A new Russian nuclear submarine belonging to the same class as the Kursk could replace the doomed sub that sank to the seabed in August 2000 causing the death of its 118 crew members, a military construction official said.
The Belgorod, which belongs to the same Antey class — known as Oscar-2 in NATO classification — is 70 percent ready, the Interfax AVN news agency quoted a spokesman for Russia’s main submarine factory Severnoye Mashinostroitelnoye Predpiyatye as saying.
However, the plant is in need of extra funding to complete its construction, the spokesman conceded.
Severnoye also built the Kursk, once the pride of Russia’s Northern Fleet and one of its most modern subs.
Most of the 18,000-tonne Kursk, which is to be dismantled shortly, was raised from the bottom of the Barents Sea last October, although the nose was cut off prior to the raising for safety reasons and is to be brought to the surface in a separate operation.
No definitive explanation has yet been given for the explosions that sent the submarine to the bottom, but a preliminary report said a defective torpedo filled with a cheap but very volatile fuel that has not been used in Western navies in over four decades was probably responsible.
The last of the 118 seamen whose bodies were recovered from the wreck were buried in Saint Petersburg last month.
