Firing of the main weapons from the newest nuclear submarine of the Russian Navy "Yuri Dolgoruky" is planned for March 2009, Interfax reports with reference to the head of the department of orders and supplies of ships, naval weapons and military equipment of the Ministry of Defense, Vice Admiral Anatoly Shlemov. He also confirmed that the completion of testing and transfer of the nuclear submarine to the fleet will take place in 2009. 23 billion rubles were spent on the construction of the boat, of which 5 billion in 2007.

It was previously reported that the nuclear submarine Yuri Dolgoruky will go to sea no earlier than the beginning of spring 2009, after the ice melts. at the end of December 2008 As a representative of the Russian Navy noted in an interview with RIA Novosti , “there are still questions related to the installation of a nuclear reactor on board the boat,” and “the tests have been postponed to 2009 so that Sevmash specialists can eliminate the shortcomings without haste.” .

The submarine was scheduled to enter factory testing in 2008, but it was postponed due to stricter Rosatom requirements for the safe operation of nuclear reactors. Rosatom was forced to take such a step by the incident with the nuclear submarine Nerpa in the Sea of Japan, which resulted in the death of 20 people.

The postponement of the launch of the Yuri Dolgoruky into the sea is also associated with the unsuccessful launch of the Bulava rocket , which took place on December 23, 2008 and failed due to a failure of the third stage. According to some reports, it was this launch that was to be decisive for the adoption of the missile into service and the start of mass production.

It is planned that the Bulava will become the main armament of Project 955/955A submarines. However, out of ten previously conducted test launches of these missiles, only one was considered completely successful. Because of this, in 2009 the number of tests will be increased from the planned 3-4 to at least 5. Moreover, as representatives of the Russian military department stated, some of them will be carried out on board the Yuri Dolgoruky submarine, although earlier tests of the Bulava were carried out. were carried out only by the submarine "Dmitry Donskoy".

"Yuri Dolgoruky" will conduct its first shooting in the spring of 2009