In the 1970s, in the middle of the Cold War, the USSR decided to sharpen its naval power by ordering the largest submarines in history. He named them as class 941 – the name NATO later changed to Typhoom – and gave them measures that continue to amaze even today, more than 40 years later: 23 meters wide and more than 170 meters long, a length exceeding that of Torre Sevilla when lying With such a spectacle and To settle the controversy, Guinness World Records in the 1990s officially named them the largest submarines in the world.

A lot has happened since the first of the Akula-class ships were removed from the Severodvinsk shipyards in 1980. Among them are the end of the USSR itself, the millennium leap and a change of scenery that, although impressive, makes these giants of the seas much less practical and profitable today. According to Military-Today details, between the second half of the 1990s and the early 2000s, five of the Project 491 Akula submarines were decommissioned, scrapped or decommissioned. Another was not completed directly and was eventually discarded.

Does this mean the Guinness Record for the depths of the oceans has been lost? Not really. Or at least for decades, practically from yesterday to the day before. Despite the lapse of decades, the end of the USSR, and even the fate of her other siblings, there is still an Akula who sees herself as active. This was stated by the Russian government agency TASS in 2021 and Barents Observer just a few months ago, this January, when it was published that its last representative was assigned to the Belomorsk base and used as a platform for testing weapons.

A giant “made in the USSR”

The Akula family survivor is named Dmitry Donskoy (TK-208) and has stood out for decades as the world’s largest submarine at 175 meters long and 25 wide. Today it is overshadowed by the K-329 Belgorod, an impressive nuclear submarine with a 178-metre hull (some put the figure above 180 metres), which first set sail less than a year ago, in mid-2021. According to TASS, the record for the titan of the deep now belongs to him. The K-329 Belgorod is the result of an adaptation of a ship from the 90s and was expected to enter the Navy this summer in January, according to Navy Recognition.

TK-208 pic.twitter.com/WcU62QnHfk

— Russian Submarine (@SubmarinRus) December 28, 2021

The fact that we soon see the emergence of a slightly larger ship does not overshadow the merits of the Dmitry Donskoy TK-208, a legacy from the USSR and, despite its longevity and historical changes, is still listed in many classifications. The world’s largest submarine. Its size is a tribute to Soviet engineers and the effort they put into designing the Akula class. It is believed that they can descend to a depth of 400 meters, maneuver for 120 days, accommodate about 160 people and reach underwater speed. about 50 kilometers per hour.

Like its siblings, the TK-208 wasn’t built to enter the record books or to surprise with its size – or at least that’s not its only purpose. When Moscow commissioned it, it wanted to have a weapon capable of carrying 192 100 kiloton nuclear warheads that could compete with the US Navy’s Ohio submarines. For this reason, Akula was also equipped with ballistic missiles. Another of its strengths is undoubtedly its maneuverability in cold regions such as the Arctic ice pack.

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The most curious thing about Akula is that the oldest of its divers is definitely the oldest. Dmitry Donskoy was the first to hit the water. Released in September 1980, a model that was dismantled in 2004, although it reached the sea at the end of 1989, two years before its sibling the TK-202 and ten years before the TK-20. This feature is closely related to its history. . Just ten years after its premiere, in 1990 the TK-208 returned to dry dock to undergo a tweak that lasted until 2002.

When she sailed back across the oceans, it was a completely refurbished ship, equipped with the latest equipment, equipped with launchers for the most advanced ballistic missiles, and more importantly renamed by the name we know her today: the TK-208, without, moreover, a tribute to the Russian saint and hero of the same name. It was Dmitry Donskoy. Over time, the ship was equipped with RSM-56 Bulava missiles and began to occupy a prominent place in the Kremlin’s catalog, which began to use its capabilities to test new intercontinental ballistic missiles.

How old is a Cold War veteran? TASS quoted military sources in 2021 assuring it will remain active until at least 2026. Another five years of life for an impressive giant 40 years ago, in a time marked by the Cold War, when the world was sleeping on the alert; and continues to do so today, in the middle of 2022, with the planet Ukraine waiting.

Pictures | Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation