Russia launches new generation nuclear submarine

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Russia launches new generation nuclear submarine

By Guy Faulconbridge
Sun Apr 15, 10:24 AM ET

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia launched its first new generation nuclear
submarine since the fall of the Soviet Union on Sunday, as the Kremlin
seeks to upgrade its undersea nuclear strike force.

The long-delayed Yuri Dolgoruky, the first Borei-class (Arctic Wind)
nuclear submarine, was moved to the dry docks at a highly secret
submarine base in the Arctic town of Severodvinsk, the heart of
Russia's northern submarine fleet.

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The launch of the new submarine is part of a plan, approved by President
Vladimir Putin, to upgrade the core of Russia's undersea nuclear attack
forces, military analysts said.

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"Russia wants to show that she remains a nuclear power and -- as the
Putin administration says -- still a great power and for them the
greatness of that power is measured by its weapons," Alexander Nikitin,
a former Russian navy engineer now working as an environmental
campaigner, told Reuters from Oslo.

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Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070415/sc_nm/russia_submarine_dc