For 17 years in August, people have been remembering one of the most terrible disasters in the history of the Russian navy. Despite the completion of the official investigation, there are still blind spots and unanswered questions in this story. Independent technical expert Yuri Antipov has also accumulated some of them.
The author expresses his deep gratitude to the chief mate of the Norwegian vessel “SeaWay Eagle” Evert Zegelaar for his assistance in preparing this material. This ship took a direct part in the operation to survey and possibly rescue the surviving sailors from the Kursk.
Instead of a preface
In the first half of August 2000, large-scale naval exercises began in the Barents Sea, in which the best examples were involved military equipment. Including the newest, most modern nuclear submarine in the Russian Navy, the Antey class nuclear submarine Kursk. Enormous in its length (154 meters), in height with a 7-story building, it was equipped with missiles, each of which was 40 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
It was August 12, 2000. On this day, the Kursk was supposed to fire a demonstration shot of the new SHKVAL torpedo missile, moving underwater at speeds of up to 500 km/h. A conventional torpedo, driven by propellers, moves at a speed of about 60 -80 km/h.
And a Chinese delegation was invited to this event in Russia - perhaps for the purpose of subsequent arms sales after a successful demonstration shot. The Americans knew about this and should never have accepted the fact that China would have such powerful weapons. That is why the United States is sending its submarines, Memphis and Toledo, to the exercise area.
At 8:51 a.m. "Kursk" informs the cruiser "Peter the Great" that it is going to conduct a periscope observation from 18 meters depth to demonstrate its new torpedo. 11 hours 28 minutes everything is ready to fire. And after that the connection with Kursk was severed...
During the search operation, the Kursk nuclear submarine was discovered lying on the bottom of the Barents Sea at a depth of about 106 meters. The entire bow of the boat was torn apart by a powerful explosion. The crew of 118 people died.
According to the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Defense, the boat crashed due to a malfunction of one of the old-type torpedoes in the torpedo compartment located in the bow, then a fire and explosion of the faulty torpedo occurred, and then several torpedoes detonated at once. Also, among other versions, the cause of the fire was due to a malfunction in the battery section.
Further examination showed that after the fire started, about 8-10 shells simultaneously exploded in the torpedo compartment, the explosion of which destroyed the entire bow of the Kursk nuclear submarine.
Photo No. 1. American torpedo MK48.
Initially, suspicion fell on two American boats that were in the area of the exercise. It was assumed that one of them could collide with the Kursk, and the other, having caught sounds from the Kursk corresponding to the opening of the torpedo silo hatch, torpedoed the “enemy” ahead of the curve. The proposed type of American torpedo was even named - MK48.
Photo No. 2. Hole in the starboard side of the Kursk nuclear submarine
“Fuel to the fire” of this version was added by the inspection of the Kursk nuclear submarine, which became possible after cutting off the bow and towing the remaining part of the submarine into a dry dock. On the right side of the Kurs nuclear submarine, a hole is clearly visible with the metal of the light (external) hull of the boat crumpled inward around it.
We have conducted our own technical analysis, which will reveal what could really happen on that day.
Nuclear submarine "Kursk". Just the facts.
Photo No. 4. US submarine Toledo.
To this day, there is a lot of discussion in society about whether there was a collision between submarines (the Kursk and one of the American ones) that day? I can say right away: no characteristic holes were found anywhere on the hull of the Kursk nuclear submarine. American submarines (neither Memphis nor Toledo) do not have protruding parts in their design that could leave “victims” on the hull. round hole about a meter in diameter.
Photo No. 5. Satellite image. The submarine "Mephis" in the repair area of the base in Norway.
Nevertheless, reconnaissance footage from a satellite in the repair docks of Norway a week after the Kursk event recorded the presence of the US submarine Memphis. Under normal conditions, the passage of the Memphis to the repair docks of Norway from the site of the Russian Navy exercises would have required a maximum of two days. But not for a week. And one more thing. An emergency signal buoy was discovered not far from the site of the Kursk nuclear submarine disaster. But not from Kursk. The buoy was foreign made.... That's what they say, that's what they write. Unofficially.
Photo No. 6. The same type (from the Antey series) nuclear submarine "Omsk".
Could the structure of the Kursk hull itself, after deformation caused by an explosion inside it, form a hole of this shape? No, I couldn't. At least in the place where the round hole formed there is not a single one like that structural element, and the lining of the light (outer) body is made of rectangular sheets of rubberized metal.
So what prevented the version of the attack on the Kursk by a foreign torpedo from finally developing into the true cause of the death of the Kursk nuclear submarine?
Answer: the visible damage that the submarine received at the site of the breakdown on the starboard side does not correspond to a torpedo attack by a live torpedo.
Photo No. 7. The space between the light and power hulls of the Kursk, where the attacking torpedo should have exploded. A section of the light hull skin with a characteristic hole has been dismantled.
When attacking the Kursk with a torpedo, even of a cumulative type (burning through the hull), it is theoretically possible for a round hole to form in the light (external) hull of the submarine. But then, after burning through the outer hull, the torpedo should explode. And we would definitely see traces of an explosion in the space between the light skin and the power hull of the Kursk. But there are none. The hulls of the cruise missile silos are intact, small pipelines are torn off, but not swept away by a powerful explosion......
Seismic data.
The explosion on the Kursk was recorded large number seismic stations. Scientists from Western countries carried out scrupulous work to diagnose seismic tremors that coincided with the disaster in the Barents Sea.
Almost everyone who writes on the topic of Kursk refers to these studies. But no one, apparently, got acquainted with the original. In the same study, primary source data will be analyzed. Here and below are links to research materials:
Some Practical Applications of FORENSIC SEISMOLOGY
J. David Rogers6 Geological Sciences & Engineering University of Missouri Rolla Missouri-
Photo No. 8. Map of the location of seismic laboratories that recorded vibrations of the earth's surface from the Kursk event.
Keith D. Koper,Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Photo No. 9. Data from thirteen seismic laboratories that recorded the event on the Kursk nuclear submarine.
Photo No. 10. Conclusion on the power of the explosion (explosions) on the nuclear submarine "Kursk" (hereinafter, the font highlighted in red was made by the authors of the original source).
The analysis showed that the main event at Kursk is clearly identified as an explosion. Its power, which caused earth vibrations, was also determined.
Thus, the total power of the explosions during the main event at Kursk was about 5 tons of TNT. Considering that the power explosive in modern torpedoes the power of TNT is approximately twice as high, it turns out that about 2.5 tons of explosives detonated in the torpedo compartment. And this figure, in principle, is consistent with the explosion of about 10 detonated torpedoes of the submarine. This is exactly the number of exploding torpedoes that was determined in fact during the work on raising the Kursk. For reference: the warhead of the SHKVAL torpedo is about 210 kg.
