Russia's Top Secret (Shiny) Titanium Submarine

Few NATO intelligence analysts could peek into the Iron Curtain and live to tell the tale. Nevertheless, CIA operatives continuously spied on the latest Soviet developments and shared their findings with the Pentagon.

In mid-1969, a team of operatives made a unique discovery while passing through the Neva River. They spotted a small, modern submarine tied up at Leningrad's old Sudomekh Submarine Shipyard. The submarine was over 79 meters in length and had a unique streamlined hull that featured a peculiar attribute - it was highly reflective.

As the days went by, the CIA concluded the Soviets had achieved the unthinkable: they had developed the world's smallest submarine, made entirely of titanium, making it lighter and three times stronger than conventional steel submarines.

The analysts knew that taking down the Soviet's titanium submarine at sea would be no easy feat. No US torpedo possessed the necessary capacity or speed to destroy it. Unfortunately, they were right...

[skyden]

Soviet Navy: "Even though titanium is difficult to work with, we have a lot of it that we can use."
Lockheed Corp.: "Yeah, we know.... uh, wait, no. Actually, we meant to say, 'Oh, really? We were unaware of these facts.' "

[FunkSwaggMusiK]

I guess Submarines are going to be a hot topic this summer

[nunyabeeswax]

Old school EW2 here. Thanks for the memories/ nightmares

[silverfoxvr]

During my 1st few years out of engineering school, I managed a cleanup and disposal of a room at a Purdue that contained a liquid NaK heat exchanger and a mercury heat exchanger. Mercury dangers are well known, but that liquid sodium/potassium was nasty business. It was so reactive to water that humidity in the air would ignite it. Fun times. There was a 'manual' in the room and I think it was dated in the late 50's or early 60s.

[Dr_Larken]

I don't care who you are, The engineering of you using just titanium for submersible you have to respect that!

[himoffthequakeroatbox]

The hardest part was the seals for the oar ports.

[sargepent]

They were also very loud as their focus was more on speed than stealth. My uncle was a P3 crewmember and he said the Alphas sounded like they had a chain wrapped around their screw they were so loud

[flickingbollocks]

US said using titanium was "impractical".

Because they couldn't do it.

[Shaker]

One of the great difficulties of working with titanium is that it loves oxygen like a greasy trucker loves his lot lizards. Any part of it that gets even cherry red needs to be purged or it will oxidize and sometimes even catch fire. Argon is the cheapest gas to do this with. The Soviets figured the best way to weld massive titanium sections was to purge the whole building with Argon, and supply the welders with oxygen, and stick welding stingers for holding tungsten electrodes. An extreme variant of TIG.

[phatphracker]

It would be more appropriate to reference the Serria I & II class submarines as platforms that benefited from the developments of the Alpha project rather than Akula.
Also addressing the radiological concerns of the Alpha's experimental reactor design and short falls in the automation systems / reduced manning plan would help explain why Russia didn't just build more Alphas or an improved / modernized Alpha II as was common in many other submarine class of the era.

[luckydog]

Two unmentioned negatives: The Alfa class was the loudest submarine in the water and liquid metal reactors turn into bricks if they are ever shut down. Other marine reactors are generally shut down while in port and the sub is attached to shore power.

[jackmoorehead]

You forgot to mention the reactor was as noisy as a truck load of scrap metal on a bumpy road. Sonar techs could hear them a hundred miles off.

[turdferguson]

There is a lot of discussion of the hull strength, light weight, and automation design features of this submarine class, but no mention of sonar technology or of efforts to make the Alfa class quiet. This was a great focus of U.S. submarine design in the 1960s and is still the primary objective of naval submarine development today.

[captainwin]

The US dismissed the fact Russia could weld Titanium pressure vessels not because they thought it impossibe, but because they couldn't do it so it was important to them to insist the Russians couldn't do it either. But they could.

[chamkila]

To this day. Russian underwater crafts are amazing

[johntaylor-loqx]

Always gr8 show !!! I'd love to have seen this shiny silver sub. Keep up the gr8 work 💪

[tireballastserviceofflorid]

I saw a video recently that showed 2 or 3 of those subs in russia. Only thing left was the reactor and the reactor compartment. Just floating tied off to a dock.

[jorgea.villalon]

Thank you for sharing. It's very interesting that all your videos are very informative, thank you for sharing, JV

[craigmorris]

The only thing that I knew about the Alfa class is that you never have torpedoes armed in the tubes. 😊

[SPLICERPS]

Why did no one mention that this sub was rumored to do 40 knots submerged? There's a reason it was still scary, even if it was bricked by its reactor. Even Tom Clancy got in on the Alfa-class stuff with Red October.