Project 629 (
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
: проект–629, ''Projekt-629''), also known by the
NATO reporting name
NATO reporting names are code names for military equipment from Russia, China, and historically, the Eastern Bloc (Soviet Union and other nations of the Warsaw Pact). They provide unambiguous and easily understood English words in a uniform manne ...
Golf, was a
class
Class or The Class may refer to:
Common uses not otherwise categorized
* Class (biology), a taxonomic rank
* Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects
* Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used differentl ...
of
diesel-electric ballistic missile submarines that served in the
Soviet Navy. All boats of this class had left Soviet service by 1990, and have since been disposed of. According to some sources, at least one Golf-class submarine was operated by
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, to test new
submarine-launched ballistic missile
A submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) is a ballistic missile capable of being launched from submarines. Modern variants usually deliver multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs), each of which carries a nuclear warhead ...
s (SLBMs).
Class history
Project 629 was started in the mid-1950s along with the D-2 missile launch system, which it was to carry, and was based on the
Foxtrot-class submarine
The Foxtrot class was the NATO reporting name of a class of diesel-electric patrol submarines that were built in the Soviet Union. The Soviet designation of this class was Project 641. The Foxtrot class was designed to replace the earlier Zulu cl ...
. The design task was assigned to OKB-16, one of the two predecessors (the other being SKB-143) of the
Malakhit Marine Engineering Bureau
Malakhit Marine Engineering Bureau (russian: морское бюро машиностроения «Малахит») is a company based in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is a subsidiary of the United Shipbuilding Corporation.
Malakhit has designed ...
, which would eventually become one of the three Soviet/Russian submarine design centers, along with the
Rubin Design Bureau
Rubin Central Design Bureau for Marine Engineering ( Russian: Центральное конструкторское бюро "Рубин", shortened to ЦКБ "Рубин") in Saint Petersburg is one of three main Russian centers of submarine desi ...
and the
Lazurit Central Design Bureau
The Lazurit Central Design Bureau (russian: Центральное конструкторское бюро "Лазурит") is a company based in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. It is part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation.
The Lazurit Central Desi ...
. The submarine was originally designed to carry three
R-11FM
The R-11 Zemlya, GRAU index 8A61 was a Soviet tactical ballistic missile. It is also known by its NATO reporting name SS-1b Scud-A. It was the first of several similar Soviet missiles to be given the reporting name Scud. Variant R-11M was accep ...
ballistic missiles with a range around 150 km. These were carried in three silos fitted in the rear of the large sail behind the bridge. They could only be fired with the submarine surfaced and the missile raised above the sail, but the submarine could be underway at the time. Only the first three boats were equipped with these; the remaining ones were equipped with the longer-range
R-13 missiles.
The first boats were commissioned in 1958 and the last in 1962.
The boats were built at two shipyards — 16 in
Severodvinsk
Severodvinsk ( rus, Северодвинск, p=sʲɪvʲɪrɐdˈvʲinsk) is a city in the north of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia, located in the delta of the Northern Dvina, west of Arkhangelsk, the administrative center of the oblast. As of the 2 ...
and 7 in
Komsomolsk-na-Amure
Komsomolsk-on-Amur ( rus, Комсомольск-на-Амуре, r=Komsomolsk-na-Amure, p=kəmsɐˈmolʲsk nɐɐˈmurʲə) is a city in Khabarovsk Krai, Russia, located on the west bank of the Amur River in the Russian Far East. It is located ...
in the Far East. An eighth in the Far East went to China. Fourteen were extensively modified in 1966–1972 and became known as ''629A'' by the Soviet Navy and "Golf II" by
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
(the original version having been designated "Golf I"). The major change was the upgrade of the missile system to carry
R-21 missiles, which could be launched from inside their tubes with the submarine submerged and increased speed. In later years, a few were converted to test new missiles and others had different conversions.
All boats had left Soviet service by 1990. In 1993, 10 were sold to
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...
for scrap. According to some sources, the North Koreans were attempting to get these boats back into service.
An organization of defectors from North Korea, named In-Kook Yantai, published a report in 2016 entitled "North Korea's Nuclear and WMD Assessment". In that report, North Korean defector Kim Heung-kwang said a 3,500-ton, nuclear-powered submarine, one of a pair, was due for launch before 2018. It was described as having four missile launch silos in the sail, and is generally thought to refer to a repowered Golf II-class vessel.
