The Russian Navy will receive six submarines, including four nuclear-powered subs in 2020 for the first time over the past 28 years, a source in the domestic defense industry recently told TASS news agency.
Last time, the Russian Navy received the same number of submarines in 1992. After that, domestic shipbuilders delivered two-three subs to the Russian Navy a year while in 1997-2012, Russia’s subsurface force could get one submarine a year at best or no sub at all. Since 2013, new submarines have been regularly arriving for the Russian Navy. Specifically, four submarines joined the Russian Navy in 2014.
“Under the contracts, the Sevmash [Shipyard] is due to deliver the first Project 955A serial-produced submarine Knyaz Oleg [Prince Oleg] and the first Project 885M serial-produced sub Novosibirsk to the Navy in 2020. Also, the Sevmash will deliver the Project 885M lead submarine Kazan and the Project 09852 special-purpose nuclear-powered submarine Belgorod to the Navy,” the source said.
The submarine Belgorod will enter service with the Defense Ministry’s Deep-Water Research Department without Poseidon underwater drones since their trials are still underway, the source specified.
In turn, the Admiralty Shipyard in St. Petersburg in northwest Russia will deliver two diesel-electric submarines to the Navy: the Project 636.3 submarine Volkhov and the first Project 677 serial-produced sub Kronshtadt, although with a standard rather than an air-independent propulsion power plant, the source said.
Responding to a TASS request to comment on the information provided by the source, Russia’s United Shipbuilding Corporation noted that “the corporation delivers all the vessels to the state customer in compliance with the agreed schedules.”
Plans for 2019
Russian shipbuilders are set to deliver two submarines to the Navy by the end of this year. Sevmash CEO Mikhail Budnichenko said in June that the Navy would get the Project 955A lead submarine Knyaz Vladimir (Prince Vladimir) by the end of 2019. In March this year, Admiralty Shipyard Head Alexander Buzakov said that the shipbuilders would deliver the first Project 636.3 submarine Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to the Pacific Fleet this year.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu earlier stated that one diesel-electric sub and two nuclear-powered submarines would arrive for the Navy by the end of this year. As another source told TASS, “the sub Kazan was expected to be one of such nuclear-powered submarines but its delivery was re-scheduled for 2020.”
During the Soviet period, shipbuilders delivered more than 10 submarines to the Navy in some years. Specifically, in 1971, the Soviet Navy received 12 various nuclear-powered submarines alone from the defense industry.
