Sonar

Beginning in the 50s of the last century, the development of technology made underwater oil production profitable. Marine geology began to develop. In pursuit of resources, the USSR established new institutes devoted to research that will help to develop new oil deposits. Devices for scanning the seabed, instruments for the study of movements of subsurface water and oil layers, marine navigation, and communication systems. This institute had a hand in this and much more.

 

The largest test site of the institute is this workshop with two pools and water pressure chambers.

We'll come back to the pressure chambers later and look at the pools.

There are two pools. The first is long, and the other one is more like a cube. Both are equally deep.

There are cranes above the pools, to which the test subjects are attached and then submerged to the desired depth.

Above is the control and measuring equipment that monitors the progress of the experiment.

The pools are filled with salt water to make the conditions close to the real ones.

If necessary, the crane can move over the pool, dragging the test subject.

The space above the second pool is used as storage.

Between the pools lies the equipment after the tests. Or for them, it is just ahead. Look at the pontoons on the right. Let's take a closer look at them when we go down.

There are two water pressure chambers, too.

Their covers are dragged by a crane under the ceiling.

The basement. The pools go three stories deep.

Level gauges.

Just like upstairs on level -1, a gallery runs along all the pools.

Let's look at the pools closely.

An experiment in progress.

You can see the rails on which the crane goes.

Lifebuoys so that no urbexer will drown if he'll drop a camera into the water and dive to get it.

Here are the pontoons up close. You can see the ribbed structure on them, typical of the cladding of anechoic chambers. If you line the water surface of the pool with them, you get an anechoic pool.

The second pool even made a storage area over the water.

Something is already waiting to be shipped thousands of kilometers away to serve in the real world.

Until we meet again!