– Barents Observer – “Knyaz Vladimir”, the first upgraded Borey-A class submarine, will not be handed over to the navy by the end of 2019 as planned.

– BMPD – On December 26, 2019, in St. Petersburg, the Admiralty Shipyards JSC (part of United Shipbuilding Corporation – USC) held a launch ceremony for the B-603 large diesel-electric submarine being built for the Navy of the Russian Federation “ Volkhov ” (serial number 01615) of project 06363. This is the second of six submarines of project 06363 being built for the Pacific Fleet. (In Russian)

(Thanks to Alain)

– Barents Observer – After the two previous 4th generation multi-purpose submarines experienced long delays in construction, Russia now seems to have gain speed at the shipyard in Severodvinsk.

– National Interest – These doomsday weapons are the latest iterations of the new arms race.

– Barents Observer – A former officer from the Headquarters of the Armed Forces in Northern Norway told about the surfacing submarine in a TV documentary by NRK about the Cold War.

– Barents Observer – MiG-31K fighter jets armed with the new Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missile based at Kola, Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya could in practice pose a threat it is not possible to defend against in the European Arctic, northern Scandinavia and North-Atlantic.

– Barents Observer – Sailing under the ice north of Siberia is cheaper than crushing through, a concept study concludes.

– National Interest – What will Moscow do now that its carrier just had another major setback?

– USNI News – Russian surveillance ship Viktor Leonov has been operating unsafely off the coast of Georgia and South Carolina in the vicinity of U.S. naval bases, according to a U.S. Coast Guard safety bulletin issued on Sunday.

– Barents Observer – Painted in the Russia’s flag’s tricolor, the new «Arktika» sailed out to the Gulf of Finland on Thursday for a two-days test voyage.

– Barents Observer – The fire on “Admiral Kuznetsov” at yard No. 35 started during welding work in one of the engine rooms. The fire is not under control.

– Barents Observer – President Putin assembles his top military aides to discuss the development of the Navy and Northern Fleet.

– BMPD – On November 25, 2019, the flag was solemnly hoisted on the large submarine B-274 Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky of project 636.3 (serial number 01614) , built by Admiralty Shipyards JSC in St. Petersburg for the Pacific Fleet.

(Thanks to Alain)

– The Barents Observer – The Admiral Kasatonov is to be officially included in the Russian Navy in the course of 2019.

– Ynet – A Russian submarine was spotted in Israel’s territorial waters, near central Israel, three months ago.

(Thanks to Alain)

– War Zone – The Ivan Papanin, the first of the Project 23550 icebreaking warships, is our first look at Russia’s specialized Arctic naval force.

– Barents Observer – Knyaz Vladimir is Russia’s new Borei-class sub, a nuclear-powered ballistic vessel that can carry up to 16 Bulava missiles. Over the last weeks, it has been undergoing testing in northern waters and in late October test-fired its first Bulava. The submarine has now also tested its torpedoes.

– BMPD – According to the web resource Mil.Press FlotProm , two multipurpose patrol icebreakers of project 23550 will be built for the FSB border control department of Russia.

(Thanks to Alain!)

– BMPD – On October 25, 2019, the Admiralty Shipyards JSC (part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation JSC) in St. Petersburg hosted the launch ceremony of the project’s Ivan Papanin, a multi-purpose ice class patrol ship under construction for the Russian Navy, project 23550 (code “Arctic”) with the serial number 02460.

(Thanks to Alain!)

– Barents Observer – At least eight nuclear-powered submarines sailed out from their homeports on the Kola Peninsula last week, the Norwegian military intelligence says to NRK.

– National Interest – Where the Russian navy is all but abandoning the production of new aircraft carriers, cruisers and other “blue-water” surface warships, it has recommitted to sustaining a large fleet of big, long-range submarines. Why?

– National Interest – For all of the analysis concerning the real dangers posed by ‘carrier-killer’ weapons being developed by China and now Iran, one thing remains constant: hitting a moving target in the vast expanses of the open oceans of the world is not easy.

– Russian Military Reform – The Mediterranean will play a key role in Russian naval strategy because of its strategic significance as an access point to southern Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. For Russia, the Mediterranean symbolizes the larger competition between Moscow and Washington.

– Forbes – The Russian Navy is expected to be the first country to field hypersonic cruise missiles on its submarines, potentially giving it some strategic advantages in naval warfare.

(Thanks to Alain)

– Covert Shores – Fresh satellite imagery recently made available on Google Earth confirms that Russian Navy’s Beluga Whale pens have been moved to a stable position near the entrance of the Olenya Guba (Оленья Губа) secret submarine base near the Kola Peninsula. These pens were most likely involved in the whale which turned up in Norway in May. Additionally they confirm that the special mission host submarine BS-64 Podmoskovye returned to its home base of Olenya Guba very shortly after the Losharik submarine accident on July 1st.

(Thanks to Alain)