And here's what's next... Seismological scientists, based on seismograms, analyzed a short period of time preceding the main event at Kursk. And it was discovered that 135 seconds before the powerful explosion, the instruments recorded a weaker shock. And this confirms that on the Kursk there was initially an explosion of one faulty torpedo, which after 135 seconds caused the detonation and explosion of a dozen torpedoes, which completely destroyed the boat.
The Russian Ministry of Defense also seized on this fact. After all, independent research perfectly confirms the military’s version of the cause of the disaster.
But let's take a deeper look at the results and conclusions of foreign seismologists.
Photo No. 11. Two seismic shocks preceding the explosion on the Kursk.
First. The same study shows a visual picture of seismic signals preceding the main event (explosion) at Kursk.
Thus, not one, but two shocks were recorded by instruments before the main explosion.
The first actually happened 135 seconds before the main event. But after the first, weak shock, there was a second weak shock about 70 seconds before the main explosion. And for some reason Western experts “didn’t see it.”
Photo No. 12. Two pushes preceding the main explosion.
Now let's take a closer look at two recorded events preceding the main explosion at Kursk.
As can be seen from the seismogram, the first shock, which occurred 135 seconds before the main explosion, has a slightly different sound wave structure from the second shock, which occurred approximately 70 seconds before the explosion.
Photo No. 13. An assessment of the relationship between the power of the main explosion and the preceding events, made by the authors of the original source.
Second. Seismological specialists assessed the power of the event that occurred before the main event (explosion) at Kursk.
As we can see from the scientific report, the power of the small event was 250 (!!!) times less than the power of the explosions of detonated torpedoes. And if the power of explosions of 10 torpedoes was estimated at 5 tons in TNT equivalent, then it turns out that the power of weak tremors before the main explosion was ONLY 20 kg (!!!). But, as shown above, there were two weak shocks. This means that, given their approximately identical nature, the power of each shock (135 seconds and 70 seconds before the main explosion) was only about 10 kg of TNT equivalent. And this power in no way can be the explosion of a torpedo. And it is no coincidence that in their conclusions foreign researchers did not identify the nature of these previous shocks. They found it difficult to say definitively that it was also an explosion. And they indicated that the events were only “very fast.”
The Canadian History Television channel showed French on July 25 documentary"Kursk: Submarine in Troubled Waters".
http://www.historytelevision.ca/tv/shows/titledetails/title_88040.asp
Currently there is a series about submarines on the History Channel in Canada. Two episodes from this series are dedicated to Kursk. One of them has already passed, today the second one. Here is a description of the first episode, copied from one topic:
At first they showed what we already saw and knew. How and when this happened, and how our military commanders reacted to it. Regular shots. Women are hysterical and all that. Accusations against Putin that he remained on vacation in the Black Sea. They showed Ilya Klebanov, if you remember, he was then Deputy Prime Minister. They showed how Klebanov stood silently in front of the hysterical women, not knowing what to answer. We have already relaxed a little, well, they say, it will be now... they will walk through ours from the heart.
And then there’s a sudden turn. You probably remember that there was such a version in some newspapers that, they say, there was a foreign submarine nearby, and there was sort of a collision, and then the torpedoes on the Kursk detonated. In our country, this all remained an absurd fiction, and as a result, after a two-year investigation, the official version was announced in 2002, according to which a torpedo spontaneously exploded in the bow compartment, then all the ammunition exploded in a chain reaction, which led to the death of the submarine and crew.
Now about what we were shown here in this film.
They showed that there were two American submarines in the maneuver area. They were on a special mission, monitoring maneuvers. One submarine, the Memphis, was under the cover of another submarine, the Toledo, in the shadows. It seems like the only one on the screens of all radars and sonars. Then the Memphis emerged from under its leading boat to better investigate the launch of a ballistic missile from the Kursk without calculating the course and distance. The Americans found themselves on a collision course and collided head-on with ours. They walked with their whole body through the most vulnerable second compartment of the Kursk. But the worst thing happened then. On the second American boat, Toledo, observing the whole picture, the captain decided that the Russians had somehow attacked the Memphis and, without hesitation, fired a torpedo at the Kursk. The torpedo hit directly the weakened part at the junction of the second and third compartments and exploded inside. The film showed a computer-generated version with the participation of all three boats about how it all happened. Our planes, following fresh tracks, detected oil stains on the water along the course of an alien submarine leaving the scene of the incident.
Some newspapers wrote that there was a foreign submarine, sort of like an English one, and we all read about it
Now about what we didn’t know for sure. It turns out that ours were leading these two American submarines before all the events and knew for sure that they were Americans on observation. After the collision and attack on the Kursk, Defense Minister Sergeev took two anti-submarine squadrons into the air. They immediately reported to Putin to the south. And at the same moment, the Americans contacted Putin. After contacting the Americans, Putin recalled the planes and, in the end, Putin (or his team) decided to remain in the south so as not to provoke tension. Everything, it turns out, was on the edge of the abyss.
The CIA director urgently arrived in Moscow for consultations. All this time, Putin was constantly in touch with Bill Clinton.
As a result, no one was allowed near the boat, although the whole world offered qualified assistance. We all thought that we could save someone. A few days later, ours agreed to let the Danes in, but with strict orders not to swim to the bow of the boat. The Danes managed to open the hatch in the eighth compartment, found several post-mortem notes, and confirmed that no one had survived inside the boat. After this, the work of our divers began. They no longer cared about the boat itself, its reactor and the dead sailors. It turns out that pieces and debris of the American Memphis were urgently removed from the bottom near the Kursk.
Those Russian newspapers, who still managed to publish satellite images“suspicious foreign” submarines undergoing repairs in a Norwegian port were immediately pinned down by the FSB. This submarine was indeed the American Memphis and it took 7 days to reach Norway instead of the usual 2. Another American boat, the Toledo, zigzagged and followed a non-standard course to the United States. Two representatives of the Russian military and political leadership, Igor Sergeev and Ilya Klebanov, who did not follow the lead and defended the American trail as a public version, were eventually dismissed.
Some time later (about two weeks after the incident), all previous Russian debt to the United States was canceled, and America provided Russia with a new loan of $10 billion. Each family of the sailors who died on the Kursk received an incredible compensation of $25,000.
Putin, however, needed to understand the boat to boost his political image. To raise the Kursk a year later, a contract was signed with a Dutch company, the only one that agreed to lift only the middle and tail sections. All other companies agreed to lift the entire building for much less money. The Dutch sawed off two bow compartments and took everything else onto land. This is where we were shown close-up shots of the boat, so to speak, upon arrival. Right next to the place where the cut was made, there was a huge round hole, and the edges of this hole were dented inward. We definitely didn’t show this, because this part of the fuselage was immediately declared classified and was subsequently destroyed, like all films. The film featured testimony from experts who confirmed that only a new American torpedo (I don’t remember its exact name) can leave such marks, burning through the outer layer and bursting inside.
Amazing movie. Especially here in Canada. One thing is certain, the idea of an American footprint was not even questioned. The film was made with the participation of English, Canadian and independent American journalists.
