Two similar submarines are already being built at the plant to be put into operation in 2010 and 2011, respectively.

Russian Deputy Defense Minister General Alexey Moskovsky and Russian Navy Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Masorin attended the keel-laying ceremony for the Vladimir Monomakh, one of the submarines to be built under the Borey project, in Severodvinsk on March 19.

The Vladimir Monomakh is the third submarine of the Borey project. The construction of the first vessel began some ten years ago and has cost the state 1 billion rubles. The 955 Borey submarine is developed at the St. Petersburg-based Rubin Design Bureau. The submarine is 170 meter long and of 24,000 tons displacement. The speed is up to 29 knots and the dip is 450 meter. The vessel can work 100 days in an autonomous regime with the crew of 107 people. The submarine is armed with the D-19M missile complex with twelve R-30 intercontinental Bulava missiles. The Vladimir Monomakh is set to be built by 2011.

The Russian Navy currently has 50 atomic submarines in its arsenal, compared to 170 vessels in 1991. Only 26 of them are in operation now. The Navy plans to reduce the number to 20 submarines, 10 missile submarines of the strategic purpose and 10 multi-purpose atomic vessels, under unofficial reports, Kommersant reported.