The two 175 meters long submarines “Arkhangelsk” and Severstal”, each capable of carrying up to twenty intercontinental ballistic missiles, have been laid up in Zaozyorsk in the Murmansk region for the last decade.
The fate of the submarines has been up for discussion many times. In May 2010 Vladimir Vysotsky, who was then Commander of the Russian Navy, announced that the two subs would be overhauled and kept in service until 2019.
Now a decision has been made to utilize “Arkhangelsk” and “Severstal”. A source in the Ministry of Defense says to Rossiyskaya Gazeta that modernization is too costly, and that it is better to spend the money on construction of new vessels. The scrapping will take place at one of the shipyards in Severodvinsk and will probably start in 2016.
Russia is currently in the process of building a fleet of eight fourth-generation Borey-class nuclear submarines.
During the Cold War six Typhoon-class submarines were based at the naval base in Zapadnaya Litsa on the Kola Peninsula, only some 50 kilometers from the border to Norway. Three of the vessels have already been scrapped.
One of the Typhoon-class submarines will be kept in service. The “Dmitry Donskoy” had been modernized as a test platform for Russia’s new Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missile, and will remain in service in that capacity at least until 2017.
In 1990 the fictional Typhoon-class submarine “Krasny Oktyabr” starred in The Hunt for Red October.
