What's that being loaded on Yura?

Dima <3 Yuri

More pics of Yuri and Dima at U-96.

Yuri Dolgoruki Prepares for Sea

04 Sep 2008

In the near future, the SSBN Yuri Dolgoruki will conduct sea trials in the test range in the White Sea. According to a 04 Sep story by Interfax, the preparations to go to sea are being done jointly with the crew and specialists from OAO Sevmash.

The testing will include checks of the power plant and combat systems. The exact date the boat will go to sea hasn't been announced.

The Yuri Dolgoruki is the lead in the Borey-class/Project 955 strategic missile cruiser. She was launched in April, 2007 and it is expected to be commissioned later this year. Sevmash is currently constructing two more of the class - the Alexandr Nevskiy and the Vladimir Monomakh.

The Yuri Dolgoruki displaces 24,000 tons. The maximum speed is 29 knots. She is armed with six 650mm torpedo tubes, four 533mm torpedo tubes and 16 ballistic missile launchers for the Bulava.

For more of the latest on the troubled Bulava program, see Pavel Povdig's Strategic Nuclear Forces blog.

My bet is she goes to sea unarmed. And if she does go to sea with something in the tubes, it will be with ballast cans or a half tested, unreliable Bulava system so that the Russians can claim the usual bullshit about how their systems are "the best in the world with no analogue".

First Look - 08 June 2008

The Black Sea Fleet's main base is still in Sevastopol' for now.

Novorossiysk Prepares to Greet the Black Sea Fleet

Unprecedented constructon has begun in Novorossiysk. The goal of the construction is a base for the Russian Black Sea Fleet. A mole is being constructed right now. It is a unique hydro-technical structure, an analogue of which cannot be found in the world (TR Note: As always with the Russians. Yawn.)

The harbor, designed to protect ships of the Black Sea Fleet will be finished by 2014. It will be a kilometer and a half long. The construction will take place at a depth of 45 meters. General-Major Michael Tashlyk, the commander of Spets-Stroy Russia in the Southern Federal District has declared that no one else in the world has done such construction work at such a depth on such a scale. (TR Note: Again. Yawn.)

The base will be completed by 2020. Forty billion rubles have been allocated for this program. We remind you that the lease on the Black Sea Fleet base in Sevastopol' runs out in 2017.




Fire Drill Conducted on the "Yuri Dolgorukiy"

OAO Sevmash conducted a fire drill on the SSBN Yuri Dolgorukiy. Colonel-General Pavel Plat, the chief military expert for the Ministry of Emergency Situations (MES) observed the exercise. According to the scenario, a fire broke out in one of the compartments. In addition to civilian firefighters, members of the crew under the command of Kapitan First Rank Konstantin Mit'kin extinguished the "blaze".

It was a high level exercise. At the end of the event, the captain of the Dolgoruki was given an icon of the Holy Mary in the Burning Bush (TR Note: As a theme in the Russian Orthodox art, depiction of the Blessed Virgin in the center of the two four-pointed stars, holding close the Child in clerical robes as the "Great High Priest") on behalf of the leadership of the Russian MES, considered to defend lives against fire and the savior of firefighters.