The Perm was rolled out of the giant ship hall in Severodvinsk in Arkhangelsk region on March 27.
Photo: Sevmash
The brand new submarine was floated out of the yard's dock hall on Thursday. Russia is now half-way in launching the series of the Yasen-M class.
The Perm is the sixth submarine of the Yasen/Yasen-M class and is expected to sail for the Pacific Fleet. First, a year or so of sea trials have to be conducted to measure the vessel's performance, general seaworthiness and weapons systems.
Unlike previous classes of Soviet-designed attack submarines, the Yasen/Yasen-M vessels have a multi-role function; and can be used both for the hunter-killer role as well as to target sea or land enemies with vertical launched cruise missiles.
According to the Sevmash yard, the Perm is the first in the series that is a regular carrier of Zirkon missiles, the hyper-sonic weapon designed to be armed either with a conventional warhead or a nuclear warhead.
It is a worry in the West that Russia again sails multi-purpose submarines armed with nuclear weapons, not only the fleet of ballistic missile submarines. Tactical nuclear weapons were removed from U.S. and Russian submarines by the end of the Cold War, but are now coming back in Russia's underwater fleet for warfare.
The launch of Perm in Severodvinsk took place with Vladimir Putin attending via video-link from Murmansk where he on Thursday met with navy commander Admiral Aleksandr Moiseev onboard Perm's sister vessel, the Arkhangelsk. Putin also attended the Arctic Forum conference.
Putin praised the designers and builders of the new submarine, and noted that Perm is the first multi-purpose submarine armed with Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles.
"Such submarines and ships will increase the power of all our fleets, will strengthen the security of Russia's maritime borders, the Northern Sea Route, will ensure the solution of tasks to protect national interests in various areas of the World Ocean, including the Arctic zone, which in the conditions of intensifying global competition is acquiring the most important economic, logistical, and transport significance," Vladimir Putin said from Atomflot, the base for Russia's fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers in Murmansk.
A video of the ceremony is posted by the Kremlin.