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Soviet Navy Foxtrot class, Project 641
 The Soviet navy had traditionally favored a combination of large numbers of medium-range, Whiskey class, submarines for operations in soviet costal waters and a smaller numbers of long-range, Zulu class, boats for scouting and reconnaissance.
Foxtrot class, first unit completed in 1958, was a long-range submarine succeeding the Zulu class. However faced with the new threat from long-ranged carrier-based jet bombers capable of delivering nuclear payload, the Soviet Navy was forced into premature termination of the medium-range Romeo, replacing the Whiskeys at the time, in favor of the larger submarines capable of intercepting hostile task forces far from their bases. The Foxtrot and its nuclear-powered counterpart, the November class, were ideal candidates to carry a newly developed torpedo with a nuclear warhead-design against large formations of ships and port installations.
In design terms the Foxtrot was essentially a refined Zulu. It retains the classic cigar shape of the German Type XXI, the traditional `knife bow` was substituted for a specially designed bulge to incorporate the passive sonar. The fin was altogether more streamlined, and the basic layout of machinery and torpedo tubes was kept.
This was the second largest class of conventional submarine built any navy since WW-II with the Whiskey class being the first.
Specifications, Foxtrot class, Project 641:
A very successful design of post war diesel-electric submarine, double-hull design with a pressure hull diameter of approximately 4m.A long range submarine,an improved successor to the Zulu class.
Displacement (srf/sub tons): 1,950/2,400
Dimensions (L*B*D feet): 300`2*24`7*20`0
Propulsion: diesel electric, 3*2,000hp Kolomma 37D early units/2D42 later units diesel engines,3 electric motors rated at 5,400hp (1*2,700 and 2*1,350),3 shafts (6 bladed propellers)
Speed (srf/sub knots): 16/15
Range (srf/sub n/miles@knots): snorting 20,000@8/350@2 or 230@8
Diving depth (feet): 985
Complement: 8 officers 70 enlisted
Missile: none
Torpedo: 6*21" (533mm) bow torpedo tubes, 4*21" in early units/4*16" (400mm) in later units stern torpedo tubes, total of 22 torpedoes
Mines: 32-44 in lieu of torpedoes
Armament: none
Construction
Sixty-two units were built for soviet service, completed between 1958 and 1973, all but three by Sudomekh, Leningrad, and the other three by Shipyard 402, Severodvinsk.
Seventeen more hulls were built for foreign transfer, all by Sudomekh completed from 1969 to 1984. Subsequently eighteen boats were delivered, in some cases older Soviet units may have been substituted with new construction, eight to India (1968-74), three to Cuba (1979-84), and six to Libya (1976-83).
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USSR - Soviet Union |
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Navy Day, submarine silhouette (Foxtrot class- Project 641), 05 December 1981 |
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USSR - Soviet Union |
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45th anni' Naval fleet in Leningrad (Foxtrot class- Project 641), 9 January 1962 |
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USSR - Soviet Union |
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Navy Day, submarine silhouette (Foxtrot class- Project 641), 22 January 1976 |
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USSR - Soviet Union |
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Navy Day, submarine silhouette (Foxtrot class- Project 641), 13 February 1979 |
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USSR - Soviet Union |
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Modern vessels of the Soviet Naval Fleet, Disel submarine (Foxtrot class- Project 641), 24 October 1983 |
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