ST.PETERSBURG, MARCH 19 (RIA NOVOSTI) - A new nuclear-powered missile cruiser, the Alexander Nevsky, was laid down this Friday at the Severodvinsk engineering works (Arkhangelsk region, Northwestern federal district). The ceremony, timed to Submariners Day, was attended by Anatoly Smolyakov, deputy commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy, and Sergei Simonenko, acting commander-in-chief of the Northern fleet. "Though the ceremony took place just now, construction work is already in full swing, with the cruiser's central part and sections having been already manufactured," works experts said.
It is the Russian defense ministry that is the customer while the designer-general is the Rubin R&D bureau. 200 or more Russian enterprises are involved in the manufacturing process; the submarine's tactical and technological parameters as well as the value of the contract are kept secret.
Under the program, the Alexander Nevsky is to be launched in 2008 and to be registered in the Northern fleet.
The previous order of this level (the Yury Dolgoruky nuclear-powered submarine) was received by the Severodvinsk works in 1996.
