The Project 670 ''Skat'' submarine (

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

classification Charlie class) was a

nuclear-powered Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...

cruise missile submarine A cruise missile submarine is a submarine that carries and launches cruise missiles (Submarine-launched cruise missile, SLCMs consisting of land-attack cruise missiles and anti-ship missiles) as its primary armament. Missiles greatly enhance a w ...

built for the

Soviet Navy The Soviet Navy was the naval warfare Military, uniform service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy made up a large part of the Soviet Union's strategic planning in the event of a conflict with t ...

and later operated by the

Russian Navy The Russian Navy is the Navy, naval arm of the Russian Armed Forces. It has existed in various forms since 1696. Its present iteration was formed in January 1992 when it succeeded the Navy of the Commonwealth of Independent States (which had i ...

. All Charlie I/II-class submarines are decommissioned. One Charlie-class submarine was used for testing an Oniks missile.Проект 670
/ref> Charlie I and its successor Charlie II-class submarines are designed by the Lazurit Central Design Bureau of Gorky.

Background

The Charlie I-class submarine (Project 670 ''Skat'')

SSGN A cruise missile submarine is a submarine that carries and launches cruise missiles ( SLCMs consisting of land-attack cruise missiles and anti-ship missiles) as its primary armament. Missiles greatly enhance a warship's ability to attack surfac ...

was first launched at the Krasnoye Sormovo inland shipyard at Gorkiy in 1967 with another ten following over a period of five years. The Charlie Is had two banks of four missile tubes angled upwards on each side of the bow outside the

pressure hull A submarine hull has two major components, the ''superstructure'' and the ''pressure hull''. The external portion of a submarine’s hull—that part that does not resist sea pressure and is free-flooding—is known as the “superstructure” i ...

. The tubes were covered by large outer doors and the design was to incorporate the

P-120 Malakhit The P-120 Malakhit ( 'Malachite'; NATO reporting name: SS-N-9 Siren, GRAU designation: 4K85) is a Soviet medium range anti-ship missile used by corvettes and submarines. Introduced in 1972, it remains in service but has been superseded by the P-2 ...

(SS-N-9 Siren) medium-range anti-ship missile. Due to delays in the missile development, the missile was substituted with the shorter range

P-70 Ametist The P-70 ''Ametist'' (NATO reporting name: SS-N-7 Starbright, GRAU designation 4K66; 'Amethyst') was an anti-ship missile carried by Soviet and Indian Charlie class submarine, Project 670 submarines, as well as the Soviet Papa class submarine, P ...

(SS-N-7 Starbright) submerged launch missile which itself was a development of the

P-15 Termit The P-15 ''Termit'' (; ) is an anti-ship missile developed by the Soviet Union's Raduga design bureau in the 1950s. Its GRAU designation was 4K40, its NATO reporting name was ''Styx'' or SS-N-2. China acquired the design in 1958 and created at ...

(SS-N-2 Styx) surface-launched missile. The missiles were designed for pop up surprise attacks on high value surface targets such as

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering carrier-based aircraft, shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the ...

s. In 1972 to 1979, six improved units called the Project 670M ''Skat-M'' (Charlie II class) were built. The improved Charlie IIs were built at Gorkiy with an insert in the hull forward of the fin. The insert incorporated electronics and launch systems for targeting and firing of the longer range

anti-ship missile. The Charlie Is and IIs returned to port for reload once they had expended their missile payloads. However, the Charlie classs secondary armament of torpedoes and sonar systems provided useful anti-ship and

anti-submarine warfare Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in the older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations ar ...

capabilities in addition to their missile launch capabilities. The last Charlie was retired in 1994. While still operational, one unit of the class was leased to the

Indian Navy The Indian Navy (IN) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Navy, maritime and Amphibious warfare, amphibious branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of the Naval Staff (India), Chief ...

between 1988 and 1991, mainly for India to gain experience in the operations of a

nuclear submarine A nuclear submarine is a submarine powered by a nuclear reactor, but not necessarily nuclear-armed. Nuclear submarines have considerable performance advantages over "conventional" (typically diesel-electric) submarines. Nuclear propulsion ...

Boats

* 11 Project 670 (Charlie I) submarines were built between 1968 and 1973. ''K-43'' was leased to the

as ''Chakra'' from 1988 to 1992. sank near

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (, ) is a city and the administrative center of Kamchatka Krai, Russia. It is located in the Far East of the country and lies along the coast of Avacha Bay by the Pacific Ocean, nearby Khalaktyrskoye Lake. As of the 202 ...

in 1983 with 16 fatalities, but was raised and used as a harbour training hulk. On 13 September 1985, sank at her moorings. She was again raised and decommissioned. * 6 Project 670M (Charlie II) submarines were built between 1973 and 1980. All boats were scrapped between 1990 and 1994.

References

External links

Article in Russian from Encyclopedia of Ships

Article in Russian

{{Ship classes of the Indian Navy Submarine classes Submarine classes of the Russian and Soviet Navy Nuclear submarines of the Soviet Navy

Background

Boats

References

Further reading

External links