Russia will build at least six nuclear-powered submarines with long-range cruise missiles for its navy, a source in the Russian Defense Ministry told the Itar-Tass news agency.Those wacky Russians owe me a new keyboard! Those of us familiar with Russian claims of when their new submarines would be ready for sea compared with actual ship-delivery performance can see how humorous that last line is; the odds of the Russians completing an entire submarine from the ground up in anything less than about seven years are just about zero. I wonder if there's any part of the Russian press that's still free enough that they can call the Navy on their ridiculous claims? My guess is, the answer is "no".
The missiles can potentially carry low-capacity tactical warheads, the news agency reported Friday...
...The Severodvinsk-class submarines are being built at the Sevmash shipyard, the center of Russian nuclear submarine production, according to Global Security's Web site.
The new subs will be put into service for the Russian navy in 2011, the source told Itar-Tass.
Update 0533 29 March: Turning off comments. For the record, non-troll commenters of all politicaly persuasions are welcome to comment here, as long as they're not tinfoil hatters.
