Powered by two nuclear reactors, capable of underwater speeds of 59kph and more than four storeys high, K-141 Kursk was the largest attack submarine ever built. By the time it sailed in August 2000 for an exercise in the Barents Sea, the submarine had already completed a successful spying mission on the US Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean, but it would never make another voyage.
Rocked by explosions and, despite rescue attempts by British and Norwegian crews, the Kursk sunk with the loss of all 118 lives on 12 August 2000. The Russian government ruled that the submarine had been destroyed because a hydrogen peroxide leak set off a chain of exploding torpedoes. However French film-maker Jean-Michel Carré contends that the Kursk was sunk after colliding with a US submarine, and in this programme he reinforces those claims with evidence.
Previously shown on the History Channel in 2007, this is a fascinating, well-made documentary, although Carré's theory is not wholly convincing.
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