Key Points – Russia’s Oscar II-class (Project 949A Antey) nuclear-powered submarines, originally designed as Cold War “carrier killers,” remain a significant and dangerous part of its fleet.
-These massive submarines are armed with 24 anti-ship cruise missiles, like the SS-N-19 Granit or the more modern P-800 Oniks, in addition to torpedoes.
-The class is infamous for the tragic loss of the Kursk in 2000. A highly modified Oscar II, the Belgorod, now serves as a special operations “mothership” capable of deploying midget submarines and carrying six of the fearsome Poseidon nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed torpedoes.
-The Soviet Union developed the Project 949A Antey submarine, also known as the Oscar II class, to counter the US Navy’s carrier battle groups during the Cold War.
Russia’s Oscar-Class Submarine Explained
The Oscar II was the largest cruise missile submarine in the world until some Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines were converted to carry cruise missiles in 2007.
The Soviet and Russian Navy built 11 of the larger Oscar II submarines between 1985 and 1999 at the Sevmash yard in Severodvinsk. Of those, one, the Kursk, sank in 2020; there are six left in active service with the Northern and Pacific Fleets.
While two were slated to be modernized since at least 2017 as Project 949AM to extend their service life and increase combat capabilities, it is unclear whether work continues.
Meet The Oscar II Missile Boats
The Oscar II is a typical Russian double-hulled design comprising an inner pressure hull and an outer hydrodynamic hull. The 3.5-meter separation between the inner and outer hulls on the Oscar provides significant reserve buoyancy and improved survivability against conventional torpedoes.
These large submarines are said to be slow to dive and maneuver, though they are credited with a submerged speed of about 30 knots, sufficient to keep pace with their targets. The boat is divided into ten major compartments.
The Oscar II has a length of 508 ft 6 in., a beam of 59 ft 9 in., and a Draught of 29 ft 6 in.
Additionally, like other Soviet submarine designs, the Project 949 boats feature a bridge that is open to the elements on top of the sail. Additionally, for use in inclement weather, there is an enclosed bridge forward and slightly below this station.
The reinforced, rounded cover of the sail is intended to break through the ice of the Arctic ice cap. The two periscopes, radio-sextant and radar masts, are located within the retractable devices area.
Oscar II Armaments
The Oscar II is equipped with 24 SS-N-19 Granit (NATO codename “Shipwreck”) cruise missiles with a range of 550km. The missile measures 10.5 meters in length and weighs 6.9 tons, with a warhead weighing 1,000 kilograms. The missile travels at a speed of Mach 1.5.
Many of the Granit missiles were replaced by the more sophisticated P-800 Oniks (Strobile) missiles.
The torpedo tubes fire both torpedoes and shorter-range anti-ship missiles, and a combination of some two dozen weapons is carried, including the SS-N-16 missile. The SS-N-16 has a range of 50 kilometers and is powered by a liquid-fuel turbojet engine. It can carry either an explosive warhead or a Type 40 torpedo.
Sinking Of the Kursk
The Russian Navy suffered a disaster in August 2000 when the Oscar II-class submarine, the Kursk, sank with the loss of all hands.
While taking part in a Northern Fleet exercise in the Barents Sea, a massive explosion caused by the detonation of a torpedo onboard the Kursk sent the submarine to the bottom of the sea.
According to Norwegian seismological records, it appeared that two explosions destroyed the submarine.
While several members of the submarine’s crew survived the initial detonation, the decision by the leaders of the Russian Northern Fleet and Russia’s political leadership to refuse outside assistance ultimately doomed the sailors on board to die on the vessel.
The Kursk was one of the newest Oscar-IIs at the time of the sinking (having been commissioned in 1994), which cast doubt on Russia’s upkeep of its Oscar-IIs and its wider submarine fleet.
The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) reports that the Oscar II submarine is equipped with an emergency crew escape capsule. The VSK escape capsule can accommodate 110 people.
The Belgorod Special Operations Submarine
The Belgorod is a special-purpose and research submarine based on the Oscar II-class submarines. It is 184m long and 18.2m wide, with a displacement of more than 14,700 tons when surfaced and 24,000 tons when submerged.
The submarine can dive to a depth of 520m and remain underwater for approximately four months. It can carry an AS-15 deep-sea nuclear station.
It can host deep-diving nuclear-powered midget submarines to conduct covert deep-sea operations beneath the ocean’s surface. Midget submarines can target subsea infrastructure, including sensor arrays, pipelines, and internet cables.
The Belgorod also carries six enormous Poseidon torpedoes. The Poseidons are 80-foot nuclear torpedoes to be armed with up to a 100-megaton warhead that could be launched from thousands of miles away from a coastal target.
The explosion would “destroy important economic installations of the enemy in coastal areas and cause guaranteed devastating damage to the country’s territory by creating wide areas of radioactive contamination, rendering them unusable for military, economic or other activity for a long time,” according to a translation of a Russian presentation caught on camera by the BBC in 2015.
The Oscar II-class boats have suffered from a myriad of problems since their inception. Whether the Russians have addressed these issues is not known. However, they remain a significant and dangerous part of Russia’s fleet.
About the Author:
Steve Balestrieri is a National Security Columnist. He served as a US Army Special Forces NCO and Warrant Officer. In addition to writing on defense, he covers the NFL for PatsFans.com and is a member of the Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA). His work was regularly featured in many military publications.
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