Technical Malfunctions Revealed During Installation Of Left Pontoon

Technical malfunctions have been revealed in the course of installation of the left pontoon under the two-vessel system consisting of the Giant-4 pontoon and the Kursk nuclear submarine, reported Deputy Commander of the Russian Northern Fleet Vice-Admiral Anatoly Smolyakov. In his words, technical defects are the Mammoet's fault, which the company committed when designing the pontoons. The Northern Fleet has already made its proposals on modernising the pontoons which will be co-ordinated with foreign partners, Smolyakov stated. The left pontoon will be installed on October 17, works on the right pontoon are carried out simultaneously with those on the left one, Smolyakov reported. According to his data, installation of the pontoons will be completed by the end of the week and then they will start planning the docking of the Kursk nuclear submarine to the floating dock in Roslyakovo (in the vicinity of Murmansk.) Anatoly Smolyakov stressed that experts were "absolutely sure" in the nuclear safety of the sub. In his words, a safe scheme of missiles unloading has been co-ordinated, but Smolyakov refused to give the details of sub's silos' unloading.