Russia To Build 8 Nuclear Subs By 2017

SpaceWar

MOSCOU, April 15 (AFP) Apr 15, 2007Russia will build eight nuclear submarines armed with Bulava intercontinental missiles by 2017, junior Defence Minister Alexi Moskovski said Sunday as the first of them was launched.

"Seven submarines of the Borei (type 955) will be built and launched by the navy between now and 2015.

The eighth will be received in 2017," the Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

The Yuri Dolgoruky submarine, launched at the northwestern naval base of Severodvinsk, is the first strategic nuclear submarine built in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The Bulava missiles can carry 10 nuclear warheads with a range of up to 8,000 kilometres (5,000 miles).

All rights reserved. © 2005 Agence France-Presse