, during World War II, the German Navy had introduced the Alberich rubber-like laminated hull coating to reduce the effective-ness of the British active sonar (called ASDIC). It became operational in 1944.59Although investigat-ed in the Unitinvestigat-ed States after the war, such coatings were not pursued because of the difficulty in keep-ing the coverkeep-ing attached to the hull. In the l950s the Soviet Union began providing Series XII Malyutka-type coastal submarines with anti-sonar or anechoic coatings. These evolved into multi-purpose coatings, which also could absorb internal machinery noise. This was particularly feasible in double-hull submarines, where coatings could be placed on multiple surfaces.
Many Type XXI characteristics were incorporat-ed in TsKB-18’s Project 613 submarine—known in the West as “Whiskey.”60This design had been ini-tiated in 1942 as Project 608, but was rejected by the naval high command because it displaced 50 tons more than specified in requirements. The redesign of Project 608 into 613 was begun in 1946 under the supervision of Captain 1st Rank Vladimir N.
An early Project 613/Whiskey with twin 25-mm guns mounted forward of the conning tower; the twin 57-mm mount aft of the conning tower has been deleted (note the widened deck). The bow diving planes are retracted as the submarine moves through the water at high speed.(French Navy)
Peregudov, who incorporated several features derived after studies of Type VIIC and Type XXI U-boats.61One of the former, the U-250, had been sunk by the Soviets in the Gulf of Finland on 30 July 1944 and subsequently salvaged and carefully examined.62
The hull and fairwater of Project 613 were streamlined, and the stern was given a “knife” con-figuration, with the large rudder positioned aft of the twin propellers. The propeller shafts were sup-ported outside of the hull by horizontal stabilizers rather than by struts (as used in most U.S. sub-marines). The stern diving (horizontal) planes were aft of the propellers. The “knife” arrange-ment provided the possibility of a more maneu-verable submarine than the U.S. Fleet/GUPPY configurations.
A small attack center, or conning tower, was fit-ted in the Project 613 fairwater, a feature delefit-ted
from the Type XXI. When retracted, the various periscopes and masts were housed completely with-in the superstructure.
Propulsion on the surface was provided by two diesel engines with a total output of 4,000 horsepow-er; submerged propulsion normally was by two main electric motors producing 2,700 horsepower plus two smaller motors that provided 100 horsepower for silent or economical running. This feature—derived from the German “creeping” motors—was the first German feature to be incorporated into Soviet sub-marine designs.63Two large groups of batteries with 112 cells each were installed. Later a snorkel system would be installed for submerged operation of the diesel engines.64This propulsion system could drive the Whiskey at 18.25 knots on the surface and 13 knots submerged.
The principal combat capability of the Whiskey was the six torpedo tubes—four bow and two stern, A Whiskey with modified fairwater and guns removed. More of these submarines were constructed than any other post–World War II design. They formed the backbone of the Soviet submarine force and served at sea in six other navies.
Pennant numbers disappeared from Soviet submarines in the 1960s.(U.S. Navy)
Project 613/Whiskey SS as built with deck guns. LOA 249 ft 2 in (75.95 m) (©A.D. Baker, III)
with six reloads in the forward torpedo room—
a total of 12 torpedoes. This torpedo loadout was small in comparison to U.S. submarines and the Type XXI, but was comparable to the five tubes and 15 torpedoes in the Type VIIC U-boat. The tubes were fitted with a pneumatic, wakeless firing system that could launch torpedoes from the surface down to almost 100 feet (30 m); in subsequent upgrades firing depth was increased to 230 feet (70 m). Pre-viously the USSR, as other nations, had produced specialized minelaying submarines.65 Beginning with the Whiskey, Soviet submarines could also lay mines through their torpedo tubes (as could U.S.
submarines). In the minelaying role a Whiskey could have a loadout of two torpedoes for self-defense plus 20 tube-launched mines.
Early Project 608/613 designs had provided for a twin 76-mm gun mount for engaging surface ships. With the plan to conduct most or all of a combat patrol submerged, the gun armament was reduced to a twin 57-mm anti-aircraft mount aft of the conning tower and a twin 25-mm anti-aircraft mount on a forward step of the tower. (Guns were installed in Soviet submarines until 1956.)
With the use of a completely welded pressure hull using SKhL-4 alloy steel coupled with the design of its pressure hull, the Whiskey had a test depth of 655 feet (200 m) and a working depth of 560 feet (170 m).66This was considerably deeper than the Type XXI as well as the new U.S. K1 class, and almost as deep as the Tang class. Unfortunate-ly, in achieving the greatest feasible operating depth while restricting displacement, the design-ers excessively constrained the crew accommo-dations in the Whiskey (as in subsequent diesel-electric classes).
