ARKHANGELSK, November 14. /TASS/. The K-84 Yekaterinburg nuclear-powered submarine of the Northern Fleet that was damaged in a dock fire in 2011 began sea trials on Friday.

The first sea trials after repair are underway at the Zvezdochka repair shipyard in Severodvinsk, the plant’s spokeswoman Nadezhda Shcherbinina told TASS.

The submarine’s service life will be extended as a result of the repair for three years. The strategic missile submarine cruiser Yekaterinburg arrived at the Zvezdochka shipyard in June 2012 for service life extension repairs and emergency repair of the sonar detection gear and equipment of the first compartment, damaged in the fire. The fire in the dock of ship repair yard No 82 in the Roslyakovo settlement of the Murmansk region started on December 29, 2011. Hot works accidentally set the wooden scaffolding around the submarine on fire and then the fire spread to the hull’s exterior insulation. A total of 11 people were hurt in the incident.

Yekaterinburg was built at the Severodvinsk-based Sevmash shipyard in 1985. The nuclear-powered submarine is 166 meters long, 12 meters wide with a displacement of 12,000 tons. The maximal submersion depth is 400 meters, cruising submerged speed - 24 knots (about 44 km per hour), crew - 140 people. The submarine is armed with 16 R-29RM missiles of the Sineva class.

According to previous reports, the Yekaterinburg submarine will be armed with the Liner missiles after the repair. Liner is Sineva’s modification with a larger number of warheads.