The Russian heavy nuclear-powered submarine cruiser ‘Dmytro Donsky’ has been withdrawn from the Russian Navy. Volodymyr Maltsev, head of the All-Russian Fleet Support Movement, reported that the strategic submarine will be disposed of at the naval base in Severodvinsk. This was reported by the TASS news agency on February 6.
‘The submarine cruiser ‘Dmytro Donsky’ has been withdrawn from the Russian Navy. It will wait for disposal at the naval base in Severodvinsk together with two other submarines of this project,’ said Maltsev.
The terms of disposal of the submarine cruiser have not yet been determined, he clarified.
At the same time, Maltsev noted that the name ‘Dmytro Donsky’ will not be removed from the list of ships of the Russian Navy, since the new submarine ‘Dmytro Donsky’ of the ‘Borey-A’ project is being built at the Sevmash plant in Severodvinsk.
What is known about the Russian ‘Shark’
The TK-208 ‘Dmytro Donsky’ heavy nuclear missile submarine cruiser of strategic purpose is the flagship of a series of six submarines of Project 941 ‘Shark’. The project was considered the pinnacle of Soviet submarine construction and was created as a response to the appearance of American Ohio-type submarines and the Trident nuclear missile program.
The submarine cruiser is already more than 40 years old, since its construction was laid on ‘Sevmash’ on June 17, 1976, and it was launched four years later – in 1980.
In fact, the nuclear missile cruiser ‘Dmytro Donsky’ is the largest submarine in the world and the last ‘Shark’ of the Russian Navy. The nuclear-powered boat is 172 meters long, the width of the boat is 23 meters, and the displacement is 48,000 tons. The crew of 179 people could stay in autonomous navigation for up to 120 days.
Three of the six submarines of this class were decommissioned in the early 2000s, two more ‘Arkhangelsk’ and ‘Severstal’ have been withdrawn from the fleet and are awaiting decommissioning.
It was previously reported that at the end of December 2022, the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, took part in the launching ceremony of the nuclear-powered underwater cruiser ‘Emperor Oleksandr III’ via video conference. During his speech, Putin said that the Bulava missiles and other modern weapons installed on Russian submarines will allegedly be able to guarantee Russia’s security ‘for decades to come.’
