Vladimir Putin Invited To Fielding Ceremony Of Latter-Day Nuclear-Powered Submarine Gepard

The latest nuclear-powered submarine Gepard will be put in the inventories of the Russian Navy before long, RIA Novosti was told on telephone by Vladimir Chuvakin. He is the deputy general director, chief of military equipment manufacture at the Northern Machine-Building Enterprise. He said that a date for official signing of the acceptance certificate and hoisting the colours above the nuclear submarine has not yet been set. The submarine is "100-percent ready", said Chuvakin. Final sea trials proved the submarine's complete readiness, he reported. Within these trials missile firing was successfully held as well on a proving ground at sea. President Vladimir Putin was invited to the official ceremony of putting the underwater nuclear-powered cruiser in the inventories of the Northern fleet. In the last five years not one nuclear submarine has been launched by the Northern machine-building enterprise's (Sevmash) shipyards. The last submarine built here was the Tomsk, of the same class as the sunken Kursk. Over 61 years of the history of Sevmash, based in the city of Severodvinsk, 170 submarines, including 135 nuclear, have been built. The Gepard is a multi-purpose submarine of the third generation. In the estimate of experts of the Russian Navy, it is now the most updated subsea missile-carrying cruiser, embodying the latest in Russian submarine manufacture. On information from open sources, the Gepard's displacement is approximately 13,000 tons, maximal speed up to 33 knots and diving depth up to 600 meters. Such submarines are the most noiseless of Russian subsea craft and carry on their board nuclear cruise missiles.