Soviet submarine K-219
US Navy photo of K-219 on the surface after suffering a fire in a missile tube
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| History | |
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 Soviet Union
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| Name: | K-219 |
| Laid down: | 28 May 1970 |
| Launched: | 8 October 1971 |
| Commissioned: | 31 December 1971 |
| Struck: | 1986 |
| Homeport: | Gadzhiyevo |
| Fate: | Sunk by explosion and fire caused by seawater leak in missile tube, 3 October 1986, killing 4 |
| Status: | Located in 18,000 ft. (6000 m) of water, Hatteras abyssal plain, North Atlantic Ocean |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Yankee-class submarine |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 129.8 m (425 ft 10 in) |
| Beam: | 11.7 m (38 ft 5 in) |
| Draft: | 8.7 m (28 ft 7 in) |
| Propulsion: | 2 × 90 MWt OK-700 reactors with VM-4 cores producing 20,000 hp (15 MW) each |
| Speed: | 26 knots (48 km/h; 30 mph) |
| Test depth: | 400 m (1,300 ft) |
| Complement: | 120 officers and men |
| Armament: |
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K-219 was a Project 667A Navaga-class ballistic missile submarine (NATO reporting name "Yankee I") of the Soviet Navy. She carried 16 (later 15) SS-N-6 liquid-fuel missiles powered by UDMH with IRFNA, equipped with an estimated 34 nuclear warheads.
K-219 was involved in what has become one of the most controversial submarine incidents during the Cold War.
On Friday 3 October 1986, while on an otherwise routine Cold War nuclear deterrence patrol in the North Atlantic 680 miles (1,090 km) northeast of Bermuda, the 15-year-old K-219 suffered an explosion and fire in a missile tube. The seal in a missile hatch cover failed, allowing saltwater to leak into the missile tube and react with residue from the missile's liquid fuel. Though there was no official announcement, a published source (citing no sources) said the Soviet Union claimed that the leak was caused by a collision with the submarine USS Augusta. Augusta was certainly operating in proximity, but both the United States Navy and the commander of K-219, Captain Second Rank Igor Britanov, deny that a collision took place.K-219 had previously experienced a similar casualty; one of her missile tubes was already disabled and welded shut, having been permanently sealed after an explosion caused by reaction between seawater leaking into the silo and missile fuel residue.
The authors of the book Hostile Waters reconstructed the incident from descriptions by the survivors, ships' logs, the official investigations, and participants both ashore and afloat from the Soviet and the American sides. The result was a novelized version of events.
Shortly after 0530 Moscow time, seawater leaking into silo six of K-219 reacted with missile fuel, producing chlorine and nitrogen dioxide gases and sufficient heat to explosively decompose additional fuming nitric acid to produce more nitrogen dioxide gas. K-219 weapons officer Alexander Petrachkov attempted to cope with this by disengaging the hatch cover and venting the missile tube to the sea. Shortly after 0532, an explosion occurred in silo six. The remains of the RSM-25 rocket and its two warheads were ejected from silo six into the sea.
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Wikipedia