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Yuri Dolgoruky submarine joins Northern Fleet’s 31st Submarine Division

The Yuri Dolgoruky has successfully completed the trials
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

SEVERODVINSK, Arkhangelsk Region, January 11 (Itar-Tass) – The leads nuclear-powered submarine Yuri Dolgoruky of Borei Class, Project 955, joined the 31st Submarine Division of the Northern Fleet stationed at Gadzhiyevo, Murmansk Region, on Thursday, January 10.

The relevant order of Navy Commander-in-Chief Viktor Chirkov was read out at the flag hoisting ceremony aboard the submarine at the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk.

According to Sevmash Director-General Mikhail Budnichenko, “The Yuri Dolgoruky has successfully completed the trials, having made 22 voyages and travelled more than 20,000 nautical miles.”

The submarine would sail off to its new base this coming summer. It is designed to operate for 20 years.

The submarine was reported to have cost 23 billion roubles. Serial submarines of the same class should cost less.

Sevmash started building three serial submarines of this class: the Alexander Nevsky in 2004, the Vladimir Monomakh in 2006 and the Knyaz Vladimir in 2012. The Alexander Nevsky is undergoing sea trials now. The Vladimir Monomakh was taken out of the dock on December 30, 2012 for launching and sea trials.

The first Borei-class nuclear-powered submarine Yury Dolgoruky was the first strategic missile submarine to be launched in seventeen years since the end of the Soviet era. It was the first Russian (rather than Soviet) vessel.

The Defence Ministry plans to build at least eight new Borei-class submarines that should become the main naval component of Russia's strategic nuclear forces.

Borei-class submarines are designed by the St. Petersbug-based Naval Design Bureau Rubin. Each submarine can be armed with 12 ICBMs with MIRVs. They will also have an escape capsule for all crewmembers. A Borei-class submarine is 170 metres long and 13.5 meters wide, it can sink to a depth of 450 metres and has a crew of 17 sailors.

The Borei claims to be a state-of-the-art submarine, featuring characteristics superior to any submarine currently in service, such as the ability to cruise silently and be less detectable to sonar. Advances include a compact and integrated hydrodynamically efficient hull for reduced broadband noise and the first ever use of pump-jet propulsion on a Russian nuclear submarine.

The submarine will be armed with Bulava missiles. The Bulava carries the NATO reporting name SS-NX-30 and has been assigned the GRAU index 3M30. In international treaties, the common designation RSM-56 is used.

The Yuri Dolgoruky is the 129th nuclear-powered submarine built by Sevmash and the first one in the past 12 years. Prior to that, in December 2001, the shipyard handed over the multirole submarine Gepard (carrying no ballistic missiles) to the Navy.