A report published by the Federation of American Scientists earlier this month reads that the Russian Navy conducted only seven attack submarine patrols in 2008, the same as in 2007. The number of patrols with strategic submarines last year is not yet published, but in 2007 there were only three.
The report is based on declassified information provided by US naval intelligence and is referred to by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Weekly bomber flights
Much attention is paid to Russian bombers which resumed their long-range flights in the Arctic and along the coast of Northern Norway in the summer 2007, as frequently reported by BarentsObserver.com. The bombers make fewer headlines in western media nowadays than in 2007 and 2008. Last mission was Wednesday this week when two Tu-95 carried out a routine patrol flight over the Arctic Ocean, reported by RIA Novosti. That mission was not even mentioned by BarentsObserver.com since it is no longer news.
North-eastern Barents Sea
The Russian submarine patrols are not that visible as the aircraft missions. But they are there, and other countries’ military intelligence is trying to discover their routes. Not easy. Unlike in the Cold War period the Russian Northern fleet’s strategic submarines mainly patrol in safe protected waters of the north-eastern Barents Sea and north of Novaya Zemlya, according to maps provided by the Nuclear Information Project with the Federation of American Scientists. From their submerged positions in the north-eastern Barents Sea the submarine-based missiles have the range to attack most of the targets in the world.
The few submarine patrols in 2008 are not unique. In 2007 they were on the same level, according to a report called Russian nuclear forces 2008, published by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
The peak year was 1984 with 230 patrols by nuclear powered strategic- and attack submarines. Since then, the number of patrols falls all the way down to 2002 when it was not a single patrol. Today, all other four states with nuclear powered submarines have more patrols than the Russian Navy. They are USA, China, France and Great Britain.
Intelligence reports
With referance to the Defense News, the report says information provided by the Norwegian military intelligence saw “an increase in submarine activity out of Russia’s Northern fleet bases in Murmansk in 2007. But the same report underlines that the Norwegian intelligence information is not the same as from U.S. naval intelligence which shows that Russia’s general purpose submarine patrols increased only slightly, from four in 2006 to seven in 2007. The same information indicates that strategic submarine patrols decreased to only three in 2007, down from five in 2006, the same report says.
In addition to longer patrols, shorter deployments of both strategic and multi-purpose submarines closer to homeport may also be taking place for training purposes.
Few submarines in operation
At present, there are only four operating strategic nuclear powered submarines of the Delta-IV class in the Northern fleet. According to Russianforces.org these are Verkhoturie, Ekaterinburg, Tula and Bryansk.
As BarentsObserver.com reported last week, the Delta-IV class submarines Novomoskovsk and Karelia are undergoing repair and modernization at the shipyard Zvezdotchka in Severodvinsk.
The two last of the older Delta-III class submarines which had their home ort at the Kola Peninsula left the Northern fleet last year. Borisoglebsk was sent for scrapping at Zvezdotchka, while Ryazan was transferred to the Pacific fleet after it conducted a successful launch of a ballistic missile while it was submerged in the Barents Sea on August 1st, according to Interfax.
In addition, there are several multi-purpose submarines of the Oscar-II class and attack submarines of the Akula-class in operation in Russia’s Northern fleet. Also, one of the gigant Typhoon class submarine, Dmitry Donskoy, serves as a test submarine for new intercontinental missiles.
New subs in line
The first new strategic submarine to be put into operation since 1992 will be Borey-class Yury Dolgoruky. It looks more or less similar to the Delta-IV class, but will be equipped with the new Bulava ballistic missiles and has several new modifications. The submarine, which has been under construction at the Semash yard in Severodvinsk for more than a decade, will make its first sea trails this spring, reported RIA Novosti this week.
In addition to Yury Dolgoruky, two other Borey-class nuclear submarines, the Alexander Nevsky and the Vladimir Monomakh, are currently under construction at the Sevmash shipyard and are expected to be completed later in 2009 and 2011.
Also at the Sevmash yard, a new class of multi-purpose submarines, the Severodvinsk-class, are under construction.
