You’ve probably seen the photos. A hulking, rusted steel island sitting in a gray Russian harbor, looking more like a floating fortress than a boat. That’s the Typhoon. Technically, its Russian name is Project 941 Akula (which means shark), but most of us know it by the NATO name: Typhoon. Honestly, calling it a submarine almost feels like an understatement. It's a leviathan.
When we talk about a typhoon submarine size comparison, the numbers are so big they stop making sense. We’re talking about a vessel that displaces 48,000 tons when submerged. To put that in perspective, that is nearly three times the weight of the American Ohio-class submarines that served as its direct Cold War rivals.
The Absolute Unit of the Ocean
If you stood a Typhoon-class submarine on its end, it would be about as tall as a 50-story skyscraper. It's roughly 175 meters (574 feet) long. Now, you might think, "Wait, isn't the new Russian Belgorod longer?" And you'd be right. The Belgorod stretches to about 184 meters. But length is a vanity metric in the submarine world. The real measure of "bigness" is displacement—how much water the thing pushes out of the way.
The Typhoon is wide. Like, ridiculously wide. At 23 meters (75 feet) across, it's basically a submerged parking lot. Most submarines are essentially one long tube. The Typhoon is actually five different pressure hulls tucked inside one massive outer skin. It’s like a Russian nesting doll made of nuclear-grade steel.
Why on earth was it so big?
It wasn't just Soviet ego, though that probably played a part. The size was a solution to a specific engineering headache. The Soviets had developed the R-39 (SS-N-20) missile. These things were monsters—solid-fueled and much heavier than the American Trident missiles. Because the missiles were so huge, the boat had to be huge to carry 20 of them.
💡 You might also like: Most Expensive App Store Finds: Why People Actually Pay $1,000 for an App
Then there’s the ice. These boats were designed to live under the Arctic ice cap. To break through several feet of solid ice to launch missiles, you need incredible buoyancy. That massive hull acted like a giant life vest, giving it the upward "oomph" to smash through the frozen surface like a breaching whale.
Typhoon Submarine Size Comparison: US vs. Russia
If you look at the US Navy's heavy hitter, the Ohio-class, the comparison is almost comical. The Ohio is sleek, skinny, and efficient. It displaces about 18,750 tons submerged. It’s longer than a football field but looks like a needle compared to the Typhoon’s sledgehammer.
- Typhoon Class (Project 941): 48,000 tons submerged / 175m long / 23m wide
- Ohio Class (SSBN): 18,750 tons submerged / 170m long / 13m wide
- Borei Class (The Successor): 24,000 tons submerged / 170m long / 13.5m wide
- Columbia Class (The Future): 20,810 tons submerged / 171m long / 13m wide
Basically, a Typhoon has more than double the volume of its American counterpart. While the US focused on making their missiles smaller and more efficient, the Soviets just built a bigger boat. It's a classic case of different engineering philosophies. The Ohio is a precision instrument; the Typhoon is a blunt-force object.
💡 You might also like: How to remove voice from a song: What actually works in 2026
Living Inside a Steel Leviathan
Life on a submarine usually sucks. It’s cramped, smells like diesel and unwashed socks, and you’re constantly bumping your head. But the Typhoon? It was famously nicknamed the "Floating Hilton" by Soviet sailors. Because the boat was so wide, there was actually room for "luxuries" that Western submariners could only dream of.
We're talking about a small indoor swimming pool. Okay, it was more like a deep plunge pool (about 4 meters long and 2 meters deep), but still—a pool! On a submarine! There was also a sauna (a banya), a gym, and even a smoking room. Some accounts even mention an aviary with small birds to keep the crew’s spirits up during those 120-day submerged patrols.
The Heavy Cruiser of the Deep
The Russians didn't even classify it as a submarine. They called it a "Heavy Strategic Missile Cruiser." It was so stable that it could actually fire its missiles while moored at the pier. It didn't even have to leave the dock to start World War III.
One of the weirdest things about the Typhoon's design is where the missiles are. In almost every other submarine, the missile tubes are inside the main pressure hull behind the "sail" (the tower). On the Typhoon, the missile silos are in front of the sail, sandwiched between the two main parallel pressure hulls. This means the crew never actually had to see the missiles unless they went outside.
Where are they now?
By 2023, the era of the Typhoon officially ended. The last active boat, the Dmitri Donskoi, was finally decommissioned. Most of them have been scrapped, a process largely funded by the US and Canada under the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program. It turns out, maintaining a 48,000-ton nuclear beast is incredibly expensive.
Russia has moved on to the Borei-class. These new boats are much smaller, more stealthy, and far cheaper to run. They carry the Bulava missile, which is a lot more compact than the old R-39s. It’s the end of the "bigger is better" era in undersea warfare.
Actionable Insights for Naval Enthusiasts
If you're looking to dive deeper into the world of massive naval engineering, here is how you can actually track the legacy of these giants:
- Study the Hull Displacement: When comparing any naval vessels, always look at submerged displacement rather than length. Length is often misleading because of "towed arrays" or specialized sonar domes.
- Check Satellite Imagery: You can often still see the massive dry docks at the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk via Google Earth. Look for the footprints of the Project 941 to see just how much space they occupied compared to the new Borei-class subs.
- Monitor the Belgorod: If you want to see what "big" looks like today, follow news on the K-329 Belgorod. While it doesn't have the "girth" of the Typhoon, it is currently the longest submarine in the world and carries the Poseidon nuclear torpedo.
- Explore Virtual Tours: Several maritime museums and digital archives have preserved the internal layouts of Cold War-era subs. Look for "Project 941 internal deck plans" to see the "Sherwood Forest" of missile silos that sat between the hulls.