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Latest diesel-electric sub for Russia’s Pacific Fleet takes to Baltic Sea for trials

This is the Project 636.3 first diesel-electric submarine built for the Pacific Fleet

© Alexandr Demyanchuk/TASS

MOSCOW, August 16. /TASS/. The Project 636.3 latest diesel-electric submarine Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, which the Admiralty Shipyard is building for Russia’s Pacific Fleet, has taken to the Baltic Sea from St. Petersburg for shipbuilders’ trials, Navy Spokesman Captain 1st Rank Igor Dygalo announced on Friday.

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"During the shipbuilders’ sea trials, some of the submarine Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky’s shipboard systems will be checked, including communications and hydro-acoustics," the naval officer said.

Before the submarine took to the sea, Russian Navy Commander-in-Chief Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov heard the reports by the chiefs of Naval Main Command’s departments about the sub crew’s preparedness for the shipbuilders’ trials, the spokesman stated.

"The Pacific Fleet is receiving Project 636.3 new diesel-electric submarines under the program of actively renewing the conventional component of the Russian Navy’s subsurface force. The series of Project 636.3 diesel-electric submarines built for the Black Sea Fleet has shown its effectiveness and reliability in practice," the spokesman quoted Navy Chief Yevmenov as saying.

Diesel-electric submarine Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky

Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexei Krivoruchko earlier reported that the Navy would get the submarine Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the fourth quarter of this year.

This is the Project 636.3 first diesel-electric submarine built for the Pacific Fleet. It was floated out at the Admiralty Shipyard in St. Petersburg on March 28.

The Project 636.3 (‘Varshavyanka’) is referred to the third generation of diesel-electric submarines. The submarines of this type have been designed by the Rubin Central Design Bureau. They can develop a speed of up to 20 knots, have sea endurance of 45 days and a crew of 52 men. They can dive to a depth of about 300 meters. The submarines of this class displace over 2,000 tonnes in their surface position and about 4,000 tonnes under the water. Varshavyanka-class subs are armed with Kalibr cruise missiles.

The first series of six submarines for the Black Sea Fleet was under construction from 2010 to 2016. The first two subs for the Pacific Fleet have been named the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and the Volkhov.

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