I would like to note on my own that the film is still French, not Canadian.
Here's another short article on it from an Australian news site:
US "torpedoed" Kursk submarine
A FORMER British military official has backed a sensational claim that the Russian nuclear submarine, the Kursk, was torpedoed by US forces in August 2000.
An official inquest concluded that the disaster - in which all 118 crew drowned in the Barents Sea, 135km off the Russian coast - was caused by an accidental explosion of an onboard torpedo.
But Maurice Stradling, a former torpedo engineer and a key figure in the original investigation, believes a new French documentary, The Kursk: A Submarine in Troubled Waters, should change world opinion on the sinking.
"On the balance of probabilities, the Kursk was sunk by an American MK-48 torpedo," said Mr Stradling, formerly a senior member of the British Defense Ministry.
BBC editor Nick Fraser called the claim a "pack of lies" and has refused to air the documentary, which attracted a record audience of more than 4 million when it screened on French TV.
The BBC used Mr Stradling as its main authority for a documentary it made in 2001 - What Sank the Kursk?, in which Mr Stradling theorized that the sinking was caused by the malfunctioning of an old-fashioned HTP torpedo.
Mr Stradling, who also appears in the new French documentary, said: "At the time (2001), that was a perfectly reasonable film, given the facts as we knew them then, when there seemed to be no third-party involvement."
The new explanation for the Kursk's sinking is based on film footage of a hole in the side of the vessel, and evidence placing US submarines in the area at the time it was sunk.
The French film shows stills of the Kursk raised above the water after being salvaged, with a precise circular hole in its right side. The hole clearly bends inwards, consistent with an attack from outside the submarine.
A US military source in the documentary declares the hole to be the trademark evidence of an American MK-48 torpedo, which is made to melt cleanly through steel sheet due to a mechanism at its tip that combusts copper.
The film suggests the attack happened while two US submarines, the Toledo and Memphis, were shadowing the Kursk in a routine military exercise.
The documentary says the Toledo accidentally collided with the Kursk, at which point the Russian submarine opened its torpedo tubes, leading to an attack from the Memphis, which was protecting the damaged Toledo while it retreated.
The cause of the sinking was covered up at the time in an act of diplomacy between then US presidents Bill Clinton and Russian President Vladimir Putin - a deal that included the cancellation of $US10 billion ($12.5 billion) of Russian debt, the film states.
After the documentary received its only public broadcast in Britain, some claimed the Russian navy had drilled the hole and fed doctored footage to the film-makers to create a false impression.
Retired captain of the first rank Vitaly LYULIN: “The temptation to take revenge for the loss of the Kursk was great, but then not 118 people, but 118 million would have died”
In the years since the tragedy, the hull of the nuclear-powered ship has been raised from the bottom of the sea, the dead sailors have been mourned, their orphaned children have grown up... But there is still no clear answer to the question: what happened on board the Kursk? Why did one of the best submarine cruisers in Russia sank? Who's to blame?
"PLANES DETECT OIL SPOTS ALONG THE COURSE,
WITH WHICH AN UNKNOWN SUBMARINE "CRAWLED"
— Vitaly Alexandrovich, once the famous American TV presenter Larry King asked the Russian president what happened to the Kursk submarine. Putin replied: “She drowned”... Do you agree with this interpretation?
- More on this a little later. First, let’s restore the course of events. So, on August 12, 2000, at 11:28 a.m., Norwegian seismologists recorded an explosion in the Barents Sea, where the Russian Northern Fleet was conducting large-scale exercises. After 2 minutes 15 seconds, a second, much more powerful explosion was heard, comparable in strength to a small earthquake...
As we now know, at that time a deadly tornado swept through the compartments of the Kursk nuclear-powered submarine. He destroyed bulkheads and twisted thick steel into curls, tore off mechanisms and steam lines, burned electrical panels... It sounds blasphemous, but those submariners who died immediately were lucky. For the 23 sailors in the aft compartments who survived the explosion, the agony lasted several hours: they were left at a depth of 108 meters in the dark, without oxygen and almost without hope...
- According to one version, which you initially adhered to, the tragedy occurred due to the unpreparedness of the crew, according to another - due to the explosion of an experimental steam-gas torpedo that was on board the Kursk...
— The information released was extremely contradictory. But the categoricalness with which Moscow did not escape attentive glances - long before the end of the investigation! - dismissed the possibility of a collision with a foreign submarine, and especially since the Kursk was attacked by the enemy. Gradually, more and more details leaked out... I cannot name my sources of information, but I guarantee that they are absolutely reliable. The operation to raise the sunken nuclear-powered submarine also provided a lot of food for thought...
And then I came across photographs of the multi-purpose American submarine Memphis, which in the fall of 2000 returned from a cruise in the Barents Sea to its base in Norfolk. Look! Her nasal tip is cut off, cut off, sealed...
This is how the American submarine Memphis returned to base after a collision.
- Wow! Where did this vessel manage to “bite” its nose like that?
“For those who watched a TV report from the bottom of the Barents Sea during the search and rescue operation, this is not difficult to guess. The camera clearly recorded on the right bow end of the Kursk, in the area of the second compartment, a huge dent directed towards the bow... And the commander of the Northern Fleet, Admiral Vyacheslav Popov, mentioned that a trace from a strong dynamic impact was found on the hull of the sunken nuclear-powered submarine in the area of the second compartment. .. The Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, Fleet Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov, expressed himself even more frankly. Immediately after the disaster, he claimed that "there are signs of a large and serious collision."
- Maybe the naval officials were simply trying to shift responsibility from themselves to the insidious adversary?
— Objective data confirms that they are right. In the first days after the accident, when information in the media had not yet been taken under strict control, a message flashed about a certain light green rescue buoy spotted not far from the sunken Kursk. But Russian submarines use only white and red buoys. In addition, when the cruiser "Peter the Great" discovered a sunken nuclear-powered icebreaker, its acoustics recorded knocking noises and the operation of the SPS (sound-underwater communication) in closed mode. Someone gave signals from two hours 22 minutes on August 13 until 11 o'clock on August 14.
Rescuers hoped that these were Russian submariners who were trapped. They say the guys fell silent because they were saving energy... But after the recorded knocks and codegrams were analyzed and broken down into components, great doubts arose about the fact that they belonged to the Kursk sailors. The fact is that the signals "SOS!" were supplied by a mechanical emitter - they are not installed on Russian submarines, and the codes were not deciphered. In all likelihood, they came from a foreign submarine located nearby. And the posthumous note of Lieutenant Commander Dmitry Kolesnikov confirms: on August 13 and 14 there was no one to knock on board the Kursk.
By the way, when two anti-submarine squadrons were scrambled into the air on alert, the planes discovered oil stains along the course that the unknown submarine was “crawling” from the scene of the incident. Naturally, suspicion fell on the Americans and British, whose submarines were hovering nearby.
