The Kursk’s loss of its 118-person crew makes it one of the deadliest in modern history.
In August 2000, the Russian nuclear submarine “Kursk” sailed to the Arctic Circle to participate in a scheduled military drill. The K-141 vessel ultimately sank to the bottom of the Barents Sea, killing 118 personnel on board. This tragic mishap is widely considered to be one of the deadliest submarine incidents in naval history. Although the blast that culminated in the submarine’s sinking was picked up by seismographs across Europe, Russian president Vladimir Putin took over a week to make a statement about the Kursk and notably continued vacationing on the Black Sea.
The Oscar II-class
The K-141 Kursk was an Oscar II-class nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine with the Russian Navy. Like many of the military platforms used by Russia, the Oscar II submarines are actually a Soviet-era design. Designated as “Project 949,” these vessels represented the largest cruise missile submarines until the US Navy’s Ohio-class SSGNs were converted in the early 2000s. Each Oscar II submarine features a double-hulled design divided into 10 primary compartments. In terms of armament power, the Oscar II ships can carry two dozen SS-N-19 Granit (NATO codename Shipwreck) cruise missiles with a range of 550 km. Though 19 Oscar II-class boats were planned, only 11 were ever completed prior to the collapse of the USSR. Russia inherited and launched the K-141 “Kursk” Oscar II-class submarine in the early 1990s. Up until her tragic sinking in 2000, Kursk had only completed one mission commissioned with the Russian Navy. In 1999, the Oscar II submarine was deployed to the Mediterranean Sea to monitor the US Sixth Fleet’s response to the Kosovo crisis.
On August 10, 2000, Kursk was dispatched to the Arctic Circle to take part in war games carried out by the Russian Navy. Two days later, Kursk was scheduled to fire a practice torpedo. However, two explosions occurred in the submarine’s front hull prior to the exercise. Shortly after, Kursk plunged toward the bottom of the Barents Sea. The initial explosion measured 1.5 on the Richter scale and was detected by both Russian naval assets and by a Norwegian seismic monitoring station. The second explosion was much larger, measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale.
The subsequent botched rescue effort ultimately sealed the fate of all the sailors aboard the Kursk. Notably, the United States and other Western nations offered assistance to the Russian Navy in locating the submarine, in a coalition including the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Norway. The Kremlin declined aid initially, however, and only accepted British and Norwegian help five days later. As detailed by Radio Free Europe, 23 sailors aboard the Kursk managed to barricade themselves in a flooded rear compartment awaiting rescue. By the time British and Norwegian divers were given the green light to access the scene, the Kursk’s entire crew had perished.
While the Kursk’s sinking is certainly not the only submarine mishap to have transpired, the complete loss of its 118-person crew makes it one of the deadliest in modern history.
About the Author: Maya Carlin
Maya Carlin, National Security Writer with The National Interest, is an analyst with the Center for Security Policy and a former Anna Sobol Levy Fellow at IDC Herzliya in Israel. She has bylines in many publications, including The National Interest, The Jerusalem Post, and The Times of Israel. You can follow her on Twitter: @MayaCarlin.
Image: Mil.ru, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
