MOSCOW - Russia's Sevmash shipyard plans to begin construction of a new Project 955 Borey-class submarine in December.
"In December, if everything goes well, we will lay down one more submarine, the Knyaz Suvorov. It is another boat of the improved Borey-A class," Nikolay Semakov, a deputy department head at Sevmash said on September 19.
The Knyaz Suvorov will be the sixth nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarine in the class. A total of eight are planned. The fourth through the eighth are a modernized version of the Borey-class, referred to as the Borey-A class or Project 955A.
The first in the class, the Yuri Dolgoruky, was commissioned into service on January 10, 2013 followed by the second-in-class, the Alexander Nevsky, on December 23, 2013. The Vladimir Monomakh was laid down in March 2006 and began sea trials in June 2014. Construction of the fourth ship, the Syvatitel Nikolay, began December 2009 and the keel of the fifth, the Knyaz Oleg, was laid in July 2014.
The Project 955 submarines were designed by the Rubin Central Design Bureau of Naval Equipment at St. Petersburg. The size of the Borey class subs ranges from 14,000 to 24,000 tons. Length is 170 meters, width is 13.5 meters, and max submergence depth is 450 meters. The submarines will have an underwater speed of 29 knots and be able to carry a crew of 107 personnel. The fourth-generation vessel is designed to carry up to 12 SS-N-30 Bulava intercontinental ballistic missiles and will form the core of Russia's strategic nuclear force after 2018.