"MEMPHIS" RECEIVED SERIOUS DAMAGE,
HE HAD BODIES ON BOARD"
- However, both of them at the government level stated that they had nothing to do with the death of the Kursk...
— The sea knows how to keep its secrets. Therefore, deny everything until they pin you against the wall with evidence. But pay attention: the British indignantly demanded that the Russian side provide evidence, but the American side did not protest so zealously. As if she was afraid that the Russians might respond. After all, as Colonel-General Valery Manilov, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, stated: “During the operation to rescue the Kursk crew, 50 meters away on the ground, Russian rescuers found something similar to the conning tower fence installed on US and US submarines. Great Britain." And Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeev, speaking on television on August 16, 2000, said that the Kursk was rammed...
That is, already in the first days everything was extremely clear, but then those in power tried to confuse the situation as much as possible...
- If the collision really took place, as a result of it it was the American submarine that should have suffered more... After all, the displacement of the Kursk is three times greater than that of the Memphis. It's the same as if a Gazelle crashed into a KamAZ.
— The situation is not so clear-cut. Ask the traffic police inspectors, they will confirm to you: in such accidents, not everything depends on the mass. The outcome of the collision is influenced by the angle at which the cars were moving, their speed, road condition, and so on...
By the way, the Memphis received serious damage, there were corpses on board... It had to fight for its survivability... Nevertheless, the Americans managed to independently reach the Norwegian base of Bergen. Since its docks are not suitable for repairing submarines, the mangled hull was slightly patched up and the submarine’s seal was restored... And eight days later, the “Memphis” left for British Southampton to dry up, that is, to hide in a closed dock for more significant repairs. .. Note that the Americans did not even allow their NATO allies to inspect the damaged hull, thereby depriving themselves of an alibi.
— You said: “The corpses are on board...”. Where does this information come from?
— The whole world followed the developments around the Kursk, the Russian diaspora especially. In New York, Norfolk... Publications appeared there - gentle, but quite authoritative - that when the Memphis arrived, 12 wives of submariners flew to Bergen. The authors claimed that at first there were three corpses on board this boat, then their number reached nine - apparently, some of the seriously wounded could not be saved...
— But what was an American submarine doing in the Barents Sea?
— There were three of them hanging out there: the American Memphis and Toledo and the British Splendid. As soon as the Russians announced that they were planning large-scale maneuvers (by international agreement, the parties are required to notify each other about such things in advance), these guys rushed there at full speed. It couldn't be any other way.
Do you know what NATO members call the Antey-class strategic submarine, which includes the Kursk? "Aircraft Carrier Killer" best ship modernity." This is an underwater giant with a length of 154 meters and a displacement of 13-18 thousand tons. Immersion depth is 500 meters. With a crew of 130 people, it can sail autonomously for 120 days. Such a nuclear-powered ship carries on board 24 cruise missiles capable of hitting targets on distance of 550 kilometers, and 28 torpedoes, including those with nuclear ammunition. In one salvo, it can destroy more than a dozen cities! And as the events of September 11, 2001 showed, much less destruction is enough to bring any country to its knees.
— Don’t you think that humanity has gone crazy?
- And how! For example, I often remember November 26, 1972, when Nixon signed the SALT-1 treaty with Brezhnev in Vladivostok. On this day, a Soviet strategic submarine (I was the chief mate on it) fired a salvo of four missiles from the White Sea near Hawaii - at a range of nine thousand kilometers. Thus, the United States was made clear: from now on, the Soviet Union has a submarine that does not need access to the Atlantic - its weapons reach any point globe from any area.
The flight of an intercontinental ballistic missile lasts only 30-35 minutes. She immediately goes to cosmic altitude, where she herself adjusts her flight according to the stars. The missile's warhead is divided into warheads with individual target guidance - accurate to within meters. And then its heads are already flying like a freely falling ballistic body. Well, what can be done in some country, even if its radars have detected that a swarm of missiles is flying in their direction?
- Fire back.
- That's it. And the inevitability of retribution, in general, stopped politicians...
To protect themselves from all sorts of surprises, the Americans created the Sosus underwater surveillance system and blocked all oceans. But finding a submarine in the world's oceans is half the battle. It is extremely important to know what it is: whether it is a multi-purpose submarine designed to solve tactical problems, or a strategic submarine that threatens something... But how can this be determined? According to the noise characteristics, which each ship has its own, individual.
— Even if they were made according to the same design?
- Yes. Moreover, the submarine makes different noises when it is on its own course, when it begins preparing the torpedo complex for firing, or is conducting pre-launch preparations for missiles... Naturally, potential adversaries are constantly monitoring and recording these noise characteristics. Both sides are sending attack submarines into the ocean - strategic hunters.
Believe me, it is not because of a good life that the exercises of such giants as the Kursk are carried out in the rather shallow Barents Sea. But don’t test prototypes of weapons outside territorial waters, where, as they say, whoever dares eats.
In turn, the Americans stuffed the Barents Sea with their reconnaissance ships, their submarines all year round they graze there, and the crews literally bend over backwards, trying to record all the characteristics of the Russian “strategists”. They even risk their own safety, since they receive a substantial reward for every minute of recording...
—Can’t they make money without risk? Or do they hate caution?
- The fact is that at a depth of 0 to 50 meters, where there is constant mixing of water layers, there is practically no audibility - this is the zone of the so-called hydroacoustic shadow. Therefore, to record noise characteristics, submarines need to approach each other at a minimum distance, almost close. This is where all the collisions come from—a dozen of them have been recorded in the Barents Sea over three decades.
"IN THE HEIGHT OF THE YUGOSLAV CRISIS "KURSK" KREPKO
HURT THE NERVES OF THE AMERICANS BY APPEARING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA"
— How do you think events developed in 2000?
— Imagine, by August 12, “Memphis” had been hanging on the “tail” of a Russian nuclear-powered ship for 24 hours, remaining undetected. The tension has reached its limit, the American feels like a hunter, he is overwhelmed with excitement... According to the exercise plan, between 11 and 12 o'clock the Kursk was supposed to detect a target and attack it with a training torpedo. Captain Lyachin knows about this, but the captain of the Memphis does not know...
Suddenly the noise characteristics of the “strategist” changed dramatically... The American shortens the distance in order to hear better—as we say, he makes “jumps.” Recognizes the noise of preparing a torpedo complex and “yawns” the Kursk’s turn to the right... What happens is something that can often be observed on city streets, when a car, moving in the left lane, began to change lanes into the right lane... “Memphis”, which was walking almost right next to him, hit him with his nose along a sliding trajectory and turned his nasal tip...
Please note: this submarine has onboard torpedoes located along the side, and sonar antennas are located in the bow. Therefore, apparently, the ammunition did not detonate upon impact, and the Americans, with difficulty, managed to get out of the mess.
— What prevented the Russian K-141 from doing this?
