New Russian Boomer Finally Hits The Water

Back in April 2007, the Russians announced that they had "launched" their first new SSBN since the fall of the Soviet Union, the RFS Yuri Dolgorukii. To everyone's amusement, the announcements of the "launch" indicated that the boat would go out to sea in October of last year, even though the sub was only 82% complete at the time.

It turns out the Russians apparently have a different definition of "launched" than most navies; it's been announced that she finally made it into the water for the first time yesterday. For those interested, here are some pictures of the original "launch", which apparently involved moving the sub from the construction building to a drydock.

At this rate, we're not going to get any pictures taken from one of our periscopes until 2011 or so.