Russian submarine Arkhangelsk (TK-17)
President Vladimir Putin on Arkhangelsk in 2004 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| → Soviet Union → Russia | |
| Name |
|
| Namesake | Arkhangelsk |
| Builder | Sevmash |
| Laid down | 24 February 1985 |
| Launched | August 1986 |
| Commissioned | December 1987 |
| Out of service | In reserve, April 2004 |
| Status | Decommissioned, awaiting dismantling |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Typhoon-class submarine |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 175 m (574 ft 2 in) |
| Beam | 22.8 m (74 ft 10 in) |
| Draft | 12.2 m (40 ft 0 in) |
| Installed power | 2 × nuclear reactors |
| Propulsion | 2 × steam turbines; 2 × shafts |
| Speed | |
| Test depth | 1,312 ft (400 m) |
| Complement | 160 officers and sailors |
| Armament |
|
Arkhangelsk (TK-17; Russian: ́Архангельск ТК-17) is a retired submarine of the Project 941 Akula (NATO reporting name Typhoon) class of the Russian Navy and formerly the Soviet Navy. The boat was laid down on 24 February 1985, launched in August 1986, and commissioned in December 1987, with the designation TK-17. It spent its entire career in the Northern Fleet, and received the name Arkhangelsk in December 2002.
Arkhangelsk was designed to operate in the Arctic Ocean and to carry R-39 submarine-launched ballistic missiles, with each of them capable of holding several nuclear warheads. Part of the country's nuclear deterrent, its main armament consisted of twenty missile silos. Arkhangelsk and the other boats of its class are the largest submarines in the world by displacement.
During a training exercise in September 1991, a missile exploded inside one of the silos of the submarine, causing a fire to break out. Its captain had the boat dive so that the seawater would put out the resulting fire. After the incident the submarine was repaired and remained in service until the R-39 missile was phased out. Its last known assignment occurred in February 2004. In April 2004 Arkhangelsk was laid up and placed in the reserve. Since then it has remained docked in Severodvinsk, next to its sister ship Severstal. Despite some reports that they could be modernized and restored to active service, by March 2015 they had been decommissioned, and as of 2019 they are waiting to be scrapped.