— As I already said, there was an experimental steam-gas torpedo on board the Russian nuclear-powered ship. Even if it was in good working order (although it was rumored that it was hit during loading) and not combat, but practical, that is, training... But with the instantaneous destruction of the hull and interaction with water, the vapor-gas mixture itself already has the force of an explosive. As a result, an explosion was heard on board the Kursk, which destroyed the first compartment... Water poured into the hole that formed and, naturally, the submarine was thrown sharply down. Well, then...
If you look at the navigation map of this area, the bottom is like a table. This is a granite slab covered with a very slight layer of silt. The Kursk hit it with its bow end, where the torpedo tubes were practically exposed... The ammunition exploded... Of course, pieces of the plating were scattered along the bottom...
— It turns out that the Commission of Investigation, which named the explosion of a steam-gas torpedo as the cause of the death of the nuclear-powered ship, did not sin against the truth in everything?
— I categorically disagree with this version, which whitewashes Memphis and belittles the dignity of Kursk. I am sure that the explosion of a torpedo in its own apparatus would cause trouble, but not such that Lyachin and his crew could not cope with... Therefore, I am inclined to a more severe option...
According to the legend of the exercises, the Kursk entered the area of combat service to search for enemy aircraft carrier strike formations... To bring the situation closer to combat, the playing squadron of ships was positioned at the maximum distance, that is, they were driven further to the north or to the White Sea. According to the plan, the nuclear-powered submarine was supposed to “discover”, “attack” and “destroy” this group.
And let’s imagine: Gennady Lyachin is preparing, maneuvering, listening to the horizon, but has not yet observed the target. He doesn’t see “Memphis” either, which is bustling around in the immediate vicinity. Here they report from the first compartment that the steam-gas torpedo has “muted.” The commander of the nuclear-powered ship makes the only right decision - to shoot the emergency torpedo, and as quickly as possible. Seconds count... Preparing the apparatus and boat for ascent, lifting retractable devices... This takes time. “Flame!”, “Bubble in the nose!” - Lyachin’s last commands were executed simultaneously with a terrible blow to the bow of the ship and an explosion... The Memphis commander was ahead of him...
- Do you mean: he shot first?
- Exactly. The American followed the actions of the Kursk for a long time. Its system of acoustic observation, classification and data processing made it possible to determine what the Russian nuclear-powered ship was doing. But he did not understand the purpose of preparing for torpedo firing. Why is this happening all of a sudden? No surface targets have been observed yet. Is the “strategist” threatening the uninvited guest? And here is an important detail. If the Russian commander is allowed to use weapons only in response to an obvious attack and in no other case, then on American multi-purpose submarines (they do not hide this) there are different instructions: their commander has the right to attack first if something, in his opinion, threatens ship safety. This means: if you sense a threat, strike first and forestall the attack.
And if, in addition, “Memphis” received a punch on the nose more than once? If an American was “flogged” more than once for missing a Russian submarine... Let me remind you that at the end of 1999, at the height of the Yugoslav crisis, the Kursk really upset NATO’s nerves by unexpectedly appearing in the Mediterranean Sea. The experienced, furious commander exhausted all his nerves tracking him down. And then fate brought them together with Lyachin again... And knowing that the Russian nuclear-powered ship is preparing to fire torpedoes, the American carries out a counterattack... Its torpedo system with MK-48 devices allows this to be done urgently.
— So the Memphis commander just lost his nerves?
- Exactly. "Kursk" was attacked by at least two torpedoes, a fan. One of them stuck into the bow. The combat contact distance was so small, and the explosion of the Kursk's detonated ammunition was so powerful that American submariners were unable to keep their own submarine at a safe depth. The fleeing "Memphis" was thrown up by the explosion and also crashed onto the granite bottom, twisting the bow end... At this time, the American crew was thrown around the compartments so much that several sailors were mortally wounded...
As a result, Russia and the United States found themselves on the brink of armed conflict. The Russians were faced with a choice: destroy the American submarine or refrain from retaliating, since its consequences could be unpredictable.
"KURSK" WITH ITS CREW IS A RUSSIAN SACRIFICE UNDER THE CURTAIN OF THE XX CENTURY"
- A bold statement. How can you prove this?
— As you know, on August 16, at the height of the search and rescue operation, Vladimir Putin and Bill Clinton had another telephone conversation. What did the Russian and American presidents talk about one-on-one? Has it really all come down to condolences? I think there was a frank conversation about what an armed confrontation could lead to. And already on August 17 - the fifth day after the disaster! - CIA Director George Tenet flew to Moscow incognito, on a private jet...
Apparently, the Americans and Russians managed to come to an agreement. Less than a month later, Clinton announced that the United States was abandoning plans to deploy a national missile defense system. In addition, America wrote off old debts to Russia and provided a loan of 10 billion dollars... And where did the impressive amount for the long operation to lift the bodies of the dead and the hull of the submarine come from? Why were the submariners awarded the Order of Courage, and their commander, Captain First Rank Lyachin, awarded the title of Hero of Russia, without waiting for the results of the investigation? Why did the Supreme Commander-in-Chief not accept the resignation of the Minister of Defense and the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy? Why are the names of the perpetrators not named?
Questions, questions... We never received any clear answers to them. If in the shortest possible time it was possible to build a surface structure for lifting the Kursk, then why was it impossible to lift the nuclear-powered submarine along with the first compartment? Why did it absolutely have to be cut off, delaying the recovery time, risking not meeting it before the onset of autumn storms? Who desperately needed to blow up the first compartment and smash it into pieces at a depth of 108 meters? Probably to someone who did not want convincing traces of combat contact to be discovered in the metal trash, and maybe something else... But I believe that sooner or later the secret will become clear, that people will learn the truth...
— Do you, a submariner with 25 years of experience, approve of Vladimir Putin’s actions in the situation with the Kursk?
— I am deeply convinced that humanity will still say to the Russian President thanks for his solution. Yes, the temptation to respond, to avenge the loss of the Kursk was great, but then not 118 people, but 118 million would have died in the world. Six years ago, a situation into which the world has plunged more than once was repeated. The Kursk with its crew is a Russian sacrifice at the end of the 20th century.
— Strong words, Vitaly Alexandrovich. But today there are still a good dozen versions of the death of the Kursk. Do the others seem unconvincing to you?
— Most of them are set out in Nikolai Cherkashin’s book “Swept Abyss,” which was published in Moscow in the summer of 2001. Notice how the author is presented. Only he was allowed by the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy to participate in the work of the Government Commission to investigate the circumstances of the death of the Kursk. Only he managed to talk with American submariners. Only he was allowed to know all the secrets. Why are such things done? To shape public opinion in the right direction. And this convinces me that everything is not as simple as they tried to convince us.
I have experience communicating with the writing fraternity. In 1975, when for the first time it was allowed to publish at least something about strategic boats of the class that I commanded - a decision was made by the Politburo on this score - Timur Arkadyevich Gaidar, at that time editor of the military department of the newspaper Pravda, came on board. . We went out to sea for several days and showed everything to the guest. Then Pravda published the material “Conquerors of the Ocean Depths” on two pages.
