Mooring trials of “Yury Dolgoruky” has started
Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov today informed that mooring trials of Russia’s first Borey-class strategic nuclear submarine “Yury Dolgoruky” has started. The submarine is constructed at the Sevmash plant in Severodvinsk outside Arkhangelsk.
At a meeting in the Ministry of Defence, Mr. Serdyukov informed that 16 percent of all allocations to the ministry in 2008 went to development of the strategic forces, Interfax reports.
“Yury Dolgoruky” will be the first submarine to be equipped with Bulava missiles. It will have 16 Bulava ballistic missiles, each carrying up to 10 nuclear warheads and having a range of 8,000 kilometers. Two other Borey-class nuclear submarines, the “Alexander Nevsky” and the “Vladimir Monomakh”, are currently under construction at the Sevmash plant.
Russia has conducted ten tests launches of the “Bulava” missile. Five of these ended with failure. The last failed launch was conducted in December 2008. The previous launch, in November 2008, was the first fully successful test of the missile, and First Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Ivanov optimistically declared that Russia would start serial production of the weapon.
BarentsObserver has earlier reported that test fires of the “Bulava” missile will be resumed in March. The “Bulava” carries the NATO reporting name SS-NX-30. It is based on the SS-27 (Topol M), but is both lighter and more sophisticated.
