in a world of naval supremacy aircraft carriers may be the largest naval ships to sail the seas
but arguably a submarine the size of nearly two football fields is a little more intimidating
the typhoon-class submarines of the russian navy are the largest submersible ships that
have ever been built more specifically a russian submarine known as dimitri donskoi
tk208 is the world's largest submarine
how big is the submarine measuring in at 175 meters nearly 600 feet the submarine has been
in commission since 1980 with a few periods of significant refurbishment in its history
in addition to the submarine's impressive length it's also 25 meters wide
giving it quite the presence in the water the displacement of the ship is 48 000 tons
and is operated with a crew of just 160 men the tk208 was the foremost submarine
in the russian named akula class submarine line nato calls it typhoon
these submarines are capable of launching massive
ballistic missiles from anywhere in the world relatively covertly
the ship is so big that the interior amenities are like no other submarine ever built there's even an
indoor swimming pool at least there was as you can see in the clip from early on in the ship's
the ship's history the ship was first launched in 1980 but in 1990 it entered an extensive
dry dock period to bring it up to modern standards it was there for over a decade
until in 2002 the ship was fully fitted with the latest hardware and relaunched into service
the dimitri donskoi left drydock from the russian city of sidhiradvinsk at
this point and has been serving the russian navy ever since
it contains 20 launchers for the rsm 56 bulava ballistic missile this weapon system is known
around the world as one of the most advanced submarine launched missile systems ever built
one interesting thing of note about the submarine is how extensively it was essentially rebuilt
during its dry dock period at first launch in 1980 it was referred to as a third generation submarine
but after spending over a decade getting refurbishments to its equipment
it's now referred to as a fourth generation submarine in its class
essentially the submarine was completely rebuilt with all new equipment
in 2005 the world's largest submarine launched its first villava missile on september 27th
in order to do so the sub had to surface and the missile was fired from the white sea
by december of the same year the crew was ready to try the first firing of a bulava missile from
underwater they succeeded in doing so on december 21st hitting a target on the keratest range
notably the crews of the submarine fired many other tests of the bulava missile
including one failed test in 2009 and a successful one in 2010
all of the ship's sister submarines have been decommissioned at this point
so the dimitri donskoi is easily the largest submarine still in active service today
the ship today the dimitri danskoy is still in service today and serves as the pride of the
russian submarine fleet that said with the donskoi being the last of its class still in commission
its days are numbered the borea class submarines are replacing the typhoon class slowly
these new submarines are unfortunately be smaller than the donskoi meaning that it's highly
plausible that the world's largest submarine will hold the title for some time to come
the new class of submarines has been in construction since 2002
but the progress has been slow going so far there are four of the new class of
submarines in commission with another slated to be commissioned into service this year
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