Navy Yard No. 10 is situated near the town of Polyarny, on the outermost western side of the Murmansk Fjord. As the first nuclear-powered submarines were delivered to the Northern Fleet at the end of the 1950s, the yard was modified for docking and repair of these vessels.
Tenders, service ships and dry docks were acquired, including the floating dock PD-63. Around 1970, the yards were reorganised and partially expanded in order to handle second-generation nuclear submarines.
At the present time, there are two covered floating docks at the yard. The total length of floating and stationary peer plant is 550 m. The yard has a surface area of 41,330 m2 (446,000 sq. ft.). The yard has also a self-propelled barge with 150-tonne payload, two onshore cranes with lifting capacity of 40 tonnes and 32 tonnes, two floating cranes with lifting capacity of 30 tonnes and 25 tonnes. There are approx. 3,000 employees at the yard. The nearby town of Polyarny has just under 30,000 inhabitants.
At present, Yard No. 10 Shkval is the only Kola-based naval yard capable of accommodating and servicing both second and third generation submarines. Defuelling and refuelling of the submarines is carried out by the Navy’s Project 326M ship stationed in Polayrny. In 2000, the civilian nuclear support ship Imandra was working at Polyarny, defuelling two Victor-II submarines.
The Shkval yard is capable of processing 3-4 nuclear submarines at the same time. However, the shipyard has not been actively involved in the decommissioning work. The shipyard defuelled and likely dismantled the November class submarine K-5 in 1996. In 1999, the Echo-II class submarine K-172 (K-192) was defuelled and dismantled at Shkval. Some of the first-generation submarines were partly dismantled at Shkval and later towed to Sayda Bay for storage. Currently there are four first generation submarines stationed at Shkval: two November class, one Hotel class, and one Echo-II class. Two second-generation Victor-II class submarines defuelled by Imandra in 2000 are also stationed here. Shkval has experience and is likely to specialise in dismantling of first-generation submarines.