Russia to keep Borei-class nuclear submarines active until the 2060s to strengthen nuclear threat against US.

On July 26, 2026, Russian Navy Commander-in-Chief Admiral Alexander Moiseyev announced that Project 955 Borei and Project 955A Borei-A nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines will remain operational through the 2050s and into the 2060s. The planned 30-to-40-year service life extension relies on the class's modular design and modernization potential to fully transition the strategic submarine force away from Soviet-era Project 667BDRM Delfin-class vessels. Standardizing production at the Sevmash shipyard under the Rubin Central Design Bureau consolidates Russia's sea-based nuclear triad into a single unified submarine family and missile ecosystem.

Russia currently operates eight Borei and Borei-A class submarines armed with RSM-56 Bulava solid-fuel ballistic missiles, with plans to expand the force structure to twelve total vessels providing up to 192 missile tubes. Built around the 200 MW KTP-6-185SP pressurized water reactor designed for 25 to 30 years of operation without refueling, the 24,000-tonne submerged displacement submarines feature the MGK-600B Irtysh-Amfora-Borei sonar suite and pump-jet propulsion for low-acoustic-signature operations.

Related topic: Russia to replace all nuclear attack submarines with new Yasen and Yasen M units by 2035

Currently, the operational Borei-class fleet consists of three Project 955 submarines and five Project 955A submarines divided between the Russian Navy's Northern Fleet and Pacific Fleet. (Picture source: Telegram/Oleg Kuleshov's fleet)

On July 26, 2026, the Russian Navy's Commander-in-Chief Admiral Alexander Moiseyev announced that Borei-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) will remain in service for another 30 to 40 years, extending their operational role into the 2050s and potentially the 2060s. Russia commissioned eight Borei submarines between January 2013 and July 2025 to replace the Project 667BDRM Delfin-class, also known as Delta IV, while additional boats are planned to bring the force to twelve. At sixteen RSM-56 Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missiles per boat, the existing force contains 128 missile tubes; ten boats would provide 160, and twelve would provide 192. The Borei/Borei-A is therefore replacing several Soviet-era SSBN classes with one submarine family, one principal missile type, one design bureau, and one construction yard.

The result is a narrower and more standardized force structure in which the Borei/Borei-A and Yasen/Yasen-M classes consolidate Russia's submarine construction into two unified production and operational frameworks. The Borei-class, also known as Project 955, was initially conceived in the late Soviet period, but the first submarine launched in 2013 differed substantially from the concept developed in the 1980s. The Yury Dolgorukiy was laid down at Sevmash on November 2, 1996, with a design built around the R-39UTTH Bark solid-fuel submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM). The Bark was cancelled in 1998 after three consecutive unsuccessful launches and an assessment that additional development would require more time and money than the Russian state was prepared to allocate.

Moscow then selected the smaller RSM-56 Bulava, forcing a redesign of the Yury Dolgorukiy's missile section, launch tubes, internal volume distribution and associated systems. The decision delayed the program, but it avoided abandoning an already-laid-down submarine and beginning a replacement hull during a period when Russian naval shipbuilding had lost funding, suppliers, skilled labor and access to some specialist materials. For instance, the first three submarines (Yury Dolgorukiy, Alexander Nevsky and Vladimir Monomakh) incorporated hull sections from three unfinished or dismantled Project 971 Akula-class attack submarines, named Rys, Kuguar and Ak Bars. That reuse reflected the inability of the post-Soviet industrial base to manufacture every major section on a normal schedule and helped keep the Borei-class alive while Russia rebuilt its nuclear-submarine production chain.

The Yury Dolgorukiy required more than sixteen years from keel laying to commissioning, whereas the improved Borei-A/Project 955A series later moved from keel laying to delivery in roughly seven to nine years, showing that shipyard output improved once funding, design work, and missile development became more stable. Currently, the operational Borei fleet consists of three Project 955 submarines and five Project 955A submarines. The Yury Dolgorukiy (K-535) entered service with the Northern Fleet on January 10, 2013, the Alexander Nevsky (K-550) joined the Pacific Fleet on December 23, 2013, and the Vladimir Monomakh (K-551) followed on December 19, 2014.

