SSBN Ryazan Gets Back to Ranks After 5-Year Long Repairs

"The sub’s commanding officer reported that the onboard equipment was in service, and the crew was ready and willing to accomplish any mission assigned", reported Interfax referring to the navy’s spokesmen.


Rear Admiral Sergey Rekish, Pacific Fleet’s Submarine Force Commander, congratulated the submariners on their return to the homebase.

The sailors were met on the pier by the commanders, staff officers of the submarine division, families and relatives.

Ryazan has been undergoing repairs at the far-eastern shipyard Zvezda since 2011. The overhaul has not been without problems: on December 29, 2015 the Commercial Court of the Primorsky Territory obliged the Zvezda shipyard to pay one of the counterparties that had repaired onboard equipment 148.1 mln rubles for work plus 5.5 mln rubles compensatory interest for retention of funds.

Initially, it was planned to commission SSBN Ryazan in 2013. Then the works completion was postponed to the end of 2015. Later on, the landmark’s deadline was extended once again, to April 2016.

Ryazan is the Project 667BDR Calmar (Delta III class) nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine. The sub was laid down on January 31, 1980 at Sevmash, the breeding ground of Russia’s nuclear fleet. Two years after the keel-laying, the submarine joined the Soviet Navy’s Northern Fleet. In 2008, Ryazan moved to the Pacific Fleet.

The sub’s submerged displacement is 13 050 tons, hull length is 155 meters, beam is 11.7 meters, surface speed is 14 knots, underwater speed is 24 knots, operating depth is down to 400 meters, limit depth is 560 meters, endurance is 90 days, crew is 130 men.

Delta III subs are armed with four 533-mm and two 400-mm bow torpedo tubes. Key strategic force of these subs is 16 ballistic missile launch tubes.