Navy confirms 5 new attack submarines will sail for Northern Fleet

Military officials confirm to newspaper Izvestia that the Russian Ministry of Defense has approved a definitive plan for deployment of the Yasen-class.

Five of them will serve in the Northern Fleet, the plan says.

Today, only one Yasen vessel is in operation. The “Severodvinsk” is based in Zapadnaya Litsa on the Barents Sea coast, less than 100 km from the border to Norway.

A second vessel, the “Kazan”, was originally to be handed over to the Navy in 2018, but its delivery has repeatedly been postponed and might ultimately not happen before 2021. According to a source in the Russian defense industry, it is technical issues with the  auxiliary systems onboard that is the main main problem with the vessel.

Like the “Severodvinsk”, the “Kazan” and subsequent vessels are likely to be based in Zapadnaya Litsa

Another four submarines of the kind will serve in the country’s Pacific Fleet.

The Russian Defense Ministry originally planned to build seven Yasen submarines, all of them to be delivered to the Navy by year 2025. However, in early 2019 Deputy Defense Minister Alexei Krivoruchko announced that another two vessel would be built. Construction of the latter two are reported to start in 2020.

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While the “Severodvinsk” is a Project 885 Yasen-class ship, the subsequently ships are more advanced Project 885M Yasen-M .

When ready for patrol, the Yasen-M class submarines will carry the advanced sea versions of the cruise missiles Kalibr and Onyz, as well as the Tsirkon. In addition comes mines and torpedoes.

Yasen and Yasen-M class are the first 4th generation multi-purpose submarines for the Russian navy. They are said to be both the most expensive and technically advanced in the Russian Navy.