Interior Images of Typhoon Sub – world's largest submarine (2009) | Hacker News Reader

Interior Images of Typhoon Sub – world's largest submarine (2009)

ru-submarine.livejournal.com

85 pointsjulianpye23 comments

Man phenomenal.Engineering. Metal. I used to be obsessed with submarines. Russians have some nice ones, Akulla class... the g Americans and their Seawolf. Of course the iconic German u-botats there's one in a smithsonian museum in Chicago I think, it's nuts. Those 12' long torpedos or longer with contra-rotating propellers... nuts.

I like that it has a full size lathe (how common is that for subs?).

Well and a swimming pool, seltzer water dispenser and the 1980 Soviet sub arcade. I remember that was my favorite arcade game too.

Machine shops aren't uncommon on naval ships. Such a well supplied one is perhaps unlikely aboard a submarine, but missile subs are the largest and generally the longest-cruising of any type, so it makes a deal of sense they'd have as much capability for self-maintenance as possible, especially given their vital deterrent role. Same goes for the pool et cetera - the human crew being as important to the mission as the boat herself, and just as much meriting maintenance.

Documentary here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHOMRsHS6no

Compare with the interior as imagined in "The Hunt for Red October" :-)

There was a National Geographic documentary[1] about scrapping one of the Typhoons. I could only find a Russian language version on Youtube[2], which it's still fun to at least scan thru quickly just to see the scale of the thing

[1] Unfortunately the Wikipedia link is broken https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon-class_submarine#Notabl...

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGhxGgQ-Cd4

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M6ld7_7ss64 (same video in English)

I was surprised to see the wooden benches in the gym. Except for shoring, I can't recall much wood when I was in the US Navy; fire danger.

Interesting that wood is also sometimes used as a heat shield for spacecrafts returning to Earth, fire danger notwithstanding.

Probably high enough up, there is not enough air for it to burn -- and the heat conductivity of wood is really poor.

Plus all that wood paneling on the walls

Is this still in service? It looks like it's not. But who knows. Can someone who can read the text clarify? Thanks!

According to https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon-class_submarine of the 6 built, 3 are scrapped, 2 retired, and 1 in service (though later on that same page it says the last SLBM of the type used was decommissioned in 2012).

Based on the pictures, it definitely doesn't look like in service. Also, seems quite strange if they'd let civilians (?) run around and take pictures of a strategic weapon system in active use..

Could you launch an ICBM horizontally?

Sure. Why would you want to?

That horizontal "launch tube" with a big red star is a torpedo tube.

How about a towed sonar array?

Nope, too close to the screws.

Yes, there were aircraft-launched ICBMs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air-launched_ballistic_missile

could the submarine rotate into a vertical position?

Not without sinking. The ballast and trim tanks won't suffice to give that much up-angle; you'd need to flood some after compartments to make it happen, and that is a very bad idea, especially since you would not also be able to maintain neutral buoyancy.

Besides, why would you want to? Your missile tubes are configured for vertical launch anyway, and it's not as though you can just pop a missile out, haul it through the corridors to the forward torpedo room, stuff it in a tube there, and fire it. Every one of those things isn't a thing you can do.

I know it sounds trivial, but the sheer size of these vessels never ceases to amaze me. Wow!

Is that a little swimming pool? Neat

looks more like a bathtub from the size of it

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