The Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research (, transcribed as ''Glavnoye upravlenie glubokovodnikh issledovanii'' or GUGI) is a Russian agency belonging to the

Armed Forces of the Russian Federation The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, commonly referred to as the Russian Armed Forces, are the military of Russia. They are organized into three service branches—the Ground Forces, Navy, and Aerospace Forces—two independent comba ...

. It is one of the most secret parts of the

navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

. Its objective is to operate submarines that are able to dive deep into the sea, in order to gather intelligence or to work with installations on the seabed, including sabotage. Its original target was the Western surveillance systems of submarines from the Soviet Union and it is able to eavesdrop and sever the fiber optic cables crossing the seas. It also tests emergency equipment and does medical research on the physiology of diving. The year of creation of the directorate is uncertain. 1963 (as military unit 90802), 1965, and 1976 have been mentioned. The directorate is directly subordinate to the

Ministry of Defense A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divided ...

. It is located separated from the normal navy bases, with its headquarters in Saint Petersburg and a naval base in

Olenya Bay Olenya Bay or Olenya Guba () is a bay of the Barents Sea on the Kola Peninsula in the Murmansk Oblast, Russia. It is an extension of the Kola Inlet, which opens out to the north into the Barents Sea. The Pechenga River discharges into the bay. GU ...

on the

Kola Peninsula The Kola Peninsula (; ) is a peninsula in the extreme northwest of Russia, and one of the largest peninsulas of Europe. Constituting the bulk of the territory of Murmansk Oblast, it lies almost completely inside the Arctic Circle and is border ...

Military unit No 45707

Created in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

in October 1976 as the 10th detachment of hydronauts (), Military unit No 45707 was in the special center of the Ministry of Defense in Moscow () but, since the early 2000s, military unit 45707 is subordinate to GUGI. Allegedly, Military unit No 45707 is headquartered at

Petergof Petergof (), known as Petrodvorets () from 1944 to 1997, is a administrative divisions of Saint Petersburg, municipal town in Petrodvortsovy District of the federal cities of Russia, federal city of Saint Petersburg, St. Petersburg, located ...

and is responsible for the testing and operation of deep-sea nuclear power plants by employing

aquanauts An aquanaut is any person who remains underwater, breathing at the ambient pressure for long enough for the concentration of the inert components of the breathing gas dissolved in the body tissues to reach equilibrium, in a state known as satur ...

, who are also known as '' hydronauts'', in reconnaissance activities including maintaining Russian underwater communication cables, eavesdropping on submarine communication cables, installing underwater motion sensors, and collecting wreckage from ships, aircraft, and satellites off the seabed especially the remains of secret Russian equipment left over from tests or accidents. The bathyscaphes "Rus" and nuclear deep-water stations (AGS) "Losharik", "Nelma", "Kashalot", which work on the seabed at depths from 500 to 6000 meters, are in the 10th detachment of hydronauts (military unit 45707). According to Dmitry Kornev who is the editor of the MilitaryRussia.Ru website, hydronauts often conduct special missions in the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it ...

, the

North Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

, and in the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five oceanic divisions. It spans an area of approximately and is the coldest of the world's oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, ...

. The 15th Central Research Laboratory of the Ministry of Defense of Russia () supported military unit 45707 efforts.

Commanders

Vice-Admiral Alexei Vitalyevich Burilichev (; August 13, 1958,

, RSFSR, USSR - November 25, 2020,

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

), headed GUGI for fifteen years from 2005 until his death due to complications from

coronavirus Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the comm ...

on 25 November 2020 and was replaced on 15 March 2021 by Vice-Admiral Vladimir Vladimirovich Grishechkin (born January 1, 1965,

Tolyatti Tolyatti or Togliatti ( , ; , ), known before 1964 as Stavropol, is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Samara Oblast, Russia. It is the largest city in Russia which is neither the administrative center of a federal subjects of Rus ...

Ship

GUGI has submarines that can reach depths of 6000 meters. They are equipped with tools, cameras and lighting in order to carry out operations there. It has more than 50 ships, submarines and floating dry docks, which hide submarines from satellites. *'' Evgeny Gorigledzhan'' *'' Yantar'', which can carry and repair several minisubmarines *''

Belgorod Belgorod (, ) is a city that serves as the administrative center of Belgorod Oblast, Russia, located on the Seversky Donets River, approximately north of the border with Ukraine. It has a population of It was founded in 1596 as a defensiv ...

'' (submarine) *'' Vice-Admiral Burilichev'' sister ship of both ''Yantar'' and ''

Almaz The Almaz () program was a highly secret Soviet Union, Soviet military space station program, begun in the early 1960s. Three crewed military reconnaissance stations were launched between 1973 and 1976: Salyut 2, Salyut 3 and Salyut 5. To co ...

'' ( Project 22010-class) and named in honor of Vice-Admiral Alexei Vitalyevich Burilichev who headed GUGI for fifteen years, and died in November 2020 due to complications from the

*' *'' Losharik'', a 70-meter long atomic submarine that reaches 2000 meters and can be carried by

Orenburg Orenburg (, ), formerly known as Chkalov (1938–1957), is the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies in Eastern Europe, along the banks of the Ural River, being approximately southeast of Moscow. Orenburg is close to the ...

*'' Khaborovsk'' (submarine)

References

{{Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Russian intelligence agencies Naval units and formations of Russia Departments of the Ministry of Defence (Russia)

Military unit No 45707

Commanders

Ship

See also

References