Gaidar examined the boat; he was in my cabin more than once. He asked how, with a height of two meters, I managed to sleep on a sunbed 80 meters long. I explained that when the ship was being finished, I asked to enlarge the sofa bed at the expense of the mechanic’s cabin (he was short). It turned out to be a sort of “pocket”. So, Gaidar told this story, but as if it had happened a long time ago with his submariner friend. I ask: “Why couldn’t it be written as it is?” And he: “What are you talking about! I write that you have aquariums, fish, parrots, a sauna and everything else. And suddenly I’ll say that the commander’s bed was extended.”
-Did you really have parrots?
— There were, but they soon died, although according to the standards they were supposed to live for two years... Alas, a normal living creature cannot withstand underwater bullying: electromagnetic fields around the clock, lack of sunlight and clean air. The only thing that was good there was what is now called the fashionable word “aromatherapy”. That is, the melody turns on, the fan blows out the corresponding aroma and you imagine that you are sitting on the edge of the forest... However, I digress from the topic of our conversation.
— As far as I know, you went to the celebrations on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Russian submarine forces, which took place in the spring of this year. Did you feel like a stranger at this holiday?
— There I received a charge of optimism and bright hopes for the future of the Russian fleet. Alas, I look at the prospects of the Ukrainian Navy with great bitterness. By the way, almost every second crew member on the Kursk studied in Sevastopol. And 18 Sevastopol residents did not return home from the last voyage on the nuclear-powered ship, to whom a monument was erected at the Kommunard cemetery. Some people reproached these guys for their lack of patriotism, for serving a foreign power... But their knowledge and devotion at home turned out to be of no use to anyone. The only submarine "Zaporozhye", which after the collapse of the Union went to Ukraine, has never gone to sea in all these years. And last spring, the Minister of Defense announced that after repairs he was going to sell it... I don’t want to believe that the history of the Ukrainian submarine fleet, which began in the Zaporozhye Sich, will be put to rest.
Tatiana NIKULENKO
On August 12, 2000, the nuclear submarine Kursk sank in the Barents Sea. The latest and absolutely, according to experts, reliable. 118 people died. The boat tragedy has become the subject of many books, films, theater plays, and legends.
The submarine sank during exercises in the Barents Sea. According to the findings of the government commission, the cause of death of the crew was the explosion of a torpedo in the bow compartment of the boat. The commission, which worked on this investigation for more than 2 years, established the exact time of death of the sailors. According to experts, death occurred from a few seconds to 6-8 hours after the explosion, and by the time the boat was discovered on August 13, it was no longer possible to save the 23 sailors who remained in the 9th compartment. After the explosion, Lieutenant Commander Dmitry Kolesnikov remained in the 9th compartment and waited for help, however, apparently, they no longer counted on it. “There seems to be no chance. 10-20 percent,” is the last entry made by Kolesnikov on that fateful day at 15:15, that is, 4 hours after the explosion. Dmitry Kolesnikov wrote a farewell note. Part 1 is a list of personnel remaining in the ninth compartment. A little later - an appeal to his wife Olga. And even later, when the emergency lighting had already turned off, and the compartments were almost filled with water, and knocking on the bulkhead with a metal hammer became unbearable, he wrote: “Hello everyone! There is no need to despair...” Later, in the 9th compartment, a regenerative unit exploded due to water ingress cartridge, the captain died on the spot because he was too close to the explosion, and the rest of the sailors died seconds later from poisoning carbon monoxide. As a result of the accident on the Kursk nuclear submarine, 118 people died. Meanwhile, almost all relatives of the deceased submariners adhere to the version that the Kursk was torpedoed by the American submarine Memphis. There are also crazy rumors about the Russian debt supposedly written off by the Americans after the sinking of the Kursk. In September 2000, Putin, live on air, answering the question of CNN anchor Larry King: “What happened to the submarine?”, said with a smile: “It drowned”:
This was the first major accident after Vladimir Putin took charge of the country. This is how TV journalist Sergei Dorenko described the reaction of the head of state after the tragedy: “He called Channel One and said: “You hire whores on purpose. You gave them 10 dollars each, specifically to discredit me.” And I, too, later proved to him that these were not whores, that these were widows of officers. These are indeed widows of officers, I later saw them myself in Vidyaevo, Dorenko answered him. At the same time, S. Dorenko prepared for broadcast his analytical review of the tragedy, which directly showed the facts that the president was hiding something:
The Kursk nuclear submarine sank in the Barents Sea 100 kilometers from the Russian coast. On the day of the tragedy, V. Putin, who had recently headed Russia, was vacationing at the Sochi resort. He, of course, was informed about what had happened, but he did not interrupt his vacation. Because it’s not a noble thing to personally respond to every little thing. A commission to investigate the incident has been appointed, and it will sort everything out... Only 5 days later did the Supreme Commander-in-Chief deign to appear in public, to whom the media had already brought up most of the circumstances of the tragedy. After which there was a long investigation, which “came to the conclusion” that the Kursk nuclear submarine sank as a result of the explosion of its torpedo, which was followed by the explosion of the ship’s other ammunition, as a result of which the boat was severely damaged and there was not the slightest possibility of saving the crew members. In fact, the official version only reproduced the main meaning of Putin’s words “she drowned”: it was not someone who drowned her, but she herself drowned. Then, after reading the results of the investigation to the public, the investigation materials themselves were classified. Because even then, during the investigation, many circumstances emerged that did not even come close to confirming the official version. Many experts even then said that the Kursk submarine was sunk by an adversary who fired a torpedo at it. And not so long ago, new confirmation of this alternative version came. Former British military official and torpedo engineer Maurice Stradling (formerly a key figure in the original investigation) named the brand of torpedo that the Americans used to sink the Kursk. "In all likelihood, Kursk was sunk by an American MK-48 torpedo," said Mr Stradling, a former member of the British Ministry of Defense panel. A BBC spokesman was quick to call the statement "a complete lie." The BBC previously used Stradling as chief consultant on its 2001 documentary What Sank the Kursk? At the time, he had a different point of view, namely that the sinking could have been caused by a malfunction of an outdated Russian torpedo. But now Stradling, who also took part in the filming of the French documentary Kursk - a submarine in troubled waters, said: "At the time, in 2001, the BBC film was quite acceptable given the facts that we then were known, as we understood them, and then we did not imagine the possible involvement of a third party." A new explanation for the sinking of the Kursk is based on the discovery of a hole in the starboard side of the submarine and evidence of the presence of US boats in the same area at the same time as the Kursk tragedy. Here is a photograph of the Kursk raised from the water, where a round, even hole is clearly visible on the right side of the ship. The edges of the hole are clearly bent into the ship, which indirectly confirms the fact of an attack on the nuclear submarine from the outside.
An American military source in a French documentary also states that such a hole is a "signature" evidence of the impact of the American MK-48 torpedo, which has the ability to pass through the steel plating of a ship like through butter, thanks to a special device on the torpedo's nose that ignites and melts the copper .
