Super Sub: Russia’s Next 'Boomer' to Keep Whole World Covered

The keel of Russia's new Borei class nuclear-powered missile submarine, dubbed Emperor Alexander III, was laid at the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk on Friday, Russian media wrote on Monday.

The Alexander III, already the seventh nuclear sub laid down in Severodvinsk as part of the upgraded Borei-A project, is 170 meters long, 13.5 meters wide and displaces 24,000 tons of water. 

Each such submarine carries 16 Bulava intercontinental ballistic missiles. Eight submarines of this class are to be built by 2020; three of them have already been delivered to the Navy.

The first submarine of the project is the Prince Vladimir, laid down in 2012. In 2014, two submarines — the Prince Oleg and the Generalissimo Suvorov were laid down.

The eighth and final missile submarine in the series is slated  for construction in 2016.

The idea to name the new submarine after Emperor Alexander III was proposed in 2014 by President Vladimir Putin after Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky handed him a restored St. Andrew’s flag from the Russian Imperial Fleet’s battleship of the same name that took part in the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War.

The Borei class submarines will form the basis of the Russian navy’s strategic nuclear forces in the coming decades.