Project 633 submarines were a series of Soviet diesel-electric submarines built from 1957 to 1961. Design work was carried out at TsKB-112 (Central Design Bureau-112, now the Lazurit Design Bureau) in Gorky (Nizhny Novgorod), which is what gives the series its Nizhny Novgorod connection. The boats were widely used: they served in the Soviet Navy and were later transferred or sold to the fleets of a number of foreign states, including Algeria and China; the Chinese derivatives are known as the Type 033 and Type 035.[3]

Design and construction

Design work on the Project 633 submarines began under Resolution of the USSR Council of Ministers No. 1454-808 of August 9, 1955. Z. A. Deribin became the chief designer of the project, with A. K. Nazarov and Ye. V. Krylov as his deputies; I. I. Chufrin was appointed chief naval supervisor. Technical Design No. 633 was approved by Council of Ministers Resolution No. 1117-580 of August 15, 1956.[2]

The boat has a double hull. In its principal dimensions it is close to the Project 613 submarines, while in hull shape it resembles Project 611, whose midship section approaches a circle. The hull lines were shaped above all to ensure good performance when submerged; the conning tower and its fairing are small and streamlined to reduce drag during underwater running. The pressure hull is divided into seven compartments by six watertight bulkheads: the torpedo compartment, two battery compartments, the control room, the diesel compartment, the electric motor compartment, and the aft torpedo compartment. From the outset, the boat's dimensions were calculated to allow transport via the Volga-Baltic, Volga-Don, and White Sea-Baltic waterways in floating docks.[2]

Construction in Gorky

Serial construction of Project 633 boats was carried out at the Zhdanov Krasnoye Sormovo Shipyard (Shipyard No. 112) in Gorky. In particular, one of the boats in the series, S-28, was laid down there on December 29, 1960, launched on June 21, 1961, and commissioned on December 23 of the same year.[1] The ability to transport finished submarines from Gorky along inland waterways was built into the design from the start: before the reconstruction of the Mariinsky system, delivery was planned in special lightened Project 768 docks, and afterward in Project 28K docks with the battery removed.[2]

Modifications and combat use

In the 1971–1980s, two submarines of the series, S-49 and S-11, were modernized under Project 633RV to test the Vodopad and Veter anti-submarine missile systems. The submarine S-49 (later renamed PZS-50) was withdrawn from the Black Sea Fleet in 1996 and subsequently used as a charging station; in 2021 it was towed to Balaklava and installed in the dry dock of the underground Balaklava museum complex.

Boats of the project were exported to the Algerian Navy. S-28, handed over to the Algerian side in March 1982 under hull number "010", was actively used in exercises and torpedo firings; in 1984 it was the first to practice launching a sabotage team in kayaks from its torpedo tubes. After the Algerian fleet received Project 877EKM submarines, the obsolete Project 633 boats were withdrawn from combat service; S-28 sat at the pier in Mers el-Kébir until 2006, when it was towed out to sea and scuttled at a depth of 2,000 meters.[1]

Publications

In 2025, the Moscow publisher Filin released Dmitry Igorevich Zubkov's monograph "Project 633 Submarines and Their Chinese Derivatives (Type 033 and Type 035) in Service with Foreign Navies" (190 pp., ISBN 978-5-9216-0685-2, print run 1,000 copies).[3]

Sources

  1. deepstorm.ru — Submarine S-28, No. 010 (Algerian Navy). Project 633
  2. dogswar.ru — Diesel submarines of Project 633 (USSR) — Small arms, military equipment, armed forces of the world
  3. search.rsl.ru — Zubkov, Dmitry Igorevich. — Project 633 submarines and their Chinese derivatives (Type 033 and Type 035) in service with the navies of foreign countries: [16+] / Dmitry Zubkov.