Key Points and Summary: Russia’s Borei-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines were designed to replace aging Delta III and Typhoon-class boats, strengthening the country’s nuclear deterrence. However, development has been slow, with post-Soviet economic struggles delaying production.
– While the Borei-class integrates advanced stealth and a powerful Bulava (SS-NX-30) SLBM, the missile itself has suffered repeated failures, hindering full operational capability. The newer Borei-A (955A) variant aims to improve reliability, but issues remain.
-As tensions with NATO rise, can Russia’s most modern SSBNs truly compete with the U.S. Navy’s Ohio-class and upcoming Columbia-class submarines?
Borei-Class: Russia’s Most Advanced Nuclear Submarine Still Faces Major Problems
The Borei-Class is the fourth-generation nuclear-powered missile submarine produced in Russia and designed to replace the Cold War-era Delta III and Typhoon-class submarines eventually. Its function is to be a central component in the nuclear deterrent strategy of the Russian Navy.
The design of the Borei was also the first class submarine to be developed in Russia since the end of the Soviet era. The program first began in 1996 and was originally designated as Project 935. But, like many projects within the Russian defense industry during this period its development was slowed by the collapse of the post-Soviet economy.
During this time many former USSR defense enterprises were forced to lay off large numbers of staff, leaving a fair amount of empty office space. That office space was, at the time, some of the best available in any major Russian city. The defense sector had occupied a privileged position in the Soviet economy, and the industry of creating commercial office buildings and business centers was still far in the future.
The Rubin Marine Equipment Design Bureau (TsKB MT), where the Borei-class was designed, is located in Russia’s former capital, St. Petersburg. During this period of the 1990s, a colleague of mine from Moscow visited this facility to interview a design bureau official for an article he was writing.
At the time, he described, “all but one or two floors of this massive office building were rented out to commercial companies because the Rubin Design Bureau needed the rental income to be able to pay the personnel they still had working at the bureau and designing submarines. Like so many other defense companies at the time, salaries could go months without being paid due to massive government revenue shortfalls.”
Project Name Change
The project name was later changed to Project 955 and the design altered to permit the boat to carry and fire a new submarine-launched ballistic missile, the (SLBM) Bulava (SS-NX-30), in place of the R-39UTTH Bark missile project.
The construction cost for this first boat was estimated at US $713 million and based on an R&D budget of $280 million.
The first in this re-designated class was the Yuri Dolgorukhi, which had been planned for launch in 2002 but was delayed until 2008. The 2008 launch was followed by sea trials that began in 2009. This first Borei-class sub was then accepted into service only in January 2013.
The Alexander Nevsky (K-550), the second submarine of the original Borei-class, was laid down in March 2004 and launched in December 2010. This ship was commissioned in December 2013 after completing a series of sea trials that started in October 2011.
The Vladimir Monomakh is the third Borei-class submarine, laid down in March 2006 and launched in December 2012. It was then commissioned in December 2014.
“Looking at these dates tells you something about the build process for these boats,” said a long-time US submarine and naval ship-building engineer who spoke to 19FortyFive.
“It is clear that the Russians, who have long experience in building these kinds of naval vessels, have the space in their boatyards, the support from their subcontractors and enough qualified personnel to be able to build more than one of these boats in parallel. This is a ‘surge potential’ that almost no other nation has at this point.”
Project 955A
The first three boats were built to the original Borei 955 design configuration until the designation was changed to the Borei-A or Project 955A. There are four subs to be built in this configuration, the Knyaz Oleg, the Generalissimus Suvorov, the Emperor Alexander III, and the Knyaz Pozharskiy.
However, Significant problems emerged with the development of the Bulava-class (RSM-56/SS-NX-30) SLBM developed for the Borei-series. The Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology developed this missile and was to have been part and parcel of the launch of the Project 955 platform.
The trouble with this missile was that it was based on the design of the land-based Topol M ICBM, said a Russian missile design engineer who spoke about the subject. “It is not a difficult engineering challenge to use a missile originally designed to be launched from a ship or a submarine and then employ that as the template for a missile to be launched from land,” explained the engineer.
“But to go in other direction – try to turn a land-based ICBM design into something that can tolerate the stresses and negative impact on accuracy and launch trajectory that being at sea can cause – is problematic in the extreme,” he continued. “It is this mistake – made at the beginning of the project when the Bulava design contract was awarded – that has caused so many missile test failures and has bedeviled this submarine program from Day One.”
Borei-Class Photo Essay
MAY 30, 2021: The Project 955A (Borei A) nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine Knyaz Oleg sets off on its first sea trial in the White Sea. Oleg Kuleshov/TASS/Russian State Media.
Russian Borei-class ballistic missile submarine.
Russia’s Borei-class ballistic missile submarine.
Borei-class Submarine. Image Credit: Russian Government.
Borei-class Submarine.
Russian Navy Borei-class.
Russian Navy Borei-class.
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson is a survivor of the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and is now an Expert on Foreign Military Affairs with the Fundacja im. Kazimierza Pułaskiego in Warsaw. He has been a consultant to the Pentagon, several NATO governments and the Australian government in the fields of defense technology and weapon systems design. Over the past 30 years he has resided in and reported from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Brazil, the People’s Republic of China and Australia.
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