Russian Sub "steals" US sonar

Accident with the K-324 nuclear submarine
Yuri Bakharev
The nuclear submarine K-324 of project 671RTM (K) was launched on September 7, 1980. On January 24, 1981, it became part of the 45th Division of the 2nd Submarine Flotilla of the Pacific Fleet. In 1983, K-234 made an under-ice trans-Arctic inter-fleet crossing in a westerly direction from Krasheninnikov Bay to Zapadnaya Litsa Bay and was included in the 33rd Division of the 1st Submarine Flotilla.

Project 671RTM (K) "Shchuka" is a series of Soviet torpedo nuclear submarines of the second generation. It is a further modification of Project 671 "Ruff" based on Project 671RT "Salmon". In total, 25 boats of this type were built at the shipyards of Komsomolsk-on-Amur and Leningrad. These submarines are distinguished by a low level of external noise and are close to the American nuclear submarines of the Los Angeles class.

The Shchuka, according to the NATO classification of Victor III class, served as the basis of the USSR's multi-purpose nuclear submarine fleet in the 1980s and early 1990s. In the Navy, the project was considered extremely successful, sailors loved these ships for their high performance, convenience, and reliability. Not a single ship was lost, not a single one had serious accidents. In the West, for its elegant appearance and impressiveness, this project received the respectful name "Black Prince".

An additional set of measures was adopted on the project designed to increase the secrecy of a nuclear submarine through the introduction of fundamentally new solutions for shock absorption, acoustic decoupling of structures and mechanisms. The submarine received a degaussing device, which made it difficult to detect nuclear submarines with aviation magnetometers.

The Skat-KS sonar system installed on the project provided detection and classification of targets, as well as their automatic tracking in the noise detection mode.
The complex made it possible to detect targets using echo finding in the infrasound and audio frequency ranges with measuring the distance to them and gave the torpedo weapons initial target designation data.

The armament of the Project 671RTM nuclear submarine included 4 torpedo tubes of 533 mm caliber and 2 torpedoes of 650 mm caliber, Granat cruise missiles, 24 torpedoes, or 34 mines. In addition, the Project 671RTM submarines used the new Shkval anti-submarine missile systems.

The complex included an underwater ultra-high-speed missile, which developed a speed of up to 200 knots, while the range was 11 km.

The missile, which was equipped with a nuclear warhead, was controlled by an inertial system that is not sensitive to interference.
To this day, there are no analogues to the Shkval complex, which has an almost absolute probability of hitting targets that fall within range, in other states.

However, the most important improvement introduced on the Project 671RTM nuclear submarines was a fundamentally new type of weapon - strategic small-sized subsonic cruise missiles "Granat" with a maximum firing range of 3000 km.

In terms of their weight and size characteristics,the sticks of the Granat cruise missiles did not actually differ from standard torpedoes. This made it possible to use them from standard torpedo tubes.


Also, the nuclear submarine could carry special guided sabotage shells "Sirena", as well as other means of "special purpose", most of which had no analogues in the world.

For example, for Project 671 MRT (K), the Kamov Design Bureau created a single-seat folding helicopter Ka-56, which was designed to transfer saboteurs, and was capable of firing from a 533-mm torpedo tube from a submerged submarine.


The K-324 nuclear submarine was the seventh submarine of Project 671 RTM. Despite the lucky serial number, she was constantly haunted by dangerous "mystical incidents". When descending from the slipway into the water, a bottle of traditional champagne did not break on the keel of the nuclear submarine, four times in a row.

At state tests in the Sea of Japan, on April 3, 1981, she almost became a tragic victim of the ramming of an unknown submarine. According to the Japanese press, it was a Chinese nuclear submarine of the "Han" type, which sank as a result of the collision. K-324, having received a powerful blow under water, immediately returned to the factory and docked.