The Project 613/Whiskey introduced a new level of underwater performance to Soviet undersea craft, incorporating many German design features that would be found in future generations of Sovi-et submarines. The final TsKB-18 contract design was approved by the Navy in 1948, and construc-tion began shortly afterward at the Krasnoye Sor-movo shipyard in the inland city of Gor’kiy, some 200 miles (320 km) to the east of Moscow.67 Sub-marines built at Gor’kiy would be taken down the Volga River by transporter dock for completion at Caspian and Black Sea yards.
The lead submarine of Project 613—the S-80—
was laid down at Gor’kiy on 13 March 1950, fol-lowed by additional production at the Baltisky (Baltic) shipyard in Leningrad, the Chernomorskiy yard in Nikolayev on the Black Sea, and the Lenin-sky Komsomol yard at Komsomol’sk in the Far East. Automatic welding and prefabrication were widely used in Project 613 construction.
The S-80 was put into the water—launched from a horizontal assembly facility—on 21 October 1950 when 70 percent complete. She was immedi-ately transported by barge down the Volga River to the port of Baku on the Caspian Sea, arriving on 1 November. After completion and extensive trials, the S-80 was commissioned on 2 December 1951, a very impressive peacetime accomplishment.
A U.S. sailor stands guard on the unfinished “knife” stern section of a Type XXI submarine at the Deshimag shipyard in Bremen. The propeller shafts pass through the horizontal stabilizers. The stern diving (horizontal) planes and rudder were fitted aft of the propellers.(Imperial War Museum)
The massive Project 613/Whiskey program pro-duced 215 submarines for the Soviet Navy through 1958 (i.e., an average of more than 21⁄2submarines per month of this design):
Shipyard Proj. 613 Completed
Submarines
No. 112 Krasnoye Sormovo 113 1951–1956
No. 444 Chernomorskiy 72 1952–1957
No. 189 Baltisky 19 1953–1958
No. 199 Leninsky Komsomol 11 1954–1957
This was the largest submarine program in Soviet history, exceeding in tonnage the combined programs of the Soviet era up to that time. Indeed, in number of hulls, Project 613 would be the world’s largest submarine program of the Cold War era. (According to available records, a total of 340 submarines of this design were planned.)
In 1954 the documentation for Project 613 con-struction was given to China, and three additional submarines were fabricated in the USSR, disman-tled, and shipped to China for assembly at Shang-hai’s Jiangnan shipyard. China then built 15 sub-marines at the inland shipyard at Wuhan on the Yangtze River, initially using Soviet-provided steel plates, sonar, armament, and
other equipment. Soviet-built units also were transferred to Bulgaria (2), Egypt (8), Indone-sia (14), North Korea (4), Poland (4), and Syria (1); Cuba and Syria each received one unit as a stationary battery charging plat-form to support other sub-marines. The Soviet Union transferred two submarines to Albania in 1960 and two addi-tional units were seized in port by the Albanian government when relations with the USSR were broken for ideological rea-sons in 1961.68
The Project 613 submarines would form the basis for the first Soviet cruise missile submarines and would be configured for a number of specialized and
research roles. Four submarines were converted to a radar picket (SSR) configuration at the Krasnoye Sormovo shipyard in Gor’kiy, with the first com-pleted in 1957. These craft were fitted with the large Kasatka air-search radar (NATO Boat Sail) as well as additional radio equipment. Designated Project 640 (NATO Canvas Bag), these submarines initially were based at Baku on the Caspian Sea, apparently to provide air-defense radar coverage for that region.69One of the Project 640 submarines was provided with a satellite link at the Sevmorzavod shipyard in Sevastopol in 1966 (Project 640Ts).
In 1960 a submarine was converted to the Proj-ect 613S configuration to provide an advanced res-cue system. That work also was undertaken at Gor’kiy. In 1962, at the same yard, another Project 613 submarine was modified to Project 666, a res-cue submarine with a towed underwater chamber that had a depth of 655 feet (200 m). In 1969 that submarine was again modified to test prolonged exposure to pressure. One submarine was rebuilt to the Project 613Eh configuration to test a closed-cycle propulsion system. (See Chapter 13.)
And in the late 1950s one of these submarines, the S-148, was disarmed and converted to a civilian
A Project 640/Whiskey radar picket submarine with her air-search radar extended.
The lengthened conning tower has the Quad Loop RDF antenna moved to the for-ward end of the fairwater. When folded (not retracted), the radar was covered by a canvas bag, giving rise to the NATO code name for the SSR variant.(U.S. Navy)
research ship. Renamed Sev-eryanka, she was operated by the All-Union Institute for the Study of Fisheries and Oceanography with a civilian crew.70
Two Project 613 submarines were lost—the S-80, a radar picket craft, in the Barents Sea in 1961, and the S-178 in the Pacif-ic in 1981.