The Soviet Akula class is the largest submarine ever built. The name means shark. NATO calls the same boats Typhoon.
Underwater, one of these submarines displaces 48,000 tons. The hull is 75 feet 6 inches (23 meters) wide, wider than any other submarine.
Why is the hull so wide?
The two main pressure hulls sit side by side, and five inner hulls sit inside the outer structure. The missile tubes are in front of the sail, not behind it. That leaves the crew space that does not feel like a cramped submarine.
One hundred sixty people live aboard. Under the ice of the Arctic, a patrol can last more than 120 days.
So life on board is not only a bunk and a watch.
There is a swimming pool and a sauna.
The weapons are 20 R-39 ballistic missiles. Together they can carry up to 200 nuclear warheads.
The class was a direct answer to the American Ohio submarines.
No other submarine has reached this scale.
And none has carried a pool under Arctic ice.
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