ARKHANGELSK, June 23, 21:00 /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s second serial Borei-class strategic submarine Vladimir Monomakh (Project 955), built by the Sevmash shipyard, will join the Navy before the end of the year, the company’s press service said on Monday, June 23, quoting its Director-General Mikhail Budnichenko as saying.

He said the submarine would be handed over to the Navy after the end of the current sea trials. “In strict compliance with the schedule we are building two new craft for the Navy and upgrading the heavy cruiser Admiral Nakhimov,” Budnichenko said.

On June 11, the Vladimir Monomakh began sea trials in the White Sea. The submarine will make one more voyage in July to test all systems before it goes into service later in the year.

The Vladimir Monomakh is the third Project 955 craft built by the Sevmash shipyard. The fourth one, Knyaz Vladimir, is now under construction. The fifth one, Knyaz Oleg, will be laid down on July 19.

The Knyaz Oleg will become the first serial upgraded version of Project 955A submarines. They will have smaller hulls and cons, better acoustic characteristics and lower noisiness.

The first two Borei-class submarines joined the Navy late last year. The Alexander Nevsky was the first serial Project 955 ship of the Borei Class. It was laid down on March 19, 2004. The leading submarine of the series, Yuri Dolgoruky, went into service in January 2013.

The Defense 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. Petersburg-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 meters long and 13.5 meters wide, it can sink to a depth of 450 meters 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 was 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.

The Alexander Nevsky is the second Borei-class submarine. Its construction at the Sevmash shipyard began in 2004 and the submarine is a fourth generation strategic underwater missile cruiser.

The Project 955 submarine is the first serial strategic rocket carrier of the Borei class. It is 170 meters long, 13.5 meters wide, maximum operating depth is 450 meters, and underwater speed is 29 knots.

Borei class submarines are designed to serve as the basis of Russia's strategic nuclear capabilities for the decades to come.

Sevmash, Russia’s largest shipyard, is now building two sets of new-generation nuclear submarines - attack craft (Yasen class, Project 855) and strategic craft (Borei class, Project 955) - for the Russian Navy.