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by Hugh Harkins (Author)
In 2017, the sea based element of the Russian Federation nuclear deterrent triad was well advanced in its modernisation with the introduction of Project 955 Borey Strategic Missile Carrier submarines armed with the RMS-56 Bulava submarine launched ballistic missile. The Project 955/Bulava was introduced as a replacement for the Project 677BDR Strategic Missile Carrier submarines armed with R-29RKU-1/2 ballistic missiles and the Project 667BDRM Strategic Missile Carrier submarines armed with R-29RMU1/2/2.1 ballistic missiles. The Project 677BDR was on the verge of retirement whilst the Project 667BDRM was set to serve, in reducing numbers, well into the third decade of the twenty first century and possibly beyond, with an upper out of service date of 2030. The sole operational Project 941U Akula Heavy Ballistic Missile (Submarine) Cruiser remained in service in an operational/trials role with no out of service date announced by the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation. The Russian Federation was the major successor state from the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. This latter state introduced the world's first submarine launched ballistic missile and submarine based ballistic missile platform to service in 1959, sowing the seeds for four plus generations of missile submarines in Soviet and latter Russian Federation service. It was not, however, until the introduction of the Project 667A, armed, from 1968, with R-27 ballistic missile, that such submarine platforms began to be referred to as Strategic Missile Carriers. The Project 667A was the template for four more Strategic Missile Carrier designs - the Project 667B/BD/BDR/BDRM armed with increasingly capable intercontinental range ballistic missiles of the R-29/R/RK/RM series. These systems were, from 1983, augmented by the Project 941/U Heavy Ballistic Missile (Submarine) Cruisers armed with the R-39/U - the largest and most powerful ballistic missile ever fielded on a submarine launch platform. This volume sets out to document the four generations of Soviet and later Russian Federation submarine launched ballistic missiles carried on the four generations of conventional and nuclear powered ballistic missiles submarines that have served the Soviet and Russian Federation Northern and Pacific fleets since 1959. All technical and historical information has been furnished by the respective design bureaus, manufacturers and the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation with additional input from western intelligence agencies.
