MOSCOW, March 19. /TASS/. The US military failed to detect Russia’s project 955 (Borei class) submarine The Alexander Nevsky during its voyage from Russia’s Northern Fleet to the Pacific several years ago by virtue of its low noise and special maneuvers performed on the way, the submarine’s former commander, Captain 1st Class Vasily Tankovid, told TASS in an interview.

"As far as its stealth parameters are concerned, in this respect we are far ahead of our own and foreign ships. The characteristics of US ships are nowhere near our low noise levels," Tankovid said about The Alexander Nevsky’s features. The submarine made a 42-day voyage from the Northern Fleet to the Pacific Fleet in 2015. During the journey it remained on the surface for twelve days. Tankovid recalled that the United States learned about the voyage only when the submarine arrived in Vilyuchinsk, the Kamchatka Peninsula.

"Participation of the fleet’s forces, competent use of the submarine’s capabilities and special maneuvers upset the United States’ attempts to monitor the submarine on the way. The Americans ‘woke up’ only when we arrived at the pier. In fact they lost our track at a certain point," Tankovid said.

Low noise, imperceptible trail in the water and other stealth features make Russia’s Borei class submarines invisible to many of the current foreign counterparts. "This explains why even in the Bering Strait, where the US coast is visible to the naked eye, we remained unnoticed and sailed past quietly and calmly," Tankovid said.

The Alexander Nevsky submarine

The Alexander Nevsky is a second strategic nuclear-powered submarine of project 955 Borei. Its keel-laying ceremony at the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk was held on March 19, 2004. The sub was set afloat in November 2010. Officially the submarine became organic to the Pacific Fleet in December 2013, but territorially it had remained at a Northern Fleet base for testing its main weapon - the ballistic missile Bulava. The submarine is capable of carrying 16 such missiles.