Qualla: Russian Submarine Yury Dolgorukiy

Russian Submarine Yury Dolgorukiy: Introduction

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

They laid the keel on November 2, 1996, and planned to have the submarine in service by 2001. It took until January 10, 2013. The seventeen-year gap between intention and reality tells the story of Russian naval ambitions in the post-Soviet era better than any policy document. The Yury Dolgorukiy, designated K-535, is a nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine -- the lead vessel of the Borei class and the first new strategic submarine to join Russia's Northern Fleet since 1992. Named after Yuri Dolgorukiy, the twelfth-century prince credited with founding Moscow, the submarine carries a name that implies both origin and endurance. The vessel needed both.

Russian Submarine Yury Dolgorukiy: A Missile That Did Not Work

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Borei class was originally designed around the R-39M submarine-launched ballistic missile. When that program failed after repeated test failures and was abandoned, the entire submarine design had to be reworked to accommodate a smaller replacement: the RSM-56 Bulava. This was...

Russian Submarine Yury Dolgorukiy: Seventeen Years in the Shipyard

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Construction at the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk lurched forward through the economic chaos of the late 1990s and early 2000s. On April 15, 2007, the submarine was rolled from the construction hall into a launch dock, still only 82 percent complete. The Russian government com...

Russian Submarine Yury Dolgorukiy: Trials, Defects, and Delays

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The sea trials that followed were a catalog of the unexpected. Navigation systems and buoyancy controls were validated through 2010, but ice conditions in the White Sea forced postponement of weapons testing from winter to summer 2011. In December 2010, technical defects were ann...

Russian Submarine Yury Dolgorukiy: Raising St. Andrew's Ensign

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On January 10, 2013, the Yury Dolgorukiy finally joined the Russian Navy. Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu presided over the ceremony at Severodvinsk, reporting via video link to President Vladimir Putin that St. Andrew's ensign had been raised -- the traditional symbol of a warshi...