Soviet submarine B-427

"B-427" was a project 641 (also known by its NATO reporting name as the "Foxtrot" class) diesel-electric attack submarine of the Soviet Navy. The "B" (actually "Б") in her designation stands for большая ("bolshaya", "large"). Foxtrots are among the largest non-nuclear submarines ever built. Its keel was laid down on 10 April 1971 at Sudomekh Shipyard of Leningrad. It was launched on 22 June 1971 and commissioned on 4 December 1971.

For twenty-two years "B-427" patrolled the Pacific, protecting the ballistic missile submarine bastions of the Pacific Fleet while based out of Vladivostok, Russia. It would have spent its entire career based out of Vladivostok except for a few temporary postings as part of the Soviet Submarine Squadron that was for a time based at the former US Navy base of Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam. Such postings were normally for a period of between 8 to 12 months then a return to Vladivostok.

In 1989, "B-427" was returning to Vladivostok from Vietnam when it ran into a typhoon. A mechanical breakdown that could not be fixed in time prevented the sub from diving. The storm battered the boat, destroying the light hull and damaging the ballast tanks and high pressure air bottles. "B-427" was taken back to Vladivostok where it was repaired and refitted with a new light hull.

"B-427" was decommissioned in 1994. On 25 July 1995, it was moved from Vladivostok to spend nearly three years at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney. It left Sydney Harbor on 31 May 1998 for Long Beach, United States, arriving on 25 June and tying up next to RMS|Queen Mary. On 14 July, it opened to the public as an exhibit. During its sequence of owners it acquired the name "Scorpion," which it did not have during its commissioned career. (Note that some Web sites mistakenly state that the name of "B-427" in the Russian language was "Podvodnaya Lodka." "Подводная лодка", literally "underwater boat," is the translation of "submarine;" "scorpion" would be скорпион or "skorpion".)

ee also

*"B-39", a Foxtrot on display in San Diego, California.

References

*"B-427"’s Web page: http://www.russiansublongbeach.com/