A Russian submarine accidentally self-destructs with its own torpedo

Summary: On August 12, 2000, two explosions rocked the Barents Sea, leading to the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk during a naval exercise.

-A practice torpedo leak of high-test peroxide (HTP) caused the first explosion, which triggered a second, larger explosion that eventually brought the ship down.

Rescue operations were postponed and foreign aid was at first refused. 23 of the 118 crew members managed to escape briefly in the submarine’s rear compartment.

-The incident was later attributed to inadequate training, poor equipment maintenance, and mismanagement.

Explosions and Cover-ups: The Sinking of the Russian Kursk Submarine

On August 12, 2000, two explosions shook the waters of the Barents Sea. When the explosions were noticed by the crew of the Russian submarine Karelia, they assumed that they were part of an important naval exercise in which the Karelia was participating.

Unfortunately, however, an explosion on board the Oscar-class submarine Kursk was devastating to both crew and submarine.

Kursk: What happened?

The Kursk was participating in the Summer-X exercise in August 2000, the Russian Navy’s first major fleet maneuver. The ship was to fire two practice torpedoes at the Russian cruiser as part of the exercise. In addition to these mock warheads, the Kursk completed live armament with cruise missiles and torpedoes.

It was one of the few Russian ships allowed to do so. The initial explosion, measuring 1.5 on the Richter scale, was detected hours after Russian naval assets and a Norwegian seismic monitoring station requested authorization to begin testing. A second, much larger explosion measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale was detected two minutes later.

The Rescue Effort

Two Russian mini-submersibles, the AS-32 and AS-34, headed up the rescue effort.

By the evening of Sunday, August 13, they had located the stricken Kursk on the seabed, 354 feet below the surface. The bow was completely destroyed, and the first four compartments were flooded.

The submersible tried several times to close on the back escape hatch, but was never successful. Over the next few days, rescue efforts were hampered by large waves and progressively stronger winds. They brought in more submersibles, but again failed to lock them securely against the escape hatch. A similar problem occurred with diving bells that dropped surface-level ships.

The disaster was known to the United States and other Western countries on the day that a coalition consisting of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Norway, and Israel pledged support for the Russian navy.

Moscow denied the aid in an attempt to downplay and hide the extent of the disaster from the outside world as well as from its own people. Finally, five days after the accident and in the face of considerable media and public backlash, Russian President Vladimir Putin accepted British and Norwegian help.

Tragic Conclusion

At first, there was great optimism that some survivors would have managed to crawl up the mostly intact back of the submarine. But when the rescue took too long, hope faded. Ten days after the tragedy, a Norwegian dive team managed to get inside the ship and found nothing but bodies.

Russia took action to save the Kursk when it was discovered that none of the crew survived. The submarine was to be lifted from its underwater resting place by a Dutch company. Due to concerns about unexploded bombs and structural instability, the bow was removed before the sub lifted off. Where it was at the bottom, it was finally demolished.

The full extent of the Kursk tragedy became clear when it was refloated. Yes, there were survivors: twenty-three sailors piled into the ninth and rearmost cabin. The sub’s reactors were shut down in an emergency procedure. Although their heavy and stable state was a godsend, it meant that all power, light and air recycling systems had to be stopped.

For a time, the boys in the ninth compartment survived using chemical oxygen scrubbers and battery-powered lighting. But the place they were in and the boat they were in had already sealed their fate. Although 354 feet was sufficient depth, the men could have survived the emergency ascent. confined to the bitter cold of the Barents Sea, however, would have been a sure death sentence if they were not swiftly spotted and rescued. Furthermore, some personnel were too injured to clamber into the escape trunk and attempt the ascent.

After the crew decided to stay on board, they succumbed to a characteristic of the Kursk, as well as all Oscar-class submarines: a leaky seal where the propeller shaft left the hull. When it settled, water seeped around the shaft. Water was seeping in as the bay rested on the seabed, pressurizing the compartment and making an emergency ascent physically impossible.

Survivors relied on chemical scrubbers to remove toxic carbon dioxide when the air scrubbers were turned off. Finally, it appears that one of these scrubbers was released while workers were replacing a used cartridge. A chemical reaction caused the compressed air to catch fire as it fell into the oily water, burning everything else.

Cause of the Sinking

High-test peroxide (HTP) torpedoes were used by the Kursk. This chemical molecule is generally stable, but can oxidize strongly when a catalyst is present. It appears that when the fuel was poured into the tube, the practice torpedo in use spilled enough for the initial explosion.

With an estimated temperature close to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit, the torpedo compartment ruptured in the first explosion. At least seven more torpedoes detonated due to the extreme pressure and temperature, leading to a second explosion. Water quickly poured into the destroyed bow of the submarine, through bulkhead after bulkhead until it reached reinforced bulkhead number five, which protected the nuclear reactors.

Aftermath/Coverup

The Russian government tried to cover up the ill-fated attempt to rescue the stranded sailors. In an attempt to shift responsibility, it was claimed that the accident was caused by a collision with a NATO submarine monitoring the drill. Prior to its deployment to the Mediterranean Sea last year, it was reported that the sub’s rescue beacon had been deactivated in order to float autonomously to the surface in case of a tragedy to aid in the search.

A review of the Kursk’s documentation revealed that the crew was not properly prepared to handle HTP torpedoes or certain types of torpedoes. The findings of the secret study included “negligence, incompetence and staggering breaches of discipline, inferior, outdated and poorly maintained equipment”mismanagement.” It went on to criticize delays in initiating the rescue operation.

About the Author: Maya Carlin

Maya Carlin was an Anna Sobol Levy Fellow at IDC Herzliya in Israel and is currently an analyst at the Center for Security Policy. Her bylines can appear in several publications such as The Times of Israel, The Jerusalem Post, and The National Interest.

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