Russian submarine Belgorod (K-329)

The submarine's construction was originally laid down on July 24, 1992 at the Severodvinsk Shipyard as pennant number 664 of the Oscar II class cruise missile submarines.

On April 6, 1993, submarine 664 received the name Belgorod after the Russian city with that name and the tactical designation K-139. In 1995, crew training began at the Obninsk-based 510th Naval Training Center, named after L. G. Osipenko of the Russian Navy (510-й учебный центр Военно-Морского Флота имени Л.Г. Осипенко),[16] but in 1997, construction was put on hold due to the severe economic crisis after the collapse of the Soviet Union (with the submarine three-quarters finished), mainly for financial reasons. On January 22, 1998, the crew was disbanded and the unfinished hull was mothballed. The loss of Belgorod's sister ship, the Kursk, in 2000 led to the decision to resume construction of Belgorod to replace Kursk, upgraded to Project 949AM specifications. By December 31, 2004 the hull was mostly complete, missing its powerplant, equipment and missile silos.[17] The 100 million rubles provided by the Ministry of Defence was insufficient, and Sevmash was forced to use its own financial resources to make up for the deficit. Sevmash, on its own initiative, continued construction at a slow pace.

The construction of the Belgorod was included in the 2006 investment plan of the Ministry of Defence, but during a visit at the shipyard by Minister of Defence Sergei Ivanov on July 20, 2006, came the news that the decision has been made not to commission the submarine in the Russian Navy. By that time, Belgorod was about 80% complete. The Ministry of Defence considered other options to finish the submarine, including selling it to the Indian Navy, which would have financed completion of the vessel.[18]

In 2009, re-designing the submarine and arming it with the cruise missiles originally developed for the Project 885 Yasen-class submarines was considered.[19] In early 2012, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, Admiral Vladimir Sergeyevich Vysotsky stated that Belgorod would be completed as a "special projects" vessel.[20] On December 20, 2012, this specification received the official designation Project 09852.[18][21] The submarine was planned for commissioning in the Navy in 2018,[22] and a crew was formed once again in November of that same year.[23]

On April 23, 2019, the Belgorod was taken out of the covered dry dock and put afloat.[24] The commander of the ship at that time was Captain 1st rank Anton Alyokhin.[25] In the course of 2019, the sub was to complete its fitting out, nuclear reactor testing and sea worthiness trials.[26] By June 2020, one source reported it "in service",[27] though this appears to have been inaccurate. Others suggested it was still fitting out (possibly including sea trials). In January 2021, the director-general of the Russian Shipbuilder Sevmash, Mikhail Budnichenko, stated that tests on Belgorod were proceeding.[28][29] The plans to commission the submarine in the Russian Navy in 2020 and to officially introduce the Poseidon system in 2021[30] did not materialize. A press report by the official Russia state-owned TASS agency from April 2021 indicates a new objective from the Russian Defense Ministry to send the K-329 into service in the Pacific zone.[31] This information could confirm the problems encountered with the Losharik submarine and the shift to the background of the operations envisaged on the Arctic continental shelf.[32][2][33] Also in April 2021, military analyst H. I. Sutton reported that the Belgorod was out of the water and had returned to the construction hall.[34] On June 25, 2021, the Belgorod left the Severodvinsk shipyard for the first time on a trial regime by the builder Sevmash.[35][36] The submarine was delivered to the Russian Navy on 8 July 2022.[1]

The Belgorod joined the 29th Submarine Division. The division is a special formation, the operational arm of the Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research (GUGI), which reports directly to the Russian Defence Ministry.[37][38][39]

The Belgorod Project is aimed at the development of a multi-role submarine platform with wide range of intelligence capabilities, in addition to its combat role. Among the strategic aims that have influenced the re-design of the K-329 Belgorod is the desire to set up and exploit the Arctic shelf as a major geo-strategy objective for the Kremlin in the short to medium term,[33][48] mostly for exploitation of energy resources in the High North, but also for control of the increasingly important sea trade route through the Arctic Ocean due to the melting of the Arctic ice.[49] An example for this shift towards the Arctic region can be seen in a new project to modernize and deploy a network of sonar listening stations, positioned on the Arctic seabed (code name Harmony, Russian: Гармония).[11] High-ranking officials at the Pentagon as well as officers from other NATO member states have expressed their concerns in the period between the end of 2015 and the end of 2017 about the Russian plans for undersea cables for telecommunications.[50][51][52] The new objective, in April 2021, from the Russian Defense Ministry to send the K-329 into service in the Pacific zone comes with rising military tensions in the North Pacific.[31] At the time of the submarine's commissioning in July 2022, it was reported that she would operate in an initial experimental role with the Northern Fleet before transferring to the Pacific.[11]

• Khabarovsk-class submarine