The Dutch media claimed that Russian Navy K-266 Orel, a Project 949AM nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine, had an emergency situation and it lost its speed near the Danish island.
“Orel was sailing together with the navy tug Altay and the large anti-submarine missile destroyer Vice-Admiral Kulakov in an inter-fleet transit from St. Petersburg towards the Kola Peninsula when it got problems with propulsion and started to drift,” The Barents Observer reported.
“The incident happened on July 30 in the busy waters east of Denmark’s second-largest city Århus. Orel and the two other Northern Fleet vessels had a few hours earlier sailed under the Great Belt Bridge en route out of the Baltic Sea towards Skagerak,” it added.
A Danish Navy crew from MDMS Diana, a patrol vessel, wrote on Eskadre facebook page that they had offered help which the Russians refused.
“After three weeks of summer vacation, DIANA summoned with crew 9, out on patrol on July 20 and despite good preparation from home with planning patrol routes and port stays, the patrol immediately from the start offered tasks that overturned the bucket with good plans.
“The reason for the overturned plans is mostly due to the large Russian naval parade in Skt. Petersburg on July 25, where a large number of warships and submarines from the Northern Fleet in Murmansk participated, as well as warships from countries as far away as India, Pakistan and Iran participated in the parade.
“One of the escorts from the Baltic Sea will go down in history as both dramatic and exciting, when the nuclear-powered submarine OREL of the OSCAR II class, had problems with propulsion and lay dead in the water at Sejerø, where it drifted 1.5kn towards the island. . It got going in the escort vessel, where tow ropes were prepared, just as the submarine prepared to be towed. OREL was also followed by a destroyer of the UDALOY class, who handled the communication during OREL`s breakdown. We talked to him and offered our assistance, which he politely but not surprisingly refused.
“From DIANA, we closely followed the situation on the submarine and thoughts quickly ran to the movie “The Hunt for Red October”, when we saw a multitude of people on the deck of the submarine. But there were, after all, three nautical miles to Sejerø. A little too far to swim for a detour to the west.
“However, OREL got going again and all rigged tow gear was derrigged again. VERY exciting to witness up close.
“After OREL, we escorted the nuclear-powered submarine VEPR of the AKULA class and a large cruiser of the SLAVA class, MARSHAL USTINOV. We took over the escort from MHV ENØ in the Great Belt. MHV ENØ`s participation in the escort we were very happy as it saved us a long transit south over after the previous escort.
“Following the escort of VEPR with escort, the next escort was a KILO class submarine, up and handing him north, best speed south to pick up the 170 meter long nuclear-powered Ballistic Missile submarine KNYAZ VLADIMIR of the Borei class, as well as the destroyer ADMIRAL GORSHKOV south of the Great Belt Bridge and then north again.
Submarines act on people like a horse pear on flies – attracting attention. We found this several times where the yachtsmen showed unusually poor seamanship and crossed right in front of the submarines. After a few episodes of that kind, we started calling the yachtsmen up asking them to keep their distance, just as we had to sail up and screen the submarines for those we did not get hold of on the radio.
“The informal support to the Russian units, they also thanked for at the end of the escort at Skagen.
“The patrol soon draws to a close and with all the escorts, assistance to unfortunate yachtsmen, overflights of Swedish fighter jets and everything else, time has just flown by and 18 days feels like burned out in half the time. It has been hard and lack of sleep has taken over, but heck a fat patrol we have had,” wrote the crew in Dutch language (The above is loose translation with google translation service).
Russia Denies the incident
Information that the Russian nuclear submarine ‘Orel’ had an emergency situation and it lost its speed near the Danish island is unreliable, a Russian military source told the media.
“The Orel nuclear submarine passed the straits in the normal mode as part of a detachment of warships of the Northern Fleet. At present, the Orel nuclear submarine is performing tasks as intended,” the source said.
“The reports of the Danish media that the Orel nuclear submarine lost its speed during the passage of the Baltic Strait zone on July 30 do not correspond to reality,” the source said.
“At present, the Orel nuclear submarine is performing its missions as intended,” the source added.
K-266 Orel
Orel is one of three Oscar II submarines still serving in the Russian Northern Fleet, assigned to the 11th Submarine Division. Project 949A Antey nuclear-powered submarine missile cruiser has a displacement of 24 thousand tons, length of 154 meters, and width is more than 18 meters. The submarines are capable of underwater speeds up to 32 knots and dive to a depth of 600 meters. The main task of the submarines of this project is the destruction of enemy aircraft carriers. They are armed with P-700 Granit cruise missiles.