Content area
Full Text
One of Russia's most complex and ambitious weapons programmes, the Project 955, Borei-class, fourth-generation strategic nuclear missile submarine (SSBN) reached several important milestones in 2013. In December 2012, the Russian MoD had signed the acceptance certificate for the first boat in the series, the Yuri Dolgorukiy. On 23 December 2013, it formally took delivery of the second boat, the Alexander Nevsky. The Russian Navy is expected to receive another six submarines of this class, for a total of eight. The third boat, Vladimir Monomakh, has already entered begun trials and after a series of missile launches it will join the fleet some time in 2014. The hulls of the fourth and the fifth submarines in the series are now being built using modified Borei-A specifications at the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk, the shipyard that built the Vikramaditya aircraftcarrier for the Indian Navy.
The Borei-programme has emerged from a period of uncertainty caused by early manufacturing problems with the submarine's main weapons system, the Bulava SLBM and there is now little doubt that the original plans to build eight Borei-class boats will be fulfilled. There are no longer any technical risks that could conceivably derail the programme. Having been accorded top priority by the Kremlin, financing is secure and is certain to be spared any budget cuts in the near future. Even if the Russian economy deteriorates and Moscow is forced to reduce its arms procurement spending (which is currently slated to reach 500 billion euros in 2011- 2020), Borei and all the other nuclear-related programmes will remain sacrosanct. All of this means that Russia has taken arguably the most important step in augmenting its strategic nuclear deterrence capability since break-up of the Soviet Union.
The fourth-generation Russian SSBN
The Borei programme was conceived by the Soviet Union as an answer to America's Trident system. Initially, Soviet engineers developed the Typhoon system, which consisted of Project 941 third-generation SSBNs and the D-19 solid-fuel missile system with R-39 missiles. But the Project 941 submarines were very large and extremely expensive and in the period 1981-1989 Moscow managed to build only six of them, not enough to achieve numerical parity with the U.S. fleet of 18 Ohio-class submarines used in the Trident system. As a stopgap solution,...