Russian submarine Dmitry Donskoy (TK-208)
| History | |
|---|---|
| → Soviet Union → Russia | |
| Name |
|
| Namesake | Dmitry Donskoy |
| Builder | Sevmash |
| Laid down | 30 June 1976 |
| Launched | 23 September 1980 |
| Commissioned | 29 December 1981 |
| In service | February 1982 |
| Out of service | 6 February 2023 |
| Status | Decommissioned, awaiting conversion to museum ship |
| 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 |
|
Dmitry Donskoy (TK-208; Russian: Дми́трий Донско́й ТК-208) is a retired submarine that was the lead ship of the Project 941 Akula (NATO reporting name Typhoon) class of the Russian Navy and formerly the Soviet Navy. The boat was laid down at the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk on 30 June 1976, launched on 23 September 1980, and commissioned on 29 December 1981, with the designation TK-208. It spent its entire career with the Northern Fleet after entering service in February 1982, and received the name Dmitry Donskoy in July 2002.
Dmitry Donskoy was designed to operate in the Arctic Ocean and carry R-39 submarine-launched ballistic missiles, with each of them capable of holding several nuclear warheads. The R-39 was larger than any previous Soviet SLBM and required a new submarine design. The Typhoon class became the largest submarines ever built. As part of the country's nuclear deterrent, their main armament consisted of twenty missile silos. During the 1980s TK-208 conducted several training exercises in the Arctic that involved breaking through ice and launching its missiles.
The submarine underwent modernization at the Sevmash shipyard starting from 1990, but due to delays caused by the fall of the Soviet Union, the refit was not completed until 2002. It was upgraded to carry and test the RSM-56 Bulava SLBMs, which replaced the R-39 in the Russian Navy. Dmitry Donskoy was used as a weapons testing platform for the main tests of the new Bulava missile and served in that role from 2003 to 2010. After that, it was used for ceremonial events and assisting the sea trials of newer submarines, including those of the Borei class and Yasen class. Dmitry Donskoy finished its last known assignment in September 2022.
The submarine was decommissioned on 6 February 2023 and was left docked at Severodvinsk. Dmitry Donskoy had been the last Typhoon submarine on active service since 2004, making it the largest active submarine in the world by displacement. After its decommissioning there was a lobbying effort by veterans' groups for the Russian government to preserve it as a museum. In March 2025 it was announced that plans are being made to convert Dmitry Donskoy into a museum ship and put it on display at the Peter the Great Central Naval Museum in Saint Petersburg.