St.Petersburg, December 29. Forty years ago on 29 December 1980 in Severodvinsk, the Acceptance Act for the lead nuclear submarine K-525 of third generation, Project 949 Granit, with cruise missiles was signed; in 1993 the submarine was named Arkhangelsk.

A doctrine of creation of the well-balanced ocean-going fleet of the USSR for effective defence in all regions of the World Ocean was developed under guidance of Soviet Union fleet admiral Sergei Gorshkov. Submarine cruisers, cruise missiles carriers were to become a basis of marine forces intended for defence in blue waters.

Rubin was working with the new project jointly with NPO Mashinostroenie (at that time OKB-52). Chief Designer of the Submarine was Pavel Pustyntsev, Head of Rubin Design Bureau from 1951 to 1974.

Academician Vladimir Chelomey, Head of OKB-52, took charge of the activities on creation of Missile Complex Granit. It was the first case of creating Missile Complex of distant range with autonomous control system and missile launch from underwater on the "shot-and-forgot" principle. Target designation data were delivered to Granit Complex from marine cosmic reconnaissance system Legenda.

Rubin engineers have designed a submarine capable to fire with missiles from underwater by full salvo. The submarine had a high stealth, speed and diving depth, that provided the possibility to overcome the enemy's antisubmarine defence and shake off the pursuer.

The State Customer has approved sketch design of the ship in 1971, and technical design - in 1972. The lead submarine was laid down at the industrial association Sevmashpredpriyatie (Severodvinsk) on 25 July 1975. The lead ship carried about 150 new pieces of armament and defence equipment. 129 enterprises of the USSR participated in creation of submarine Arkhangelsk. The missile carrier was pulled out of the work shop on 28 April 1980, and as early as 29 December 1980 the Acceptance Act was signed as per results of the State Acceptance Trials.

After the first two submarines built as per Project 949, construction of submarine cruisers was initiated on the basis of modernised project 949А (Antey) developed under leadership of General Designer Igor Baranov.