Fire! Fire! Fire!

 Photo: K-480 being rolled out of the building hall at SevMash, 16 April 1988. Source: military.tomsk.ru and TV program Udarnaya Sila

Arkhangel'sk - The efforts to extinguish a fire on a submarine awaiting disposal at the Zvezdochka Shipyard in Severodvinsk has been continuing for seven hours according to a source.

The fire on Akula class K-480 Ak Bars (Project 971) began at approximately 1445 Moscow time. "Cable raceways caught fire. Initial efforts to extinguish the fire were ineffective. The compartment is relatively big, but it almost immediately filled with smoke and visibility was practically zero. An attempt was made to flood the compartment in an attempt to extinguish the flames without effect".

K-480 is pretty young for being being a candidate for disposal (not that that is a BAD thing from my perspective!). For a taste of what disposal involves, see A Unique Operation in Gremikha.

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.