The submarine has been at the Zvezdochka shipyard in Severodvinsk, Arkhangelsk Oblast, since October 2004. The modernization has prolonged the submarine’s lifetime with approximately ten years and improved its tactical and technical performance considerably, a press release from the Zvezdochka shipyard reads.
The submarine is planned to be returned to the Northern Fleet before the end of the year.
After the modernization the submarine’s main weapon system is the Sineva ballistic missile. According to Wikipedia, it can carry ten 100kT warheads. In a test launch on 11 October 2008, an R-29RMU travelled 11,547 kilometers downrange.
A Sineva missile was successfully test-launched from a submerged position in the Barents Sea by the Delta-IV class submarine “Bryansk” on November 1, as BarentsObserver reported.
