Engineering:Tango-class submarine

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Short description: Soviet diesel-electric submarine class
A Tango-class submarine in the North Atlantic.
Class overview
NameTango class (Project 641B)
BuildersGorky
Operators Soviet Navy
Preceded byFoxtrot class
Succeeded byKilo class
In service1972–2016
In commission1972
Completed18
Active0
Retired15
Preserved3
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General characteristics
TypeSubmarine
Displacement
  • 3,100 tons surfaced
  • 3,800 tons submerged
Length91 m (298 ft 7 in)
Beam9.1 m (29 ft 10 in)
Draught7.2 m (23 ft 7 in)
Propulsion
  • 3 diesel engines
  • 4.6 MW (6,200 shp)
  • 3 electric motors
  • 3 shafts.
Speed
  • 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph) surfaced
  • 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph) submerged
Complement62 men (12 officers)
Armament
  • 6 × 533 mm (21.0 in) bow torpedo tubes
  • 24 × 533 mm (21 in) anti-submarine and anti-ship torpedoes or equivalent load of mines
__1B0X_5H1P__characteristics

The Tango class was the NATO reporting name of a class of diesel-electric submarines that were built in the Soviet Union to replace the Foxtrot-class submarines assigned to the Black Sea and Northern Fleets. The Soviet designation of this class was Project 641B and it was also known as the Som (Catfish) class. The first of the class was completed in 1972 at Gorky. A total of 18 were built in two slightly different versions. The later type was several metres longer than the first, possibly because of the installation of ASW missile equipment.

Design and construction

The bow sonar installations appear to be similar to those fitted to Soviet nuclear attack submarines. The propulsion plant was the same as the last subgroup of the Foxtrot class. The Tango class had far more battery capacity, far higher than any previous conventional submarine class in the Soviet Navy; as a result, pressure hull volume increased. This allowed an underwater endurance in excess of a week before snorkeling was required.


Construction of this class has now stopped. The B-380 of the Black Sea Fleet was the last to be decommissioned in 2016 and the scrapping began in Inkerman in 2020.[1]

Service history

By October 2021, the sail of submarine B-380 had been installed, with the assistance of the Russian Maritime Tradition Club Association, at the Mistral Hotel & Spa, Intra district of Moscow.[1]

Museum ships

Three 641B-class submarines operate as museum ships:

  • B-307, fully raised on ground – AvtoVAZ Technical Museum, Tolyatti, Russia
  • B-396, afloat in Tushino reservoir – Moscow Navy Museum
  • B-515, afloat near Fischmarkt in Hamburg – museum in Hamburg


See also

Equivalent submarines of the same era

References

  • The Encyclopedia Of Warships From World War Two To The Present Day, General Editor Robert Jackson.

Further reading

  • Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1947–1995. Naval Institute Press. 1995. ISBN 1-55750-132-7. 
  • Miller, David; Jordan, John (1987). Modern Submarine Warfare. Military Press. ISBN 0-517-64647-1. 
  • Miller, David (1989). Modern Submarines. Combat Arms. Prentice Hall Press. ISBN 0-13-589102-7. 
  • Polmar, Norman (2026). Submarines of the Russian and Soviet Navies: 1946–2026. Schiffer Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7643-7083-0. 

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