Echo I Class
The Soviet Echo I class (Project 659 class) were completed at Komsomolsk in the Soviet far east in 1960 to 1962. The Echo I class were classed as SSGNs armed with six launchers for the P-5 Pyatyorka (SS-N-3C, "Shaddock") land-attack cruise missile. The Echo I class had to operate in a strategic rather than anti-shipping role because of the lack of fire control and guidance radars.
As the Soviet SSBN force built up, the need for these boats diminished so they were converted to the Project 659T SSN's between 1969 and 1974. The conversion involved the removal of the cruise missiles, the plating over and the streamlining of the hull to reduce underwater noise of the launchers and the modification of the sonar systems to the standard of the November-class SSNs.
All the Echo Is were deployed in the Pacific Fleet although K-122 was damaged by a fire in compartment VII during a patrol mission near Okinawa in August 1980 and had to be towed back to Vladivostok for emergency dry docking (the submarine was removed from active service in October 1985). The last two boats were deleted in the early 1990s.
Read more about this topic: Echo Class Submarine
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