On May 25, 1982, during the laying of a training mine, the TA breakwater crushed the legs of the midshipman of the BCh-3;

In October 1983, a scandalous sensation: during the hostilities of the US Navy off the coast of Grenada, the American media published pictures of the Soviet multipurpose nuclear submarine K-324 that crash-surfaced in the Sargasso Sea off the coast of the United States.


I became aware of this accident with the K-324 nuclear submarine in October 1983. And the accident itself is firmly connected in memory with the tragic events of the American invasion of Grenada.

At that time, I was serving in the Group of Soviet Military Specialists in Cuba, which had friendly relations with Grenada, so warm that the Cuban builders who were building an airfield in Grenada took part in hostilities against the United States.
The U.S. destroyers that arrived at the site of the K-324 nuclear submarine accident and posed a threat to our submarine were from the naval group that besieged Grenada.


I will describe the incident in chronological order, using not only the testimonies of eyewitnesses with whom I managed to talk on fresh tracks, but also later publications, if they do not contradict what I learned then.

In September 1983. K-324 left the berths of Zapadnaya Litsa for the Western Atlantic. It was the time when US President Reagan, calling the USSR an "evil empire", decided to surround our country with Pershing missile systems deployed in Western Europe. The flight time of these missiles to Moscow was reduced to 5-6 minutes.

But the Soviet leadership, headed by Y.V. Andropov, was preparing retaliatory measures: to move submarine rocket bases in the form of nuclear cruisers with missiles to the shores of America, and the same 5-6 minutes of flight time.

Knowing this, the American fleet hastily prepared to repel the submarine threat. For a more reliable search for Soviet missile carriers, the latest TASS underwater surveillance system was developed, using a unique low-frequency sonar antenna.

To test it in Sargassothe frigate McCloy put to sea. The long cable-hose of the secret antenna trailed behind him for half a kilometer. At the very end, a sonar capsule was attached. Such a towed device helped to pick up all the noises coming from the ocean depths, even the frequency range inaudible to the human ear, the inevitable satellites of submarines.

Before surfacing for the next communication session, the K-324 speakers determined a distant target. But as the submarine approached the surface, the acoustics began to report that the distance between the target and the boat was rapidly decreasing.

The target turned out to be the frigate McCloy, towing a new sonar system that is being tested. Since silence was needed to test the complex, the destroyer carried out noise reduction measures, thanks to which its propellers and engines worked unusually quietly. Therefore, initially, the distance to the target was determined incorrectly.

When it became clear that the frigate was not far away, the commander of the nuclear submarine ordered to urgently dive, sneak under the bottom of the destroyer on electric motors, and conduct technical reconnaissance, recording the parameters of the latest anti-submarine search system.

The commander of the McCloy was completely unaware that a Soviet submarine was following the bottom of his frigate for 14 hours, masking its noises in the hum of the McCloy's turbines. She would have followed the frigate further if the frigate hadn't suddenly changed course on its way to its base.

Apparently, during this unexpected maneuver, the K-324 hooked the antenna cable of the towed sonar system.
On the submarine, they noticed that the antenna was hooked, far from immediately. Only two days later, when the heavy-duty antenna cable was tightly wound around the submarine's propeller and jammed the turbine. As a result, the turbine emergency protection system was activated and the nuclear submarine lost speed.

The commander of the K-324, Captain 1st Rank Vadim Terekhin, recalls:
"From 00 to 8 a.m. on October 25, I was on watch at the central post, Speed 12 knots, we were sailing at a depth of about 100 meters. At 3 o'clock I decided to drink tea. As soon as he crouched, the body vibrated and the emergency alarm sounded. The emergency protection of the turbine was activated. We lost momentum.

We have a single-shaft boat, so the situation is very serious! There are more than 4 thousand meters under the keel. We keep the depth on the thrusters at a speed of 3-4 knots. For about two hours we tried to figure out what had happened. They tried to start the turbine, but it failed. Mechanic Captain 2nd Rank Anatoly Sedakov understood that something had happened to the propeller, but what? If a fishing net had been wound in, nothing like this would have happened, the propeller would have torn it. So it was something else.

