Do Svidanya, Komrad!

Severodvinsk, 19 October. The Zvezdochka Shipyard of Serverodvinsk will dismantle the multipurpose Project 971 SSN K-480 Bars, the last in a series of third generation submarines.

According to open sources, K-480 Bars was constructed at Sevmash in Severodvinsk in 1978 and stricken from service in 1988. The Project 971 Shchuka-B boats (NATO: Akula 2) was developed in Saint Petersburg at the Malakhit design bureau. Fourteen of these boats were contructed in Severodvinsk and Komsomolsk-na-Amur. The last boat, the Gepard, was delivered by Sevmash in 2001. Since then the fleet has not recieved any new nuclear submarines.

According to submarines.narod.ru, linked to in the text, the timeline for the boat's service was a little different. According to this source, the boat was laid down in 1985, accepted into service in 1989 and stricken in 2002.

Any way you slice it, something was wrong with this boat as its service life was way too short.

But as an American, I have to say that I look forward to shaving with it.

For Sale - Gators! And an old Coot...

The Russian Ministry of Defense DRMO site has a couple of interesting new entries:

The Large Landing Ship BDK "Mitrofan Moskalenko" and her sister ship, the BDK "Aleksandr Nikolayev" are being put up for sale and re-use.




(Photo: Warfare.ru)

Caveat Emptor: The Moskalenko is in Severomorsk and the Nikolayev is in the Vladivostok area and it is probably cash and carry. Ships may not be in the condition depicted in the above photo.

Plus - for the ultra-paranoid personality, who cant get to their underground lair when the nuclear war hits and needs to coordinate their forces during the Battle of Armageddon, you can buy your very own Il-22 Coot B airborne command post.

(Photo: Aeronautics.ru)

Hired goons to fly the plane, operate the gear and give the orders to fire the "lasers" not included.