The B-586 Kronstadt is a conventional multi-purpose submarine, built by the Admiralty Shipyards according to a modified Project 677 Lada-class. Kronstadt is the first serial unit after the prototype B-585 St. Petersburg. Kronstadt was assigned to the 161st Submarine Brigade of the Kolsk Flotilla based in Polyarnyy as a part of the Northern Fleet.
Project 677 Lada was developed by the Central Design Bureau of Maritime Technology “Rubin” in St. Petersburg. The new vessels were to replace older submarines (Project 613, 641 and 877) in the enclosed seas (mainly the Baltic and Black Seas). Plans were made for serial production of 20 Lada-class for the VMF, and there were high hopes for the export of a submarines of the new type.
The keel of the prototype St. Petersburg was laid in late 1997. The vessel was launched in 2004. But factory sea trials revealed a number of serious flaws in the design. The Lada design was very innovative compared to legacy Russian submarines: a single-hull design was used for the first time, a pressure hull made of the new AB-2 strength steel, a new Molniya hull anechoic covering, a new SED-1 synchronous electric motor with permanent magnetic excitation, the Lira sonar system (the first time a Russian bow sonar had a conformal antenna), the Litiy automated combat management system, the Parus-98 optronic mast, the Distantsiya integrated communications system and others.
Without waiting for the results of the prototype tests, the shipyard began building serial ships: Kronstadt in 2005 and Sevastopol in 2006 (later renamed Velikiye Luki). When the design was found to be flawed, work was halted. In February 2012, the media reported that the VMF was abandoning the Lada project – according to Russian Navy commander Adm. V. Vysotsky, “the declared technical parameters of the Project 677 submarines have not been confirmed by tests of the prototype “St. Petersburg”. In its current form, the Russian Navy does not need the Lada”.
However, a year later, the Russian Ministry of Defence decided to continue the program while modifying the design to eliminate its flaws. In 2013, the shipyard resumed construction of Kronstadt. “Rubin” did a lot of work to improve the design. Improved equipment was installed in the modified units – the control system for equipment and mechanisms, the electric motor and navigation systems.
Meanwhile, the unsuccessful prototype St. Petersburg entered “trial service” in May 2010. It began operational service in September 2021, 17 years after launching (!).
Currently, Admiralty Shipyards is continuing construction of three more Project 677 Lada-class submarines. In December 2023, factory sea trials of the third B-587 Velikiye Luki were completed. In June 2022, the keels of the fourth and fifth were laid: Vologda and Yaroslavl. The Lada-class submarines have a displacement of 1765/2650 tons, a length of 66.8 meters, a speed of 10/21 knots, an operational depth of 300 meters, a crew of 35, an armament of six 533 mm torpedo tubes (18 torpedoes, missiles and sea mines).