In 1959, the project technology was sold to
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, which built a single modified example in 1966, which is still in service.
Project Azorian
On March 8, 1968, northwest of
Oahu
Oahu () (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering place#Island of Oʻahu as The Gathering Place, Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over t ...
in the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
, the Golf II-class submarine
''K-129'' sank due to an explosion brought on by unknown cause, the accident being registered by the
SOSUS
The Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) was a submarine detection system based on passive sonar developed by the United States Navy to track Soviet submarines. The system's true nature was classified with the name and acronym SOSUS themselves classi ...
network. The entire crew of 98 was lost and the vessel sank with three ballistic nuclear missiles as well as two nuclear torpedoes. The United States recovered parts of the submarine in July 1974 from a depth around 5 km, in an operation named
Project Azorian
Project Azorian (also called "Jennifer" by the press after its Top Secret Security Compartment) was a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) project to recover the sunken Soviet submarine ''K-129'' from the Pacific Ocean floor in 1974, using th ...
.
Two nuclear submarines that had been facing retirement, and , were rebuilt and pressed into service as deep-sea search vehicles. After ''Halibut'' discovered a sunken Soviet submarine containing at least one intact ballistic missile complete with nuclear warhead,
Melvin Laird
Melvin Robert Laird Jr. (September 1, 1922 – November 16, 2016) was an American politician, writer and statesman. He was a U.S. congressman from Wisconsin from 1953 to 1969 before serving as Secretary of Defense from 1969 to 1973 under Presi ...
,
United States Secretary of Defense
The United States secretary of defense (SecDef) is the head of the United States Department of Defense, the executive department of the U.S. Armed Forces, and is a high ranking member of the federal cabinet. DoDD 5100.1: Enclosure 2: a The s ...
under President
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
, approved Azorian. Six years later, 1560 nautical miles north of the Pearl Harbor, a mechanical claw descended to the bottom of the Pacific, and guided by computers on board the ''
Glomar Explorer
''GSF Explorer'', formerly USNS ''Hughes Glomar Explorer'' (T-AG-193), was a deep-sea drillship platform built for Project Azorian, the secret 1974 effort by the United States Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division to recove ...
'', clamped onto the mass of twisted, rusting steel and began slowly raising it to the surface. How successful the effort was is unclear, but the United States has admitted to recovering a portion of ''K-129'', which included six bodies of Soviet sailors who were buried at sea with full honors.
Variants
*Project 629: The original design with the
NATO reporting name
NATO reporting names are code names for military equipment from Russia, China, and historically, the Eastern Bloc (Soviet Union and other nations of the Warsaw Pact). They provide unambiguous and easily understood English words in a uniform manne ...
Golf I, with a total of 22 boats built from 1958 through 1962. Dimensions are 98.4 m for length, 8.2 m for beam, and 7.85 m for draft. Surfaced/submerged displacements are 2794 / 3553
ton
Ton is the name of any one of several units of measure. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses.
Mainly it describes units of weight. Confusion can arise because ''ton'' can mean
* the long ton, which is 2,240 pounds
...
s, respectively. Surfaced/submerged speeds are 15 / 12.5 knot, respectively. Project 629 is crewed by 80 men, and is equipped by either D-1 launching system for
R-11FM
The R-11 Zemlya, GRAU index 8A61 was a Soviet tactical ballistic missile. It is also known by its NATO reporting name SS-1b Scud-A. It was the first of several similar Soviet missiles to be given the reporting name Scud. Variant R-11M was accep ...
or D-2 launching systems for
SS-N-4 SLBM
A submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) is a ballistic missile capable of being launched from Ballistic missile submarine, submarines. Modern variants usually deliver multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs), each of whic ...
s.
*Project 629B: ''K-229'' was converted in 1958 in
Severodvinsk
Severodvinsk ( rus, Северодвинск, p=sʲɪvʲɪrɐdˈvʲinsk) is a city in the north of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia, located in the delta of the Northern Dvina, west of Arkhangelsk, the administrative center of the oblast. As of the 2 ...
, under Project 629B to test a newly designed on-board missile control system, which was the first-generation design based entirely on semiconductors.
