SSN the project 661 have nicknamed in people "The Gold fish". This titan submarine, handed over to fleet on December, 21st, 1968, became really "gold" under the capability. The maximal speed of a underwater course of this submarine on one of tests has made 44,7 knots - 83 km/h!

fact

There is a secret A-class nuclear submarine produced by the british navy that nearly no one knows about that will reach top speeds averaging around 65 knots (120.5 Km/h). This is an indication of british sea power and a clear reminder that Britania rules the waves!

The Soviet Union Navy Project 705 (Лира/Lyra), better known in the western world by it's NATO ID, Alfa class could sustain a speed of 43 to 45 knots when submerged. To my knowledge this is the fastest submarine to have ever sailed in service. It's also one of the deepest diving ones and probably scared a lot of navy people due to the enormous cavitation noise at high speed, you can hear it coming but you can't outrun it. more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfa_class_submarine

Captain Nemo's Nautilus of course!

The fastest recorded NUCLEAR military production submarine published speed is the decommissioned Russian Lyra Class (NATO code-named ALFA). Western sources cite a speed of 42-43 Knots, whereas some Ex-Soviet sources claim 44-45. Take your pick on numbers, but even the recent Seawolf-Class (SSN21) USN submarines, while being the fastest US submarines ever, are not claimed to be faster than the Lyra. (Some sources transliterate the name as Lira, again take your pick, I don't speak Russian, and so cannot claim either spelling definitively) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfa_class_submarine Jane's Fighting Ships, 1978,1983,1996 The fastest DIESEL sumarine ever built was the AGSS-569 USS Albacore. In one of its final configurations it could reach 33 knots. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Albacore_(AGSS-569) Conventionally powered torpedoes such as the Mk 48 ADCAP mod 7, the DM2A4, or the Spearfish can exceed speeds of 55 or even 60 knots for ranges up to 15nm and sustain speeds of 45-55 knots for ranges up to 30 nm. Planned propulsion upgrades may expand this to 45+nm slow, increase sprint speeds to 70+kts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_48_torpedo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spearfish_torpedo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DM2A4 http://www.janes.com/defence/naval_forces/news/juws/juws010202_1_n.shtml Rocket torpedoes such as the Russian Shkval can exceed 200 knots.This essentially limits them to being high speed unguided kinetic weapons, as the propulsion plant consumes nearly all of the space available. Room for fuel, and therefore range is very limited (<12nm). Furthermore, they are EXTREMELY noisy. It would be nearly impossible to NOT hear a launch, necessitating its use in point defense type scenarios. I know that these last mentions aren't manned submarines, but they are submarine vehicles, so it would be important to see where the speeds fit in. Diesels average 17kts, and Nukes 30. 20+ kts is very fast for a diesel and 35+ is very fast for a nuke.

Most definitely something we common folk haven't even heard of yet. Considering the official record holder the Russian ALFA class has been around for a good while it would not be surprising given the secret nature of submarine forces that someone somewhere has since built far superior classified submarines which greatly exceed the speed, stealth and operational depth of known vessels.

