The Victor class, Soviet designations Project 671 Yorsh, Project 671RT Syomga and Project 671RTM/RTMK Shchuka,, are series of nuclear-poweredattack submarines built in the Soviet Union and operated by the Soviet Navy. Since the 1960s, 48 units were built in total, of which the last remaining units are currently in service with the Russian Navy. The Victor-class submarines featured a teardrop shape, which allowed them to travel at high speed. These vessels were primarily designed to protect Soviet surface fleets and to attack Americanballistic missile submarines. Project 671 begun in 1959 and design task was assigned to SKB-143, one of the two predecessors of the Malachite Central Design Bureau, which would eventually become one of the three Soviet/Russian submarine design centers, along with Rubin Design Bureau and Lazurit Central Design Bureau.
Versions
Project 671 ''Yorsh'' (Victor I)
Soviet designation Project 671 Yorsh - was the initial type that entered service in 1967; 16 were produced. Each had six torpedo tubes for launching Type 53 torpedoes and SS-N-15 anti-submarine missiles and mines could also be released. Subs had a capacity of 24 tube-launched weapons or 48 mines. They were long. All disposed.
Project 671RT ''Syomga'' (Victor II)
Soviet designation Project 671RT Syomga - entered service in 1972; seven were produced in the 1970s. These were originally designated Uniform class by NATO. They had similar armament to the Victor I class and were the first Soviet submarines to introduce rafting for acoustic quieting. Production was truncated due to a decision to develop the improved Victor III class. They were long. All disposed.
Project 671RTM/RTMK ''Shchuka'' (Victor III)
Soviet designation Project 671RTM/RTMK Shchuka - entered service in 1979; 25 were produced until 1991. Quieter than previous Soviet submarines, these ships had four tubes for launching SS-N-21 or SS-N-15 missiles and Type 53 torpedoes, plus another two tubes for launching SS-N-16 missiles and Type 65 torpedoes. 24 tube-launched weapons or 36 mines could be on board. The Victor III class caused a minor furor in NATO intelligence agencies at its introduction because of the distinctive pod on the vertical stern-plane. Speculation immediately mounted that the pod was the housing for some sort of exotic silent propulsion system, possibly a magnetohydrodynamic drive unit. Another theory proposed that it was some sort of weapon system. In the end, the pod was identified as a hydrodynamic housing for a reelable towed passive sonar array; the system was subsequently incorporated into the and SSNs. In October 1983 the towed array of, a Victor III operating west of Bermuda, became tangled with the towed array of US frigate. K-324 was forced to surface, allowing NATO forces to photograph the pod in its deployed state. The Victor-III class was continuously improved during construction and late production models have a superior acoustic performance. They were long. 21 disposed.
Units
Incidents
In 1981 collided with a Victor III-class submarine - the K-324 - while attempting to photograph the odd pod on the back. The event was covered up and never made public, though it nearly cost the lives of the sailors on USS Drum.
On 21 March 1984, K-314 collided with the aircraft carrier in the Sea of Japan. Neither ship was significantly damaged.
The Soviet cargo shipBratstvo collided with the Soviet submarine K-53 of the Victor I-class in position Latitude 35 deg 55 min North and Longitude 005 deg 00 min West, at the exit from the Gibraltar Strait in Alboran Sea, on 18 or 19 September 1984.
On 6 September 2006, the Victor III-class Daniil Moskovskiy suffered an electronics fire while in the Barents Sea, killing two crew members. The boat was 16 years old and was overdue for overhaul. It was towed back to Vidyayevo.
In media
A depiction of a Victor III-class submarine was used prominently in the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough as a key element in the film's antagonists 's plan.
