Yuri Dolgoruky is the head ship of the new Russian SSBN class. It is being built under the project 955 codenamed Borei. This is the first major warship to be built fully in Russia (as opposed to finishing the ships that were started during the Soviet Union). The gestation of the project has been extended and painful. Laid down in 1996 at the height of Russia's economic meltdown it received virtually no financing until the beginning of 2000s and only in 2004 financing reached acceptable levels. The submarine was launched in 2008 and is currently (2010) undergoing sea trials. Three more submarines of the class have been laud down under the improved project - Alexander Nevsky (ld. 2004) and Vladimir Monomakh (ld. 2006) under project 955A (will carry 20 missiles instead of 16) , while Svyatitel' Nikolai was/will be laid down in 2010 (sources differ) under the project 995U (improved).

Unfortunately the troubles for the Russian haven't ended there - initially the sub was supposed to be armed with R-39UTTX Bark, but the development of that missile was cancelled and instead the development of the R-30 Bulava (a naval version of the land based Topol-M ICBM) was started. The problem for the Russians is that during the test launches only 5 of the 11 were successful and the testing will only resume in the later part of 2010. So until that is solved the submarine will remain without its weapons.

Photoetch only includes two pieces - the forward fins.

The kit is available from Pacific Front Models for $36.