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Arkhangelsk: The K-564 Arkhangelsk is a Yasen-M class multi-purpose submarine. It was recently launched from the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk, Russia. Key features: Displacement: Approximately 13,800 tons submerged (almost twice the size of an American Virginia-class submarine). Armament: Equipped with 10 torpedo tubes and 32 vertical cells for cruise missiles. Missiles: It carries Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missiles (also known as Zircon), which are nuclear-capable and can accelerate up to Mach 9 (nine times the speed of sound). Range: The Tsirkon missile has a range of up to 1,000 kilometers. Purpose: The Yasen-M class submarines play a crucial role in Russia’s...

The captain of the Arctic Sea freighter contacted the ship’s operating company Thursday for the first time since the ship mysteriously disappeared in July. The captain made a brief call to Solchart Arkhangelsk Ltd.’s office on his cell phone, a company spokesman said. “He said the rest of the crew on the ship is all fine,” the spokesman told Interfax. Eleven of the 15-member crew have returned to their families in Arkhangelsk, while the other four are on the ship sailing to Novorossiisk. The 11 were not allowed to contact their families for more than a week after they flew...

Russia says it tracked hijacked Arctic Sea all along, but questions grow over cargo Tony Halpin in Moscow Russia’s top general hinted today that the ship allegedly hijacked by pirates earlier this month may have been carrying a secret cargo, as it emerged that the country’s Navy tracked the vessel throughout its journey. President Medvedev sent the Russian Navy to find the Arctic Sea after it apparently disappeared while passing through the English Channel en route to Algeria from Finland. However, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow now says that Russian and international agencies had monitored the ship throughout its strange...

A Russian nuclear submarine has caught fire in the northern province of Arkhangelsk ... The blaze started in the early afternoon local time when insulation between the craft’s inner and outer hull caught fire during welding. The submarine was the Oscar class K-266 Orel (Eagle), a similar vessel to the Kursk, which sank in the Barents Sea in 2000, claiming the lives of 118 men. A spokesman for the shipyard told Interfax there were no casualties and all crew and workers left the craft in time.

Russia's recent maiden launch of its new Angara rocket is a harbinger of bigger boosters to come. The successful test flight also marked the country's first new launch vehicle to be built from scratch since the fall of the Soviet Union. The July 9 suborbital flight of the light-lift Angara 1.2ML rocket lifted off from Russia's Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the country's northern Arkhangelsk region. (The "ML" stands for "maiden launch.") The test flight, which lasted roughly 21 minutes and was not intended to reach orbit, launched the Angara rocket over Russian territory on a ballistic trajectory. A "mass/dimensional payload simulator"...

Russia is launching an expedition to map the extent of the country's arctic continental shelf as part of an effort to extend its influence, officials say. In 2001 Russia filed a request to extend its continental shelf border beyond the standard 200-mile limit, a request turned down by the United Nations for lack of evidence to support the claim, RIA Novosti reported Friday. Russia says it will spend $50 million to explore and define the extent of its continental shelf to support its request. Seventy-five expedition members will board a ship in the northern Russian city of Arkhangelsk in mid-July...

Putin's nuclear show blows up in his face By Julius Strauss in Moscow (Filed: 18/02/2004) Russia's biggest military exercise since the collapse of communism flopped yesterday, ruining an attempt to project Vladimir Putin as a global leader and reaffirm the country's status as a nuclear superpower. With Mr Putin and a host of military officials watching from the nuclear submarine Arkhangelsk, two intercontinental ballistic missiles went wrong during a firing from a submarine believed to be the Novomoskovsk. They were aimed at Kamchatka on the Pacific coast. A malfunctioning satellite was blamed. Putin promised that Russia will again be a...