Analysis: Russian Navy Project 885 Yasen-class Submarine Severodvinsk Fires Kalibr Cruise Missile

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Naval Forces News - Russia
 
 
 
Analysis: Russian Navy Project 885 Yasen-class Submarine Severodvinsk Fires Kalibr Cruise Missile
 
The multipurpose nuclear submarine K-560 Severodvinsk of project 885 of the Northern fleet successfully fired a seaborne cruise missile 3M-14 of the high-precision Kalibr (Caliber) weapons complex, the press service of the fleet said.
     
Russian Project 955A and 885M Submarines to get Noiseless Leak-Proof PumpsRussian Navy First Project 885 Yasen-class Submarine Severodvinsk (K-560)
     
"The crew carried out a combat exercise from submerged position at one of the training ranges of the Northern fleet in the Barents Sea. The missile was fired at Chizha range in Arkhangelsk region," it said.

The distance to the target was close to 600 kilometers. "Objective control confirmed all technical and flight parameters and that the missile was fired with assigned accuracy," it said.

The Severodvinsk nuclear submarine is the lead vessel of project 885 (codename Yasen). It was laid in 1993 and floated on June 15, 2010. The Navy flag was hoisted on the submarine on June 17, 2014. On July 27, 2014 during the parade devoted to the Russian Navy Day the submarine for the first time joined other warships at the roadstead of the Northern fleet main base in Severomorsk.

Fourth-generation nuclear submarines with missile and torpedo armaments of projects 885 and 885M are designated to destroy surface and underwater targets, as well as ground objects of the potential adversary. They can submerge to 600 meters and develop underwater speed of 30 knots. The project uses combined design - the light hull covers only the pressure hull in the front to decrease noisiness. For the first time in domestic shipbuilding the torpedo launches are located not in the bow but behind the central post compartment. The submarines are armed with Onix and Kalibr cruise missiles and a powerful torpedo-missile complex.
     
Russian MoD video
     
Director General of the Malakhit maritime design bureau of the United Shipbuilding Corporation Vladimir Dorofeyev earlier said that for the first time in the history of domestic shipbuilding the torpedo launchers were placed at an angle to the center plane in project 885 submarines. Besides, the Severodvinsk and similar submarines will be equipped with universal vertical launchers for Kalibr and Onix missiles. Submarines of project 885 are armed with ten 553mm torpedo launchers and eight vertical launchers with 32 cells located behind the deck-house. Kalibr missiles allow the submarines to fulfil a broad range of missions ranging from antisubmarine warfare to strikes at ground targets at a distance of up to 1500 kilometers. Dorofeyev said the concept of the new Russian submarine is slightly ahead of American designs.

"The submarine will help the Russian Navy and government to accomplish a new function - non-strategic nuclear deterrence by high-precision long-range cruise missiles,"
he told the Military-Industrial Courier in 2016.

The Kalibr complex includes a family of anti-ship 3M-54 missiles, anti-ground 3M-14 missiles and antisubmarine missiles 91R1/RT2.

Since the Russian Navy engaged in Syria in October 2015 it fired 64 3M-14 missiles from the Kalibr complex. Most of them (44) were fired by the Caspian flotilla in October-November 2015. Another four 3M-14 missiles were fired from submerged position by the Rostov-on-Don diesel-electric submarine of project 636.6 from eastern Mediterranean in December 2015. In August 2016 two small missile boats of project 21631 (codename Buyan-M), the Serpukhov and the Zeleny Dol fired three cruise missiles from the Mediterranean Sea. In November 2016 at least three missiles were fired by the Admiral Grigorovich frigate of project 11356 also from the Mediterranean Sea. On May 30, 2017 the Admiral Essen and the Krasnodar diesel-electric submarine fired four 3M-14 missiles at ISIL targets near Palmyra. Six missiles were fired by frigates of project 11356 and the Krasnodar submarine in June 2017.

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