The Typhoon torpedo room was built in the top part of the bow between the twin hulls. The boat was equipped with 4 x 24.8in (630mm) torpedo tubes fitted for RPK-7 Vodopad AShMs and Type 65K torpedoes and 2 x 21in (533mm) torpedo tubes using RPK-2 Viyuga cruise missiles and Type 53 torpedoes. Also onboard were 22 anti-submarine missiles - all told, a formidable amount of ordnance for any one submarine.
The boat was designed not only to travel under the ice but, if the time came to fire her missiles, she was also designed to break through the ice. The boat had an advanced stern fin with horizontal hydroplanes fitted aft of the screws. The horizontal hydroplanes in the bow section were retractable into the hull. The giant sail had a reinforced guard cover that was rounded for ice breaking purposes. The top-most systems could completely retract into the sail during ice breaking maneuvers and included two periscopes, a radio sextant, surface radar, radio antennas, and navigation masts.
The heart of the submarine was its propulsion system that allowed her to move thru the deep ocean environment and hide from the American "hunter killer" boats, speeding about to possible firing positions. This power was provided by two nuclear water reactors and two turbogear assemblies. One reactor and one turbogear assembly were fitted in each main hull. Each nuclear water reactor produced 190MW and drove 2 x 50,000 horsepower steam turbines with 4 x 3,200kW turbo-generators. 2 x 800kW diesel generators were used as standby propulsion with the system connected to the propeller shafts. The two propellers were seven-bladed, fixed-pitch and shrouded.
The revolutions across communist nations in eastern Europe were underway in 1989 and the Soviet Union herself was dissolved in 1991. In 1990, the Dmitri Donskoi was scheduled for a refit at the dry dock in Severodvinsk. Due to a lack of funds following the region-wide upheavals, the refit was postponed though, by 2002, she was back on duty with the now-Russian Navy. In 2005 she was used to launch a test "Bulava" missile while in the White Sea. She continued to perform such test missions in the North Sea into 2010, remaining in service to an extent.
Despite the fall of communism in Russia, reliable information concerning the Akula-class boats is still vague, even today. Their operation is expected to continue into the latter half of the decade based on government statements. The most accepted information is that all six completed boats of the class are currently listed as "inactive" with at least three (TK-202, TK-12 and TK-13) having been scrapped, these apparently with some US and British assistance. TK-17 and TK-20 are held in an inactive "reserve" status. A seventh boat, the TK-210, was laid down in 1986 but scrapped in 1990 before completion to shore up funding gaps following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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