User:Delmar-16

Development of The T-5 Nuclear Torpedo

      The Soviet Union was the first to initiate an underwater arms race, by introducing an innovative alternative to aerial nuclear bombs. Since the early 1940’s when the Soviets had successfully engineered their own form of a nuclear bomb, aided of course by the use of espionage, the Soviets began to look for better alternatives of delivery to streamline their success for Cold War dominance. The Soviets main outpost for nuclear testing was located in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan. Semipalatinsk played a major role in the design, and creation of the T-5 torpedo, and tipped with nuclear warhead dubbed the RDS-9 containing 5 kilotons of payload. 
       Moreover, the first real test of the T-5 took place in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan, on the 10th of October 1954.  Unfortunately, this test was unsuccessful, but the Soviets were not deterred by this failure. After a year of refining the Soviets chose a new location, and a proper test site to advance their efforts of making an underwater nuclear-armed-torpedo. The Kremlins decided on the Arctic, specifically Novaya Zemlya to test the T-5. On the 21st of September 1955 the Soviets underwent their 2nd testing of the T-5 armed with the RDS-9, and with much jubilation the test was successful.  Marking the first successful underwater nuclear-armed-torpedo launch in the world, eclipsing the Americans. This success of the T-5 spurred a greater competition between the two factions, resulting in future development. 

Furthermore, the Soviets began to refine their T-5 design. Three years after the first launch, and failure of the initial testing the Soviets decided to test the T-5 against targets. The Soviets once again chose Novaya Zemlya as their test site and on the 10th of October 1957 the T-5 was once again launched under the name Project-613. This launch was successful as well, and proved its power against decommissioned Soviet submarines. The Soviets chose the S-144 to launch the T-5, and chose the S-20, S-34, and the S-19 as targets from a distance of 6.5 miles. Of the three subs the S-20 and S-34 were sunken completely; moreover, the damage was so devastating that it critically damaged the S-19 as well, with such a successful test the Soviets began to respect the T-5 for what it can do. Also, of the people present that day of the test one man stood out as one of the most prominent figures within the Soviets nuclear-armed-torpedo. This figure was Nikolai Shumkov. Shumkov’s mission was to test the Navy’s RDS-9, and bring back information for the Soviets. Not only did the bomb not sufficiently meet detonation it was experiencing problems indicative to diving. Also, the warhead had issues with command capabilities. This inhibited the torpedoes guidance system, and halted the technical recording process. Another issue was the thermal regime of the nuclear warhead, because it’s normal operation required temperature +5 … +25 Co, it was hard to provide an unheated submarine torpedo tube, especially if it is based in the North.

U.S. Vs. Russia Including the Cuban Missile Crisis

Interestingly enough the U.S. had no clue of nuclear-armed-torpedoes that the Russian’s possessed. It had only come to the surface during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 that we as a country nearly reached a nuclear torpedo attack brought by the hands of the Kremlin. Prior to this incident Russia was partaking in tests of nuclear-armed-torpedoes in the arctic, which they had not only perfected, but were ready for deployment by 1962. In by far one of the most gut wrenching times within U.S. and Russian relations was the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Soviets had agreed with Cuba to put nuclear weapons on their land in retaliation to the U.S. putting warheads in Turkey. This culminated into one giant blow up as the U.S. formed a blockade to prevent the Soviets from carrying more weapons into Cuba.

Prior to this incident the U.S. was stalking and documenting most Soviet manned submarines. In fact, “After a day of persistent tracking by the U.S. destroyer, the Charles P. Cecil, commanded by Captain Charles Rozier, Soviet submarine B-36, commanded by Captain Aleksei Dubivko, exhausted its batteries forcing it to come to the surface. On 27 and 30 October respectively, U.S. Navy anti-submarine warfare (ASW) forces surfaced Soviet submarines B-59 and B-130.” The U.S.’ effort to eradicate all Soviet presence in the Caribbean Sea was met with mass amounts of patience and hard work. Soviet submarines were an increasing presence during this time, and the U.S. wanted to do as much as they could to pinpoint all subs.

The largest implication, and overall hair raising situation during this era was when the blockade actually occurred. The U.S. was to not let any sub pass their blockade, and nearly sparked a war. An account of this is necessary to explain this tumultuous time.

“Possibly even more dangerous was an incident on submarine B-59 recalled by Vadim Orlov, who served as a communications intelligence officer. In an account published by Mozgovoi (see document 16), Orlov recounted the tense and stressful situation on 27 October when U.S. destroyers lobbed PDCs at B-59. According to Orlov, a "totally exhausted" Captain Valentin Savitsky, unable to establish communications with Moscow, "became furious" and ordered the nuclear torpedo to be assembled for battle readiness. Savitsky roared "We're going to blast them now! We will die, but we will sink them all." Deputy brigade commander Second Captain Vasili Archipov calmed Savitsky down and they made the decision to surface the submarine. Orlov's description of the order to assemble the nuclear torpedo is controversial and the other submarine commanders do not believe that that Savitsky would have made such a command.”

This event was the closest our country has ever gotten to nuclear war. Interestingly the payload nearly deployed by the Soviets would have been a T-5 torpedo tipped with the RDS-9. If Savitsky would have proceeded a war would have begun, and history would have been changed forever.

Schematics of The T-5

Schematics of The T-5
Caliber	533 mm
Weight Torpedo	2200 kg
Length of Torpedo	792 cm
Nuclear Weapon	Atomic
Type of Energy	Combined cycle

Bibliography

Arkhipov, V. (n/a, September 29). The Man Who Saved The World. Retrieved April 10, 2016, from http://www.sonicbomb.com/modules.php?name=News

Burr, W., & Blanton, T. S. (2002, October 31). The Submarines of October. Retrieved April 10, 2016, from http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB75/

Polmar, N., & Moore, K. J. (2004). Cold War submarines: The design and construction of U.S. and Soviet submarines. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books.

Russian nuclear torpedoes T-15 and T-5. (2012, October 11). Retrieved April 10, 2016, from http://survincity.com/2012/02/russian-nuclear-torpedoes-t-15-and-t-5/

Volpi, A. D., Minkov, V. E., Simonenko, V. A., & Stanford, G. S. (2004). Nuclear shadowboxing: Cold War Redux. Kalamazoo, MI: Fidlar Doubleday.

Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). (n.d.). Retrieved April 10, 2016, from http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/t-15.htm