MOSCOW, March 17 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has started
mooring trials of the first Borey class nuclear-powered
strategic submarine, which will be equipped with Bulava
sea-based ballistic missiles, the defense minister said on
Tuesday.
"In line with the program on the introduction of new Borey
class nuclear-powered strategic submarines into the Russian
Navy, we have begun mooring trials of the first submarine in
the series - the Yury Dolgoruky submarine," Anatoly Serdyukov
told a meeting at the Defense Ministry attended by President
Dmitry Medvedev.
The submarine, built at the Sevmash plant in northern
Russia, was taken out of dry dock in April 2007.
The vessel is 170 meters (580 feet) long, has a hull
diameter of 13 meters (42 feet), a crew of 107, including 55
officers, a maximum depth of 450 meters (about 1,500 feet) and
a submerged speed of about 29 knots. It can carry up to 16
ballistic missiles and torpedoes.
Two other Borey-class nuclear submarines, the Alexander
Nevsky and the Vladimir Monomakh, are currently under
construction at the Sevmash shipyard and are expected to be
completed in 2009 and 2011. Russia is planning to build a total
of eight submarines of this class by 2015.
Russia also is planning to complete tests and put into
service sea-based Bulava intercontinental ballistic missiles
(ICBM) in 2009 despite numerous test failures. The Russian
military have said that production flaws could be to blame for
the unsuccessful test launches and insisted that the tests
would continue until the missile was ready for production.
The Bulava (SS-NX-30) ICBM carries up to 10 nuclear
warheads and has a range of 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles).
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