Submarine S-80 was a Soviet diesel-electric missile submarine, laid down on March 13, 1950, at the Krasnoye Sormovo Plant in the city of Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod) under Project 613.[1] In 1961 it was lost in the Barents Sea with its entire crew; it became one of the most tragic disasters of the Soviet submarine fleet during the Cold War.
Construction and modernization history
S-80 was laid down at Krasnoye Sormovo on March 13, 1950, launched on October 21, 1950, and on November 1 of that year was transferred to the Caspian Sea — to Baku — to undergo mooring, factory, and state trials; it was temporarily included in the Caspian Flotilla.[1] After the trials, the submarine moved to the Northern Fleet as part of the 162nd Brigade of the 33rd Submarine Division and was based at Polyarny, serving as a torpedo-armed diesel-electric submarine until 1957.[1]
In the mid-1950s, the Soviet command, seeking to close the gap with the United States in the number of missile-carrying submarines, decided to convert serial Project 613 torpedo submarines into missile boats. S-80 underwent modernization under Project 644 at the same Krasnoye Sormovo Plant where it had been built: two containers with P-5 cruise missiles were installed on the deck, the Lira astronavigation system was fitted, and structural elements of the hull were reworked.[1] After the conversion, S-80 underwent trials at Severodvinsk, then moved to its permanent base — Olenya Bay — and was assigned to the 212th Brigade of the 8th Division of the Northern Fleet. In the NATO classification, Project 644 submarines were designated "Whiskey Twin-Cylinder."[1]
Loss
On the night of January 26, 1961, S-80 was practicing solo navigation in the Barents Sea. Besides its regular crew, the boat carried part of the crew of its sister boat S-164.[1] The submarine was running submerged on its diesel engines using an RDP device (the equivalent of the German "snorkel" — a tube that supplies air to the diesels at periscope depth). During a storm, the submarine dived deeper than permitted: the RDP shutoff valve failed to close, and seawater poured through the tube into the compartments like an avalanche.[2][1] The boat sank; about twenty men managed to take refuge in the aft compartments, but they could not be saved.[2] The exact causes of the disaster have never been definitively established; one of the probable factors cited is an error by the bilge machinist.[1]
The submarine was located and raised several years later. The tragedy of S-80 was later compared to the loss of the nuclear submarine Kursk in 2000: in both cases the survivors spent their last hours in isolated compartments, fighting for their lives with no possibility of evacuation.[2]
Nizhny Novgorod connection
The Krasnoye Sormovo Plant in Gorky played a key role in the fate of the S-80 twice: it was here that the submarine was laid down and built in 1950 under the base Project 613, and it was here, too, that it was later converted into a missile carrier under Project 644.[1] Thus, from keel to final modernization, the S-80 remained a product of Sormovo shipbuilding.