The Submarine That Holds The Record As The World's Fastest Is A Soviet Era Missile Sub

K-162/K-222 underway. USN

Warzone/The Drive: The Soviet's 'Golden Fish' Missile Submarine Still Holds The Record As The World's Fastest

The only Project 661 boat ever made was extremely fast underwater, but was also costly and complex to build and operate.

Sixty years ago, Soviet engineers began developing a new submarine under strict orders to eschew previous design decisions in favor of innovative concepts wherever possible. The resulting boat, a guided missile submarine that was known first as K-162 and eventually as K-222, established a still-unbeaten underwater speed record and was the first titanium-hulled submarine ever, but also proved too expensive and complicated to be anything more than a one-off, earning the nickname "Golden Fish."

K-162/K-222, the only Project 661 submarine ever built, was the product of a direct order from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and country’s Council of Ministers on Aug. 28, 1958. The directive called for a new “high-speed submarine” and development began the following year. The Project 661 design was also known as the Anchar-class in the Soviet Union and NATO referred to it as the Papa-class, even though there was only ever one boat.

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WNU Editor: The top speed of this sub was 51 miles per hour/44 knots. This compares to the latest American Virginia-class attack submarines have a publicly stated top submerged speed of around 29 miles per hour/25 knots.