Most people think of the Soviet ALFA submarine, and they aren't entirely wrong. As a CLASS of submarine, the ALFA was indeed the fastest, no doubt. But the record holder is the Soviet Papa, the K-162 (later renamed the K-222). A one of a kind submarine, she is regarded as the predecessor to the Alfa class submarine. She reached a reported speed of 44.7 knots, about 51 MPH for all you land lubbers. But this came at a pretty high price: lots of noise and some structural damage to some of her her hull features. Like the later Alfa class, her hull was constructed of Titanium. She was about 350 feet long, which is pretty interesting to note for several reasons. She was also about 7,000 tons displacement, submerged. First is that this is a nominal length for the majority of nuclear powered fast attack submarines, especially in the United States. So size wise, she was about what you'd expect of a fast attack submarine and was comperable to the Los Angeles class submarines in the United States. However, the later Alfa class was only about 267 feet long with a displacement of only 3,200 tons submerged. With a nuclear propulsion train designed to deliver around 40,000 shaft horsepower, this is the equivalent of placing a high performance engine in a very small car. And yet, the K-222 was still able to acheive a HIGHER speed than the smaller Alfa class. That made the K-222 a God-aweful powerful monster in terms of sheer power for a propulsion system. The Soviets only built 7, out of a planned 8, of the Alfa class submarines. And though much was made of the capabilities of the Alfa in the free world, she had several things working against her: 1. She was incredibly expensive to build and maintain. Titanium is NOT an easy metal to work with at all and there are incredible technological hurdles and expenses related to this, especially in the novel application as a submarine hull. And her reactor was a liquid metal cooled design, which gives a HUGE advantage in power density in terms of heat transfer capabilities. However, one of the biggest tradeoffs in using a liquid metal cooled design is an extremely high cost of maintianance. 2. Size. The capabilities of a submarine aren't solely determined by how fast she is, but also by what she can do when she gets on station. The fact of the matter is that by sacrificeing size, this class of submarine was severely limited in capabilities. Pretty much, here roles were strictly limited to the ability to sprint from one place to another incredibly fast with a more limited ability as a weapons delivery platform. 3. Noise. Though they were supposed to be as quiet as any other fast attack submarine at the time, she was in fact only quiet at very low speeds. Any submarine becomes progressively noisier at higher speeds, but the Alfa even more so, long before reaching top speeds. 4. Hull. Though her pressure hull design allowed her to reach far greater depths than conventional hulls, the first one of her class that went to those extreme depths was later decommissioned far earlier than the rest, due to pressure stress induced cracking in her hull. Still, improvements in the later ships of that class fixed much of this. But the design of the hull used to allow this extremem depth meant than only the middle compartment (the third compartment) was occupied. This design consideration was extremely expensive, and limited the sub on other aspects, as the other compartments were NOT accessable by personnel, meaning if anything went wrong, no crewman could access them while underway for emergency repairs. All in all, the Alfa class submarine was really used as a power projection demonstration submarine. It's capabilities were hyped up, as well as the intended production numbers, as a scare tactic to cause military and economic stress on other nations, most obviously the United States. However, the United States, though we did take the advantage of this situation to further our own research and designs, went another route to counter this particular threat. Instead of investing hundreds of millions of dollars, even into the billions of dollars, to design and build an entirely new class of submarine specifically to counter this threat, we invested a few million in developing a faster, meaner, and deeper diving torpedo to put on our existing ships and subs: The Mark 48 ADCAP (Advanced Capability), was designed to catch these much faster submarines, no matter how deep they went. And by meaner, I mean they were MUCH more difficult to evade once they acquired their target.

1) "Soviet submarine K-162 was the only vessel of the Soviet Union's Project 661 Anchar nuclear-powered attack submarine design, best known in the West by its NATO reporting name Papa class. K-162, which was renamed K-222 in 1978. The Papa class was designed as an extremely fast attack submarine equipped with anti-shipping cruise missiles. Its design included ten SS-N-9 missiles in individual tubes forward of the sail, between the inner and outer hulls. It is regarded as a predecessor to the Alfa class submarine, and the single submarine of the Papa class may have tested technologies which were later used in the Alfa class. K-222 was laid down on December 28, 1963, and commissioned on December 31, 1969, at Severodvinsk. She was assigned to the Soviet Red Banner Northern Fleet for the duration of her career. She was the world's fastest submarine, reaching a record speed of 44.7 knots (82.8 km/h) on trials. However, that speed came at the price of high costs during construction, and both excessive noise and significant damage to hull features when used. On September 30, 1980, one of the nuclear reactors of the K-222 was damaged during maintenance in the shipyard. By 1988 the submarine was placed in reserve storage, moored at the Belomorsk Naval Base in Severodvinsk. The boat will be dismantled at Sevmash, the only facility capable of handling the titanium hull." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_submarine_K-222 2) "In 2005, DARPA announced the 'Underwater Express program', a research and evaluation bid to establish the potential of supercavitation. The program's ultimate goal is a new class of underwater craft for littoral missions that can transport small groups of Navy personnel or specialized military cargo at speeds up to 100 knots. The contracts were awarded to Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics Electric Boat in late 2006. In 2009, DARPA announced that they have made much progress on the 'Underwater Express program' through a new class of submarine. "The submarine's designer, Electric Boat, is working on a one-quarter scale model for sea trials off the coast of Rhode Island. If the trials are successful, Electric Boat will begin production on a full scale 100-foot submarine. Currently, the Navy's fastest submarine can only travel at 25 to 30 knots while submerged. But if everything goes according to plan, the Underwater Express will speed along at 100 knots, allowing the delivery of men and material faster than ever."" Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercavitation