Russia's first Borei-class SSBN to enter ship repair yard soon.

The project 955 SSBN Yuri Dolgorukiy will undergo repairs at the Zvyozdochka ship repair yard, yard’s Director-General Sergei Marichev said.

The K-535 SSBN "Yuri Dolgoruky" of Project 955 of the Northern Fleet on 05/20/2018. Picture by CrazyMk / forums.airbase.ru

"The day when the project 955 Yuri Dolgorukiy nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine arrives in Severodvinsk is near. There is no doubt that the Yuri Dolgorukiy should undergo repairs at Zvyozdochka," he said without clarifying when the repair works were due to begin.

Marichev explained that the SSBN had covered thousands of miles during trials even before becoming part of the Russian Navy. The Yuri Dolgorukiy was intensively operated while it was in commission.

"When the (Defense) Ministry decides to send the ship to repairs, we are going to accept it," Marichev said. "In order to be legally authorized to work with fourth-generation ships we had to ask the Russian Defense Ministry for permission and for project documents. We have received it now," Zvyozdochka’s director-general said.

He added that at present Zvyozdochka was waiting for permission to start preparing its production capacities for repairing fourth-generation vessels.

The Yuri Dolgorukiy, project 955 Borei nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, is armed with the Bulava inter-continental ballistic missiles and torpedoes. It can also carry cruise missiles. Full displacement is 24,000 tons; the length and the width are about 160 meters and 13 meters, respectively. The submarine was laid down in 1996 and came into service with the Northern fleet in 2013.

This year the Yuri Dolgorukiy salvo fired four Bulava missiles from the White Sea for the first time in the Russian fleet’s history. The missiles hit the assigned targets at the Kura test range in Kamchatka.

The Project 955 and Project 955A submarines were developed by the Rubin Central Design Bureau for Marine Engineering in St. Petersburg in northwest Russia. The Sevmash Shipyard in Severodvinsk in north Russia continues the construction of the first series of eight submarines. Three Project 955 Borei-class submarines, in particular, the lead submarine Yuri Dolgorukiy and the serial-produced submarines Alexander Nevsky and Vladimir Monomakh, have already been put into operation with the Russian Navy. The remaining five submarines, namely the Knyaz Vladimir, Knyaz Oleg, Generalissimo Suvorov, Emperor Alexander III and Knyaz Pozharsky, were laid down and are being built under improved Project 955A.

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