The complex operation to raise the sunken submarine Kursk

During its five years of service, the K-141 Kursk submarine (Project 949) managed to complete only one mission: a six-month voyage to the Mediterranean Sea in 1999 to observe the actions of the US Navy's 6th Fleet in connection with the crisis in Kosovo. But in August 2000, it sank under mysterious circumstances at a depth of 108 metres in the Barents Sea, 175 kilometres from Severomorsk.

In early 2001, the Rubin company approached foreign companies with a request to raise the Kursk by the end of the year. However, the short deadline and the desire to separate and leave the torpedo compartment underwater were unacceptable to many companies, as the operation was highly explosive due to the 15 torpedoes remaining in it, the condition of which was unknown.

Plan for raising the Kursk submarine

Only Mammoet, a private Dutch company specialising in heavy lifting and transporting oversized cargo, and Smit Internationale, a Dutch company specialising in towing and salvaging sunken ships, agreed to take on the job. The contract was worth US$65 million.

After agreeing on the submarine lifting project with the customer, all the equipment, 60-tonne towers with jacks and 26 huge reels with steel cables, was loaded onto the giant barge Giant 4 and sent to the site of the submarine disaster.

Giant 4 self-propelled barge

During the first six months of 2001, a team of engineers first separated the damaged bow section of the hull using a newly developed abrasive system based on a tungsten carbide cutting cable. The cable was driven by hydraulic pulleys located on both sides of the hull and secured to the ground by an anchor system.

Torpedo compartment separation diagram

Twenty-six holes with a diameter of 1 metre were made in the submarine's lightweight hull, into which 26 specially manufactured expansion hooks were inserted. The devices were inserted into the hull using pipes that were lowered into each hole. Incidentally, the holes were drilled manually by a team of four professional divers, which took 26 days working in three shifts.

Expansion hook

Then, the remaining part of the submarine cruiser was smoothly lifted using 26 hydraulic jacks pulling lifting cables.

Pontoons for lifting barges with cargo

After 11 hours, the sunken submarine Kursk was successfully secured under the hull of the barge Giant 4 and transported to the Roslyakovo dock in Murmansk Bay.

Giant 4 self-propelled barge with cargo

The barge with its cargo had a deep draught, which prevented it from entering the shallow dry dock. For this purpose, two separate semi-submersible pontoons were built, which lifted the barge with the boat 16 metres.

Barge with Kursk boat in dry dock, October 2001

The wreckage of the secret submarine was carefully examined by naval experts, but the true cause of its demise remains shrouded in mystery and controversy.

Draining the dock and revealing the Kursk's conning tower

The remains of the reactor compartment were towed to Saida Bay in the north of the Kola Peninsula. The fragments of the submarine's bow section with the torpedo compartment that remained underwater were destroyed with explosives in 2002.

Remains of the hull of the sunken submarine Kursk

The infamous submarine Kursk, which once proudly ploughed the world's oceans, was scrapped, and the titanic efforts to raise the huge submarine strengthened the bond and mutual respect between the ship's rescuers, who together made maritime history.