On October 25th Sevmash plant in Severodvinsk started the construction of the new strategic submarine of 4th generation. The submarine is the new Borey class and is named "Uriy Dolgorukiy". According to the head of Russian Navy Admiral Gromov, the Borey class submarines will surpass by 2 -3 times all the submraines currently in operation and even those in design stage by its technical parameters. The submarine will be 170 meter long. The design of the boat resembles the one of Delta class submarine, but will be bigger in size and smaller than Typhoon - class. The Borey - class will be armed with ballistic missiles of new generation and with different type of torpedoes. The missiles can be launced both from surfaced and submerged positions. The Borey - class submarine is designed by Rubin Design Institute in St. Petersburg by Sergey N. Kovalev. He was also the designer of the Typhoon - class submarines. The head submarine will be put into operation by the year 2002 - 2003.
To complete the construction of Borey it will be necessary to allocate about 1 billion US dollars, for the year 1997 the spendings will reach 100 million US dollars. Prime-minister of Russia Victor Chernomyrdin promised to outline these spendings specifically in the budget for the next year. although nobody can predict the further economical development of the contry. Major of Moscow decleared that he will take responsibility for this boat, what means that if constructors face really hard times, Moscow will be willing to provide some finansial resources.[1]
The Borey class stratgical submarines will replace the Delta- and Typhoon class submarines.[2] According to the latest returns, Typhoon - class submarines will be taken out of operation in the beginning of next century. Although the pessimistic reports claim that in 1,5 years Typhoons will be unable to go on patrol missions.[3]
[1] Komsomolskaya Pravda, October 25th
1996.
[2] Aftenposten, November 9th 1996.
[3] Ogonyok, November 5th 1996.