Russian Navy latest nuclear-powered sub returns from 1st sea deployment in trials

MOSCOW (TASS): The advanced Project 885M (Yasen-M) nuclear-powered submarine Novosibirsk returned to Severodvinsk in northwestern Russia after its first deployment to the White Sea for shipbuilders’ sea trials, a source in the domestic industry told TASS on Monday.

“On August 2, the nuclear-powered submarine Novosibirsk returned to the Sevmash Shipyard from the first shipbuilders’ trials that ran in the White Sea during a month,” the source said.

A source told TASS on July 2 that the Project 885M sub deployed to the sea for the first time for shipbuilders’ sea trials. Sevmash Shipyard CEO Mikhail Budnichenko earlier told TASS that the sub would enter state trials after the shipbuilders’ sea tests were over. The submarine is set to be delivered to the Russian Navy in late 2021.

The nuclear-powered submarine Novosibirsk is the Project 885M (Yasen-M) first serial-built vessel floated out on December 25, 2019. Project 885M submarines carry Kalibr-PL and Oniks cruise missiles as their basic strike weapons. Eventually, they will be armed with Tsirkon hypersonic missiles.

The Project Yasen-M lead submarine Kazan was delivered to the Russian Northern Fleet on May 7, 2021. On July 30, the Sevmash Shipyard floated out another submarine of the Project, the Krasnoyarsk.

As Russian naval and military commanders have said, Yasen-M nuclear-powered submarines are set to ensure the country’s non-nuclear strategic deterrence strategy. Russian Navy Commander-in-Chief Admiral Yevmenov said at the ceremony of floating out the Project 885M nuclear-powered submarine Krasnoyarsk that “the subs of this series built under the Yasen-M Project are capable of protecting our Motherland’s interests in any part of the World Ocean, including in the Arctic. This is a reliable nuclear and missile shield of our Motherland.”