Russia strengthen naval nuclear forces to defend the interests of the Arctic

(North German Intrinsic Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday to attend the groundbreaking ceremony of the latest generation of Russian submarines, committed to strengthening the Russian naval nuclear forces, to defend the position of Russia's major maritime power, to defend the interests of Russia in the Arctic.

　　Speech to the naval commanders and government officials in a ceremony held by Putin in Russia's northern city of Severodvinsk shipyard, said: "Russia should maintain the status of the world's leading naval power."

　　Construction on Monday, "Vladimir" (Prince Vladimir) strategic nuclear submarines, is the fourth ship of the Russian Borey-class strategic missile submarines. At present, the first ship of the Borey-class nuclear submarine "Yury Dolgoruky" is ready to transfer of the Russian Navy, the other two sibling submarines in various stages of construction.

　　Putin said in 2020, Russia will have 8 "Borey nuclear-powered submarines. Meanwhile, 16 multi-purpose submarines will join the Navy when the Russian Navy will have 51 new ships.

　　Putin said the Russian government will spend 4.44 trillion rubles (about 172.2 billion dollars) for updating naval equipment, and strive to new equipment to achieve 70% of the Russian Navy in 2020. He stressed that the Russian Navy to update the equipment to create a battle group with remote precision strike capability.

　　Borey strategic nuclear submarines are the backbone of the future of Russia's marine strategic nuclear forces, the highlight of the Russian Navy to equip and update. It is the fourth-generation strategic nuclear submarine of the Russian independently developed and built, and priced at more than 800 million U.S. dollars per ship.

　　The submarine is equipped with a range of 8000 kilometers, "Brava" (Bulava) new intercontinental ballistic missiles can carry 160 nuclear warheads. It also uses advanced noise reduction technology, the underwater vehicle noise is only 108 db, known as "the world's quietest nuclear submarine. The media will be positioned as a rival of the U.S. Ohio-class strategic nuclear submarine.

　　When it comes to Arctic, Putin said the Russian navy would defend Russian interests in the Arctic. He said: "Obviously, the Navy is a tool to defend the country's economic interests, such as the Arctic hidden areas of great biological and mineral resources are also included."

　　Moscow intends this year to redraw the Arctic map proposal to expand the territory of Russia in the Arctic.

　　Russia, Norway, the United States, Canada and Denmark on how to divide the views of the Arctic sea-bed differences. The area estimated to hold 900 million barrels of crude oil and 30% on Earth untapped natural gas resources.