Armament centered on 6 x 533mm (21") torpedo tubes, all fitted to the bow. The vessel carried 18 x SET-6 or 53-65K series torpedoes or 20 x VA-111 "Shkval" torpedoes or 24 x naval mines as needed.
The first boat of the class to be laid down was K-432 at Severodvinsk on November 12th, 1967 but the first boat in the series to be launched was K-64 on April 22nd, 1969. K-64 was also the first to be commissioned, this on December 31st, 1971 - an event which alerted Western observers to the class. K-463 followed as the last of the series on December 30th, 1981.
In service, the boats proved as fast as advertised (much to the surprise of USN personnel when the boats were encountered in open water) but their unique reactor fits meant that the propulsion systems held a very short operational life, were generally unreliable, and required special attention: because the reactors were cooled by liquid metals, the rods would fuse to the coolant if the powerplant were shut down so this meant that they were to be kept running (or warmed) constantly when the boat was not in use. It was also believed by the West that the boats held exceptional deep-water capabilities which was found to not be the case - regardless of this, much time, energy, and finances were spent by the West on developing counters to this class of new Soviet "super-boat".
With the exception of K-64, the group saw service throughout the 1980s and faced decommissioning (as a class) in 1990 with the fall of the Soviet Union. The last boats were written off on April 19th, 1990 and their hulls given up for scrapping. K-64 was decommissioned as early as August 19th, 1974 and also given up for scrapping (not surprisingly considering the experimental nature of the class). K-123 managed an extended service life as a training vessel before she was given up for good.
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