Sadly the first pr.885 submarine (ie Severodvinsk) did not receive the originally planned for 4th generation power plant or a number of other features, so it is not as stealthy as we would like (still and improvement over Akula IIs).
The 08851/885Ms we are building at the moment (4 in current production with 2 more to be layed down this year) do get all those 4th generation features and receive newly desighned equipment, thus making them more capable than the original Severodvinsk (atleast on paper).
Thus in the end we would have (by 2023 in plans) 1 08850 and 14 08851s or newer (there probably would be evolutionary improvements sub series to sub series - same as on Akulas), giving us a decent 7/7 split between the two fllets, which sort of fills the minimal SSN requirements we have (3/3 go to boomer protection, 4/4 go for various other missions).
With the modernised Akula, Sierra and Oscar series this should be ok ish till 2025, but we really need a smaller, cheaper, SSN or equivalent (like high end AIP SSK).
Another interesting point - in addition to procuring the 06770 and 06771s (ie Lada class, one in experimental use, 2 in the production, 1 to be layed down in 2015) SSKs, we are developing the follow up, new, next gen AIP SSK.
As the Kilo class production have shown - we would probably be fine in this department, provided we order the subs.
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Grumpy as always.
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