The Foxtrot class was the NATO reporting name of a class of diesel-electric patrol submarines that were built in the Soviet Union. The Soviet designation of this class was Project 641. The Foxtrot class was designed to replace the earlier Zulu class, which suffered from structural weaknesses and harmonic vibration problems that limited its operational depth and submerged speed. The first Foxtrot keel was laid down in 1957 and commissioned in 1958 and the last was completed in 1983. A total of 58 were built for the Soviet Navy at the Sudomekh division of the Admiralty Shipyard (now Admiralty Wharves), Saint Petersburg. Additional hulls were built for other countries.

The Foxtrot class was comparable in performance and armament to most contemporary designs. However, its three screws made it noisier than most Western designs. Moreover, the Foxtrot class was one of the last designs introduced before the adoption of the teardrop hull, which offered much better underwater performance. Also, although the Foxtrot was larger than a Zulu class submarine, the Foxtrot class had 2 of its 3 decks dedicated to batteries. This gave it an underwater endurance of 10 days, but the weight of the batteries made the Foxtrot's average speed a slow at its maximum submerged time capability. Onboard conditions were crowded, with space being relatively small even when compared to older submarines such as the much older American Balao-class submarine.

The Foxtrot class was obsolete by the time the last submarine was launched. The Russian Navy retired its last Foxtrots between 1995 and 2000; units were scrapped and disposed of for museum purposes.

Operational History

Cuban Missile Crisis

Project 641s played a central role in some of the most dramatic incidents of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Soviet Navy deployed four Project 641 submarines to Cuba: B-4, B-36, B-59, and B-130 of the Soviet Sixty-Ninth Submarine Brigade. US Navy destroyers dropped practice depth charges near Project 641 subs near Cuba in efforts to force them to surface and be identified. Three of the four Project 641 submarines were forced to surface, however one eluded US forces. However, on 22 March 2014 it was surrendered to or captured by Russia as part of the Russian annexation of Crimea. Russia decided not to accept it due to its age and operational unsuitability. Its subsequent status is unknown.

Units

Following is a list of 58 of the 75 Foxtrot-class submarines built during the Soviet Project 641, at Yard 196, Leningrad.

thumb|A [[museum ship, INS Kursura (S20).]]

thumb|Inside the aft torpedo room.

thumb|Aft torpedo room of a Foxtrot museum ship.

thumb|Opened [[torpedo tube in a Foxtrot]]

thumb|Electric generator/motor controls

{| class="wikitable sortable"

|+ style="padding-bottom:1em;" | Project 641 (NATO: Foxtrot Class)

|- class="backgroundcolor5"

! width="5%" | Number !! width="15%" | Laid down !! width="10%" | Launched !! class="unsortable" width="10%" | Decommissioned !! class="unsortable" width="20%" | Status

|-

|B-94|| 3 October 1957|| style="text-align:right" | 28 December 1957|| style="text-align:right" | 1 October 1984|| Decommissioned for scrapping

  • – 6 units (2 left but probably abandoned)
  • – three units (hull numbers 309, 510 and 586, incidentally this one was the last "Foxtrot" built)
  • – 2 units (ex–Soviet Navy), ORP Wilk (1987–2003) and ORP Dzik (1988–2003)
  • – 1 unit (), has been taken over by Russian forces during the 2014 annexation of Crimea.

On display

Several Foxtrots are on display as museums around the world, including:

  • B-413 at Kaliningrad, Russia.
  • B-427 at the in Long Beach, California, United States.
  • B-440 at Vytegra, a port on the Volga–Baltic Waterway in Russia.
  • U-475 Black Widow at Strood, Kent, United Kingdom
  • Indian Foxtrot submarine INS Kursura (S20) at the Rama Krishna Beach, Visakhapatnam, India.
  • A Libyan Foxtrot submarine is docked in Benghazi, Libya.

See also

Equivalent submarines of the same era

  • Narval class

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

  • А.Б. Широкорад: Советские подводные лодки послевоенной постройки (A.B. Shirokorad: Sowjet Submarines built after WWII) Moscow, 1997, (Russian)
  • Y. Apalkow: Корабли ВМФ СССР. Многоцелевые ПЛ и ПЛ спецназначания ("Ships of the USSR - Multi-purpose submarines and Special submarines"), St Petersburg, 2003, (Russian)

Further reading

  • https://man.fas.org/dod-101/sys/ship/row/rus/641.htm
  • https://man.fas.org/dod-101/sys/ship/row/rus/index.html
  • HNSA Ship Page: Soviet B-413
  • Foxtrot Class Submarines - Complete Ship List (English)
  • Project 641 at deepstorm.ru (Russian)
  • Photos and history of the submarine Foxtrot in Rochester UK