According to documentaries, the attack occurred when two American submarines, Toledo and Memphis, were secretly monitoring the Kursk nuclear submarine. Then the Toledo accidentally collided with the Kursk, and the Russian submarine opened the covers of its torpedo chambers, which led to an attack from the Memphis. The true reason for the sinking of the Kursk was hidden through a diplomatic agreement between the then presidents of the two countries, Bill Clinton and Vladimir Putin. The deal included the cancellation of $10 billion in Russian debt.
And then everything was as usual, in 2010 it was 10 years since this terrible tragedy, but Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin completely ignored the commemorative events on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine, which took place throughout the country and none of them They did not visit them, which outraged the relatives of the dead sailors. Perhaps the top officials of the state are not obliged to honor the memory of 118 dead sailors every year, but once in 10 years they could express sympathy and support for the mothers and wives who lost dear people. The 15th anniversary is in 3 years, but for some reason it seems to me that nothing will change...
"Wprost 24", Poland
American trace
Victor Bater, translation by Inoforum
On August 12, 2000, the Americans sank the Russian submarine Kursk. This hypothesis, previously almost unanimously rejected, is now returning after Vladimir Putin assumed the presidency of Russia. The adjutant of the Russian General Staff tells us about the attack by US Navy ships. Below is his report. On the following pages are assessments from experts from the UK, Norway and Poland.
The version of the torpedoing of the Kursk by an American submarine was presented in 2005 by Canadian journalists from the History Channel and French director Jean-Michel Carré in the film “Kursk - a submarine in muddy water" But the authors described the exercises in the Barents Sea differently, confusing, in particular, the roles of American ships. They agreed on one thing - the Russians knew from the very beginning about the US Navy warships observing the exercises, and immediately after the accident they scrambled two squadrons of aircraft to destroy submarines. The bombing of the fleeing Americans was stopped by the personal order of Vladimir Putin. The Canadians and French, however, lacked confirmation of the facts presented. We were able to meet for the first time with a high-ranking officer of the Russian special services, who - while maintaining anonymity - in his story about the events of Saturday, August 12, 2000 at the General Staff in Moscow, confirms the version of the so-called American trace, and the fact that from the first minutes unprecedented Russian -American consultations at a high level.
Previously, some Russian experts also wrote about the torpedoing of the Kursk by the Americans. But they were deprived of the right to vote in Russia. Several publications on this topic appeared only in small-circulation and dubious tabloids, such as Version - Top Secret. As a result, these newspapers were either closed or their leaders were subjected to strict checks by the FSB.
Secretly taken photographs by Canadians of the starboard side of the Kursk with a clear, round entrance hole from an American Mk48 torpedo were classified in Russia. For some reason, they can be found on websites dedicated to the disaster. Experts who adhere to the version of the torpedoing of the Kursk by the Americans agree on one thing: on August 12, 2000, the world miraculously avoided a nuclear conflict between two superpowers, Russia and the United States, and the outbreak of the third world war. Here is an alternative version of events.
“It was on Saturday evening,” recalls Lieutenant Colonel Andrei, then one of Valentin Korabelnikova’s adjutants, head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff (GRU). — The atmosphere at the headquarters was tense, to put it mildly. We knew that the Kursk sank. But then it was classified information. We didn't know the details. Admiral Popov from the cruiser "Peter the Great", who made the first report, said something about a collision with a foreign submarine. We knew that the exercises in the Barents Sea were conducted under the close supervision of foreign intelligence services, including the Americans, but we lacked specific data.”
According to Lieutenant Colonel Andrei, the small submarine AS-15 quickly discovered the Kursk after the disaster. But there was no decision on a rescue operation - although there were divers on board capable of working at depths of up to 200 meters. "Kursk" lay at 108.
“We thought the crew was dead, there was no contact with them,” says the lieutenant colonel. “When I was making Korabelnikov coffee, the phone rang. The commander turned pale, listened and muttered: “I’ll be there in a moment.” He didn’t want any more coffee, leaned on the table and blurted out: “These American assholes sank our ship, you understand? There will be war, damn it, there will be war!” The “first” (that is, Putin) came from Sochi, there is also Tenet. If anyone If he finds out about this, I’ll shoot him myself."
Andrei admits that in the corridors of the General Staff they were talking about the unexpected visit of George Tenet, the then director of the CIA. It was a sensation. Only a handful of people knew that Putin had interrupted his just-started vacation. Andrey is still afraid, so he did not agree to have his real name published. “You've read Suvorov, haven't you? - he asks (meaning Viktor Suvorov - approx. transl.). “You know what the GRU does to traitors.”
I asked why he decided to break the silence. “This burdens me like a stone,” he says, weighing his words. “So many lies and rumors have accumulated around the Kursk, and few people know that the world was on the verge of a nuclear apocalypse, we sacrificed ours in the name of peace.”
GRU officer with remorse? Andrey shows me the documents. It follows from them that in fact 12 years ago he worked at the General Staff. In the military intelligence department. Already five years in reserve.
American in Moscow
Let's return to the events of August 12, 2000. Tenet arrived in Moscow with a message from Bill Clinton and a peacekeeping mission. His task is to prevent the escalation of the conflict at any cost. Andrei learns about everything after the meeting, in which, in addition to Putin, Tenet and Korabelnikov, the head of the Federal Security Service Nikolai Patrushev and Defense Minister Igor Sergeev took part.
The decision was made: no information for the press. The ITAR-TASS agency published the first reports about the death of the ship only on Monday. Tenet also returns to Moscow on Monday, no longer a secret.
“It was an unprecedented event,” says Captain Vitaly Dotsenko, who left the service after the Kursk disaster and now teaches at the General Staff Academy. — The head of the CIA never came to Russia officially. Besides, I'm inclined to believe that he was here more than once. The version about his sudden visit on Saturday is quite unexpected.”
Putin officially interrupted his vacation five days after the accident, on August 17. Until this point, Andrei says, the well-oiled mechanism of disinformation is doing its job. Any suggestions about an “American trace” were “torpedoed” by Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, who headed the government commission investigating the causes of the disaster.
“You can blame the Russian authorities in many ways when you think about those days full of hope for the rescue of 23 sailors in the ninth compartment of the Kursk,” says Andrey. — The sailors who survived the second explosion in the torpedo compartment gave their lives in exchange for peace and good relations between Russia and the United States. In fact, the authorities sacrificed them.”
If the truth had come out then, worse could have happened. Moreover, in his last note, written shortly before his death in the ninth compartment of the Kursk, two or three days after the disaster, one of the sailors, Dmitry Kolesnikov, accurately described the course of events. This note, unlike the previous ones addressed to the family, was never made public and is in the secret GRU archive.
"Squall" at sea
What truth are we talking about? Based on the testimony of Lieutenant Colonel Andrei, as well as on the basis of published documents and the results of the investigation by the prosecutor's office, it is possible with a high degree of probability to reconstruct the events of August 12, 2000.
