K-407 Novomoskovsk is a Project 667BDRM Delfin-class ballistic missile submarine (NATO reporting name Delta IV) of the Russian Navy's Northern Fleet.
Background
Construction of the nuclear submarine K-407 Novomoskovsk began at the Northern Machinebuilding Enterprise (Sevmash) in Severodvinsk on 2 February 1987, and it became part of the Soviet Navy on 27 November 1990. She was the last of seven 667BDRM Delfin submarines and the last SSBN submarine built in the USSR. This class of submarines was developed at the Rubin Design Bureau in 1975 and is considered one of the most successful Soviet submarine missile carrier designs.
Specification
The submarine has a submerged displacement of 18,200 tons and a surface displacement of 11,700 tons. It is long and wide. It is powered by two nuclear reactors with a total power of . The submarine's immersion depth is ; its surface speed is , and its underwater speed is . It carries a crew of 135. Armaments include a D-9RM missile system (16 RSM-54 ballistic missiles) and four torpedo tubes.
The RSM-54 missile (3M37, R-29RM, or SS-N-23 according to the NATO classification) is a liquid-propellant, three-stage missile with separable heads (it carries four or ten warheads depending on the modification). It has a range of , a CEP of , and a launching mass of 40.3 tons. It is long and in diameter.
History
On 6 August 1991 at 21:09 Novomoskovsk, under the command of Captain Second Rank Sergey Yegorov, became the world's only submarine to successfully launch an all-missile salvo, launching 16 ballistic missiles (RSM-54) of total weight of almost 700 tons at an interval of several seconds (operation code name "Behemoth-2"). The first and the last missiles hit their targets successfully, while the others were self-destroyed in the air according to the plan. This operation was considered by the Soviet Navy as a part of possible nuclear war scenario ("Dress rehearsal of the Apocalypse") and experimentally confirmed the technical possibility of a safe underwater all-missile salvo. Politically, the Soviet ballistic missile submarines passed a reasonability check as a part of strategic triad. The previous attempt of an all-missile salvo (operation code name "Behemoth") was performed in 1989 and finished unsuccessfully, however with no casualties. As the experiment took place just before the August Putsch in the USSR, its results were forgotten for a while, and the crew's work wasn't rewarded by the Soviet government authorities.
On 19 March 1993, Novomoskovsk, under the command of Captain First Rank Andrey Bulgakov, collided with . The American submarine was trailing the Russian submarine and miscalculated its speed. Both submarines returned to their homeports, and though badly damaged both returned to service. Grayling was decommissioned in 1997, while Novomoskovsk remains in service 30 years later.
In 1996, Novomoskovsk, together with the submarine , successfully fired a batch of ballistic missiles. The city of Novomoskovsk in Tula Oblast took the submarine under its patronage, and on June 19, 1997, K-407 received the name Novomoskovsk.
On 7 July 1998, Novomoskovsk, under the command of Captain 1st Rank Aleksandr Moiseyev, launched a Shtil-1 carrier rocket with two German scientific Tubsat-N and Tubsat-N1 microsatellites while submerged in the Barents Sea.
The satellite, developed by Berlin Technical University, was placed in orbit on an SS-N-23 (RSM-54)-type ballistic missile. The Northern Fleet was paid some 200,000 German Mark (US$111,000) for the launch.
In 1999, Novomoskovsk pioneered the launch of a ballistic missile from the geographic location of the North Pole.
On 17 February 2004, Novomoskovsk seemingly attempted to test-fire a SS-N-23 ballistic missile, but the missile failed to come out of its silo because of an unspecified technical problem. The Russian Navy, despite earlier statements describing the test, explained that no "physical" launch was intended at all: the exercise was supposed to be a simulation. President of Russia Vladimir Putin was aboard , an Akula-class ballistic missile submarine (NATO reporting name Typhoon), to observe the exercise.
On 17 March 2004, Novomoskovsk physically test-fired two SS-N-23 ballistic missiles, successfully hitting designated practice targets on the Kamchatka Peninsula.