Russia starts tests for strategic nuke-powered sub

26 June 2009, 17:00 PM

Russia's first submarine developed after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the strategic nuclear-powered Yury Dolgoruky, was launched on June 19 into the White Sea, where it will undergo twenty days of naval tests, the Russian government publication Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported June 23. Yuri Dolgoruky is the first submarine of the Borei class (Project 955) that was being built for the Russian navy. Two more nuclear-powered submarines are being built at the Severodvinsk-based Sevmash plant where Dolgoruky was also produced. Designed by the St. Petersburg-based Rubin design bureau, Dolgoruky was contracted by the Defense Ministry for 23 billion rubles ($750 million). The previous strategic nuclear submarine to be commissioned by the military, the 667 BRDM Project, was built by Sevmash in 1990. Dolgoruky is designed to be armed with Bulava intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that can carry up to 10 individually targeted warheads. However, Bulava needs to undergo more tests - five out of twelve previous launches, including the last test in December, failed. Until the end of 2009, Russian Rocket Forces plan to conduct four or five Bulava tests, Russian Navy Chief Cmdr. Vladimir Vysotsky said June 19. Vysotsky said that Bulava, designed as a modification of the Topol-M land ICBM by the Moscow Institute of Thermal Physics, will be commissioned by the military in 2009. Dolgoruky is designed to carry 12 Bulavas, while the other two Borei-class submarines - Alexander Nevsky and Vladimir Monomakh - to be completed next year, will carry 16 ICBMs each. At 160 meters long and 13.5 meters wide, Dolgoruky has a cruise capacity of up to 90 days and can dive to a depth of 480 meters. The submarine, carrying a crew of 107, is equipped with cruise missiles, portable anti-aircraft missile systems and six 533mm torpedo launchers. Borei-class submarines will make the core of the naval component of Russian strategic nuclear forces, top Russian officials, including Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, have said.