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Russia’s Huge but Aging Typhoon-Class Submarines – Russia’s Typhoon-class submarines still hold the title of the largest submarines on Earth today. They are ultimately relics of the Cold War and its requirements. Each Typhoon-class sub was intended to play an essential role in the Soviet Union’s strategic doctrine and nuclear triad.
Today, the fate of the Typhoon class is shrouded in uncertainty, as the Russian Navy decides how and whether to modernize the remaining examples of the class.
Typhoon-Class: A History
The submarines are also referred to by their official Soviet code name “Akula,” which means shark in Russian, a name confusingly shared with several other classes of Russian military submarines.
With a displacement of 48,000 tons while submerged, the Typhoon is a true behemoth in scale.
The main job of the Typhoons is to carry 20 similarly massive RSM-52 submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
In 2005 the Dmitry Donskoi, the only
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