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Yankee class SSBN profile
A Yankee I submarine underway.
Class overview
Name	Yankee class
Builders	Severodvinsk and Komsomolsk
Operators	Soviet Navy
Preceded by	Hotel class
Succeeded by	Delta class
Built	1964–1974
In commission	1967–1995
Completed	34
Lost	1
Retired	33
General characteristics
Type	Ballistic missile submarine
Displacement	7,700 tons Surfaced 9,300 tons submerged
Length	132 m (433 ft)
Beam	11.6 m (38 ft)
Draught	8 m (26 ft)
Propulsion	two pressurized water cooled reactors powering four steam turbines driving two shafts.
Speed	Surfaced: 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph) Submerged: 27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph)
Range	unlimited
Complement	120
Armament	Yankee I/II:4 × 533 mm (21.0 in) torpedo tubes 2 × 400 mm (16 in) torpedo tubes Yankee I: 16 × R-27 (SS-N-6 Serb) SLBMs Yankee II: 12 × R-31 (SS-N-17 Snipe) SLBMs.

The Yankee class, Soviet designations Project 667A Navaga (navaga) and Project 667AU Nalim (burbot) for the basic Yankee-I, were a family of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines built in the Soviet Union for the Soviet Navy. In total, 34 units were built: 24 in Severodvinsk for the Northern Fleet and the remaining 10 in Komsomolsk-on-Amur for the Pacific Fleet. Two Northern Fleet units were later transferred to the Pacific.

The Yankee-class were subject to a wide variety of modifications; these ships have a different designation to the original model.

Design

The Yankee-class nuclear submarines were the first class of Soviet ballistic missile submarines (SSBN) to have thermonuclear firepower comparable with that of their American and British Polaris submarine counterparts. The Yankee class were quieter in the ocean than were their Hotel-class predecessors, and had better streamlining that improved their underwater performance. The Yankee class were actually quite similar to the Polaris submarines of the U.S. Navy and the Royal Navy. These boats were all armed with 16 submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) with multiple nuclear warheads as nuclear deterrents during the Cold War, and their ballistic missiles had ranges from 1,500–2,500 nautical miles (2,800–4,600 km; 1,700–2,900 mi).

General characteristics (Yankee I)

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• Length: 128 m (420 ft)
• Beam: 11.7 m (38 ft)
• Draught: 9 m (30 ft)
• Surface displacement: 7,760 tonnes
• Full (Diving) displacement: 11,500 tonnes
• Speed: 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph)
• Power plant: 2 VM-4 reactors
• Hull: Low magnetic steel
• Crew: 114
• Compartments: 10
• Armament:
  • 4 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes for 14 Type 53 torpedoes or mines.
  • 2 16 in (406 mm) torpedo tubes for 4 Type 40 torpedoes
  • 16 SS-N-6 liquid-fueled ballistic missiles

Operational history

The Yankee-class SSBNs served in the Soviet Navy in three oceans: the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and the Arctic Ocean beginning in the 1960s. During the 1970s about three Yankee-class were continually on patrol in a so-called "patrol box" in the Atlantic Ocean just east of Bermuda and off the US Pacific coast. This forward deployment of the SSBNs was seen to balance the presence of American, British, and French nuclear weapons kept in Western Europe and on warships (including nuclear submarines) in the surrounding Atlantic Ocean, including the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Atlantic.

The lead boat K-137 Leninets received its honorific name on 11 April 1970, two and one half years after being commissioned.

One Yankee-class submarine, K-219, was lost on 6 October 1986 after an explosion and fire on board. This boat had been at sea near Bermuda, and she sank from loss of buoyancy because of flooding. Four of her sailors died before rescue ships arrived. The events surrounding the loss of this boat has continued to be controversial.

At least one other boat in this class was involved in a collision with a U.S. Navy nuclear submarine.

Because of their increasing age, and as negotiated in the SALT I, START I and START II treaties that reduce nuclear armaments of the United States and the Soviet Union, all boats of Yankee class were disarmed, decommissioned and sent to the nuclear ship scrapyards.

