Russia Floats Out Yasen-M Submarine Ulyanovsk At Severodvinsk
Russia's Sevmash shipyard floated out the nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine Ulyanovsk on 28 July 2026, completing hull construction and moving the boat into the final stages of fitting out and testing. The ceremony took place at the yard in Severodvinsk, where the submarine was moved from its construction hall into the water to continue work alongside the quay. The Ulyanovsk is a Project 885M, or Yasen-M class, multipurpose nuclear-powered submarine.
The commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy, Admiral Aleksandr Moiseyev, said the submarine is intended to join the Northern Fleet once trials are complete. The yard's director general, Mikhail Budnichenko, said the boat will undergo mooring trials, sea trials and state acceptance trials before delivery, which the shipyard currently plans for December 2027. That eighteen-month gap between float-out and planned handover is consistent with the class, where the fitting-out and trials phase has historically consumed more time than the hull work. The ceremony was attended by senior government, navy and industry figures including deputy prime minister Yuri Trutnev and representatives of the design bureau responsible for the class.
The programme has been running for more than two decades. The original Project 885 lead boat, Severodvinsk, entered service with the Northern Fleet in 2014, followed by the improved Project 885M design beginning with Kazan. Four boats of the improved type, Kazan, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk and Arkhangelsk, are reported by the yard to be in naval service alongside Severodvinsk, with several more under construction. The shipyard described Ulyanovsk as the sixth submarine of the modernised series to complete slipway construction, and in June it laid down Murmansk, identified as the ninth boat of the wider series.
The Yasen-M design is intended to become the Russian Navy's principal multipurpose nuclear-powered submarine type, with core tasks spanning anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, land-attack strike missions and intelligence collection. The boats carry heavyweight torpedo tubes alongside vertical launch systems capable of accommodating cruise missiles associated with the Kalibr family for land attack and anti-ship use, as well as Oniks anti-ship missiles. Officials have publicly linked the class with the Tsirkon hypersonic missile programme, although weapon fit and operational loadouts are not normally disclosed.
Nuclear propulsion gives the class endurance beyond the range limits of conventionally powered boats, and the yard claims quieter machinery, updated sonar and combat management systems, and a hull arrangement designed to reduce acoustic signature relative to earlier Russian attack submarines. Whether Sevmash meets its stated December 2027 date will depend on the outfitting and trials phase. Once commissioned, the boat is expected to add to the Northern Fleet's long-range undersea strike and anti-submarine capability across the Arctic and the North Atlantic approaches.
