The submarine had 16 intercontinental missiles with nuclear warheads, torpedoes and mines on board when the fire broke out.
“Yekaterinburg” will be moved from its current location in the Murmansk Bay to Severodvinsk in the White Sea this summer, when the sea is free of ice. Reparations will start by the end of the year, after damage assessments. The submarine will also be modernized, thus prolonging its operational time with 5-6 years, a source in the military-industrial complex told ITAR-TASS.
The submarine is planned to be put in service again in the summer-autumn 2014. Repairs are estimated to cost more than RUB 1 billion (€24.5 million).
ITAR-TASS’ source confirms that the submarine was fully armed when it was docked at the naval yard Roslyakovo north of Murmansk to repair damages from a collision with a tug in the Northern Fleet’s base Gadzhiyevo. This happens all the time, the source says. “When a submarine is brought into dock for minor repairs, weapons - including nuclear missiles, are sometimes not removed”. “It was like this in Soviet times, and it still happens”.
Immediately after the fire broke out Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that all weapons had been unloaded from the submarine before she was taken into the dry dock for repair. In February Deputy Commander of the Northern Fleet Vice Admiral Aleksander Vitko rejected this statement and said that “Yekaterinburg” had been armed while in dock.
The accident has caused much concern in the neighboring countries, with both Sweden and Norway demanding answers to whether the sub was armed or not.
Read all of BarentsObserver’s articles on the fire aboard “Yekaterinburg”.