Variants

There were eight different versions of the Yankee-class submarines:

Yankee-class submarines

First entered Service	NATO reporting name	Project Name and Number	Image	Class	Main Payload	Numbers built	Notes
1967	Yankee-I	667А "Навага"		SSBN	16 x Р-27 Зыбь	34	Baseline; first Soviet sub to carry SLBMs in hull, as opposed to the sail. Some were later disarmed and operated as SSNs; sometimes classed as SSNX
1975	Improved Yankee-I	667АУ "Налим"		SSBN	16 x Р-27У	13 converted	У/U for Improved (Russian: Улучшен; Uluchshen)
1977	Yankee-II	667АМ "Навага-М"		SSBN	12 x Р-31	1 converted	First Soviet sub to carry solid-fueled SLBMs. Subsequently theorized as emergency satellite-launcher or to strike ships in aircraft carrier battle groups
1987	Yankee Notch	667АТ "Груша"		SSGN/SSN	32-40 x РК-55 Гранат (SS-N-21 Sampson)	3 converted + 4 unfinished	Lengthened by 12 metres (39.4 ft) to 141.5 m (464 ft); 8 more torpedo tubes in waist
1989 (program cancelled)	Yankee Sidecar	667М "Андромеда"		SSGN	12 x П-750 Метеорит (SS-NX-24 Scorpion)	1 converted	Delivered as an attack sub due to missile program cancellation. 153 m (502 ft) long, 13,650 tons full displacement
1984	Yankee Pod	667АК "Аксон-1"		SSAN	Towed array sonar, pod, other sensor systems	1 converted	K-403 Kazan. The tailfin-pod is similar to those of the Щука- and Щука-Б SSNs
1996	Yankee Big Nose	09780 "Аксон-2"		SSAN	Towed array sonar, Irtysh-Amphora spherical sonar array	1 converted + 1 unfinished (K-415)	Further modified K-403 Kazan. Tail now resembles those of the 667BDRM and 949А submarines. The Irtysh-Amphora would later equip the lead boat of the Yasen-class
1991	Yankee Stretch	09774/667АН		"Research" Submarine	Палтус-class midget submarine	1 converted (K-411)	160 m (520 ft) long. Stated to be an oceanographic vessel, but believed to be a spy sub similar to USS Jimmy Carter

• Yankee-class submarines in life
• Yankee Notch
• Yankee II
• Yankee Big Nose

In addition, Soviet/Russian classification includes the Delta-class submarines within the same family of Project 667; Deltas being Project 667B onwards.

Units

The factual accuracy of parts of this article (those related to table) may be compromised due to out-of-date information. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (August 2012)

Popular culture

In Tom Clancy's 1986 techno-thriller Red Storm Rising, the entire Yankee-class of SSBNs are proposed to be taken out of service and scrapped by the Soviet Union as part of the Maskirovka I, in part to have the United States to do likewise with its own first-generation George Washington class, Ethan Allen class and Lafayette class SSBNs, and allay NATO misgivings of the USSR's intentions.

References

1. "Title unknown". The Royal Gazette. Archived from the original on March 29, 2006.
2. "DEEPSTORM.RU". Deep Storm. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
3. ^ Korabli VMF SSSR, Vol. 1, Part 1, Yu. Apalkov, Sankt Peterburg, 2003, ISBN 5-8172-0069-4
4. 64°35′10″N 39°49′07″E / 64.586°N 39.8187°E / 64.586; 39.8187

External links

• National Geographic: Yankee class accessed March 14, 2004.
• NATO Code Names for Submarines and Ships accessed March 14, 2004.
• Federation of American Scientists: Yankee class accessed June 11, 2006.
• Bellona Report: Project 667 A (Nalim, Navaga) – Yankee Class accessed June 11, 2006.
• World Navies Today: Russian Submarines accessed June 11, 2006.
• Jane's Fighting Ships of the World, 1994.

• Submarine classes
• Yankee-class submarines
• Cold War submarines of the Soviet Union
• Russian and Soviet Navy submarine classes
• Nuclear submarines of the Soviet Navy