The improved Borei-A class began with the Knyaz Vladimir (K-549) on June 12, 2020, followed by the Knyaz Oleg (K-552) on December 21, 2021, the Generalissimus Suvorov (K-553) on December 29, 2022, the Imperator Aleksandr III (K-554) on December 11, 2023, and the Knyaz Pozharsky (K-555) on July 24, 2025. Russia therefore added five Borei-A submarines in sixty-one months, an average of one delivery every 12.2 months across that period, although the Dmitry Donskoy (K-?) and Knyaz Potemkin (K-?) were both laid down on August 23, 2021, and remain under construction to date. Russian planning has repeatedly centered on a twelve-boat force, consisting of the three original Borei submarines and nine improved boats, although the designation and schedule of the final units have changed.

All construction remains concentrated at Sevmash in Severodvinsk, while Rubin Central Design Bureau in Saint Petersburg retains design responsibility. This single-yard model simplifies design control and nuclear construction oversight but creates a production bottleneck because delays affecting Sevmash, reactor suppliers, missile manufacturers, or specialized subcontractors affect the entire strategic-submarine recapitalization program. Estimated unit costs have ranged from $713 million for Yury Dolgorukiy to close to $890 million for later Borei-A boats, but those amounts do not necessarily include Bulava missiles, base infrastructure, research expenditure, long-term support equipment, or modernization costs. Each Borei-class submarine carries sixteen D-30 launch systems for the RSM-56 Bulava, a missile with a launch mass of 36.8 tonnes, a missile length of 11.5 m, a diameter of 2 m and a throw weight of 1,150 kg.

Its range is generally placed between 8,300 km and more than 9,300 km, with the achievable distance dependent on warhead load, penetration aids and flight profile. The missile is normally associated with six independently targetable re-entry vehicles, which would give one submarine a theoretical maximum of ninety-six warheads and the eight-boat fleet 768. A ten-boat force would provide 960 warhead positions under the same loading assumption, while twelve boats would provide 1,152, although actual deployed numbers would be lower because of maintenance, treaty accounting, warhead allocation and the fact that not every submarine is simultaneously armed, available and at sea. Like the Bark, the Bulava's development record was initially a direct threat to the Borei-class. Six of the first thirteen flight tests failed, meaning that almost 46% of the early test series was unsuccessful.

Later failures were associated with manufacturing defects, component quality, and production control. That distinction mattered because it indicated that solving the problem required not only redesign work but also tighter quality control across the missile's supply chain. The missile eventually completed successful submerged launches, long-range flights and salvo tests, allowing the Borei to assume the role previously held by Delta IV submarines armed with liquid-fuel R-29RM missiles. The Borei submarine itself is 170 m long, 13.5 m wide and close to 10 m in draft, with a surfaced displacement of 14,720 tonnes and a submerged displacement of 24,000 tonnes. Maximum submerged speed is listed at 29 knots, surface speed at 15 knots, normal operating depth at 400 m and maximum depth at 480 m. Endurance reaches 90 days, and the crew totals 107 personnel, including 55 officers.

The original Project 955 boats use one OK-650V pressurized-water reactor rated at 190 MW, while the Borei-A is equipped with the KTP-6-185SP reactor rated at 200 MW. The latter is intended to operate for 25 to 30 years without refueling, potentially covering most of the submarine's service life before a major reactor-core replacement becomes necessary. The propulsion system drives a steam turbine producing close to 50,000 shaft horsepower through one shaft and a pump-jet propulsor. Compared with the Project 941 Typhoon, the Borei carries four fewer ballistic missiles, sixteen instead of twenty, but displaces 24,000 tonnes submerged rather than 48,000 tonnes and requires 107 crew members instead of 160. In practical terms, the Borei provides 80% of the Typhoon's missile capacity at 50% of its submerged displacement and with 33% fewer personnel.

This reduces the burden on crew training, housing, food storage, maintenance facilities and shore support. It also produces a hull that is better matched to the infrastructure Russia retained after the Soviet Union abandoned the very large Typhoon force. The Borei-A (Project 955A) introduced several changes intended to reduce acoustic and hydrodynamic penalties carried over from the first three submarines. The missile section was blended more completely into the light hull, reducing the raised casing behind the sail and producing a smoother external profile. The sail geometry changed, stern control surfaces were revised, and the boats received redesigned rudders and hydroplanes intended to improve underwater handling, particularly at low speed and under ice.

The sonar architecture is centered on the MGK-600B Irtysh-Amfora-Borei system, which combines passive and active search, target classification, detection of hostile sonar emissions, underwater communication, mine detection, measurement of ice thickness and identification of open water in pack ice. The suite includes a large bow array, long flank arrays and a towed antenna, allowing the Borei-A submarine to search across several acoustic sectors without relying on a single sensor. The weapons management and communications systems were also updated, which is important for an SSBN because the boat must receive national command messages while minimizing mast exposure and electromagnetic emissions.