*Project 629A: 14 Project 629/Golf I-class submarines were converted to Project 629A between 1966 and 1972, and received the NATO reporting name "Golf II". Changes include the increase of dimension, with length and draft increased to 98.9 / 8.5 m, respectively, the surfaced/submerged displacement increased to 2300-2820 / 2700-3553
t, respectively, and surfaced/submerged speeds increased to 17 / 14 kn respectively. Crew was increased to 83, and the launching system is D-4 for
SS-N-5
The R-21 (russian: Р-21; NATO: SS-N-5 'Sark/Serb'; GRAU: 4K55) was a submarine-launched ballistic missile in service with the Soviet Union between 1963 and 1989. It was the first Soviet nuclear missile that could be launched from a submerged s ...
SLBMs.
*Project 601: ''K-118'' was converted from 1969 through 1974 and received the NATO reporting name "Golf III", with displacement increased to 4000 tons and number of SLBMs increased to six, and the missile type is
SS-N-8
R-29 Vysota Р-29 Высота (''height'', ''altitude'') is a family of Soviet submarine-launched ballistic missiles, designed by Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau.
All variants use astro-inertial guidance systems.
Variants R-29
*Deployment date: ...
.
*Project 605: ''K-102'' was converted from 1969 through 1973 and received the NATO reporting name "Golf IV", lengthened 18.3 m with four SLBMs to test
R-27K (SS-N-13) SLBMs.
*Project 619: ''K-153'' was converted in 1976 to test
SS-N-20
The R-39 Rif ( NATO reporting name: SS-N-20 ''Sturgeon''; bilateral arms control designation: RSM-52) was a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) that served with the Soviet Navy from its introduction in 1983 until 1991, after which it s ...
SLBMs, and received the NATO reporting name "Golf V".
*Project 629R: ''K-61'', ''B-42'' and ''K-107'' were converted in
Vladivostok
Vladivostok ( rus, Владивосто́к, a=Владивосток.ogg, p=vɫədʲɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Zolotoy Rog, Golden Horn Bay on the Sea ...
into command posts between 1973 and 1979, with the missile and torpedo tubes removed; they received the NATO reporting name "Golf SSQ".
*Type 6631: A Chinese-built Golf-class submarine, she was built in
Dalian
Dalian () is a major sub-provincial port city in Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, and is Liaoning's second largest city (after the provincial capital Shenyang) and the third-most populous city of Northeast China. Located on the ...
between 1960 and 1966, after receiving technical data from the USSR in 1959. China did not purchase SLBMs, thus Type 6631 was equipped with simulation systems and mainly used for training. Originally with
pennant number
In the Royal Navy and other navies of Europe and the Commonwealth of Nations, ships are identified by pennant number (an internationalisation of ''pendant number'', which it was called before 1948). Historically, naval ships flew a flag that iden ...
1101, it was subsequently changed to 200 in 1967. The second unit was supposed to be built and delivered by USSR (pennant number K-208), but due to the
Sino-Soviet split
The Sino-Soviet split was the breaking of political relations between the China, People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union caused by Doctrine, doctrinal divergences that arose from their different interpretations and practical applications ...
, most on-board equipment was not delivered, and the boat was used as sample for reverse engineering to complete the first unit, which entered Chinese service in August 1966. In June 1968, Type 6631 went through a major refit because China decided to adopt solid-fueled SLBMs instead of liquid-fueled SLBMs, as the Soviets used, so the simulation equipment was replaced by support equipment of solid-fueled SLBMs. In addition, the planned Chinese SLBM had different dimensions from the original Russian SLBM-equipped Golf-class submarines, so the number of missile tubes was reduced to two from the original three.
*Type 031: Type 6631 went through a second major refit, which was completed in November 1978. The most important improvement is the ability to launch SLBMs under water. In addition to changing to Type 031 from the original Type 6631, the unit also received the name ''
Great Wall
The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand Li (unit), ''li'' wall") is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against Eurasian noma ...
'', when China began restore the practice of naming its warships in the 1980s. The unit is hence usually referred as ''Great Wall 200''.
References
External links
Golf submarine details on FAS website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Golf-class submarine
Russian and Soviet navy submarine classes
Submarine classes