On December 7 Admiral Vladimir Kuroedov, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, announced the start of sea trials of the Gepard nuclear submarine. This third generation nuclear submarine must compensate for the loss of the Kursk - which, by the way, was built by the same plant.

According to the Northern machine-building plant, the Gepard is half as large as the Kursk: the new nuclear submarine is 12,770 tons (the Kursk was 23,860 tons); the submarine has a crew of 63 (the submarine which sank in the Barents Sea was designed for 107 servicemen). But the technical specifications of the Gepard are higher: its maximum underwater speed is 35 knots (about 70 km/h). The new submarine can descend to 600 meters (the Kursk could descend only to 500 meters).

Despite its small dimensions, the Gepard carries 24 nuclear missiles.