Soviet submarine K-131

History

Soviet Union
Name:	K-131
Commissioned:	1962-68
General characteristics
Class and type:	Echo II-class submarine
Displacement:	5,000-6,000tons

Echo II-class submarine

K-131 was a Project 675 (NATO reporting name Echo II-class submarine) of the Soviet Navy's Northern Fleet, she was also redesignated K-192.^[1]

Design and description

The Echo II class was a nuclear-powered cruise-missile submarine, which could carry up to eight anti-ship missiles, designed to strike any aircraft carrier-borne nuclear threat. The missiles could be either conventional or nuclear and all eight fired within twenty minutes. The submarine would need to be surfaced and carried an array of electronics, radar and sonar to feed data to the missile while en route to its target. K-131 also had six 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes forward and four 406 mm (16 in) torpedo tubes aft.^[2]

With a displacement of 5,000 tons when surfaced and 6,000 tons when submerged, K-131 was 115 metres (377 ft) long and had a beam of 9 metres (30 ft) and a draft of 7.5 metres (25 ft). She was powered by two pressurized-water nuclear reactors generating 30,000 shaft horsepower (22,000 kW) through two propellers for a maximum speed of 20 to 23 knots (37 to 43 km/h; 23 to 26 mph). She was manned by about 90 crew members.^[3]

Operational history

Fire

On 25 June 1989,^[4] while under the command of Captain First Rank E. Selivanov, K-131 suffered a catastrophic fire while on patrol in the Norwegian Sea off the Kola Peninsula.^[3] A short circuit in an electrical switchboard in the eighth compartment ignited the clothes of an electrical officer, and spread first to other equipment in that compartment, then into the seventh compartment. Before it was extinguished, the fire had killed 13 men.

Aid

The fire affected one of the two reactors, forcing the submarine to surface. Using K-131's fresh water supplies, the submarine′s crew managed to reduce the temperature in the burning compartments from 150 °C (302 °F) to 108 °C (226 °F), but by this time the Soviet cargo ship Konstantin Yuon had arrived and hooked up a pipe to help.^[3] All the cooling water went into the ocean, and its radioactivity levels were unknown. The service ship Amur, which had a nuclear waste processing plant on board, then arrived to assist K-131. However, the heavily contaminated water caused Amur′s treatment plant to break down.^[3] How much nuclear waste leaked into the ocean has never been fully verified.

Fate

After returning to the Soviet Union, K-131 was anchored in Ara Bay until 1994. when she was towed to the naval shipyard in Shkval. To this day the Soviet, and later Russian, navies have been unable to remove her reactors.^[3]

References

↑ "RUSSIAN K-159 SUBMARINE ACCIDENT". www10.antenna.nl. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
↑ "Project 659 / Echo I Project 675 / Echo II". www.fas.org. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
1 2 3 4 5 "The Russian Northern Fleet Nuclear submarine accidents". spb.org.ru. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
↑ "Soviet and Russian Peacetime Submarine Accidents". andysvault.narod.ru. Retrieved 8 November 2012.

Echo-class submarines

Echo I	K-45 K-59 K-66 K-122 K-259

Echo II	K-1 K-7 K-10 K-22 K-23 K-28 K-31 K-34 K-35 K-47 K-48 K-56 K-57 K-62 K-71 K-74 K-86 K-90 K-94 K-104 K-108 K-111 K-116 K-125 K-127 K-128 K-131 K-134 K-135 K-144 K-166 K-170 K-172 K-175 K-184 K-189 K-192 K-204 K-235 K-428 K-431 K-557

List of Soviet and Russian submarines List of Soviet and Russian submarine classes

Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 1989

Shipwrecks	7 Jan: SS Lavia 21 Jan: USS Muliphen 15 Feb: Maassluis 8 Apr: K-278 Komsomolets 25 Apr: USS Parsons June (unknown date): USS Blenny 20 Aug: Marchioness 29 Oct: Murree 4 Dec: USCGC Mesquite Unknown date: HMS Leander, YO-257

Other incidents	17 Jan: USS Norfolk, USS San Diego 16 Mar: NOAAS Oregon II 24 Mar: Exxon Valdez (oil spill) 19 Apr: USS Iowa (turret explosion) 19 Jun: Maxim Gorkiy 25 Jun: K-131 19 Aug: Ross Revenge 29 Sep: USS Pennsylvania October (unknown date): HMS Spartan

1988 1990

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