Torpedo armament was reduced from eight 533 mm tubes on Project 955 to six on Project 955A, but total ammunition remained close to forty weapons. The magazine can include heavyweight torpedoes such as the UGST (Fizik-2) and the USET-80, anti-submarine weapons like the RPK-2 Vyuga, cruise missiles such as the 3M14 Kalibr-PL, and naval mines, giving the submarine several options against hostile attack submarines and surface ships encountered near patrol areas. Additionally, six Shlagbaum hydroacoustic countermeasure launchers can deploy self-propelled decoys to imitate submarine noise or draw incoming torpedoes away from the hull. In the worst case, a full-crew escape chamber is located behind the missile compartment, providing an emergency evacuation option for all 107 personnel.

The Borei/Borei-A submarine fleet is divided between the Northern Fleet and Pacific Fleet, but the distribution is not balanced. Five boats, or 62.5% of the operational force, are assigned to the Pacific Fleet's 25th Submarine Division at Vilyuchinsk, including the Alexander Nevsky, Vladimir Monomakh, Knyaz Oleg, Generalissimus Suvorov and Imperator Aleksandr III. Three boats, or 37.5%, are associated with the Northern Fleet's 31st Submarine Division at Gadzhiyevo: the Yury Dolgorukiy, Knyaz Vladimir and Knyaz Pozharsky. The Pacific concentration means that Russia has placed nearly two-thirds of its modern SSBN force east of the Urals rather than around the Kola Peninsula.

Vilyuchinsk provides direct access to the North Pacific and to the Sea of Okhotsk, a semi-enclosed operating area protected by the Kamchatka Peninsula, Sakhalin and the Kuril chain. Russian forces can monitor its access through a limited number of straits while using coastal radars, naval aviation, attack submarines, surface ships and land-based missile units to complicate foreign anti-submarine operations. Northern Fleet boats operate from Gadzhiyevo into the Barents Sea and Arctic Ocean, but they face a denser NATO surveillance environment involving Scandinavian air and naval forces, U.S. and British attack submarines and maritime patrol aircraft operating from the North Atlantic and northern Europe. Dividing the fleet across two theaters forces NATO to distribute anti-submarine assets rather than concentrate them against one departure corridor.

A twelve-boat structure would also improve force generation. If four boats were in deep maintenance, four in training or preparation, and four operationally available, Russia could sustain more than one patrol area while preserving reserve capacity for unexpected failures or elevated alert levels. Moiseyev's 30-to-40-year estimate means that the Knyaz Pozharsky, commissioned in 2025, could remain in service until 2055 or 2065, while boats delivered later could operate beyond the midpoint of the century. This service horizon makes the Borei-class the only Russian strategic-submarine family with a production line, a common missile and a fleet size large enough to replace the remaining Delta IV boats without requiring another class before the 2040s.

The main constraint is survivability, not missile range. A Bulava launched from protected northern or Pacific waters can reach targets across North America, meaning a Borei submarine does not need to cross NATO-controlled chokepoints to perform its nuclear mission. Russia therefore places emphasis on defending SSBN bastions rather than sending every boat into the central Atlantic or eastern Pacific. In the north, the Harmony underwater surveillance system provides persistent seabed acoustic coverage across approaches to the Barents Sea and Arctic Ocean. That sensor layer is reinforced by Yasen and Akula-class attack submarines, Northern Fleet surface ships, maritime patrol aircraft, MiG-31 interceptors, coastal missile regiments, fixed sonar arrays, mobile hydroacoustic units and Arctic bases.

S-400 and S-500 air defense systems also protect airfields, naval facilities, command posts and communications nodes that support submarine operations. In the Pacific, Vilyuchinsk and the Sea of Okhotsk provide a second bastion supported by forces on Kamchatka, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. The strategic logic is therefore measurable: eight boats divided 5-to-3 between two fleets, sixteen missiles per hull, 128 missile tubes in service, two more submarines under construction and a planned force of twelve within a two-theater SSBN structure in which the nuclear deterrence could threaten both the continental U.S. and European countries.

Written by Jérôme Brahy

Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.

Explore More Defense News

• Land Defense News
• Naval Defense News
• Defense Aerospace News