The profile of the boat was conventional and featured a rounded nose, forward-set sail, tubular hull, and tapered aft-end. Rudders were positioned at the extreme aft-end of the boat, dive planes mounted on the conning tower itself. Ten compartments made up the internals of the craft.
The initial boat of the class (K-137) left her holdings on August 28th, 1966 and entered service the following November on the 5th. First patrols involving these submarines then began in June of 1969 and their presence only increased into the end of 1970. Eventually the line was modernized through upgrades when technology became available or the competition necessitated it and included introduction of the R-27U missile and the accompanying D-5U missile suite which helped to increase the submarines SLBM attack range from 1,350 nm to 1,620 nm.
In time, the class was given the ultimate upgrade to become the Project 667AM group - "Yankee II" - resulting in the original boats becoming "Yankee I" to NATO. Changes included a shift to the solid-fuel R-31 (SS-N-17) "Snipe" SLBM which increased attack ranges to 2,100 nm. However, this resulted in just twelve missiles being carried over the original stock of sixteen. Plans to increase the limited twelve missile count to sixteen fell to naught.
Yankee boats were regularly found in both Atlantic and Pacific oceans and were typically operated off America's two coasts as the Cold War between East and West continued. While never used in anger, they certainly proved their value as nuclear-capable deterrents. The boats' service lives ended as relations between the East and West improved during the 1980s and 1990s - resulting in the Yankee boats being stripped of their nuclear capabilities and decommissioned.
During their service lives, the Yankee I and Yankee II boats were joined by various developments including Yankee "Sidecar" converted to the SSGN role, Yankee "Pod" used for trials, Yankee "Stretch" to serve as a mini-sub mothership, and Yankee "Big Nose" to be used in acoustic trials.
With the exception of K-219, all boats of the class survived and were decommissioned from service and scrapped into 1995. K-219, a Project 667AU boat, was sunk by an internal explosion - resulting in an onboard fire - which claimed four lives. The vessel went down in the North Atlantic.
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