The Project 941 Akula, popularly known as the Typhoon-class submarines, is the largest submarine built to this day: a definite statement of Soviet ingenuity in engineering during the Cold War. These behemoths, immortalized in Tom Clancy’s book “The Hunt for Red October,” were designed for nuclear warfare and carried an arsenal that could instill fear in any adversary.
It is no less portentous than they were large, the Typhoon-class submarines had an odd, almost sinister appearance about them, as their conning tower is located behind the missile launchers. Being equipped with 20 RSM-52 submarine-launched ballistic missiles, SLBM, fitted with MIRV nuclear warheads, such armament turned them into formidable war machines able to effect a most effective first strike if need be.
These were fitted with two OK-650 pressurized-water nuclear reactors, giving them a speed of 27 knots submerged. Their size, rivaled only by that of the aircraft carriers of World War II, meant that unprecedented luxuries for their crews would include saunas and swimming pools.
The Typhoon class was built, quite honestly, to fight off the U.S. Ohio class. “The U.S. Navy could never match the Typhoon class in terms of size and tonnage,” said Peter Siciu. These submarines, in all practical terms, existed for one reason: to annihilate utterly and indiscriminately all targets in the West in case of a nuclear war. It was exactly the possibilities of the capabilities of these submarines that troubled serious war planners in the United States and NATO during the entirety of the Cold War.
Despite their legendary status, all six Typhoon-class submarines were decommissioned by 2021, being replaced by the more advanced Borei class in the Russian Navy. The last of these giants, Dmitry Donskoy, was formally decommissioned, in February 2023, marking the end of an era. Much smaller in size, yet said to be much more accurate and efficient, the Borei-class submarines are equipped with 16 Bulava SLBMs apiece.
The account of these submarines is also established through their involvement in popular culture. Perhaps the best-known user of such submarines was Russia, made famous by the 1990 movie “The Hunt for Red October” with Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin, spectacularly portraying the fearsome majesty these boats held under the intense light of the Cold War.
These Typhoon-class submarines are some of the largest and most menacing ever to be built, and their retirement marks the close of a legacy. The Typhoons may well have shut their files, but the imprint that they have created within the breadth of naval warfare into the popular mind survives.