August 12 marked 21 years since the K-141 Kursk nuclear submarine of the Russian Navy sank in the Barents Sea, the cause of which is still a secret.
There were 118 people on board the nuclear-powered missile submarine when the disaster struck. No one can survive. Despite the fact that more than two decades have passed since the “death” of K-141, the event remains in the memory of many people in the most minute detail.
As soon as the incident took place, journalists received statements from representatives of the Russian Navy and Ministry of Defense that “the situation is under control” and that “there is a certain connection with the crew”, but in fact contrary.
It turned out that all the statements from the military authorities were just an attempt to calm the public’s resonance, regarding the “drama” that was taking place at the Council of the Russian Federation as well as at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs room.
On August 12, 2000, the nuclear-powered ship carried out a mock attack during an exercise with the flagship of the nuclear cruiser Peter the Great via a Granite cruise missile.
At 11:40 a.m., the next conditional attack was supposed to take place, but it was not observed on the ships participating in the maneuver. Then, about 20 minutes before the launch of the rockets, the final target was recorded in the logbook by members of the crew of the Kursk.
About 10 – 12 minutes before the planned attack on the Peter the Great, hydroacoustic experts detected a loud noise – a possible explosion underwater, notably this was not part of the ocean. practise.
Only after being unreachable at the scheduled time are the first steps taken to find out what happened. Naval aviation aircraft and helicopters were lifted into the air.
A few hours later, the search for the submarine officially began, as a result, at about 5 am on August 13, the ship was found at a depth of 108 m.
The media later learned that Norwegian monitoring stations recorded two explosions, and that the power of the second was significantly higher than that of the first, equivalent to 5 tons of TNT.
The explosions tore apart the ship’s structure, damaging the very sturdy hull. The resulting tracks raised many questions, many of which remain largely unanswered to this day.
In particular, the following question raised suspicions: if the explosion in the torpedo bay was the cause of the sinking of the Kursk, why were the edges of the hole bent inward?
All of this is reason to discuss a variety of scenarios, from the impact of water pressure as the ship tries to surface to the idea of the use of weapons by one of the NATO submarines appearing. near Russian Navy exercises
To date, hundreds of articles and books have been written about the disaster that befell Kursk and its crew, and dozens of documentaries and pseudo-documentaries have been filmed.
However, all the articles, books and movies do not shed 100% light on what really happened on 12/8/2000 in the waters of the Barents Sea.
It is clear that what happened to the Kursk submarine and its crew was the greatest disaster for the Russian Navy in its entire recent history, and that tragedy cannot be forgotten.