Strategic submarine recalled for inspection
Russia’s newest strategic nuclear-powered submarine ”Yury Dolgoruky” is not ready to launch missiles and has been called back from sea trials for inspection and corrections. The work will probably take at least six months.
The Yury Dolgoruky is Russia’s first Borey class submarine and is designed to carry the nuclear-capable Bulava intercontinental missile, which the Kremlin hopes to make the cornerstone of its arsenal over the next decade.
“Yury Dolgoruky” was planned to launch its first Bulava missile from the White Sea on December 17, but this mission was postponed to 2011, officially because of difficult ice conditions.
The submarine will now be sent back to the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk, Arkhangelsk Oblast, where all technical problems will be eliminated, General Director at the Moscow Heat Technology Institute, Yury Solomonov, told RIA Novosti.
Read also: Not everything smooth with the “Yury Dolgoruky”
- That the submarine is ready to enter service in the navy, is just gossip, Solomonov said and added that the work will take at least six months.
The multi-billion dollar project is the most ambitious in the Russian fleet’s post-Soviet history, but has been repeatedly delayed by a string of unsuccessful Bulava missile launches. Seven out of 14 test launches have failed. The two only test launches in 2010 were both conducted in October and were both successful. All test launches have been done by the nuclear-powered rebuilt Typhoon class submarine “Dmitry Donskoy”.
Watch video about the Bulava missile on RIA Novosti (in Russian)
Read all BarentsObserver articles on the Bulava missile
