PATRIOT PARK, Moscow Region, August 15. /TASS/. The Dmitry Donskoy heavy nuclear submarine (project 941 Akula) will remain in service for several more years, the Russian Navy’s commander-in-chief, Admiral Nikolay Yevmenov, told TASS on Monday.
Earlier, several sources in the shipbuilding industry and defense-related agencies in the north of Russia dismissed media rumors the submarine was about to be withdrawn from the list of the Russian Navy’s combat ships.
"Who told you that The Dmitry Donskoy will be withdrawn from the fleet and scrapped? It continues to perform combat missions and will serve for several more years," Yevmenov said.
The nuclear-powered submarine Dmitry Donskoy was launched on September 29, 1980 and joined the Russian Navy on December 29, 1981. Initially, intercontinental ballistic missiles of the D-19 system were its main weapon. In 2002, the sub was upgraded under project 941UM and participated in testing the Bulava missile. In the summer of 2017, the submarine made an inter-fleet voyage to the Baltic, where it participated in the Main Naval Parade. In all total, six project 941 submarines were built for the Navy. All were based at the Northern Fleet’s Zapadnaya Litsa facility. By now three of them have been disposed of. Two - Arkhangelsk and Severstal - have been withdrawn from the fleet and are awaiting disposal.
For its size, the Dmitry Donskoy was listed in the Guinness Book of Records (1988). The submarine is 172 meters long and 23 m wide. In height it is similar to a nine-story apartment building.