ST. PETERSBURG. Nov 28 (Interfax-AVN) - The first strategic nuclear submarine of Project 955 Borei, the Alexander Nevsky, will be transferred to the Russian Navy in January, a Navy Main Staff source told Interfax-AVN.
"The Alexander Nevsky will be handed over to the Navy no early than in January," the source said.
The submarine's recent final trials in the White Sea exposed a number of "minor problems that, nonetheless, should be fixed," he said.
A Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) will be test-launched from the Alexander Nevsky after the submarine joins the Navy, he added.
A Russian shipbuilding industry source told Interfax-AVN on Wednesday that the Alexander Nevsky had already returned from the White Sea following additional trials conducted in response to complaints made by the state acceptance commission.
A United Shipbuilding Corporation spokesman said on November 8 that state-commissioned trials of the nuclear submarine Alexander Nevsky had been completed and the submarine might join the Navy at the end of November or in early December.
A Bulava ICBM test-launch carried out from the Alexander Nevsky on September 6 ended in failure.
The Alexander Nevsky is the first missile carrying nuclear submarine of Project Borei. The submarine Yury Dolgoruky was transferred to the Navy in December 2012. The second vessel of Project Borei - the nuclear submarine Vladimir Monomakh - is currently undergoing trials.
The 4th generation Project 955 and 955A Borei-class submarines have been designed by the St. Petersburg-based Rubin central design bureau. They use the latest radio-electronic systems and noise reduction technologies.
The Bulava solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles are to be the principal weapons for these submarines. Each of these submarines can carry 16 R-30 Bulava missiles armed with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle warheads, whose range is over 10,000 kilometers.