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Typhoon Boat R-39 Missile Loading Dock

Russia / Murmansk / Zaozyorsk /
 abandoned / shut down, closed / former military

This is the specially built crane loading & unloading dock, designed and fitted out to load and unload the SS-N-20 Sturgeon SLBM onto the Typhoon Class SSBN boats, to be found docked at the nearby Нерпыщя : Nerpichya ("West Face") Naval Base only a mile away down the inlet. The rail line terminating at this dock can be trace back about 413km (260m) all the way to the Revda SLBM arsenal in the central part of the Kola Peninsula.

However, examination of the track in the area only 10-12 km inland of this dock now shows significant stretches of the track have been either removed or not cleared of rock falls, indicating that in keeping with the START-II commitments this entire system has now been effectively de-commissioned and the Typhoon boats themselves transferred to Severodvinsk for conversion to the updated Bulava missile system.

A picture above shows a photo of a SLBM (Russian designation R-39) being craned into the launch tube on a Typhoon SSBN.

www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/r39.htm
warfare.ru/?lang=&linkid=1713&catid=265
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   69°25'15"N   32°17'37"E
This article was last modified 12 years ago