History and Deployment of the November class submarine

With Stalin's death in 1953 the Soviet Navy was allowed to begin work on nuclear propulsion. Such work had not been encouraged under the previous regime because it was felt that the next war would be fought by battleships and carriers as the last one had been. Some in the Soviet fleet felt that missiles, nuclear weapons, and nuclear powered ships would play a greater role and that the old ideas should be abandoned.

The late shift in thinking left the Soviets at a disadvantage when compared to their new rival the United States. In 1955 the information gap closed when Soviet spies operating in the United States delivered information about the US nuclear propulsion program. This new information, combined with the work of Soviet nuclear scientists led to the design of a new submarine designated Project 627A.

Outwardly the boat was a long conventional design with many free flood holes, retractable hydroplanes, and two propellers. Each propeller shaft was equipped with its own drive system powered by a 70 megawatt VI-A pressurized water nuclear reactor. Both propellers could be operated by either drive system during normal cruising using cross connections, but both turbines were required to be on line if the boat was to attain its top speed.

The first of the class was named the 'Leninski Komsomolets' and commissioned in Severodvinsk in 1958. The following year the chief of the US naval program, Admiral Hyman Rickover, was invited to visit the submarine. He felt that the reactor design was inefficient and sloppy, which probably reflected both his national bias as well as the early Soviet design techniques.

It should be noted that the VI-A reactors used on the Project 627A (November class) submarines were identical to those used on the Hotel and Echo class boats of the day. It was for this reason that all three classes became known to NATO in the early 1960's as the HEN class (Hotel-Echo-November).

The boat was first observed by the West in the Spring of 1961 when one was photographed in the Northern Fleet operating area. It was soon designated the November class by NATO. The sightings would continue throughout 1961 and NATO would come to understand that they had underestimated the Soviet nuclear shipbuilding program. The following year the 'Leninski Komsomolets' became the first Soviet submarine to reach the geographic North Pole.

Fourteen examples of the class were completed at Severodvinsk by 1963, as plans for the more advanced Victor class boat were already in the works. They served with both the Northern and Pacific fleets during the Cold War, but had a troubled history.

Four of the boats suffered from reactor accidents while underway and the poor radiation shielding caused many sailors to become ill. In April 1970 the November submarine known as K-8 suffered a reactor related fire in the Bay of Biscay. The boat soon sank and 58 of its crew were lost. The captain of the November designated K-159 even claimed that the boat was already taking on water when it made its last mission in 1983.

November Submarine Facts
Tactical Number	Year Built
K-3	1957
K-14	1959
K-5	1959
K-8	1959
K-52	1960
K-21	1961
K-11	1961
K-133	1962
K-181	1962
K-115	1962
K-152	1963
K-159	1963
K-42	1963
K-50	1964

By the mid-1980's the Soviet began to shift the aging November submarines into the reserve, with two boats being pulled from the active fleet lists in 1986. Of the submarines that remained in active service four would be assigned to the Pacific Fleet with the rest serving with the Northern Fleet. This arrangement would continue until the end of the decade when all were gradually phased out of service between 1989 and 1991.

In 1989 submarine K-3 was turned into a museum ship by the SPMBM 'Malachite' works. The remaining boats were scheduled to be dismantled but the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and ensuing Russian financial crisis almost brought the program to a halt. The boats could still be found at their moorings over a decade later before work would resume.

It was during one of these operations on 30 August 2003 that the November known as K-159 was being towed to another port for dismantling when it encountered severe weather and sank at 4 am local time in 560 feet of water. All but one member of its 10 man crew were lost. Following the accident the Russian government announced that it would make efforts to recover the submarine and review its towing policies to ensure better safety procedures.

The November class was designed as a long range anti-shipping submarine. Its primary mission was to destroy NATO cruisers and carriers with its forward torpedoes, while using its stern torpedoes against destroyer escorts that would attempt to pursue it. It was also be used against merchant shipping in the North Atlantic in an effort to deny vital supplies to NATO forces in the event of war in Europe.

Its nuclear propulsion gave it a tremendous advantage in range over the earlier Diesel powered boats. The submarines could also remain submerged for much longer periods of time which made them harder to detect. Despite this, the November class was notorious for its poor nuclear shielding and earned the nickname 'widowmaker' by many Soviet sailors. The boats were also rather loud in the water due to their preponderance of free flood holes in the hull.

The November class submarine marked the Soviet transition from conventional to nuclear powered submarines. It generated a great deal of interest in Western nations during the late 1950's and early 1960's as it greatly improved Soviet naval capabilities. Yet by the mid-1960's the Soviet submarine designers began work on more advanced nuclear submarine designs that would go on to replace the November class in front line service. In this section you can find out more about the boats that the November class replaced and more about the submarine that replaced it by clicking on the links below.

There are many books available that discuss Russian and Soviet submarines. We have used just a few of these in compiling this information for you, and they are listed below. If you would like to read more about this subject look for these books in your local library. We hope you will find these sources as useful as we have.

The November replaced...	November Class Submarine	The November was replaced by...
'Foxtrot' Class Attack Submarine	November Class Submarine	'Victor' Class Attack Submarine