In the meantime, it was time for a communication session with the command post of the Northern Fleet. At about 5 o'clock in the morning, I gave the command to surface under the periscope. However, the boat could not hold on to periscope depth, as it was heavy, and began to sink without movement.
Having fallen to a depth of more than 100 meters, the tanks were urgently blown out with high-pressure air. Trying to stay at periscope depth, we used up almost all the VPD and were forced to surface, abandoning attempts to dive.

We blew out all the Central City Libraries and surfaced to the cruising position. We started the VVD compressor. It is clear that in this way they violated secrecy. A strong storm was raging. Getting out on the bridge is not was possible.

It was assumed that fishing nets were wound around the propellers. Having made a deferent on the bow, they raised the stern and saw, through the periscope, that they had wound a cable as thick as a human hand, which went far astern. When it was possible to establish communication, they gave a radio to the command post of the fleet, reported an emergency surfacing and described the situation. Then they tried to go under water twice. Vainly.

And the second time they began to fall so rapidly into the depths that the thought flashed: that's it, the end! After all, at 140 meters, at which we have already been, it is difficult to blow out the tanks. With difficulty, but it was possible to prevent the submarine from falling to an exorbitant depth. Surfaced.

The storm does not subside. The boat with a displacement of 7.5 thousand tons was thrown on the waves like an empty tin can. In the compartments, everything that was not fixed and even that was fastened, was torn out of place and scattered on the deck. We got a radio. The command post of the Northern Fleet transferred us to contact the Central Command Post of the General Staff of the Navy. The situation is very serious. In Moscow, they thought for a long time what to do. General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Andropov was ill, and no one wanted to take responsibility for the possible consequences due to our abnormal surfacing."


On October 26, when the storm subsided a little, the submariners of K-324 made unsuccessful attempts to break the cable, firing at it from a machine gun. It was also not possible to cut the armored cable with an axe. From radio intercepts, the submariners learned that the Americans had lost a top-secret antenna. They understood, it was her that the nuclear submarine wound around the propeller. They reported, during a communication session, about the situation to Moscow.

The commander of the nuclear submarine, Captain 1st Rank Terekhin, recalls: "The commander of the OSNAZ group, Senior Lieutenant Sergei Arbuzov, seconded to K-324, learned from radio interception that the Americans had captured Grenada by storm, and now two US Navy destroyers Nicholson and Peterson are heading at full speed towards our boat.

I sounded the alert. We are without moving, helpless, what to expect from the Yankees, we do not know. Moreover, Arbuzov managed to find out that the K-324 hooked and broke the top-secret ultra-modern towed cable-antenna of the TASS system, which was tested by the American frigate McCloy. So unwittingly we stole a big secret of the US Navy. It became clear that the Americans would try to recapture this cable."

On October 27, Moscow assured that the reconnaissance ship SV-506 Nakhodka, located in the Norfolk area, had been sent to help the submariners, and the Soviet rescue ship Aldan was coming from Cuba.
On the Aldan, Captain 3rd Rank Butov, a consultant to the head of the Cuban emergency rescue service, was appointed responsible for the rescue operation.
"Aldan" got to the accident site for three days, and SV-506 came faster.

When there were 3 hours left to the boat, the commander of SV-506, according to VHF ZAS (4), offered to send 2 boats with rescue groups to help, raise the stern and try to remove the cable with the help of gas cutters.

The commander of K-324 agreed with the plan, but soon 2 American Orion appeared and began to drop sonar buoys around the K-324. Soon the Soviet reconnaissance aircraft SV-506 approached, and after it, almost immediately, the US Navy destroyer Peterson arrived in the area. Moscow, having received information about this, ordered not to carry out the planned work, but to be ready to protect the submarine from the maneuvers around it by the destroyer.

Soon a second American destroyer approached, they began to clamp the nuclear-powered ship in pincers, maneuvered dangerously at a distance of 30 m. The commander of K-324 ordered to hang a signal on the periscope: "We don't need help! Stop dangerous maneuvering! I have dangerous cargo on board!"

