- View PhotoAssociated Press/Alexander Zemlianichenko, pool, file - FILE In this Thursday, July 2, 2009 file photo a new Russian nuclear submarine, Yuri Dolgoruky, is seen during sea trials near Arkhangelsk, Russia. The
MOSCOW (AP) — The Russian navy on Thursday hoisted its flag on a new nuclear powered submarine
intended to form a key part of the country's future nuclear deterrent.
It is part of an ambitious weapons modernization effort that comes as
the military is preparing for a naval exercise off Syria's shores.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu
said the war games in the Mediterranean will be the biggest such
exercise since Soviet times and involve ships from all four Russian
fleets. The maneuvers have been seen as a demonstration of Russian naval
power and a show of support for an old ally, whom Moscow has shielded
from international sanctions.
Shoigu made the statement after
commissioning the new Yury Dolgoruky nuclear submarine, which carries 16
Bulava intercontinental ballistic missiles. It is the first of a new
series of Borei-class submarines that will replace older Soviet-built
ships. Another submarine of the same type is currently undergoing sea
trials and two others are now under construction.
President Vladimir Putin
congratulated the Yuri Dolgoruky's crew during a conference call
Thursday, hailing the ship as a "powerful weapon that will guarantee our
security."
"Submarines of that class will
become an important element of sea-based strategic forces, a guarantor
of global balance and security of Russia and its allies," Putin said.
Commissioning of the new
submarines is part of an ambitious arms modernization program that
envisages spending over 20 trillion rubles ($657 billion) on new weapons
through 2020.
Putin said Thursday that 4
trillion rubles ($132 billion) of that money will be spent on
commissioning the new submarines and other navy ships. "Modernization of
the navy is one of the most important priorities in our work to
strengthen the armed forces," he said.
Putin said the navy will
commission the total of eight Borei-class ICBM nuclear submarines and
eight nuclear submarines of a different Yasen class intended to hunt for
enemy ships.
The construction of the Yuri
Dolgoruky, named after a medieval Russian prince who founded Moscow,
began in 1995 but was slowed down by a post-Soviet economic meltdown and
it wasn't until 2009 when it finally entered sea trials. The
submarine's commissioning was delayed further by problems with the new
Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile intended to arm it.
The Bulava experienced a string
of failures during tests that dragged on for years, raising doubts about
the future of the most expensive military project in Russia's
post-Soviet history. Recent tests, however, have been successful,
allowing the navy to finally commission the submarine.
Shoigu, who attended the
commissioning of the new submarine at a shipyard in Severodvinsk, said
that the Bulava is fully combat ready.
Facing questions about Bulava,
Putin's chief of staff Sergei Ivanov also insisted that "the navy has no
reason to doubt its reliability."
A hawkish Russian Cabinet member
marked the ceremony with a tongue-in-cheek comment mimicking the Cold
War-era diatribes of Soviet leaders. "You bourgeoisie tremble! You are
screwed!" Dmitry Rogozin, deputy prime minister in charge of military
industries, wrote on Twitter.
Rogozin, a nationalist politician in the past, has been known for his bellicose and sometimes crude statements.
Almost 20 years to get there... Typhoon replacement... Borei class is NOT new tech...
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