Too much TV again.
What is that structure on the bow of the November class I saw on the History Channel. A hyrdophone or SONAR array?
It looks like that stupid window on the Seaview from Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea.
I was waiting for an expert to answer this, but I’ll try.
A November class boat is a nuclear powered hunter-killer boat. The Russian designation for this boat is: PLA - Atomnaya Podvodnaya Lodka. The American name is: SSN - Nuclear-powered Submarine.
In addition to the November, other Russian PLA class boats are: Akula; AkulaII; Alfa; EchoI and II; EchoII (modified); Mike; Sierra; VictorI, II and III; and Yankee.
There are several possibilities. The nose dome contains a passive sonar array but, in addition, could contain any of several active sonar arrays. The most likely is a 'Shark Gill’LF active sonar suite.
Sorry, I forgot to tell you where I found it. Last time I did that, I got jumped:
http://www.armscontrol.ru/atmtc/Arms_systems/Navy/Submarine/Submarines_table_base.htm
“Just because you are paranoid, doesn’t mean no one is following you”. - unknown
The November-class PLAs (a NATO designation – the Russian designation is Leninsky Komsomol-class) were developed in the 1950s, and were decommissioned between 1988 and 1992.
The sonar equipment consists of an MG-100 Arktika active search sonar (or later variant) plus a Mars 16KP passive search sonar (or MG-10 Feniks-M in later boats). I would guess that the ‘bulge’ is the housing for the active sonar.