Tag Archives: USSR

Russia (USSR) – The death of K-219 sub and Quakers

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Pravda.Ru has written before about the mysterious death of the Soviet nuclear submarine K-219 in the Bermuda Triangle in 1986. Recent reports by scientists confirmed that the K-219 could have perished from an unidentified floating object.

This theory is now often discussed in specialized journals (mainly English) and in Russia. In a recent TV show famous admirals, former employees of the naval intelligence and security services, quite openly talked about miraculous unidentified underwater objects.

That program made me go back to the records of conversations with the untimely deceased famous Soviet submariner, Captain of the first rank Nikolai Tushin, who was a former deputy commander of a brigade that built nuclear-powered boats. In the 1980s, he was part of a rather narrow group of specialists of the Navy tasked with admission of nuclear submarines built in Severodvinsk at Sevmash to the fleet.

Because of his job he had to know all the nuances of underwater accidents that occurred from time to time with Russian atomic submarines. Our very frank discussion took place after his retirement, at a time when little by little secret mysteries of the Soviet oceanic fleet were declassified. He told me about the mysteries sparingly and tactfully, apparently for fear of becoming a source of unnecessary sensationalism. Submariners do not like sensations and only believe their own eyes and ears.

Nikolai had no doubts that the underwater object that collided with the strategic submarine “K-219” carrying two nuclear reactors and 16 ballistic nuclear missiles was not man made. Incidentally, he was the one to tell me about the troubles endured by Soviet (as well as American, British, and French) atomic submarines from the so-called “Quakers.” He said that experienced sailors were quite serious about the talks of underwater unidentified objects.

According to Tushin, he, like many other submarine commanders, saw glowing balls and cylinders in the ocean. Almost every diver has a “cherished” story. It was not customary to talk about it, and no instruments recorded sightings of such objects.

Even now little is known about these croaking invisible objects. They were first heard a few decades ago, when more or less sensitive sonar equipment that could hear the ocean in many sectors of sonar range appeared on submarines, especially nuclear ones.

In the 1970’s, the so-called unidentified floating objects, “Quakers,” became a serious concern for the submariners. The Navy Intelligence even established a special group to organize and analyze all unexplained phenomena occurring in the oceans. The officers who had to collect information gathered all the data that was somehow relevant. There was even a series of special ocean expeditions. The Americans also organized several expeditions, hunting for “Quakers.”

The range of “Quakers” action expanded from the Barents Sea to the Mid-Atlantic, including the Bermuda Triangle, where Russian atomic submarine “K-219” has perished. The theory of the man-made origin of the mysterious underwater object sounds rather weak because even the wealthy United States could not afford such costs.

These mysterious objects persistently pursued Russian (and not only Russian) submarines, and the chase was accompanied by characteristic acoustic signals resembling croaking of frogs.

Secret Soviet intelligence expeditions came to the conclusion that “Quakers” was a secret development of NATO, aimed at tracking Russian submarines. The Americans, too, studied the mysterious phenomenon in detail, and with equal determination reported that this was a top secret development of the USSR for the detection of foreign submarines. Perhaps, had the two countries combined the effort to study this strange phenomenon, the problem would have been solved. But this was the time of the “cold war.”

Those who actually heard the Quakers had a lasting impression that the unknown source of the mysterious sound was aware of its actions. Some even felt that the Quakers, appearing out of the blue, tried hard to make a contact.

In fact, the Quakers did not pose any threat to submarines. Another thing is that some submariners developed a phobia, and were afraid of starting their watch. They were afraid of losing their sanity because of mysterious sounds of “Quakers.”

According toTushin, sometimes submarines thought that the mysterious objects were displaying friendliness.

The famous atomic experienced diver, admitted to the controls of nearly all projects of the Soviet nuclear submarines, admitted that we might be dealing with some unknown underwater civilization. Indeed, the underwater world is explored much less than space.

I used to serve in the submarine fleet for a number of years, and one day, while I was still a lieutenant, had a chance to hear a “Quaker”. Another lieutenant invited me in his operating room and handed me a pair of headphones. I heard “croaking” at a specific, constant frequency. The sound reminded that of an unknown animal.

The boat was moving at a low speed at a depth of 250 meters. Once it moved up to the depth of 120 meters, “croaking” in the headphones stopped. The commander said not to record these sounds in the log.

By the end of the 1980s the Soviet secret research program “Quaker” was discontinued. There was no available funding in the USSR that at the time was falling apart. The most interesting thing is that the sounds of “Quaker” in the ocean disappeared by the time, as if someone told the “unidentified” objects that they were no longer interesting. Since the 1990’s there have been no official reports of meetings with them.

The group of scouts and scientists was disbanded, and all of the materials were classified. It remains unclear why the group was disbanded so suddenly and what they were able to learn about the “Quakers”. Unfortunately, this information is still classified both in Russia and the U.S., and only occasionally the information about it leaks to the press.

But back to the collapse of the Soviet submarine “K-219” in the Bermuda Triangle not far from the land borders of the United States. As established by a special commission, the cause of the accident was an “incident” in the missile silo that for some reason became unsealed, and the subsequent leak of poisonous rocket fuel into the rocket section. Then there was a fire.

As a result of experimental tests, simulations and careful analysis, it was shown that it was not the fault of the crew but the impact of external factors. The official reports have pictures that prove that the body of “K-219” had a large groove. The committee that investigated the incident concluded that the external impact was a foreign submarine. Soviet intelligence reported that not a single NATO submarine was repaired after the collision.

Those who thought of the unidentified objects as the reason of the accident were afraid to speak up not to be considered insane.

Tushin was convinced that “К-219” was sunk by a mysterious force, but at the time could not admit it out loud. The unidentified floating objects remain a mystery of the ocean.

Source – Pravda

Also read: K-219: The sub that scared Reagan and Gorbachev

 

 

 

 

Submarines of David Pashayev

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During the Cold War, nuclear submarines became the foundation of the submarine fleets of the U.S. Navy and the Soviet Union. After World War II, nuclear scientists set out to increase the speed and submergence time of submarines. In 1955, the first submarine with nuclear reactors on board appeared in the U.S., and three years later in the USSR. Construction of nuclear submarines was located in the Arkhangelsk region, thus ensuring availability and safety of production.

In the difficult years preceding the collapse of the Soviet Union, right up until 2004, “Sevmash” (“Northern Machine-Building Enterprise”) was headed by David Pashayev, who managed to maintain the technical and production potential of the company and its working staff. He introduced new approaches to the creation of military equipment and the construction of nuclear submarines of the fourth generation. Under his leadership, a set of measures was developed on the “double” use of high technology; extensive programs implemented for dismantling nuclear submarines; for the first time in Russia, a new industry was created for building platforms for the development of the Arctic shelf.

David Pashayev was born in 1940, the fourth child of a Russian-Azerbaijani family. His father Hussein worked in Soviet farms near Moscow in the system of the NKVD, which provides food supplies for the builders of water canals. In 1935, he was appointed director of a farm in the village of Ostashevo, where he met his future wife, Barbara Stulova. Both of their daughters became physicians, the eldest son worked as chief designer in the design bureau of the Baku air conditioning factory; the youngest son, David, graduated from the Urals Polytechnic Institute and was assigned to work in Severodvinsk. At “Sevmash” he almost immediately took up installation of equipment and systems of nuclear reactors. He quickly learned production and complicated techniques, and became one of the most respected experts on reactor compartments of submarines.

After his appointment as deputy chief and then chief of slip production, Pashayev’s life became very hard. He was responsible for the preparation and testing of nuclear submarines, and then, in the “golden age” of Russian shipbuilding, up to five ships were on tests at once, and hundreds of testers were at sea at the same time. In 1986 Pashayev was appointed the chief engineer of “Sevmash”. This was the time of the third generation of nuclear submarines “Akula” (“Shark”), “Antey”, and “Bars”. Appreciating his achievements in this area, the factory’s collective elected Pashayev to the position of CEO. It was the first case in the history of “Sevmash” in which the head of the team was elected, not appointed from above.

For all Pashayev’s predecessors, success was achieved thanks to government support and the policy directed at developing the strength and power of the Navy. But the new CEO faced a very different time. It was marked by a sharp decline in financing of the state defence industry, not even enough for one month’s wages to employees; abandoned hull ships on the stocks; daily distribution of bread coupons for future payments and tempting offers to turn the factory into a joint stock company and split it into components; endless changes in the government and reforming of the governance structures.

“When the funding was ‘cut off’, when unfinished state commissions filled the stacks with giant steel semi-finished products, the plant was ready for disaster,” Alexander Prokhanov writes in “Symphony of the Fifth Empire .” The Azerbaijani genius David Guseynovich Pashayev foresaw the trouble of the defence industry when listening to Gorbachev’s pacifist chirping and reformers’ reports on unilateral disarmament. He began to look for orders from gas workers of the Russian North and from oil workers of Sakhalin. He did not hesitate to manufacture “trailers” and piping components. But, more importantly, to finally get an order for submarines, without having the steel to produce them, because the main supplier of steel, “Azovstal,” was now abroad and demanded exorbitant prices. The director found a “Solomonic solution”. He decided to use blanks for old boats that were not meant to be built, and giant cylinders abandoned in warehouses, and stocks for new ships that had been designed based on finished items. This solution sold off “half-finished” production, unloaded stock, and gave construction a quick boost.”

Pashayev met with the leaders of the country, influential politicians, naval commanders, and bankers, to draw attention to the problems of the shipbuilding industry. He initiated presidential decrees and government regulations aimed at reviving the industry. One of the initiatives which helped maintain a high level of technology at “Sevmash” was the creation of a new industry for the construction of offshore ice-resistant platforms.

Another problem Pashayev had to solve was the delivery of components to the plant. Well-established connections with suppliers from the countries of the former Soviet Union had been severed after the collapse of the USSR . Therefore, Pashayev suggested organizing at “Sevmash” production of technically-feasible and cost-effective items – hydraulic equipment and ship fittings.

All this attracted the attention of the business community in Russia and abroad. The factory received offers of cooperation and signed contracts on making commissions for military-technical cooperation and the national economy. But the most powerful arguments in favour of “Sevmash” were the foundation in 1996 and later the construction of the new-generation nuclear submarine “Yury Dolgoruky”, and the delivery of the first ship of the third generation “Gepard” (“Cheetah”) in 2002.

In 2004, Pashayev transferred the management of the enterprise to his assistant, and focused his attention on problems of the development of Russian state nuclear shipbuilding in the Public Chamber. Thus he was working on two commissions – on the intellectual potential of the nation, as well as on innovation, high-tech science and engineering projects. In 2006, Pashayev received the National Award for Science and Technology for the development, creation and development of three generations of nuclear submarines.

David Pashayev died in 2010. the Severodvinsk administration has decided to name one of the most beautiful squares in the town after him.

Source – Vestnik Kavkaza