Experience the history of the fateful voyage of K-141 KURSK that ended at the bottom of Barents Sea. The joint Russian-Dutch operation plans to raise the flooded hulk of the submarine by the middle of next month using specially contructed 'cable plugs' pierced into the outer hull of the submarine. But before this happens divers will attach a cutting chain to the front of the bow to saw off the damaged torpedo compartment, which will remain at the bottom of the sea. Private media and state-owned Russian newspapers criticised the Navy's refusal to accept international assistance. [7] Five days after the accident on 17 August 2000, President Putin accepted the British and Norwegian governments' offer of assistance. Six teams of British and Norwegian divers arrived on Friday, 18 August. [16] The Russian 328th Expeditionary rescue squad, part of the Navy's Office of Search and Rescue, also provided divers. [39] On 19 August at 20:00, the Norwegian ship Normand Pioneer arrived with the British rescue submarine LR5 on board, seven days after the disaster. [16] [28]

The remains of Kursk 's reactor compartment were towed to Sayda Bay on Russia's northern Kola Peninsula, where more than 50 reactor compartments were afloat at pier points, after a shipyard had removed all the fuel from the boat in early 2003. [25]Over four days, the Russian Navy repeatedly failed in its attempts to attach four different diving bells and submersibles to the escape hatch of the submarine. Its response was criticised as slow and inept. Officials misled and manipulated the public and news media, and refused help from other countries' ships nearby. President Vladimir Putin initially continued his vacation at a seaside resort in Sochi [1] and authorised the Russian Navy to accept British and Norwegian assistance only after five days had passed. Two days later, British and Norwegian divers finally opened a hatch to the escape trunk in the boat's flooded ninth compartment, but found no survivors.

In response to the avalanche of criticism, Minister of Defence Sergeyev and senior commanders of the Navy and the Northern Fleet offered Putin their resignations, but he refused to accept them. [6] :160The crew of the submarine Karelia detected the explosion, but the captain assumed that it was part of the exercise. [18] Aboard Pyotr Velikiy, the target of the practice launch, the crew detected a hydroacoustic signal characteristic of an underwater explosion and felt their hull shudder. [19] They reported the phenomenon to fleet headquarters but their report was ignored. [18] Spitz, D.J. (2006), Investigation of Bodies in Water. In: Spitz and Fisher's Medicolegal Investigation of Death. Guideline for the Application of Pathology to Crime Investigations (4thed.), Springfield, Illinois., pp.846–881 {{ citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher ( link) Fragments of both the outer and inner hulls were found nearby, including a piece of Kursk 's nose weighing 5t (5.5 short tons), indicating a large explosion in the forward torpedo room. [37] [38] British and Norwegian help [ edit ] The British deep submersible rescue vehicle LR5 But the Kursk tragedy has remained an unsightly scar on Putin’s record. In 2010, on its 10th anniversary, neither he, as prime minister at the time, nor then-President Dmitry Medvedev made any public comments on modern Russia's worst naval disaster.

That is far beyond the reach of British or US rescue submersibles; in fact, only a handful of unmanned Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) can operate at that depth.

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Weir, Gary E. and Boyne, Walter J. (2003), Rising Tide: The Untold Story Of The Russian Submarines That Fought The Cold War. Basic Books, NY, NY. ISBN 978-0465091126

What really happened to Russia's 'unsinkable' sub". The Guardian. 4 August 2001 . Retrieved 1 February 2014. Kursk had a mythical standing. It was reputedly unsinkable and, it was claimed, could withstand a direct hit from a torpedo. [9] The outer hull was constructed using 8mm (0.3in) steel plate covered by up to 80mm (3in) of rubber, which minimised other submarines' or surface Wines, Michael (27 February 2001). "Russian Sub's Officer Wrote Of Torpedo Blast, Izvestia Says". New York Times . Retrieved 19 February 2014.The sinking of the ship, the pride of their submarine fleet, was a devastating blow to the Russian military. [9] Kursk 's participation in the exercise had been intended to demonstrate Russia's place as an important player on the international stage, but the country's inept handling of the crisis instead exposed its weak political decision-making ability and the decline of its military. [12] Rogers, J. David; Koper, Keith D. "Some Practical Applications of Forensic Seismology" (PDF). Missouri University of Science and Technology . Retrieved 5 September 2010. Mayo, a diving platform, was equipped with dive chambers to accommodate the dive teams. They worked in six-hour shifts, and when they were not in the water, the divers remained in the saturation chambers for the entire 28 days the operation took. [94] The divers used hydraulic abrasive water jets to cut 26 holes through both the outer and inner hulls. The salvage divers mounted custom guidance rings around the holes in the sub and lowered guide cables to each through the holes in Giant 4. The team then used the four guide cables to lower a custom-made giant gripper, similar to a toggle bolt, which were custom designed to fit each hole, and the divers manoeuvred them through the guidance ring. [95]