On this day: Soviet military operation ‘Behemoth’ began

On Aug. 6, 1991 the Russian Northern Fleet launched operation “Behemoth 2” - demonstrating that its ballistic missile submarine was capable of firing all of its missiles at once (within five to seven seconds of each other)

The Delta-IV submarine K-407 Novomoskovsk - under the command of Captain Second Rank Sergey Yegorov - was chosen for this operation.

It took three minutes and 44 seconds to launch all 16 R-29RM missiles, with the submarine shedding 650 tons of weight in the process.

The operation was seen as a possible scenario for nuclear war with the U.S.

Two years earlier, on the same day, operation “Behemoth 1” was launched. The Delta-IV class submarine K-84 Yekaterinburg attempted to launch all 16 of its missiles at the same time, yet the operation failed after a fuel leak caused a fire.

Read more: ‘Black hole’: What makes Russia’s newest submarine unique?

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