Soviet submarine TK-202

Hull number TK-202 was laid down at the Severodvinsk shipyards in October 1980 and launched in April 1982. She was the second ship of the Soviet Project 941 "Akula" class (Russian for "shark", NATO reporting name "Typhoon"). In December 1983, she begun her commission in the Soviet Red Banner Northern Fleet. She was, along with the other "Akula"s based in Nerpichya Bay, Zapadnaya Litsa.

Decommissioning

The ТК-202 was a ballistic missile submarine of the Russian Navy, formerly having served in the Soviet Navy as well.

Construction of the ТК-202 was started at the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk in 1980 and completed and commissioned in 1983. The then 14-year old submarine was deactivated in 1997, and the submarine was laid up in July 1999 at the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk awaiting decommissioning. and with funding from the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction programme the defueling of her reactors started in June 2002 at the Zvezdochka shipyard.

During her entire service life, ТК-202 was stationed at the Northern Fleet base Nerpichya.

Naming

During her service in the Soviet era, she never received a proper name, as it was deemed an unsocialistic idea to name individual ships. Several of her sister ships in the "Akula" class (NATO reporting name "Typhoon") later received names, but the TK-202 and the TK-13 continued to be called by their hull numbers. ТК stands for тяжелая крейсерская ("tyazholaya kreyserskaya"), meaning heavy cruiser.

Sources

* [http://www.deepstorm.ru/DeepStorm.files/45-92/nbrs/941/tk-202/TK-202.htm deepstorm.ru // TK-202]