Last week, the protracted saga with the strategic nuclear submarine Yuri Dolgoruky ended. Laid down back in 1996, the submarine was finally accepted into the combat strength of the Russian Navy. In the last days of last year, the Ministry of Defense signed an act on the transfer of the boat, and now it has become a full-fledged ship of the Navy. Along with the adoption of the Yuri Dolgoruky, the R-30 Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile was adopted into the fleet, which, however, will be in trial operation in the coming year.
If you recall the events of past years, you can see that the constant shifts in the timing of the commissioning of the Project 955 boats were caused precisely by problems with the main armament. Moreover, at a certain point, the leadership of the fleet and the Ministry of Defense even decided to develop a new missile system for the Boreyevs. Ultimately, the missile issue was the reason for such a long way of "Yuri Dolgoruky" to full-fledged service in the Navy. Indirect confirmation of such assumptions about the reasons for changing the timing of adoption can be considered the statements of the country's leaders. Earlier, it was repeatedly mentioned that within a few months after the delivery of the lead "Borey" it is worth waiting for the commissioning of the second boat of the project. The other day, the head of the presidential administration, S. Ivanov, confirmed such plans. According to him, the second nuclear submarine of project 955 "Alexander Nevsky" will be commissioned by the end of 2013.
Thus, the Russian Navy will enter the new 2014 year with two new fourth-generation submarines. Then they will be joined by "Vladimir Monomakh", "Prince Vladimir" and four more nuclear submarines, which have not yet received names. At present, three boats of Project 955 have already left the stocks: the accepted Yuri Dolgoruky, the tested Alexander Nevsky, and the Vladimir Monomakh nuclear submarine launched at the very end of last year. The fourth boat in the series has been under construction since the middle of last year. In total, it is planned to build eight submarines of the Borey project by 2020. It is noteworthy that the fourth ship of the series will be built in accordance with the updated project 955A, the main difference of which is the number of missiles transported. Thus, "Prince Vladimir" will be able to carry and use 20 missiles, and not 16 like the previous nuclear submarines of the series.
It is worth noting that the Borei are not the only new submarines that will join the Navy in the coming years. At present, the tests of the Severodvinsk multipurpose nuclear submarine, belonging to the project 885 Yasen, are being completed. In addition, the second boat of the Kazan series, belonging to the 885M project, is being completed. By 2020, the Russian Navy will include eight such submarines. The construction of diesel-electric submarines of projects 636, 877 and, possibly, 677 will also continue. The plans of the country's leadership for the construction of new equipment for the fleet look very, very bold. Their implementation is supported by appropriate investments of money. So, in the current state armaments program for the period up to 2020, it is planned to allocate four trillion rubles for the construction of new equipment for the navy. For this money, it is planned to build about a hundred units of naval equipment, from strategic nuclear submarines to patrol boats.
As a result of all the transformations and upgrades of the Russian navy, the R-30 Bulava ballistic missile will become the main means of restraining sea-based in the future. Despite the specific statements of some people far from the development and testing of this missile, the military and the country's leadership have no complaints about it. S. Ivanov spoke about this in plain text, and also expressed a completely obvious thesis about the inevitability of unsuccessful test launches. In addition, the head of the presidential administration recalled that the main missile of the strategic submarines R-29RMU2 "Sineva" at the moment also had certain problems at the test stage, but all of them were eventually overcome. So all the time spent on the development and testing of the "mace" is fully justified and this missile is quite suitable for ensuring the country's security.
The plans to renew the fleet were confirmed by Russian President V. Putin. At the solemn ceremony of presenting the Order of Nakhimov to the missile cruiser Peter the Great, he stressed the importance of the development of the navy for the future of the country. According to him, in the future, Russian shipbuilders will only increase the pace of development and construction of new military equipment. Severodvinsk plant "Sevmash" will remain one of the main executors of orders for the Navy. It has already built over 120 submarines for the Soviet and Russian navies alone and will continue to supply new submarines of various types in the future.
Last Saturday, January 12, ITAR-TASS, citing a source in the Ministry of Defense, reported on further developments around the new submarines. In July and November of the current 2013, the fifth and sixth submarines of the Borey project will be laid down at Sevmash. They are said to be named "Alexander Suvorov" and "Mikhail Kutuzov". At the same time, it is noted that such names are still working ones. Thus, the new Project 955A submarines will continue the established tradition of naming these submarines in honor of the great commanders and statesmen of past centuries.
