U.S. Navy Divers to Raise Russian Submarine in Providence, Rhode Island?

On Thursday July 17^th, U.S. Navy Divers had to halt the raising of a Russian submarine in the Providence River in Providence Rhode Island due to safety concerns. The submarine is actually a Russian Juliette (Juliette 474) class diesel submarine that was purchased as a museum by the USS Saratoga Foundation.

The Submarine has been located as a museum in Providence since 2002 but it sank during a Northeastern Storm in 2007. The storm caused extremely high tides and a shift in wave direction causing flooding in the aft end of the ship. The flooding continued until the sub sank. It has remained on the bottom of the harbor since then.

The submarine has a unique history. It was originally part of the Russian Northern Fleet commissioned in 1965 and had made many deployments against US forces. It was one of the first guided missile submarines in the Russian fleet and was designed to attack US carrier strike groups and land sources on the US coast. It carried four nuclear tipped SS-N-3 or SS-N-12 guided missiles. An interesting feature of this submarine class is that the front of the sail rotated to use its radar that aided in communications and electronic surveillance in firing and tracking these missiles. The submarine had to be on the surface to fire these missiles, this caused the US to increase its numbers of P-3 Orion aircraft patrols to maintain superiority.

After the submarine was decommissioned it was purchased by a restaurant owner in Finland who used it as a floating restaurant and bar. Later it was used in the Harrison Ford movie "K-19; The Widowmaker." The submarine was actually advertised for purchase on E-bay before the Saratoga Foundation purchased it. The museum in Providence where the sunken submarine is located has displays showing the unique history of this submarine.

The submarine is not nuclear powered, it is diesel powered. It is classified as a Russian type III class submarine which contains D-42 diesel engines. It did not have any fuel in its fuel tanks or batteries in the battery wells. The large battery compartments were actually converted into dining rooms when purchased for the restaurant in Finland. The Saratoga foundation later converted them into sleeping quarters to host overnight parties in.

Naval divers will have to be every careful in raising this fragile Russian relic. It has a submerged displacement of 4203 tons and is 281 ft long. It is an old boat that has been submerged for a year and has not been maintained to appropriate standards for many years.

References:

http://www.turnto10.com/northeast/jar/news.apx.-content-articles-JAR-2008-07-17-0007.html

http://www.juliett484.org/juliett/index.html

http://www.saratogamuseum.org/