Research & engineering support
to the SSN Kursk salvage project

The recovery of the sunken SSN Kursk was a unique project because of the huge weight of the submarine and of the fact that she carried a nuclear power plant and combat missiles.
Specialists of the Krylov Institute carried out research and engineering work in support of the project design that has required resolving a number of intricate technical and engineering challenges involved in every step of the unique operation. ...

A technology test for pressure hull cutting	A gripping hole in the submarine pressure hull	The Krylov Institute Science Principal & Director Academician V.M.Pashin demonstrates the pressure hull model with the gripping hole to the media
The submarine light hull waterjet cutting	The submarine light hull segment with a gripper access hole	Naval architects - Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences I.V.Gorynin, V.I.Kiriukhin, S.N.Kovalev, V.M.Pashin, V.G.Peshekhonov and I.D.Spassky discussing the progress of work
The gripper gauged for strain measurements	A test of lifting system components at the MUG-3000 large test machine	An ultimate load test of the lifting system (gripper + strand bundle + pressure hull)
Academician V.M.Pashin gives explanations to the media	The lifting system breaks under the ultimate load	A gripper detail after the tests (the blown-up view shows a crack that started under the test)
A portion of the strand bundle	The submarine + barge system on its way to the test site	The models set ready for the tests
The submarine + barge system model tests in waves	Tests for safe submarine to barge mating	Wind tunnel tests for hydrodynamic characteristics of the submarine
Wave experiments for safe submarine haulage to the docking site	Hydrodynamic tests of the submarine model in the Rotating-arm Basin	Academician V.M.Pashin meets Russian and international journalists
The AS-34 life-saving vehicle fitted with the EKO-5 gamma spectrometer designed at the Krylov Institute	The Mikhail Roudnitsky rescue ship. Navy and Krylov Institute personnel preparing the EKO-7 submersible gamma spectrometer for launching	Academicians V.M.Pashin and I.D.Spassky on board the Mayo during gripper positioning in the SSN Kursk hull gripping holes
	November 28, 2001, the Moscow Kremlin. The Russian Federation President V.Putin meets the participants of the SSN Kursk salvage operation