Project 865 Piranha (russian: Проект 865 «Пиранья») is a type of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n (formerly Soviet)

midget submarine A midget submarine (also called a mini submarine) is any submarine under 150 tons, typically operated by a crew of one or two but sometimes up to six or nine, with little or no on-board living accommodation. They normally work with mother ships, ...

. 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 ...

for the class is Losos, which means "

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...

" in the Russian language. The Losos class was designed for special operations and engaging surface ships located offshore, and is thus very durable and almost completely silent. The hull is made of a

titanium Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resistant to corrosion in ...

alloy An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductility, ...

, which helps with

signature management Stealth technology, also termed low observable technology (LO technology), is a sub-discipline of military tactics and passive and active electronic countermeasures, which covers a range of methods used to make personnel, aircraft, ships, subm ...

because it is not magnetic. The non-magnetic alloy would greatly reduce the effectiveness of enemy

magnetic anomaly detector A magnetic anomaly detector (MAD) is an instrument used to detect minute variations in the Earth's magnetic field. The term refers specifically to magnetometers used by military forces to detect submarines (a mass of ferromagnetic material crea ...

s or magnetic

limpet mine A limpet mine is a type of naval mine attached to a target by magnets. It is so named because of its superficial similarity to the shape of the limpet, a type of sea snail that clings tightly to rocks or other hard surfaces. A swimmer or diver m ...

s against this type of vessel. Only two Losos-class submarines were built: ''MS-520'' and ''MS-521''. Original planning called for a total of 12 Project 865 Piranha submarines to be constructed; this was eventually reduced to six, then just the two. Launched in 1986 and 1990, respectively, they are in reserve but are expected to soon be discarded.

References

External links

Federation of American Scientists: Project 865 Piranya Losos Classcutaway of internal layout
{{DEFAULTSORT:Losos-class submarine Russian and Soviet navy submarine classes 1986 ships Auxiliary ships of the Soviet Navy Midget submarines Ships built at Admiralty Shipyard