Project 885 Yasen / Graney / Granay - Severodvinsk class

The lead nuclear submarine of project 885M Yasen-M Kazan was launched on March 31, 2017. September 25, 2018 entered the factory sea trials. The main strike weapons of Project 885 / 885M submarines are cruise missiles "Onyx", "Caliber", and in the future - hypersonic "Zircons". The Project 885 ‘Yasen’ multi-purpose nuclear-powered submarine is one of the Russian underwater fleet’s most breakthrough fourth-generation subs. It is called a masterpiece of underwater shipbuilding and is frequently compared with an attack craft capable of delivering strikes against surface and underwater ships and coastal targets.

The work on the conceptual design of the fourth-generation submarine began back in the late 1970s. The Yasen was finally designed in the 1990s. However, the first submarine’s weapons suite was completely different compared to the sub that is on combat duty in the Fleet today. The experience of operating the Soviet Project 705K ‘Lira’ and Project 971 ‘Shchuka-B’ third-generation submarines was used to design the new submarine (in particular, the engineers used the technology to reduce the noise level). The architecture of the Yasen sub’s hull is revolutionary to a certain degree. This is because Russian submarines were traditionally created as double-hull vessels, i.e. the pressure hull and the light hull around it. The Yasen features the ‘one and a half hull’ architecture: it has one-hull sections along the larger part of its length.

With the collapse of the USSR and the loss of a significant part of the industrial potential, Russia again faced the problem of a shortage of nuclear submarines. The new Project-885 Yasen-class multi-purpose nuclear submarine marked a new era in Russian submarine construction. Russian submarine designers made use of original engineering solutions. It was decided that Yasen-class submarines would not make use of the double-hull structure that all Soviet submarines had at the time. However, neither did it become a single-hull submarine, like its U.S. equivalents. Two hulls ensure a submarine's reliability and buoyancy, while a single hull means noiselessness and invisibility. Yasen became something in between, having the so-called "one and a half hull" architecture, with a light hull covering only part of the submarine's pressure hull.

The design of the multi-purpose nuclear submarine (ICAPL) 885 / 885M "Ash", despite all its advantages, turned out to be extremely expensive and difficult to build. In total, it is planned to build at least seven Project 885 / 885M boats, possibly as many as nine, to replace the nine aging boats of the much larger Project 949A Antey / Oscar II class. Further production would be needed to cope with the conditions of rapid obsolescence of the nuclear submarines of the third generation of projects 971, 945 / 945A available in the Russian Navy.

H I Sutton @CovertShores maintains that "Sev's are SSGNs to replace OSCAR-II, Laika replaces SSNs.... SSGN vs SSN ... distinction is increasingly meaningless in RuN terms. Similar in west. Are Virginia and Astute SSGNs....?"

One sourcess suggest that the Project 885 Yasen (Granay) is just a replacement for the 949A Antei [NATO Oscar II]. This would make the Yasen an "aircraft-carrier-killer". By this account, the main difference between the earlier 949A Antei [NATO Oscar II] and Project 885 Yasen consists in the later's ability to strike both coastal and warship targets with new supersonic cruise missiles. Another account, consistent with official Russian statments, suggests that the Yasen was to be just the follow on of the 971 Schuka-B (NATO Akula), and was not designed as a replacement of Oscar-II.

Unlike in the U.S., where from the moment its nuclear submarine fleet came into being there was a drive towards uniformity, in the USSR there were many submarines created under different projects, which were difficult to unify and whose functions often overlapped. A decision was taken to give up narrow combat specialization, which meant that the new nuclear submarine had to be equally good at hitting underwater and surface targets as well as launching cruise missiles against ground targets; in other words it had to be able to address practically any tasks facing the submarine fleet.

This new Yasen ["Ash", as in the tree] submarine design is a further derivative of the Project 971 Akula. Russian analyssts claim the Russian nuclear submarine Project 885 "Ash" had about half the price of the American Virginia class, and surpassed the US submarine in many tactical and technical indicators. The Yasen-class sub is estimated to cost approximately US$1.6 billion, while the Virginia class ships are said to cost $2.7 billion per unit.

The U.S. equivalents of the Yasen-class submarines are multi-purpose Seawolf-class and Virginia-class submarines, although Yasen is intended for a broader range of tasks. Here is how Russian military expert Igor Korotchenko lists the tasks facing the new submarine: "First, to follow the U.S. Ohio-class strategic missile submarines. Also, possibly, to carry out combat patrols in regions where the Russian Navy wants to prevent the presence of foreign submarines. At the same time, Yasen-class submarines can launch cruise missiles against ground targets, including in the course of local conflicts in those regions where deploying a permanent Russian Ground Troops force is unfeasible."

Trial operation of the first multi-purpose missile submarine Project 885 "Ash" - "Severodvinsk" - fully demonstrated the inherent characteristics of the creators of it, general director of St. Petersburg Maritime Engineering Bureau "Malachite", designed this submarine, Vladimir Dorofeev, said in an interview 18 March 2017 with Tass. "In general, the result of the trial operation of the ship, of course, positive characteristics, once incorporated in the ship turned into objective indicators - the number of actual firings, torpedo launches and they say that." Ash was a "fully hosted a warship" - he said.

The NATO's reporting name for the Yasen ["ash tree"] project is GRANAY [also seen as GRANEY]. An ash tree can be identified by its distinctive leaves and bark. Ash trees have several leaves per leaf stem and the leaves are located directly across from each other. The totally unrelated Project 877, designated the Kilo by Western intelligence, is a much smaller non-nuclear diesel-electric submarine developed in two parallel projects - the Granay for the Soviet Navy and the Warshavyanka for export. The provenance of this designation is completely obscure. In Russian, "graney" is the instrumental singular of "gran'", which means boundary, verge, brink, etc. So graney would be "by means of a boundary." Granay, a populated place in in Saint-Etienne, Rhône-Alpes, France, Europe, is also known as Grand Granay. Bounded by the districts of Tirunelveli to the north and the east, Kanyakumari was once termed as The Granay of Travancore. The narrow Graney River leads to the town of Scarriff, Ireland. The River Graney issues from Lough Graney in the barony of Tulla, and passing through Lough O'Grady, falls into Lough Derg at Scariff bay.