Charlie class submarine

Class overview
Builders:	Gorky
Operators:	Soviet Navy  Indian Navy
Preceded by:	Echo class submarine
Followed by:	Oscar class submarine
General characteristics
Displacement:	Charlie 1 class: Surfaced:4000tons Submerged:4900tons Charlie 2 class: Surfaced: 4300tons Submerged:5100tons
Length:	Charlie 1 class: 95m (311ft) Charlie 2 class: 103m (340ft)
Beam:	Charlie 1+2 class:10m (32ft 10in)
Draught:	Charlie 1+2 class: 8m (26ft 3in)
Propulsion and power:	Charlie 1+2 class: one pressurized water cooled reactor powering two steam turbines delivering 11,185kW (15,000shp) to one shaft.
Speed:	Surfaced: 20knots Submerged: 24knots
Range:	Unlimited except by food supplies
Complement:	Charlie 1 class: 100 Charlie 2 class: 98
Armament:	Charlie 1+2 class: 6 533mm (21in) tubes all bow for a max load of 12 torpedoes. Usually a mix of 2 kT anti ship nuclear torpedoes, 2 Tsakra (SS-N-15 Starfish) 15kT anti submarine torpedoes, Charlie 1's with 4 anti ship/submarine HE torpedoes, charlie 2's with 8 anti ship/submarine torpedoes or a total of 24 AMD-1000 ground mines.

The Charlie 1 class submarine (Project 670 Skat) SSGN was first launched at the inland shipyard at Gorky in 1967 with another 10 following over a period of 5 years. The Charlie 1's had two banks of four missile tubes angled upwards on each side of the bow outside the pressure hull. The tubes were covered by large outer doors and the design was to incorporate the P-120 Malakhit (SS-N-9 Siren) medium range anti ship missile. But due to delays in the missile development, the missile was substituted with the short range P-70 Ametist (SS-N-7 Sarbright) submerged launch missile which itself was a development of the P-15 Termit (SS-N-2 Styx) surface launced missile. The purpose of the missiles was to be used for pop up surprise attacks on high value surface targets such as an aircraft carrier. In 1972 to 1979, six improved units called the Project 670M SkaT-M (Charlie 2 class) were built. The improved Charlie 2's were built at Gorky with and 8m (26ft 3in) insertion in the hull forward of the fin to incorporate electronics and launch systems for targeting and firing of the long range P-120 Malakhit anti ship missile. The Charlie class was conceived for a mass production vessel which probably prompted the use of only one pressurized water cooled reactor and a five bladed propellor as the main propulsion instead of the ordinary two reactors and propellors. This meant that the Charlie class lacked speed which meant that they could not operate with high speed surface groups. A Charlie 3 class was thought to have been built to fire the P-80 Zubr (SS-N-22 Sunburn) anti ship missile but this was not the case. The Charlie 1's and 2's had to return to port for reload once they had expended their payloads although the secondary armament of torpedoes and sonar systems meant that they provided useful anti ship and ASW capabilties. The last boat was retired in 1994 but one boat was leased to India between 1988 and 1991 mainly for India to gain experience in the operations of a nuclear submarine.

Ships

• 12 Project 670 (Charlie I) submarines were built between 1968 and 1973, K-43 was leased to the Indian Navy as the Chakra from 1988 to 1992, K-429 sank near Petropavlovsk Kamchatsky in 1983 with 16 fatalities, but was raised as used as a harbour training hulk
• 6 Project 670M (Charlie II) submarines were built between 1973 and 1980

All ships were scrapped between 1990 and 1994

References

• Article in Russian from Encyclopedia of Ships
• Article in Russian
• Page in English from FAS
• The Encyclopedia Of Warships, From World War Two To The Present Day, General Editor Robert Jackson.