SSGN Kursk, Post-Soviet Tragedy

[d-riemer]

Here are two badges that frame the life of the SSGN Kursk, the nuclear-powered submarine cruiser. The bright sunny badge celebrates the launch of the sub in 1994. The dark gloomy badge honors the recovery divers operating under extremely difficult conditions after the fateful explosions on 08/12/2000. 118 men died aboard (111 crew members, 5 officers of 7-th SSGN Division headquarters and 2 designers). The crew had just won a rank of the best submarine crew of the Northern Fleet.

[Taz]

http://www.dotan.net/prayer/

Has anybody signed the book on behalf of the forum and it's members?

Eddie.

[Taz]

From the severity of the Cold War Era arms race, Russia came to emerge as the world's second largest naval power.
Meant to oppose the Aircraft Carriers of the powerful U.S. Navy, the Russian Navy created a new type of Guided-Missile Nuclear Submarine known as the Oscar class.
Massive Oscar-I Class submarines were first employed in 1982. Later, the Oscar-I submarine would evolve into the even more massive Oscar-II Class, with an awesome displacement tonnage of 18,300 tons and total length of 154 meters. Despite their gargantuan size, Oscar-II Class submarines were capable of high-maneuverability and silenced movement.
In January 1995 the 10th submarine of the Oscar-II series, the K.141 Kursk, went into commission with Russia's Northern Fleet and was assigned to defend the country's northern borders. Like other Oscar-II Class nuclear submarines the Kursk had two-layer construction consisting of an 8.5 diameter pressure-resistant inner hull as well as an external hull. The approximately 3.5meter space between these two hull layers housed twelve 550km-range SS-N-19 anti-ship cruise missile launch tubes on each side. To accommodate these missile launchers the 154m-long Kursk was built extra-wide, and this behemoth of a nuclear submarine became known for its total girth of 18.2meters.
The Kursk sank five years later on August 12th, 2000. This incident would mark the most tragic episode in all of Russian submarine history.
At 11:30 am, 140km off the naval port of Severomorsk (Northern Fleet Headquarters), an explosion of unknown cause sent the Kursk 100m underwater to the bottom of the Barents Sea. Despite efforts of the Russian Navy, as well as British and Norwegian rescue crews, the 118 men on-board, including the captain, could not be saved.

Eddie.

[d-riemer]

This national tragedy resulted in medals and several high-quality badges. Does anybody know who issued the various awards and for what specific occasions?

[Taz]

Daily Record Feb 26 2003

Three Britons who helped to recover the doomed Russian submarine Kursk from the seabed were honoured yesterday.

Project manager Malcolm Dailey, diving manager Raymond Wallace and support vessel skipper Alexander Macleod were presented with Orders of Friendship of the Russian Federation.

Malcolm said: "It was a major challenge. No operation like this has been successful before."

All 118 of the Kursk's crew died when it sank in the Barents Sea in August 2000 after two explosions on board.

The recovery operation began almost a year later.

Russian ambassador Grigory Karasin presented the awards at a ceremony in London.

He said: "There is a saying a friend in need is a friend indeed. I think this is also true for nations."

Awards for the Kursk crew

President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree that a monument be built to honor the Kursk crew. All Kursk crew members have been awarded posthumous Order of Courage medals. And the captain, Gennady Lyachin, was awarded the Order of Hero of Russia.


Eddie.

[Taz]

Originally Posted by d-riemer

This national tragedy resulted in medals and several high-quality badges. Does anybody know who issued the various awards and for what specific occasions?

This Badge is for the relatives of the Crew members who lost their lives in the
tragedy.
On the badge is K-141 " KURSK" 12.08.2000 (Date of the sinking) and the lowered/draped Navy Ensign.

Eddie.

[Taz]

This badge is for the participants of the Lifting of the "Kursk".

Eddie.

[Taz]

Originally Posted by Christophe

This first medal is the Medal "In Memory of the Lifting of the "Kursk".
I have no detail about the date of establishment of the medal. It is not officially issued by the Federation of Russia, but by a public or private organization.

Ch.

Christophe,

In one source that I found it is said that this Medal was issued by the Russian Navy. I'm not sure just how realiable that info is though.

Eddie.

[Taz]

Although the "KURSK" sinking, being more recent remains clear in everybodys memory it was not the first and unfortunatly probably not the last tragic Submarine accident.
On a spring morning in 1989 another tragedy occured.
Here is a short account of events from the Bellona site.

'Golden Fish'

Komsomolets, called the 'Golden Fish' among the Northern Fleet's officers, was the only submarine of the Mike class. It was one of the most advanced submarines in the navy because of its ability to dive nearly twice as deep as most.
Cruising submerged at 1000 meters it could elude NATO anti-submarine systems and bring its two nuclear warheads right up to North America's eastern seaboard.

But the ill-fated Komsomolets was never allowed to fulfil its promise.

In April, 1989, the nuclear submarine K-278, Komsomolets, (Project 685 - Mike class) sank in the Norwegian Sea.
Komsomolets was a unique titanium-hulled submarine that could dive to depths of 1000 metres.
On the morning of April 7, 1989, the vessel was on the way back to her base at Zapadnaya Litsa, positioned at a depth of 160m approximately 180km south of Bear Island. At 11:03 the alarm sounded due to a fire in the seventh compartment. Eleven minutes after the fire had broken out, the vessel surfaced. However, the fire had caused short circuits in the electrical system which set off the reactor's emergency systems. The fire was so fierce that a leak was sprung in the compressed air system, and this led in turn to a spreading of the fire. Attempts by the crew to extinguish the flames were futile.
The submarine lost power, and finally ran out of compressed air. By 17:00, the leak had worsened, and the submarine lost buoyancy and stability. The crew began to be evacuated into life rafts, but there were not enough rafts. The life rafts that were lowered were too far away for the crew to reach. At 17:08, the submarine sank at a depth of 1685 meters, with a loss of 41 lives and her commander. The ship Aleksandr Khlobystsov which came to the rescue after 81 minutes took aboard 25 survivors and 5 fatalities. The exact cause of the fire is unknown. One speculation is that the concentration of oxygen in the seventh compartment was too high, setting off short circuits in the electrical system.

The nuclear submarine Komsomolets sank in the Norwegian Sea on April 7, 1989, south of Bear Island. The submarine sank with its reactor and two nuclear warheads on board, and lies at a depth of 1 685 metres.

It has also been asserted that shortly before the accident, the vessel had completed a test that indicated it was not seaworthy. Others claim that K-278's crew was not qualified to serve on the Komsomolets.

Here is the Memorial Badge for the K-278

Eddie.

[Taz]

Originally Posted by d-riemer

This national tragedy resulted in medals and several high-quality badges. Does anybody know who issued the various awards and for what specific occasions?

The bottom row of Badges were or are issued by the State mint of ST. Petersburg.

The badge commemorating the salvage operation that was conducted jointly with Norway was a limited issue and no longer made.

The badge for the relatives of the Crew members who lost their lives in the
tragedy was also limited and is no longer made.

The badge for the participants of the Lifting of the "Kursk" is a rare issue.

Here are the reverses of the badges.

Eddie.