Cruise missiles damaged in the explosion aboard Kursk will be dismantled at the secret Russian naval yard where the scrappers are already awaiting the submarine.

        They will go, with Kursk itself, to Nerpa shipyard, located at the mouth of the Olenya Guba bay in Russia’s Arctic Murmansk region, experts in disposal and repair of Russia’s nuclear-powered strategic and multi-purpose submarine fleet.

        Officials there told Interfax news agency today (Thursday) that the missiles will be dismantled under “non-standard” procedures which entails cutting them out of the vessel with their containers.

        Nine undamaged missiles have already been removed from the submarine’s portside at the drydock of Roslyakovo shipyard, near the port city of Murmansk. They are now at a depot of the Russian Navy’s Northern Fleet armaments department, where specialists will remove warheads and boosters, Interfax said. Each warhead has explosive power equal to 618 kilogrammes of TNT, a blast area of 1,200 metres and a firing range of 555 kilometres.

        Kursk will be scrapped as part of the United States Congress Co-operative Threat Reduction programme, a $3.1 billion project set up in 1997 with the task of destroying missiles, their submarine and silo launch systems and with disposal of chemical weapons. Full story, see The last harbour, in this site’s Details section.

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