The heavy nuclear submarine strategic missile cruiser “Dmitry Donskoy” is supposed to be decommissioned from the Navy of the Russian Federation, currently the technical crew remains on the submarine. This was reported to TASS by the head of the All-Russian Fleet Support Movement (DPF) Vladimir Maltsev.
“There is a directive to withdraw the Dmitry Donskoy from the Russian Navy. The main crew has left the submarine, a technical crew has been formed,” he said, adding that the Navy flag still remains on the ship.
Earlier, Maltsev told TASS that “Dmitry Donskoy” will solve combat training tasks until at least December 1, 2022, that is, until the end of the “military” academic year. According to him, a decision on his future fate can be made at the end of 2022. According to one of the options, after December 1, the technical crew will remain on the ship.
In September, TASS reported that “Dmitry Donskoy” successfully completed the tasks of testing the Krasnoyarsk multi-purpose nuclear submarine (NPS) of project 885M (Ash-M) and the strategic nuclear submarine of project 955A (Borey-A) Generalissimo Suvorov “. This suggests that the submarine was at that time in full technical readiness.
The nuclear-powered ship “Dmitry Donskoy” was launched on September 29, 1980, and entered the Navy on December 29, 1981. Initially, the main weapon of the cruiser was intercontinental ballistic missiles of the D-19 complex. In 2002, the ship was upgraded under project 941UM, after which it was involved in testing the Bulava missile system. In the summer of 2017, the cruiser made an inter-naval transition to the Baltic, where she took part in the Main Naval Parade.
In total, six units of project 941 were built for the Navy. All ships were based in the Northern Fleet in Zapadnaya Litsa (Nerpichya Bay). To date, three of them have been disposed of with US funding. Two – “Arkhangelsk” and “Severstal” – have been withdrawn from the fleet and are awaiting disposal.
At one time, “Dmitry Donskoy” was the largest in terms of dimensions (172 m long and 23 m wide – TASS note) nuclear-powered submarine in the world. Now this is considered the nuclear submarine of special purpose “Belgorod”.
Lev Fedoseev/TASS photo