At 8 hours 51 minutes, the captain of the Kursk, Gennady Lyachin, reports to Admiral Popov on the Peter the Great about the readiness to launch the newest type of torpedo, Shkval, as part of the exercise. "Kursk" is located at a periscope depth of 18 meters. From that moment on, Lyachin gave an order for silence on the air. He knows that the Kursk is being monitored by two American submarines, Memphis and Toledo. Its movements are also monitored by NATO satellites, the Norwegian reconnaissance ship Maryata and the British cruiser. Russian ships taking part in the exercises are gathering around the Kursk to ensure peace of mind for the ship’s crew before the Shkval’s launch.
For Russians this is a great event. Shkval torpedoes should be sold to Beijing - Chinese officers observed the maneuvers from the Peter the Great. “For the United States, selling these torpedoes to China would be a huge blow; it would undermine the balance in the Asian region,” says Andrey. “These two-ton missiles reach a speed of 500 km/h underwater, while classic torpedoes do not reach a speed of more than 60 km/h.”
All this is thanks to a design that allows the torpedo to be surrounded by an air bubble. According to Andrei, the Americans tried to steal the secrets of Shkval; their operation, however, was thwarted by the Russian special services. We are talking about the detention of an American agent, businessman, Edmond Pope, a month before the sinking of the Kursk. He wanted to buy plans for the Shkval from a torpedo designer. The transaction was interrupted by Russian special forces.
Critical minutes
The Americans no longer have a choice in the Barents Sea and are taking risks by trying to disrupt the launch of a torpedo in front of Chinese officers. Small compared to the Kursk, the Toledo maneuvers around the Russian ship, obscuring visibility. Memphis monitors everything on radar from a distance.
At 11:28 a.m. "Kursk" was ready to launch "Shkval". "Toledo" approached him at a dangerous distance, a collision occurred. Then the Russians and Americans can no longer stand their nerves. The Memphis sonar detects the sound of the Kursk's torpedo hatch opening. To prevent the Shkval torpedo from sinking the Toledo, captain, the Memphis fires a Mk48 torpedo.
The fate of the Kursk has already been decided. An American torpedo penetrates the ship's hull at the rear of the torpedo compartment, in the immediate vicinity of the command bridge. This leads to an explosion and ignition of the uranium, causing a fire. The fire reached the remaining 24 torpedoes. 2 minutes and 15 seconds after the Mk48's impact, a huge explosion occurs in the torpedo compartment. The destroyed Kursk is going to the bottom.
(I saw this Canadian documentary: it was said that the American MK48 torpedo is designed in such a way that it always hits the captain's bridge of an enemy submarine. It penetrates the hull and then explodes inside the ship, destroying its command staff - note by Sosipatr Izrygailov)
The force of the explosion was so great that even Norwegian seismic stations recorded it. The shock wave also damaged the Memphis, throwing out its rescue buoy. The Russians were sure that the Kursk was sunk by the American, who, meanwhile, fled towards Norway. There he was later discovered by satellites in a repair dock.
The escape of the Memphis is just a maneuver to divert attention from the Toledo, which, damaged after a collision with the Kursk, was escaping to the United States. While the Russians did not know about this, Admiral Popov gave the order to leave the crash site, and he and the Chinese officers returned to the shore near Murmansk, from where he submitted a report to the General Staff.
General Korabelnikov gives the order for a search operation to the captain of the AS-15 submarine. He quickly finds the boat, but everyone is convinced that the crew did not survive. On board, however, there are 23 P-700 Granit nuclear missiles (one Kursk fired in the direction of an imaginary enemy the day before). To prevent the ship and its missiles from being captured by foreign combat units, Admiral Popov ordered the systematic bombardment of the boats with deep-sea mines.
“We were convinced that there was a collision with a foreign ship, and the explosion in the torpedo compartment occurred as a result of a collision with the bottom,” says Lieutenant Colonel Andrei. “The Americans, however, immediately admitted what really happened, sending Tenet to us on a secret mission. It was a shock. It was only thanks to Putin that there was no nuclear counterattack, although many admirals still seriously reproach him that he should have responded and not bargained.”
Erasing traces
Tenet admits that Memphis was panicking and opened fire first. Americans and Russians are looking for a way out of the crisis. Putin, who was then president for less than six months, decides on a spiral of lies. The authorities initially insisted that the Kursk died on Sunday, not Saturday, that no one survived the explosion and fire, and that there were no nuclear weapons on board the ship. There was no word about foreign ships in the Barents Sea; about 23 sailors trapped in the ninth compartment who could have been saved; about the nuclear threat; about the Kursk engines turning on at full power as during an attack.
Several admirals who tried to present a version of events other than the official one were dismissed from service. And the official version says that on board the Kursk there was a fuel leak from one 30-year-old training torpedo PV 65-76 “Kit”.
Admiral Valery Ryazantsev, who headed the government commission investigating the causes of the disaster, claims that the Kit torpedoes were poorly used. “While they were lying calmly in the warehouse before the exercises, nothing bad happened to them,” the admiral asserted. “But the transition to a state of combat readiness required the crew to undergo appropriate training and protect the torpedoes, which did not happen. The crew made a mistake that cost the lives of 118 submariners.”
According to his version, the torpedoes, among other things, were not equipped with valves with compressed air. Worse yet, the crew of the first torpedo compartment did not close the ventilation hatches leading to the second torpedo compartment. When a torpedo exploded in the first compartment, the shock wave penetrated through the valves into the adjacent compartment.
“K-141 “Kursk”, with the first compartment flooded and the second one seriously damaged, hit the bottom at a speed of three knots at an angle of 40-42 degrees, which led to the destruction of torpedo tubes 1, 3, 5 and 6, and the explosion of those in them torpedoes,” says Ryazantsev’s final report. The Navy command explained that the use of old torpedoes on an ultra-modern submarine was dictated by economic considerations.
Some of the research materials were classified. Access to the wreckage of the Kursk after the rise was limited. On the right side, however, a clear, very long dent is visible - the mark left by the Mk48 torpedo. After lifting, the boat was photographed from this side only once. After the remains of 118 crew members were recovered, the Kursk was very quickly disposed of. Only the command bridge, which three years ago became part of the monument to the dead sailors, was spared.
"American Trail" was removed from the list of official versions. After the second visit of the head of the CIA to Moscow, the United States cancels the Russian debt and gives Moscow a long-term loan of $10 billion. The Kursk case was officially closed. Any attempts to get comments from the press service of Russian military intelligence, the General Staff or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ended in failure: “We don’t know this, we can’t confirm anything like that.”
And immediately the response question: “How do you know about all this?!”
According to Liliya Shevtsova of the Carnegie Moscow Center, the most important thing for Putin at the time was maintaining good relations with the United States. The reset of relations on the Moscow-Washington line was under threat as never before. Pragmatism took precedence over emotions. Putin has defied pressure from military hawks.