Meanwhile, destroyers, not even on purpose, but because of the wave, could hit the nuclear submarine and seriously damage it. Coming in from the stern, the destroyers tried to hook the cable-antenna with hooks. SV-506, with its maneuvers, prevented this. They tried to hook the antenna and the helicopters hovering over the boat. But they failed to do this.

On November 4, a coded message came from Moscow: "Do not succumb to provocations, the situation is extremely dangerous. NATO forces are on high alert." In another cipher, the Commander-in-Chief of the USSR Navy Gorshkov ordered, at all costs, to keep the "trophy" antenna and send it by plane to Moscow.


The situation began to seem especially serious and alarming when the signal was raised on the destroyers "We are preparing for the descent of amphibious assault weapons.
Soldiers appeared on board the destroyers, demonstratively dressed in scuba diving suits.

But on board the nuclear submarine there is secret equipment and documentation, in the torpedo tubes there are atomic weapons. It is impossible to allow the landing of troops from US destroyers!
To repel a possible invasion, eight officers with machine guns were placed on the bridge and deck. They were ready to hit the divers with high-pressure air from the Central City Hospital. For deterrence, demonstratively, with a pressure of 200 atmospheres, aft ballast tanks were blown out.

As a last resort, the commander decided to prepare the submarine for explosion and sinking. The crew was planned to be transferred to rafts, and then transferred to SV-506.
Until November 6, American combat swimmers did not leave the decks of their ships.


On November 6, the rescue ship Aldan came to the scene of the confrontation from Cuba. Divers were lowered. On the hub of the K-324 propeller, a powerful ball of torn metal and two ends of the cable stretching far aft. It was not possible to free the propeller in field conditions.

For a whole day, our sailors, with the help of an electric capstan, took the armored cable out of the water and placed it in the 1st compartment. They pulled out 420 meters. After that, the General Staff of the Navy gave an order: to follow in tow to Cuba.

The displacement of the K-324 is seven and a half thousand tons. To tow such a large ship, an arm-thick hummock weighing several tons is used. To wind up the cable and secure it to the ship, the towing end is brought on special inflatable rafts. But the destroyer began to fire at the rafts and sink them.

According to the testimony of the commander of K-324, the rafts were shot several times. The last set remained. But a way out was found - the reconnaissance ship SV-506 covered the nuclear submarine with itself. The rescuer "Aldan" managed to take the submarine in tow and dragged it to Cuba.

The intensity of the confrontation decreased so much that on November 7, 1983, the commander of the destroyer Peterson, escorting the group to Cuban territorial waters, congratulated the Soviet sailors on the holiday of the Great October Socialist Revolution.

And when approaching the territorial waters of Cuba, the commander of the destroyer Peterson thanked for the joint voyage and left. In Nippe Bay (5), the caravan was met by two boats with their superiors on board. Admiral Stadnichenko received the report of Captain 3rd Rank Shutov, and ordered the commander of SSV-506 to be at the entrance to Nippe Bay and not to allow the passage of ships until the organization of the protection of the submarine's mooring.

The Cubans assigned a platoon of combat swimmers to guard the boat, and two small anti-submarine ships were placed at the entrance to the bay. On the very first day, a piece of the secret cable was sent by plane to Moscow.

The repairmen removed part of the light body, after which, the screw hub was freed from the compressed mass of the cable by Cuban gas cutters, in four days. The main part of the cable was loaded onboard SSV-506, and delivered to Severomorsk.

After 11 days, the Soviet submariners left Cuba and headed for the Sargasso Sea, where they carried out combat service for another two weeks.
The K-324 nuclear submarine returned to base a week before the new year, 1984. Officers of the special department seized the logbook and all other documents from the submarine command, which remained secret until 2012.

On the screensaver: Destroyer "Peterson" (USA), SV-506 and nuclear submarine K-324 on the approach to the coast of Cuba